SPECIAL SERIES ==> 📩 “Open This Email” Works?! <== | BATHROOM Break #88 COLLAB: The Marketing Millennials + Do This, Not That

Summary

Podcast Summary:

Podcast: Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson
Host: GURU Media Hub
Episode: SPECIAL SERIES ⇒ 📩 “Open This Email” Works?! ⇐ | BATHROOM Break #88
Guests: Jay Schwedelson (Do This, Not That), Daniel Murray (The Marketing Millennials)
Release Date: December 29, 2025

---

Episode Overview

This “Bathroom Break” special episode—a collaboration between The Marketing Millennials and Do This, Not That—dives into a surprisingly powerful marketing tactic: the outsized effectiveness of giving explicit instructions within copy, email, and social content. Hosts Jay Schwedelson and Daniel Murray swap stories, data, and actionable takeaways about how telling your audience exactly what to do (e.g., "Open This Email," "Save this post," "Screenshot and share") boosts engagement. Sprinkled with gym banter and candid anecdotes, the episode is an energetic blend of practical psychology, personal experience, and quick tips designed for marketers looking to drive more action.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Icebreaker: Gym Habits & Embarrassment (00:39–02:45)

• Relatable banter: Light-hearted talk about staying fit, embarrassment at the gym, and personal quirks reveal both hosts as “regular people.”
• Daniel highlights Jay’s consistency:
  "This guy for the last two years goes to the gym three times a week and he runs Saturday, Sunday, so he's really some sort of athlete out here." (00:39)
• Jay downplays his prowess but admits embarrassment makes him time his gym visits:
  "I'm not thinking about getting healthy or getting stronger. I'm just thinking about how embarrassed I am by how weak I am when I'm at the gym." (01:12)
• Daniel reminisces about his college football days, revealing an impressive (but long-gone) bench press record of 425 pounds. (02:26)

2. Main Topic: Explicit Instructions Get Results (02:45–06:58)

The Tactic: Tell People Exactly What to Do

• Jay introduces the core marketing principle:
  "When you actually tell somebody what you want them to do in your copy, in your social post, copy, in your images, it crushes it." (02:45)
• Daniel elaborates by sharing his favorite actionable content CTAs:
  • "Screenshot this and send this to your team."
  • "Save this for later."
  • "Especially even in my email where I might have a guide... say, 'save this and send this to your team.'" (03:16)
  • Observation: Shareability increases when audiences are reminded or explicitly told to take an action.

“Open This Email” Subject Lines Boost Opens

• Jay reveals a data-backed tip from subjectline.com:
  "If you start your subject line with 'open this right' or 'open this email', it actually lifts the open rates by about 15% from what we've seen, which is ridiculous because you're telling somebody what to do." (04:22)
• The hosts express both fascination and annoyance that such a direct approach works so reliably.

Platform-Specific Examples (“Save This Post” on LinkedIn)

• Explicit prompts like “Save this post” in LinkedIn carousel copy increased saves significantly, as seen in analytics after LinkedIn added this metric. (04:22)

Calls to Action Beyond “Click Here”

• Daniel considers experimenting with more directive button labels on websites in 2026 (e.g., “Learn here” instead of “Content Library”; “Network here” instead of “Community”). (05:25)
• Hypothesis: Making buttons action-oriented improves user experience, retention, and outcomes.

Psychological Reasoning & Next Steps

• Jay notes current CTAs are often boring or self-serving (e.g., “Register,” “Buy now”) and typically placed at the end, not the beginning, of the user journey. (06:28)

• Strong advice: Move clear instructions to the front or throughout the process, not just as a final step.

• Daniel emphasizes testing different CTAs and tracking the effect on key metrics (downloads, saves, shares), especially when platforms directly report these interactions (e.g. LinkedIn “saves,” Instagram “shares”). (06:58)

  “If you're saying those things and people are doing those action that gives you signal that you're trending in the right direction.” (07:50)

3. Gym Etiquette Comedy and Mark Wahlberg Tangent (07:50–09:45)

• Playful debate on whether leaving a towel to “save” a gym machine is justified.
• Daniel: "If the gym is busy, I'm just going to stick to my machine..." (08:09)
• Quick riff on celebrities’ routines, e.g., Mark Wahlberg’s early morning schedule:
  "He gets up at 3 in the morning, he said, and he goes to bed at 6:30 at night." (09:17)
• Jay jokes: “That literally is my baby schedule... So he's literally my baby.” (09:28)
• Light-hearted, keeps the episode's tone fun and conversational.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On uncomfortable gym moments:
  “I'm not thinking about getting healthy or getting stronger. I'm just thinking about how embarrassed I am by how weak I am when I'm at the gym.” — Jay (01:12)
• On the key marketing tactic:
  “When you actually tell somebody what you want them to do in your copy, in your social post, copy, in your images, it crushes it.” — Jay (02:45)
• Email marketing insight:
  “If you start your subject line with 'open this right' or 'open this email', it actually lifts the open rates by about 15% from what we've seen..." — Jay (04:22)
• Testing new CTA concepts:
  “Instead of like saying content, you could say learn here or have a what action they're going to take at that button.” — Daniel (05:25)
• Core marketing takeaway:
  “The hardest thing to do in marketing... is to get attention. But once you have attention, the next thing you need to do is invest in ways in capturing that attention.” — Daniel (06:58)
• On user signals:
  “If you're saying those things and people are doing those actions that gives you signal that you're trending in the right direction.” — Daniel (07:50)

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

• [00:39]–[02:45]: Gym habits, embarrassment, and stories from the hosts' athletic pasts.
• [02:45]–[06:58]: Main topic—why explicit instructions in marketing materials work, with multiple channel examples and actionable tips.
• [06:58]–[07:50]: The importance of testing CTAs and leveraging platform engagement metrics.
• [07:50]–[09:45]: Fun side conversation: gym etiquette and the absurdities of celebrity/workout routines.

---

Actionable Tips from the Episode

• Test commands in subject lines (“Open This Email”) and track open rate increases.
• Add explicit action requests to social copy (“Save this post,” “Screenshot this,” “Share this with your team”).
• Experiment with more directive button/CTA labels on websites and emails.
• Move strong CTAs to the front or integrate them throughout, not just at the end.
• Watch platform analytics (LinkedIn saves, Instagram shares) to see what explicit CTAs move the needle.

---

Final Thoughts

This episode blends fresh insight—explicit behavioral cues in marketing—with relatable banter and practical advice. Jay and Daniel prove that sometimes, the simplest instructions carry hidden power when nudging audience behavior, and that a little testing (in both the gym and your marketing) goes a long way.

---

For more tips, follow "Do This, Not That" and "The Marketing Millennials," and check out their Bathroom Break series for digestible, actionable marketing wisdom.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Welcome to a new special series called the Bathroom break. That extra 10 minutes you either have to listen to marketing tips or use the bathroom or both. But I don't recommend both. But that's your choice.

[A]

This collab is going to be super fun. We have Daniel Murray from the Marketing Millennials and me, Jay Schwedelson from the do this, not that podcast and subjectline.com each episode in the series we are going to go over quick tips about different marketing top topics. And if you want to be in the bathroom, fine, just don't tell us about it. Thanks for checking it out.

[B]

We are back with another episode of the Bathroom Break. I am here with the gym bro, Jay Swedelson. And I am Danny Murray. And I want to talk about why I call him the gym bro. Because I just figured out that this guy for the last two years goes to the gym three times a week and he runs Saturday, Sunday, so he's really some sort of athlete out here. So I know New Year's resolutions are happening. Or how do you get to the gym three times a week? And how, what do you suggest for people to do that?

[A]

Okay, don't follow anything. I do health wise. I do go. I've been going for three years. So you could screw off three days a week. I go at around 6:45 in the morning. All right, which is absolutely terrible. And I'm not, I'm a very horrible worker outer. And I also get very embarrassed. So like where I go to this gym in like my community area and I get there and if I go to use the bench press, I'm very weak. And so I try to wait until people that I don't know are nowhere near the bench press because I don't want them to see how weak I am because that would really bring shame to my family. So that's, I'm not thinking about getting healthy or getting stronger. I'm just thinking about how embarrassed I am by how weak I am when I'm at the gym. What do you think about that? I like that.

[B]

I mean, I have been kicking off tennis again and I've been trying to go at times when nobody could see me playing because I haven't played for five months. I don't want to get embarrassed when someone comes and sees and they say, what happened to you? So I'm, I'm going as early as possible to play tennis these days.

[A]

Well, let me ask you something, meaning a gym bro. So for everyone that doesn't know, Daniel doesn't talk about a Lot. But he was a D1 college football player, University of Cincinnati. Like real time. Whatever. I want to know something, because you used to have. You were a big dude. You had a bench press a lot. What was your Max best bench press in your life?

[B]

I think it was like 425.

[A]

Wow, that's crazy. That's crazy.

[B]

And now, now it's probably like 205. So we'll see.

[A]

That's crazy. You're like, tough. Don't mess with. Daniel, what is your Max Brands press?

[B]

We should. Everybody should know.

[A]

Six pounds. All right, let's get into it. Listen, what we want to talk about today is something that works in social media. It works in email, it works in all marketing. And it's going to annoy you that it works, but it does, which is this idea of telling people what to do. And it's in our subconscious. But when you actually tell somebody what you want them to do in your copy, in your social post, copy, in your images, in everything, it crushes it. So, Daniel, do you use this tactic and how have you tried it?

[B]

Yeah, I think one way I like to do this is in ads or content and saying it at the end, screenshot this and send this to your team. Save this for later. It helps. The one metric I always try in content is shareability and getting that that share button hit. But you sometimes have to remind people to do that. So if you have that at the end where you say screenshot it, send it to people. Especially even in my email where I might have a guide or something, say, save this and send this to your team. Or as a cta, you, you'll want to screenshot this. Something where you're going to tell people exactly the action that you want them to take. I think it click here. The click here button is a little bit dead now, I would say, and I don't like to say that buttons are dead, but it's not going to perform as good as telling people what to do. And there's some other ways that I think about it, but I wanted you to go into some ways you're using it as well.

[A]

Yeah. I'll tell you two ways that we're using. We've tested and it's worked really well. So email in this subject line, if you actually start your subject line, and this is from our subject line.com data, if you start your subject line with open this right or open this email, it actually lifts the open rates by about 15% from what we've seen, which is ridiculous because you're telling somebody what to do. But if you've never tested that, that's a great simple test to try and it's a little bit annoying that it works. You're like screw off, I don't want to listen to you. But, but for some reason the subconscious we react to what we're told to do. And we also have tested this quite a bit on, on LinkedIn where we'll put out a post, like a carousel post with some sort of, you know, useful tactic and we'll do a test of including save this post. We'll put that like in the top portion of the copy versus not having it. And when we include save this post, we actually now because LinkedIn has changed their what you could see, we actually see a lot more LinkedIn saves and we could see that in the analytics when we say save this post. So by telling people you know exactly what you want them to do, it will give you a boost in performance.

[B]

Yeah. Some other places I've seen and I've wanted to test this and I'm going to test this in 2026 is buttons on your, on your website or your nav bar. Instead of like saying content, you could say learn here or have a what action they're going to take at that button. Instead of saying content library, you could say learn here or instead of community you could say network here. Having a idea what they're going to do when they click that button is way better I feel like than just having obvious titles that everybody is doing. I think you got to tell people what they're going to expect when they click that button when they land on that, that page. And I think I'm betting that it will help retention when you, when you say this is what the action I want you to take when you do click this button or watch this piece of content or view this ad, more people will do that action and you'll retain them longer that way.

[A]

Yeah, in a lot of ways we've been all doing this, but we're doing it in a horribly boring way. Like we're telling people, you know, let's say for an event or a webinar, we're saying register. You're trying to tell the person to register or if it's a consumer offer, buy now. But you're telling them that at the very end and you're telling it in this very self serving way as opposed to on the upfront. You know, open this, read this, save this, screenshot, this instead of just doing it at the end of the Motion. Do it at the beginning of the motion so you can get more people to actually make it to the end of the motion.

[B]

The hardest thing to do in marketing and what our job is to get attention. But once you have attention, the next thing you need to do is invest in ways in capturing that attention. Because you, you spend all this money to get this person to a landing page or to your content or something. So, and all I'm saying to do is test these, test different CTA's buttons to make them more action forward instead of just generic and see if there's a lift in your content, see if there's a lift in your downloads, see if there's a left in your saves. And like what Jay said, which is something is gold is if a platform is tracking that metric like LinkedIn tracking saves. Instagram tracks the share button or remit repost button. If you're saying those things and people are doing those action that gives you signal that you're trending in the right direction.

[A]

All right, so back to our gym bros thing. I want to know something like when you are at the gym, are you the type of dude who, if you're using something, you leave a towel on there on the bench or on the machine and then you go somewhere else, do something else and you come back or do you take it with you wherever you go? Like, are you trying to like hold on to your thing? Are you a jerk like that?

[B]

I think it depends on how busy that place is at the time. So I'm pretty conscious that if, if the gym is busy, I'm just going to stick to my machine. But if, if it's an empty gym and there's my worst is when there's two people in the gym and you're, you have a little rotation going and someone goes to take that machine when there's a thousand other machines in the gym and they will need to use that machine in that moment. I, I, that's when I get annoyed. The other times I'm, I'm pretty conscious that hey, there's a lot of people in this gym. I am not hogging this machine. Or if I'm going to do this, I just say you can work in with me and do that. I, I'm pretty but I think it's the worst to just save a machine.

[A]

Yeah. For some horrible bad gym etiquette, which is absolutely the worst. But Daniel's actually going now every single day at 5 in the morning. Oh, did you see this, by the way? This is so wild. I Saw Marky Mark or whatever his name, Mark Wahlberg. He was on the news. He was talking about his sleeping whatever. He gets up at 3 in the morning, he said, and he goes to bed at 6:30 at night.

[B]

Sounds like you're a schedule. I don't know what you're. I don't know what's different than what you do every single day.

[A]

6:30 is crazy. He's going to sleep. Like that's.

[B]

Like that literally is my baby schedule. My baby goes to sleep at 7 and wakes up at 3:30 every single morning. So he's literally my baby.

[A]

But he said he wants to spend more time with his kids. But I'm like, dude, you're going to bed before your kids. I'm like, I don't understand.

[B]

Your kids ain't working. Waking up at 3:30.

[A]

No. What's going on? I don't know what's going on. All right, again, I don't know what's going on with this podcast, but you guys all crush it. Leave Daniel a review. Leave me a review. I don't know. We'll check you the next one. Daniel, come on, man. I gotta get back to work. Get out of there. All right, while he's still in there. This is Jay. Check out my podcast, do this, not that, for Marketers. Each week we share really quick tips on stuff that can improve your marketing, and I hope you give it a try. Oh, here's Daniel. He's finally out.

[B]

Back from my bathroom break. This is Daniel. Go follow the Mark and Millennials podcast, but also tune into this series. It's once a week, the Bathroom Break. We talk about marketing tips that we just spew out. And it could be anything from email, subject line to any marketing tips in the world. We'll talk about it. Just give us a shout on LinkedIn and tell us what you want to hear. Peace out.

[A]

Later.