A (0:01)

Welcome to do this not that, the podcast for marketers. We share quick tips, things you can do right now, and then we add a little bit of chaos at the end of every episode. We also keep it short, like this intro. Let's check it out. We are back for do this not that podcast presented by Marigold. And I want to share a tactic related to email marketing that can significantly increase your open rates kind of immediately. And it couldn't be easier. And basically everybody's sleeping on it, and it's going to give you an advantage. So here's the annoying topic. The annoying topic we're talking about is Apple's iPhone, the mail app on our iPhones, that blue icon with that thing that looks like an envelope on our phones. Now, some of you, many of you may not use that blue icon on your phone to check your email, but 47% of all email, according to Litmus, is read using that Apple Mail app. Now, why are we talking about this now? Because Apple is now doing an even bigger push just in the last week, and this is going to radically change email marketing performance. And I think in a good way, if you take advantage of it. And what's going on is, you know when your phone is on lock screen, okay, your phone's on lock screen, and sometimes you get these, like, alerts. Oh, you got a text message, there's a news item, whatever. But Apple now is also pushing aggressively those emails that are a priority. Okay? So, for example, if you book a Southwest plane ticket, you'll see the Southwest confirmation of that plane ticket, that email you got from Southwest, it will show up in your lock screen. It will show up as a priority. And when you actually open up and you click on that blue mail icon, you're going to see all the other priority mail that Apple has deemed to be really important. This has nothing to do with the tabs, like the promotions tab and the updates tab and the social tab. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about Apple prioritizing certain emails and not others. And you're sitting out there like, what am I listening to? I'm not Southwest Airlines. I'm not Amazon. I'm talking about a confirmation on something being shipped. No, but right now, you can game the system by having your promotional emails. Business, consumer, nonprofit, it doesn't matter. Show up in that priority section that. That is increasing open rates massively. Because if your emails actually show up as a priority email, okay, if it shows up in that bucket of priority email in the Apple Mail app, it will increase Your email open rates by about 28%. And there are simple ways to have your email show up there. And how do we do that? So what Apple's looking for, it's using AI, it's using whatever. What Apple is looking for is certain words really at the start of your subject line and also in your body copy where it's looking for these words and these phrases and it's determining, oh, this is a priority email. Let's have it show up on the lot screen. Let's have it show up in the priority notifications as a really important thing when people open up their email. So for example, instead of you just sending out, you know, an email promotion, okay, about some sort of new live event that you're going to have a webinar or whatever, if at the start of your subject line it says something like access approved, colon, air marketing event live in two days or whatever, right? Because it says access approved. Apple's going to pick up on that, say, oh, this is something that's a priority. Let's put this in the priority notifications on the lock screen, whatever. So a year from now this may not work because Apple's not stupid. They're gonna be like, oh, this is not an airline ticket. This is not a package that's being shipped. This is somebody promoting a new sale, a new webinar, a new whatever. But right now it is working incredibly well. And we, this is how we have to take advantage of things. If you can use these confirmation type terms, I'm giving you what they are in the subject line and in your body copy of your emails, it is increasing priority placement by over 50% which is then leading to that 28% increase in open rates. And all you're doing is taking the emails that you're sending out and reframing them a little bit differently. So for example, what are words that are critical? Confirmation is a critical word, okay, if you could say something like webinar confirmation, colon, your access link for September 19th. And it's not a confirmation that somebody registered, you're confirming that you're giving them access to something, you're confirming they have rights to the sale, okay. Or subscription, colon, VIP newsletter access here, right? Anything where you are making it sound more official is actually what is working. Activated is another great word. Let's say it's a sale, okay? Activated, dot, dot, dot, vip, early access, right? Because Apple is looking for words like activated, confirmation, access, update renewal, time sensitive, action required. These are all confirmation style words and phrases that then Apple is picking up on using their AI. It's then taking your emails that are about, you know, consumer sales. Maybe it's a big nonprofit donation push. Maybe it's your B2B new guide for 2026. Maybe it's your webinar invite when you style it in this confirmation style subject line and in the body copy, this is how your emails are now going to then show up, okay? In that priority placement on lock screen. And when you get it to show up there, this is how you're increasing your open rate. If you think this is ridiculous, you think it's a gimmick. This is called marketing. And what we're always trying to do is navigate what is the new thing. And this is the new thing right now that if you take advantage of it, costs you nothing. Listen, it's all about testing. Everything I just said could, could not work. It could be garbage, whatever. But do an A B test, Style one of your promotional emails in this confirmation type style another one not like that and see what works. Because this is actually what's being pulled in right now. And this is going to be a big thing, especially over the next three to six months. All right, let's get into the ridiculous portion of this podcast called. Since you didn't ask, this is where I talk about absolute nonsense. There's so much nonsense to talk about. So what's on my mind? So, first off, I was just at a conference, a really big conference, and I saw literally the worst marketing I've ever seen in the history of an on site thing at an event. So I go in the restroom of the whatever at the conference, big, big, where were Moscone, whatever, okay. And I see some dude at the urinal with his phone out, pointed at the urinal and I'm like, who's that? What is that weird dude doing? Whatever. And I then got that out of my mind because it was freaking me out. And then I walked up to the ural and I saw there was a QR code on the urinal. I'm like, it was promoting something, some sort of a guide or whatever the heck it was promoting. And I'm like, it is easily the worst type of market I could possibly imagine where you're encouraging people to take out their phones at a urinal and to take a picture of something. I mean, the dude that I saw doing it, I judged him. I continue to judge him because anybody that takes out their phone, I don't care if it's to get a free guide or whatever is weird, okay? Do not have a Marketing thing above on a urinal where you have to take a picture or something, then your phone's out. The whole thing is. Was horrendous. Oh, my gosh. What else is going on? Well, I know none of you will care about this, but you, I'm sure you saw, I'm sure you didn't see because you have a life. The Bachelorette series. Yes. The Bachelor on abc where Jesse Palmer is the host. Whatever. They announced their new Bachelorette and they announced it is Taylor, Frankie Paul. Okay, did I just screw up her name? I don't even know. Anyway, she. She is from the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which of course I watched as well. And really what they're doing is the Bachelorette. The whole Bachelor franchise is in horrible trouble because the numbers are going down, down, down, down, down because nobody's watching except for me. And things like Love island are crushing it because frankly, it's better than the Bachelorette. So they're doing this kind of crossover. They're bringing in, you know, one of the stars of the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which I think is going to be great. You're going to bring in a lot of new people. But I think this is all going to be very short lived because now they're going down the slippery slope of bringing in kind of famous people to be the Bachelor and Bachelorette, which I'm all for because it will give it a little bit of life. But I think that. And it'll be a great season. You should watch. But I think that we're headed towards the end of Bachelor Nation, unfortunately. And then the other completely useless thing I saw, which I'm curious what everybody thinks about this. So I saw that there's a lawsuit going on. So the makers of Nerds, the Nerd candy, you know, Nerds, which is this company called Ferrara Candy, they are suing this other candy company who has a candy called Dweebs because they think dweebs is too close to nerds, which, by the way, I don't even know anybody still use the word dweeb. I certainly use the word nerd. But more importantly, all this. First of all, nerds made a massive comeback because just in the last four years, their sales went from $50 million to almost a billion dollars because of Nerds Clusters, the chewy nerds, which are phenomenal. Okay, those are so good. If you've never had Nerds clusters, they're really, really good. And I will tell you, because you didn't ask what are the best non chocolate candies in my Opinion on the planet. Here they are. So I'm all in on gummy bears, but. But gummy bears are not always created equal. All right. Some gummy bears are terrible. I hate healthy gummy bears. That shouldn't be a thing. That's disgusting. But gummy bears in general are top of the list. Swedish fish are great. They get stuck in my teeth. That bothers me. I don't like that too much. But they're great. Mike and Ike's great. I'll tell you what's terrible. Starbursts are terrible. They're not good. I don't know why they still exist. Whoever likes Starbursts? They're horrendous. Sour Patch Kids. Overrated. There, I said it. They're overrated. The only good ones are the watermelon versions of them. Those are okay. Skittles. Absolutely terrible. Sour Skittles. Not bad. But the stuff gets all over your hands, so regular Skittles should go away. They're absolutely disgusting. And don't even start with me. Like. Like, warheads are not handy. Okay? That's like a game. Okay, great. You want to have a sour thing in your mouth. Good for you. And Gobstoppers. Is that even round? I just date myself. Gobstoppers. Whatever. Speaking of whatever, what are we talking about? No idea. As usual. Listen. Guru Conference. Have you registered? What is wrong with you? Stop listening. This thing, our virtual free event. Guru Conference, Gurucom.com We Got Flavor Flav is going to be there. That's not a joke, which is crazy. Nicole Kidman's going to be there. Donald Miller's going to be there. Amy Porterfield. Who else can be the CEO of Liquid Death? I mean, this thing's going to be bonkers. We'll run out of virtual seats. You won't be there. I'll make fun of you. And I appreciate you, though. So go to Gurucom.com later. You did it. You made it to the end. But wait, the party is not over. Listen, I want to keep hanging out. Subscribe to this podcast, and if it wasn't the worst podcast you've ever listened to, give it a five star review. Why not? But you know what? I want to do even more with you. Go to gurumediahub.com and we can partner there. You can find out about all of our free events, all of our stuff, and if you're epically bored, go to jschwedelson.com and we could stay connected. You could find my newsletter and everything else I got going on. Thanks for being here and hope you subscribe.