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Welcome to do this not that, the podcast from 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. This is our short episode. We're all week long. We get in questions, we get in work questions, we get in ridiculous questions. We try to tackle one of each. And if you want to be an awesome human, you could submit a question. It's got to go to jschwettleson.com There's a button that says podcast, another one that says ask us anything, and that's where we get our questions. So the stupider more ridiculous the questions, the better. But before we get to the stupid ones, not that they're stupid, they're amazing. Let's do the work. Question. We got a question from Jesse from San Jose. I dig San Jose, actually. Right near San Francisco, where I'm headed to for inbound in a few days. That's the big event put on by HubSpot. You know, whenever I travel, first of all, I hate checking a bag, but I'm going for such a long time that I have to check a bag. And why are bags made so heavy? There's no way you could fill up a bag of any size and not have it go over the limit because the bag itself is like £400. There needs to be a rule that a bag itself can't weigh something because is the point of buying the bag. What am I talking about? What's the question? Sorry, Jesse. Jay, we just had our internal meeting for our Q4 marketing offers. Are there any specific content, formats or trends, specific to this year that you think will generate an extra boost in performance that we should be thinking about? Excellent question. So let's break this down for business and then consumer, and we'll even throw in some nonprofit for our nonprofit friends out there. There are very, very specific things that are working now and in the coming weeks and as we head into Q4 that are very different this year than other years, we cannot do what we always do. Oh, let's roll out our same offers that we do this time of year. No, this year is actually different. You can't just pick, oh, scarcity and urgency and blah, blah, blah. No, we have to understand why things are a little bit different this year, and especially not just this year, but this time of year. So first off, let's talk about business to business. What you want to be thinking about right now, okay, for all of your content, for your offers. You're trying to get people to download stuff, get into your nurture streams, all this stuff. What you want to be thinking about is 2026 content, okay? That is the big shift after September 1st. We know, and I've talked about this before, that whatever the coming years, in this case 2026, if you have 2026 in the content title, it'll actually increase your download rate of whatever that content is on the business side over 30%. And it'll increase your webinar registration rate by over 25% if you include it in the title of your thing. But beyond that, the content formats that are really crushing it heading into the last portion of this year are big listicles. You know, we always think listicles are important, but listicles are more important than ever. They're doing actually better than ever. Side note, they happen to also be great because they get picked up by all the AI tools quite a bit. So listicles, you know, the 50 things every CMO should know. The 30 campaign ideas you can steal. The nine mistakes to avoid. Now the secret sauces. If you really want to win the day, do you, you just throw in 2026 into your listicle. The 50 things every CMO should know in 2026. 2025 is over. The 30 campaign ideas you can steal for 2026. The nine mistakes to avoid in 2026. The nine things every HR leader will do differently in 2026. And then beyond listicles, it's toolkits, cheat sheets and playbooks. These are the content formats that are crushing it. You can't just call it a guide. You need to get a little bit creative, like toolkit, cheat sheet, playbooks. Now the thing, ironically, that is doing phenomenal that I don't think enough companies are doing on the business side, then we'll get the consumer. Is the word trend, anything including the word trend. 2026 Trend Deck, 2026 trending Shifts Guide. 2026 trending Toolkit. We all want to know what is what, what's happening, what is everybody else talking about? What is going to be the thing? And actually including trend or will give you about a 15% boost in engagement according to World Data Research. And then of course, the last one, which everybody does anyways, including AI and anything in the title of your content, the title of your webinar, if you include AI, you're going to get an additional boost by about 20%. So the magic would be right. The AI Trending 2026 report. You'll get a 5 billion percent download rate if you were. If it's me or whatever. Anyway, let's get into the consumer side now. The consumer side is very, very different this year. Big, big difference. You know, we used to always be about scarcity. Oh, this is the last one. You got to hurry up and get it and blah, blah, blah. Right? The fear of missing out, that ain't this year. The big thing working right now in consumer. So this data from the last 60 days from World Data Research, offers framed in price will rise, are seeing a 20% higher conversion rate than standard discount offers because of all the tariffs and uncertainty. I don't care if you like the tariffs, don't like the tariffs. Meaningless to me. They're already baked into our Q4 in the holiday season and into pricing. Okay, so what we're all concerned about is our price is going to rise, and we have to tap into that for our offers. So when you frame your offers in, prices will rise. Right? Instead of just saying, whatever, discount, 20% off or whatever, you say, today's price, tomorrow higher last day at this price, never this low again, your future self will pay more. When you frame it in, prices will rise heading into the next few weeks. At the end of the year, it is doing so, so well because you're tapping into the psychology of what we're all thinking about. So don't just play the regular game of, you know, 20% off and blah, blah, blah, or there's the, you know, last chance at selling out. Yeah, that will work, but you need to tap into what's really working. All right. And let's throw in something for my nonprofit friends. Why not, you know, the other thing, tapping into the same idea for all the nonprofits that are out there. You want to tap into what we're thinking about and what everybody knows is that it's going to be harder for you to raise money this year. You know, heading to Q4. That's a big time of year for you to get donations. We all know that. So you want to be honest about it. You want to frame it where it's talking about, that this year might be harder, whereas this year's harder. That's why we need you more. Where we can't keep up with rising costs without your help. Rising costs won't stop us if you stand with us, get people on board with what's really going on. Talk about the elephant in the room. Don't just ignore it. Okay, so that's some of the offers I'll be thinking about. Let's get into the ridiculous portion of this podcast is called since you didn't ask. And we get our ridiculous questions in. And we got a question from Kevin from Virginia Beach, Virginia. Isn't that what they say? Virginia is for lovers. What is that? I mean, I'm sure someone's going to hit me up, like, this is why they say that. But no, actually, like, what is that actually? Like, you could have a tagline for your state, but you really want Virginia's for lovers. I don't even know if that's right. I feel like that's right. But anyway, Kevin, what's your question? Jay, it's football time. Are you a football fan? And how much do you care? Yeah, totally. Football, dude. I love sports. My team's at Dolphins are actually horrible. And I went to the University of Florida. So go Gators. But I do have some issues with. With all things sports related. Number one, sports are too long. Every sport is too long. Major league baseball is easily an hour too long. It's impossible to not be bored. If you. If you want to lie to yourself and say it's not boring, that's fine, but you're actually a liar. Baseball is boring. Why? One hour's fine. A round of golf needs to be nine holes, not 18. It is out of control to play four hours of golf. It is so boring. It is so ridiculous. I don't care what you say. Football is the same thing. I love football. But we could shave an hour off. We can. It's like, okay, it's a close game and there's two minutes left. That two minutes takes 45 minutes. At the end of the game, I'm like, what is going on? Speaking of football, the other thing is, I don't go to a lot of football games, but when I do, I'm always amazed at these people that. That the tailgating that people set up, I always like. I'm like, how do they do it? I can't even, like, make eggs at my house without it being a disaster. And these people are, like, making lobster tails out of their trunk. And it's like Bobby Flay's backyard is right there with the greatest barbecue setup I've ever seen. I can barely get out a pan without my entire kitchen falling apart. And these people are construct stuff. It blows my mind, by the way. The other fail and now I'm gonna get a lot of heat is when people are doing the tailgating and then they're drinking their face off at, like, you know, 10 in the morning or whatever. And like, yeah, let's crush 400 beers. I don't care if that's what you want to do, whatever. But the bottom line is, by halftime, those you feel like garbage. If you go hard at like 10:00am, you feel like garbage. Anybody who says otherwise is a liar. And by the end of the game, you're like, get me home. I need to go home and be on my couch and pass out. What are we talking about? So, yes, I do like football. Listen, you're awesome. I would appreciate two things. One, please register for Guru Conference. If you. If you don't, you're a dork. You are. Because it's free, it's virtual. Nicole Kidman's gonna be there. It's the biggest email event in the world. It is. We'll run out of seats. Gurucom.com and then the other thing is, let's hang out on Instagram. I'm sharing a lot of stupid garbage on Instagram. You can find me at my full name name at jschwettleson. So, yeah, hope you're awesome and keep it real. 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 could 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.
Podcast: Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson l Presented By Marigold
Episode: 🟡Top OFFERS Right Now! Business-Consumer-Non-Profit 🟡 Jay is Annoyed! Ask Us ANYTHING ❓ | Ep. 401
Date: August 27, 2025
Host: Jay Schwedelson
In this packed episode, Jay Schwedelson dives right into the tactical side of marketing offers for Q4 2025, breaking down what’s truly working now across B2B, B2C, and nonprofit sectors. He also answers listener questions—both work-related and lighthearted—sprinkling in his signature humor, annoyance, and actionable tips for marketers who want to stay ahead in a rapidly changing landscape.
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Question: Jay, it’s football time. Are you a football fan? How much do you care?
Jay delivers direct, research-backed answers with energy, humor, and a touch of exasperation—making marketing guidance both practical and fun. His advice is honest and often challenges industry “autopilot" thinking.
If you missed this episode, you missed not just a breakdown of what’s working but the why—plus plenty of Jay’s rants and real talk about football, tailgates, and life as a marketer.