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Subject Lines That Stop the Scroll: Jay Schwedelson’s Secrets Revealed - The Amy Porterfield Show | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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Subject Lines That Stop the Scroll: Jay Schwedelson’s Secrets Revealed

The Amy Porterfield Show

Tue Apr 22 2025

Your Emails Deserve More Opens, Clicks, and Sales—Here’s How to Get Them

Summary

Summary of "Subject Lines That Stop the Scroll: Jay Schwedelson’s Secrets Revealed" on The Amy Porterfield Show

Podcast Information:

Title: The Amy Porterfield Show
Host: Amy Porterfield
Guest: Jay Schwedelson
Episode Title: Subject Lines That Stop the Scroll: Jay Schwedelson’s Secrets Revealed
Release Date: April 22, 2025

1. Introduction to Personalized Email Marketing

The episode kicks off with Amy Porterfield addressing common fears among marketers regarding email unsubscribes. She shares a revealing statistic: “Over 90% of unsubscribes are from people who have not opened or clicked on one of your emails in over six months” (00:11). This sets the stage for a deep dive into the importance of targeting the right audience and embracing personalization in email marketing.

2. The Impact of Personal vs. Brand Newsletters

Jay Schwedelson recounts his journey into online marketing, highlighting the pivotal moment when he connected with Marie Forleo at an event (00:35). This personal story underscores the power of building authentic relationships, a theme that permeates the discussion on email newsletters.

Amy elaborates on the stark differences between brand newsletters and personal newsletters. She states, “Personal newsletters have a 48% higher average open rate than brand newsletters,” emphasizing the superior engagement that comes from a personalized touch (10:22). Furthermore, she highlights that offers within personal newsletters achieve a “30% higher click-through rate” compared to those from brand newsletters (11:43).

3. Key Strategies for Personalization

Amy stresses the importance of transforming newsletters from generic brand communications to personal, relatable messages. She recommends starting a second newsletter that emanates from an individual rather than the brand itself. “The secret sauce about email marketing is that you really want to have the from name change depending on what you’re sending out,” she explains (12:50).

One notable tip she shares is treating the "From Name" as an extension of the subject line, which can increase open rates by up to 20% when tailored to the content being promoted (13:41). For example, instead of sending an email from “Nutrition Network,” use “Nutrition Network Events” to align with the email’s purpose.

4. Enhancing Email Performance: Open Rates and Click Throughs

Amy provides actionable advice on improving both open and click-through rates. She advises keeping text blocks concise—no more than four lines—to maintain reader engagement (20:14). Additionally, incorporating elements like “3-minute read” prompts can significantly boost click-through rates by making the content feel manageable and time-efficient (20:32).

5. Using AI in Personalizing Newsletters

While Amy is a proponent of AI in marketing, she cautions against over-reliance, noting that AI can sometimes make communications feel impersonal. However, she leverages AI to generate content ideas that mirror her personal tone, enhancing the newsletter’s authenticity (22:44).

6. Overcoming Email Deliverability Challenges

Addressing common deliverability issues, Amy recommends regular database maintenance through validation services like Zero Bounce to cleanse email lists of inactive or invalid addresses (35:43). This practice is crucial for maintaining high engagement rates and ensuring emails reach their intended recipients.

7. Growing Your Email List: Effective Tactics

Amy shares innovative strategies for email list growth, emphasizing the importance of simplicity in sign-up forms. “Just collect the email address,” she advises, explaining that additional fields can deter potential subscribers (40:26). She also highlights the effectiveness of strategic content naming—titles like “The Ultimate Guide” or “Cheat Sheets” significantly enhance lead magnet appeal (42:31).

8. Measuring Email Marketing Success

Beyond open and click-through rates, Amy stresses the importance of tracking subscriber interactions to refine targeting strategies. By tagging users based on their engagement with specific content, marketers can create highly tailored segments for future campaigns, thereby increasing relevance and conversion rates (44:03).

9. Leveraging Live Events for Email Marketing Growth

Transitioning to the role of live events in email marketing, Amy discusses the transformation of virtual events post-COVID. She introduces the concept of “Earned On Demand,” where access to event replays is contingent upon active participation, thereby ensuring higher engagement rates (47:08). She also criticizes the traditional webinar format, advocating instead for event promotion that focuses on the topic rather than the medium (48:17).

Amy promotes her upcoming virtual event, Eventtastic, a two-day free event centered on event marketing. Featuring keynote speakers like Andy Cohen from Bravo, Eventtastic aims to provide valuable insights while fostering community engagement (49:44).

10. Conclusion and Takeaways

In closing, Amy reiterates the critical role of personalization in email marketing. She encourages marketers to embrace authentic communication, maintain clean email lists, and utilize strategic content approaches to enhance engagement and conversions. The episode concludes with an enthusiastic endorsement of Eventtastic, promising an enriching experience for attendees looking to elevate their event marketing strategies.

Notable Quotes:

Amy Porterfield (00:11): “Over 90% of unsubscribes are from people who have not opened or clicked on one of your emails in over six months.”
Amy Porterfield (10:22): “Personal newsletters have a 48% higher average open rate than brand newsletters.”
Amy Porterfield (12:50): “The secret sauce about email marketing is that you really want to have the from name change depending on what you’re sending out.”
Amy Porterfield (20:14): “You really don’t want to have more than four lines. I like having three lines in any text block.”
Amy Porterfield (22:44): “Can this be made more personal? Can this feel a little better?”
Amy Porterfield (35:43): “Every year we take our databases, we give it to Zero Bounce, and they put it through their tool.”
Amy Porterfield (42:31): “Instead of a tip sheet, “insider tip sheet,” forget it. The thing goes into the stratosphere in terms of people wanting to consume it.”
Amy Porterfield (44:03): “Tagging users based on their engagement allows us to create highly tailored segments for future campaigns.”
Amy Porterfield (48:17): “Nobody wants to have another webinar in their calendar. They just don’t.”

Final Thoughts:

This episode offers a wealth of insights into the evolving landscape of email marketing, emphasizing the necessity of personalization and strategic content management. Jay Schwedelson’s expertise complements Amy Porterfield’s strategies, providing listeners with actionable takeaways to enhance their own email marketing efforts. Whether it’s optimizing subject lines, refining newsletter formats, or leveraging live events, the discussions are geared towards fostering deeper connections and achieving sustainable business growth.

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Transcript

Amy Porterfield (0:01)

Hey there.

Jay Schwedelson (0:02)

Welcome to the Amy Porterfield Show.

Amy Porterfield (0:11)

People get nervous about unsubscribes, and then we react to the loudest voice in the room, which is a horrible thing to do. So here's a stat that you want to plant in your mind. Over 90% of unsubscribes people say, take me off your list. Are from people who have not opened or clicked on one of your emails in over six months. These are not your people. People are allowed to move on. People allowed to change their lives.

Jay Schwedelson (0:35)

First, I want you to know that I just recorded this entire intro with no audio. Yeah, I did the whole seven minute intro. I was on a roll and then I went to Riverside to make sure it was saved correctly and there's no audio. So I just tell you this to say if that's ever happened to you. Tech issues are a nightmare and I'm really frustrated. But, you know, second time's a charm. So here we are. I want to take you back to 17 years ago. Yeah, 17 years ago, I was still at my corporate job, living in San Diego. I was already planning to leave. I was already starting to think of, how can I be my own boss? What could I create? What am I going to do? I had already started my exit plan, but I wasn't exactly sure when it was all going to come together. And so around that time, I signed up for my very first online marketing event. Frank Kern was the host of this event. And I didn't know Frank at the time, but I was so excited. I paid for the ticket with my own money because I was going there to learn how to start my own business. And I thought, you know what? I got to get in the room. I got to get in the room, meet some new people, figure out, like, who I need to know in order to get the kind of education that I needed in order to start this online business. And I just knew I needed to be in proximity. So even though I'm an introvert, I found myself in a massive hallway that opened up to this ballroom for this event. But in this massive hallway, all the doors were closed because I was the first one to arrive to this event. No one was there yet. Now, the Amy today is not the first person to arrive at an event. The Amy, 17 years ago. Oh, heck, yeah, she was. Someone recently called me a teacher's pet, which I thought was a compliment. Like, yeah, I always sat at the front of the room. I tried to get good grades, I raised my hand, asked all the questions, cringe. But that's not really who I am today. However, back in the day, I was the first one there. I found myself in this big empty hallway, super nervous about my first Internet marketing event. And a woman came in, and she was early as well. And we started to chat. We instantly connected, and we were chatting about our businesses. And she was asking me all these questions. And so I told her, I'm thinking about starting my own business. I don't know what I'm going to do yet, but I wanted to be at this event. I wanted to learn from the best. And so she kept asking me all these questions. And then finally she said, okay, hold on. And she grabbed her notebook, scribbled down her website, ripped it out of the notebook, and kind of shoved it into my face. And she said, go to my website after this event. You'll see. I have a free guide all about how to start doing. I think it was video at the time. She was teaching people how to make your videos great or something with starting a business. So she's like, go there, download my free guide. You're going to love it. It's just what you need. I remember this moment so vividly in my mind. I remember it one because it was Marie Forleo, and we have been friends for 17 years now. My very first mastermind I ever paid for was Marie's Mastermind. I became a B school affiliate for many, many years. Love that program. So it's kind of fun to think where we met and where I was in my life when we met. But also, I loved how personal she made growing her business. And really, to this day, if you were in a hallway with Marie, she'd probably do the same thing. She's still that same girl, which I love. But I love that she made it so personal. She asked me all these questions about me. She knew exactly what I needed, and then, boom, she gave me a solution. And the reason I was thinking of this story today is because today's episode is about personalizing your marketing, specifically your email marketing. Even more specific, your email newsletter. And I want to talk about the difference between a brand newsletter and a personalized newsletter and what that looks like and why personalization has become so incredibly important in today's landscape. And I'll just tell you one reason. AI I love AI I support it. I use it every day. My team uses it. But it also makes people cynical. Am I talking to a bot or am I talking to a human? Is that really you dming me, Amy, or is it manychat? I mean, people are very, very cynical and they don't trust like they used to. And so really understanding what needs to happen for your audience to trust you is an important conversation we need to continue to have. But I can promise you personalizing your marketing, and it goes both ways. Making people feel seen and heard and allowing people to see and hear you as the mentor, the guide, the coach, the trainer. I think both ways are really important. So having a personalized newsletter, allowing people into your world is one way to build that trust and create real relationships with your audience. So here's the deal. I don't yet have a personalized newsletter. You can bet that I want to have one. And it's. It's in the works, down the pipeline. And because I don't teach anything that I don't do, I wanted to bring in an expert. And this expert happens to be a very good friend of mine. His name is Jay Schwedelson. And every time I get on a call with him, he just makes me laugh. I think he's one of the funniest guys I know. But he's also incredibly talented. So you might have heard me talk about one of his websites that is insanely popular. It's called Subject line dot com. If you're not using it, then thank me later. You're going to be addicted. I will never, ever send an email out that I haven't ran through subjectline.com. it has actually helped over 15 million people test subject lines. Okay, I actually said that wrong and I should edit it out, but I'm not going to. It's had 15 million tested subject lines ran through it. I might have been 10,000 of those, but 15 million. Yeah. So they tool. It knows what it's doing. It's so good. So he's the creator of Subject Line.com and he's also the founder of Guru Media Hub, which hosts the world's largest email marketing conference, which is totally free, by the way. It's had over 50,000 people attend annually. And here's the cool thing. If you're looking for a brand new online marketing podcast, don't you dare go anywhere from this one. But if you want another, another one, he has a podcast called do this. Not that. It's one of the top five marketing podcasts in the US and it's known for blending pop culture, humor, and then data driven marketing. So one of the things that I love about Jay is he loves reality tv, he loves pop culture. So every time I talk to him, that is essentially what we are talking about. So I Love his podcast. Highly recommended. And Jay lives in Boca Raton, Florida. Okay, listen, I had to look this up because I thought that's where the Golden Girls lived. And so when I think of Boca, I think of, like, a big, really cool retirement community with, what do they call them? Snowbirds that go to Florida in the winter. So I feel like Jay lives among, like, the Golden Girls. But I looked it up. Do you know where the Golden Girls really lived? Can you guess? Like, say it out loud. Where do you think the Golden Girls lived? They lived in Miami, Florida. So also, did you know that they were in their 40s when they were recording that? Which really blows my mind. I thought they were much, much older, so I don't know. Anyway, Boca Raton is not where the Golden Girls lived. But guess what? It is where Jay lives. So it won't make you wait any longer. Let's welcome my very good friend, Jay Schwedelson. Listen, I've got to tell on myself because for the last 15 minutes, you have seen me stumble through this technology. I couldn't get my camera to work, and then I couldn't get my mic to work. Then I got up and down, up and down. And then Scout started barking so loud we had to stop three times. So thank you for being so patient.

Amy Porterfield (13:42)

Now, when it shows on my inbox, it says Amy Porterfield. Right? Because when you're sending out, you're putting that from name to be Amy Porterfield. You could have that from name. Literally say anything. It doesn't matter what platform you use. It takes five seconds, okay? It could say Howdy Doody. It doesn't matter. All right? And the reason that that matters, the reason that that from name is so powerful, you should change it depending on what you're sending out. It does not hurt your deliverability it doesn't change. Go to the inbox, whatever. Why do I say that? So now you have the second newsletter that's newsletters are going to go from Jenny Smith. Same email address, though. Okay, and let me go on a side tangent here for a second with this From Name thing, because I think it's among the most powerful things, email marketing that we're not thinking about. Let's say, okay, let's put the newsletter to the side. Now I have promotional emails I'm sending out. Everybody sends out their promotional email. And the from name will be Nutrition Network. Okay? That's what will be from. And then you'll have your subject line, whatever. That's not the game anymore. Every time you hit send, you want to change the From Name. It's a creative writing contest. Literally, in any platform you use, there's gonna be a field that says From Name. It sometimes it's called a friendly from or the alias. So let's say you're promoting an event you don't want to come from. Nutrition Network. It should say Nutrition Network events. Nutrition Network Big news, Nutrition Network Live. When you tie your offer in the From Name field to the offer of what you're promoting, okay, your open rates, your. The percentage of people opening every email goes up by 20%. So you really want to think about the From Name as basically the start of your subject line because that's how we're consuming the email. And so going back to the newsletter, start a second newsletter, okay. And have it come from you as a person. Right? And the amount of extra opens, extra engagement is off the charts.

Amy Porterfield (28:00)

I'm horrible. Okay, so my newsletter is, should go out, you know, every Thursday. But it doesn't. But I'm going to give you one newsletter tip that I think everyone sleeps on. You should do it. Everybody should do on this planet. I'm gonna get a lot of heat for it. Don't care any newsletter out there when you put together, even if you keep it as your brand newer, fine. Everybody puts a lot of time and energy into their newsletter, right? And I'm derelict with always getting my out on the perfect day and time. I know that because it takes so much time to do, right? But what do we all do? We hit send and they go, thank God I don't have to do this for another oh my God. Onto the next right. Oh my God. And that's it. But to tell you the truth, that's not enough. You want to send out your newsletter a second time to the non openers and you want to do it a very specific way. So when you send out your newsletter, let's say on a Thursday, great, you got out the door. Now it's Sunday and Sunday's a great day for your resender your newsletter, by the way. So you know, it's Sunday and everybody who hasn't opened up that, that newsletter from the first send, right, you got a 40% open rate of the first one, but you have 60% of people didn't open it on Sunday. You send out the exact same newsletter, exact same copy to them on Sunday but you change the subject line and you be very direct about the fact that you know they didn't open it and you make that subject line say something like literally dot that, that I think you missed this or oh, you scrolled past this and you make it very intentional that they missed the first send. And when you send out that second newsletter, touch to the non openers within three days, okay. On average you're going to get about another 20 to 25% of people opening up your email. Overall, it costs you nothing. And it takes so much time to put this newsletter together. To send it out once is a crime. It's an absolute crime. So to me that's probably the number one tactic I would do in email newsletter marketing. Period.

Amy Porterfield (33:50)

I'm going to tell you why. Because first of all, we all only have so much time in the day and this is a waste of energy. I'm going to give you the data as to why it's a waste of energy. Okay? Your issue, whatever your issue is your email, it's not getting the sponsor you want open, whatever it is, not because of the promo tab. And here is the reality of that. First of all, the promotions tab, there's one for Gmail, right? This is a tab where all your promotional email goes. And there's one for Apple now, right? They have these categorizations where your emails can go in their promotions tab. Apple released that in the last year or so. Now, the promotions tab is still part of the inbox. People think it's the junk folder. It's not. It's part of the inbox. Now, the kicker is, do people actually even really use the promotions tab? And here's the Data. Less than 30% of Gmail users have it turned on. And that number has been shrinking less and less people actually have it turned on. So less than 30% of people do have it turned on on Apple. It's even a fraction of that. You're talking about like 10% right now that have that categorization on. So it's a very small population. But here's the wild part of the people that do have it turned on. 50% of them check it daily. And it's wild because if you think about the promotions tab, when you go into it, it's like going to the mall. When you go to the mall, you're in buying mode. You're like, I'm in the mall. What am I buying? Right? And when you go to the promotions tab, you're not lost. You're not like, where am I? Am I lost? What's happening? No, you clicked on it because you're looking for offers, you're looking for stuff, right? So literally 50% of these people that have it turned on are going in there every single day looking for stuff and offers and opportunities. So trying to get out of it is a major pain in the butt. It really is. And it doesn't work. I don't care what anybody tells you. All the tricks, all the whatever, it will work for like a minute and then it won't work again. You're going to chase your tail. You got bigger issues to work on to get that engagement. Forget the promotions tab. It is not your problem.

Amy Porterfield (35:45)

Your problem. Okay, so a few fold. So let's say you, you, you've dropped. Let's say you used to get, you know, a 40% open rate. Now you got a 20 open rate. And you're like, what am I doing wrong? All this stuff. So a few things. Number one, you want to put your data every year, once a year, through a validation service. I'm not paid by any of these companies. I'm not an affiliate with any of them. I'll tell you who I use. I use a company called Zero Bounce. Okay? What that means is every year we take our databases, we give it to Zero Bounce, and they put it through their tool. It's very inexpensive. I'm talking about like hundreds of dollars for very large lists. And what it does is it will validate the email addresses that you have. It will remove spam traps which could be holding back your performance. It'll remove all the bad stuff. And usually that removal of those bad things that you don't know in your database, okay, that's usually going to solve a lot of your problems. Now let's say that doesn't solve your problem and you want to do that at least once a year. It's kind of like putting your, your clothes to the laundromat or a car wash. You got to do that. That's like table stakes now. But then if you're still having issues, what I would say is take your file, okay? And take anybody who has not opened or clicked on one of your emails in over six months and just sideline them for a minute. Don't include them on the next few cents. Put them off to the side and take all your engaged people, the people that have an opening and clicking, whatever, and do your regular sends that you're doing to them. If you don't see a massive difference in engagement, you don't see everything just skyrocket. Oh, my God. We are crushing it with our Engage database, which you very likely will see that. But if you don't, that's when you know, okay, I do have a major problem because this is a subset of people that really dig my Content that love our stuff and now they're not open and clicking. Oh, let's talk to our platform. Let's get. Really dig into this. But before you raise all these flags and all this stuff, see if you actually have a problem.