
Loading summary
A
Foreign. 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.
B
This collab is going to be super fun. We have Daniel Murray from the Marketing Millennials and me, Jay Schwetelson 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.
A
We are back with another Bathroom Break. I am here with best selling author of USA Today, Jay Schwedelson. And I wanted to talk about something because for some reason everybody who's coming to the US for the World cup is obsessed with ranch dressing and they're taking full size ranch dressing in their carry on. Not even like under the plane, like carry on. Have you been seeing this?
B
Not only have I been seeing it, first of all, I'm clueless about the World Cup. People would text me and they'll be like, did you see what happened with like, who Cape Verde or whatever. I'm like, is that a country or did I even just say that right? I have no idea who's winning or tying or losing, but all I really care about is these people from different countries are like, we discovered ranch dressing and which is amazing because I use ranch on popcorn, pizza, pita chips, everything. My toenails. But I don't understand something. How is ranch dressing not made it to Europe? Like, was there like a block in ranch dressing? Like, why do they have Caesar dressing? Like, why? What's going on?
A
I don't think they have dressing. They don't have dressing in here.
B
What do you mean? I mean they don't have. I was about to say they don't have deodorant.
A
That's horrible. Countries don't shower though. I think, I think in like some countries they say like shower once a week or something. Is that true?
B
I don't know. But I definitely.
A
You know what? I also feel bad about the person at Foxborough Stadium that had to put tape on every seat to cover the logo. And there's 63.
B
You saw what happened with Levi's. They covered their thing outside.
A
Yeah, but they did a great job with that. But then someone had to go. And then I saw something. They had to cover their, like mayo and, and mustard things because it had brand names on it. They really going, ham they're covering everything.
B
You think if we opened up a pop up shop like in, in, I don't know, in Germany or London that says just called, we have ranch, like we would just go viral. Like is that all you need to do to get rich?
A
I think so. I think that's our next business idea. But talking about like great things that are happening marketing, actually not so great things that are happening marketing. One thing I've been thinking about and I want your opinion on it is like people are overestimating clicks and opens because of bots. Yeah, There's a stat out there that like 95% of like clicks are bot activity. So like we've seen this in our newsletter that where we put like something called a honey pot on the top of a newsletter, a fake link to see how many bots would actually click it. So there's a lot of fake clicks out there and I believe you need to track who is clicking, who is opening, who is visiting your site, who is filling out instead of the. Net number. But you have another thing to say about this as well.
B
Yeah, I mean in general for everyone out there that thinks that they go into their ESP or their platform when they send their email and they look at their metrics like oh, I got 99% delivered, I got 42% open rate, I have a 3% click through rate, not a single one of those metrics is accurate. Not one. And it gets worse and worse and worse because so many infrastructures now are trying to make sure that nothing bad is coming into our network. So they are kind of pre clicking everything and there's all this bot activity. So table stakes is knowing that your numbers are wildly inflated. On the reverse side though, if you don't have good metrics, if you don't have let's say a 20% open rate at least. If you don't have a 1% click through rate at least that's really bad because so many of the clicks and opens are not real that if you're not seeing that then you have a massive deliverability problem. Would you agree with that? Yeah.
A
Massive deliverability problem or the people on your list are just sleeping. Like you have nobody who's actually or you're putting out content that's irrelevant. There's it's either the delivery part or content problem. There's the only two problems.
B
And the other thing I would say about it is like a lot of people out there with these marketing automations tool where you're doing scores, if they opened, if they click they get an extra score and they move up the chain. One simple thing you want to think about doing is take anybody in your database who's clicked on every email that you've sent in the last six months. I promise you they don't like you that much. 0% chance anybody that's clicked on every email that you've sent them or opened every email that you sent them and now you're factoring that into the marketing automation score, you're giving that contact that is a fail. That is all bot activity. That is not real. And that is why your BDRs and your SDRs cannot stand the leads that they're getting because it's all fake.
A
And on the flip side, we talk about this a lot, but we are moving into the era of zero click. And things that you should think about is like there's things that are happening that you can't see, like forwards or someone sees something in your email and then goes to like search it. So you need to create things that are worth sharing because that's a metric that email is not tracking right now. And that's a metric social tracks it kind of, they can't track screenshots. So this thing like shareable things are happening and then especially with AI and AI just scans things, it doesn't click things. So clicks shouldn't be, we're trying to say clicks are not the end all be all. You can't have everything with clicks. Clicks are not like clicks are fake metric because they're inflated. So the who is clicking is important but not on email because email there's some weird things that happen like with Apple pre opening every email. So like what is your recommendation for people for like creating content for zero click?
B
Well you know, in general everybody always says there's only 5% of the market that you're going after is in market at any one time. 95% of the people that you are sending stuff to consumer business are not ready to buy your thing. So really what you should be thinking about is you need to build up your, your, your, your equity in that person's brain and not just trying to get them to download, to buy, to register, to subscribe. You need to be giving them stuff that they're finding a value to when they are in market they're thinking of you. And that's where the zero, zero click kind of mindset needs to be. This idea of no agenda marketing. You know, if you look at for example Daniel's newsletter he sends out, it's really long. There's you don't need to click on anything to get massive value out of Daniel's newsletter that he puts out. And that is the way a lot of brands need to be thinking, are you putting out content on social in your emails that people don't need to click on that they can get value out of, so when they are in market they think of you? Because this world of zero click is where we're at because of all the AI overviews in Google and all the AI tools we're getting accustomed to not clicking. So really reimagining your, your content for that world is, is what we should all be thinking about.
A
Also, I think what you said about staying top of mind, it is like we, you, you say this all the time and people fight it. But sending more emails means you're top of mind more. It's just. And if it's relevant emails and ones that resonate with your audience, it's, it's a good thing. Because if you send an email once every two weeks, nobody's going to remember you. It's, it's just like compared to someone who's sending three times a week to their audience, I mean, it has to do with relevancy. But if you're top of my, you have to stay top of mind. And staying top of mind, you have to be in someone's inbox or be in someone's feed or be in someone's drive home or being on someone's consistently to win.
B
Listen, relevancy is married to frequency. The more relevant you are, the more frequent you can send. And here's the game, like today said, if you're not sending out at least once a week, at least you are not doing enough to stay top of mind with that person. But you can't send them garbage. But that's the world that we're in now. And any business, if you're in a business and you're at the marketing manager, whatever you are, and one of the things that is something you track is the unsubscribes and if they tick up a little bit, that, that's that now something we're sending out too much or this, that or whatever, that is not the right type of marketing organization. Unsubscribes is not a terrible thing as long as they don't go, you know, wildly high and don't be turned off by a few extra unsubscribes because you sent out a few more emails. Those people were never going to buy your thing. They were a bad fit. Let Them go. But before we go, you know, I want to know something. Is there something like that people do, let's say in Europe that we don't have here. That when you go over there, like ranch dressing over there, you're like, oh, man, I wish we had that, you know, over here because that's awesome. Like really small toilet seats, they seem to have that over.
A
I'm trying to think. I mean, decent public transportation is one that I always think about, like when I go to Europe, like, why does not the US have decent public transportation? It's so crazy to me. It's so bad here. It's terrible. I went like whenever I go to London. Like, it's so easy to get around the city. And even when you go to New York, it's disgusting to be done. I know. Sorry. New York is. It is on a 95 degree day and it smells like pee underground. It's not fun. I'm sorry.
B
But like, like, so you're a very large human being. You're like 6 foot 5 or whatever. Do you feel like Europe is not catered to people of your size?
A
I feel like everybody, you know, the worst thing about Europe is for me is that when you get like a double extra large there, it really means like a large shirt. So like every time I go there, I feel like, oh, I'm going to put on a double extra. And I put it on. It's like a crop top on me. I feel so terrible.
B
Terrible.
A
I ordered my son a 18 month, like onesie and he's only like 9 months and was like a crop top on him. I was like, are European babies that tiny?
B
I want to know what people in Europe are eating that we're. First of all, the food is better in Europe. I know. It's healthier. That's a fact.
A
Walk more too. That's for sure.
B
Yeah, there's a lot of good stuff and everyone's very nice over there. I want to start saying like, things like, cheers.
A
Oh, I did. See, the funniest thing is there's this guy who was on TikTok, he came to the United States and he's like, I've discovered the best thing in the US and he's like, air conditioning. They don't have like. And he's like, hockey.
B
Just walk. It's hot.
A
And I walk in and it's a winter day now. It's so funny. He's like, you guys should put that in your Nashville anthem.
B
We have air conditioning. It is true. I have a nervous breakdown. My air conditioning breaks. I just. I lose my mind.
A
Oh, me too. Lost it.
B
I can't take it. I can't take it. Well, people probably can't take this episode. Listen, we appreciate when you guys leave us comments on Spotify or Apple. Then we love seeing it. We jump in on that and you know, we did another bathroom break. We're going to see you at the next one, Daniel. Come on, man. I got to 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 comes. Improve your marketing and hope you give it a try. Oh, here's Daniel. He's finally out.
A
Back from my bathroom break. This is Daniel. Go follow the Marketing 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.
B
Later.
Date: June 22, 2026
Host: Daniel Murray
Guest: Jay Schwedelson (Do This, Not That Podcast, subjectline.com)
In this fast-paced “Bathroom Break” episode, Daniel Murray and Jay Schwedelson tackle the uncomfortable truth behind email marketing metrics. They discuss why commonly celebrated numbers like open rates and click-through rates are not just misleading—they're often outright lies, distorted by bot activity and changing tech standards. The conversation then expands into actionable tips for rethinking success in email and digital marketing, embracing the zero-click era, and building genuine audience relationships. The episode maintains a light, humorous tone with playful banter and side remarks on everything from ranch dressing to European shirt sizes, but always returns to sharp, practical marketing insights.
Timestamps:
| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|---------|-------| | 01:14 | Jay | "I use ranch on popcorn, pizza, pita chips, everything. My toenails." | | 03:30 | Jay | "Not a single one of those metrics is accurate. Not one." | | 04:48 | Jay | "I promise you they don’t like you that much. 0% chance anybody that’s clicked on every email... that is all bot activity." | | 06:08 | Daniel | "Clicks are not the end all be all. You can't have everything with clicks. Clicks are a fake metric because they're inflated." | | 06:36 | Jay | "You need to build up your equity in that person’s brain... so when they are in market, they think of you. And that’s where the zero-click kind of mindset needs to be." | | 07:54 | Daniel | "If you send an email once every two weeks, nobody’s going to remember you." | | 08:29 | Jay | "Relevancy is married to frequency. The more relevant you are, the more frequent you can send." | | 09:30 | Jay | "Unsubscribes is not a terrible thing... Those people were never going to buy your thing. They were a bad fit. Let them go." |
This episode debunks popular email marketing myths and urges marketers to refocus on authentic metrics and audience value. With their lively rapport, Daniel and Jay keep things practical yet entertaining, balancing high-level trends with specific, tactical advice. For anyone rethinking their digital strategy in the age of bots and AI, these 10 minutes are time well spent.