January marketing has a weird hangover, and it messes with way more than your motivation. Jay Schwedelson and Daniel Murray get very specific about what to do in those first two weeks, what not to freak out about, and the tiny “swap 2025 to 2026” moves that can quietly outperform your big new ideas.

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Follow Daniel on LinkedIn and check out The Marketing Millennials podcast for sharp, no-fluff marketing insights. Subscribe to Ari Murray’s newsletter at gotomillions.co for sharp, actionable marketing insights.

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Best Moments:

(01:39) The first two weeks of January are not “normal marketing,” and you have to treat them differently

(02:15) Set monthly goals for the next three months so you do not start the year feeling behind

(03:30) Do not kill a new test just because it flops around January 8 or 9

(03:46) Why late-January promo email click rates jump about 30% compared to early January

(04:00) Audit every automation and trigger and delete anything that still screams 2025

(05:31) Shorter copy, more white space, and shorter subject lines win because everyone is overloaded

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Check out Jay’s YOUTUBE Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelson

Check out Jay’s TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@schwedelson

Check Out Jay's INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/

Daniel Murray: Welcome to a new special series called The Bathroom Break, that extra 10 minutes, you either have to listen to marking tips or use the bathroom or both, but I

Jay Schwedelson: don't recommend. But that's your choice. This collab is gonna be super fun. We have Daniel Murray from the Marketing Millennials and me, Jay Schon from the Do This Not That podcast@subjectline.com.

Jay Schwedelson: Each episode in this series, we are gonna go over quick tips about different marketing topics, and if you want to be in the bathroom, fine, just don't tell us about it. Thanks for checking it out. We are back for the bathroom break. I'm here with the ultimate Marky millennial, Daniel Murray and I. And Jay Schon and I'm like, is anybody out there even listening anymore?

Jay Schwedelson: Did the world tune it out? So Daniel, like this time of year, are you still consuming like marketing podcasts and business stuff? Are you just all in on watching Home Alone three or whatever?

Daniel Murray: I think column A and column B, but I, I try to consume as much as I can just for ideas, but I feel like this type of year is just all old content recycled from.

Daniel Murray: From the, the whole year. So you're just getting a bunch of curations, which is great 'cause my A DHD brain can now consume more of your content if you're doing that the right way. So

Jay Schwedelson: keep well the good. Well the is we're, we're like the only podcast in the entire country that's just not mailing it in and just reposting like, you know, greatest hits from the year.

Jay Schwedelson: We have actually a new episode here. We should like high five each other. Look at us. I know.

Daniel Murray: How are we doing this?

Jay Schwedelson: I'm, uh, I'm, this is crazy.

Daniel Murray: This is crazy.

Jay Schwedelson: This is crazy. All right, well let's talk about the topic of the day. The topic of day is the first two weeks of January. Here we are the year's wrapping up and then you're gonna get hyped to do your marketing those first two weeks of January.

Jay Schwedelson: And there are some very specific tactics you should be aware of, you should avoid, uh, and all things 'cause it's not a normal time of the year. So, Daniel, what do you think about those first two weeks of January? Is it just regular marketing for you?

Daniel Murray: No, I think first I, I will, I, I have to say is the first two weeks of January and for any marketing is you shouldn't phone in the marketing because the wor this is the worst time to phone in because if you get behind in January, you're gonna be done behind in February, then you're gonna be behind in March.

Daniel Murray: You can't treat every month the same of the year. Especially like you can't treat how things are working in December to how things are working in January. Especially in the B2B space where people, some people are just coming back from vacations, coming back from holidays, so. Their inbox is flooded, their heads down trying to hit their goals, and they probably not consume your content.

Daniel Murray: So I know you have some data behind this, but what I'm trying to say is don't just cancel your goals with the first two weeks. Um, let them play out a little longer because they could be coming back in February, March, April. When people have more time to consume and more time to view your content or marketing you're doing.

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah, and lemme double down on something you said those first two weeks. If you test something new that you've been waiting to test and you test it on like January 8th or ninth and it doesn't do well, that doesn't mean that that tactic or that test is just not gonna do well. Those first two weeks are historically horrible 'cause everyone just getting themselves straight, they're catching up, they're doing things, and we see it, for example, on email, click-through rates on promotional email.

Jay Schwedelson: Out of there. There's nothing worse than a negative signal to start the year, uh, in your marketing and letting people think, oh, they're not with it. They're not organized. They don't know what's going on. This is the time to audit all of that. So you come out of the, the gate strong, but realize those first two weeks are not going to be strong.

Daniel Murray: Sprinkle some new stuff in and reposting that onto your feeds, into your emails and stuff like that.

Jay Schwedelson: We are so busy, we have so much stuff to start out the year we wanna see short copy, we wanna see a lot of white space in the social posts, in the emails that we receive. We wanna see shorter subject lines. We don't realize it, but shorter is what we want to consume. 'cause our attention span is actually super short, those first two weeks.

Jay Schwedelson: So really think about the mindset of who you're marketing to and where their head is at. Because you know, like January 2nd or third, the last thing you wanna do is be on a teams meeting. That sounds like the worst thing on earth. So getting a giant long form email on January 3rd. So think about, you know, all of that.

Jay Schwedelson: And Daniel, let me ask you a question. Oh, you, what do you got?

Daniel Murray: I just was gonna add like something that you could do if you want, if you don't know what to do, is go back to your inbox of from January last year and see what you would've opened from last year. And just that could be some new, fresh ideas.

Daniel Murray: So go look at. What are the emails that were sent out? Audit those. Now you have ai, you can audit the subject lines, you can audit things that people did in in the first week of last year. So I think just go back and look at what worked for other people and back and what would work for you if you would open it and try some of those things in your marketing.

Jay Schwedelson: So the most random question I have for you is that I saw that the new avatar. Is is out or whatever. I've never seen any avatars. You know, the tall blue people. I feel like you're somebody who knows a lot about the movie Avatar and you care. Uh, is that true?

Daniel Murray: Are we the blue? Are we talking about the blue people Avatar?

Daniel Murray: Yes. Or like Avatar. The last band? No, no Avatar. The blue people. No, I, I, I am the person who went to the first avatar like five times when it first came out, and then had to wait 10 years till the next one came out. Uh, I think it's a great, I think it's a great movie. I didn't know that. I'm so behind that.

Daniel Murray: I didn't know that there's a new one coming out, so, so you're not that excited about it. So I'm definitely not that excited about, but I will. Um, it's really funny when you. Have a kid that all the things that you actually are missing out. 'cause you're not thinking about go to the Booby Theater, um, right now.

Daniel Murray: So you're not looking at what movies are coming out and you're probably not watching the t

Jay Schwedelson: Did you make we connected with aliens. There's, we found Aliens on Earth while you had a baby. Maybe you missed it.

Daniel Murray: No. Great. Thanks. All trending news. Send it my way because I am, um, behind the, the, that's some good content to send me is what, what, what's trending the next.

Daniel Murray: 2, 3, 4 months. What happened? Four years? 2, 3, 4 years, exactly.

Jay Schwedelson: Uh, all right, everybody, uh, yeah. Keep it real. We'll check on 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.

Jay Schwedelson: Oh, here's Daniel. He's finally out.

Daniel Murray: Back from my bathroom break. This is Daniel. Go follow the Marking 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.

Daniel Murray: We'll talk about it. Just give us a, a shout on LinkedIn and tell us what you want to hear. He's out later.