SPECIAL SERIES ==> Growing Email Tactic in 2026! and Daniel's Thanksgiving Plan <== | BATHROOM Break #83 COLLAB: The Marketing Millennials + Do This, Not That

Holiday email engagement is somehow both nerdy and genuinely fun here, as Jay Schwedelson and Daniel Murray use Thanksgiving food opinions, Hallmark movies, and Bathroom-Break banter to get into why replies matter way more than most marketers think. They dig into how to engineer responses in your emails and stories, why reply rate is a killer signal for both humans and algorithms, and how AI plus simple prompts like “Reply GUIDE” can quietly blow up your results. It’s basically a playbook for turning “one-way” campaigns into conversations people actually want to have.

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.

Best Moments:

(00:50) Daniel shares his not-so-traditional Thanksgiving background and why dry turkey is an instant no.

(02:06) Jay’s hard rule for Thanksgiving dinner: mac and cheese is required, salad is banned.

(02:49) Jay explains why the reply rate on promotional emails is about to explode thanks to AI and better follow-up.

(03:28) Daniel’s tricks for prompting real human replies, from light personal questions to hidden Easter eggs in the middle of an email.

(05:20) Jay’s “just reply GUIDE” tactic for content and discounts that crushes landing page forms and boosts inbox placement.

(07:14) Daniel shows how the same reply mindset on Instagram Stories boosts distribution while keeping interactions feeling human.

(09:28) They break down how replies become a goldmine of first-party data and even shape future content topics like reality TV.

(09:49) A rapid-fire holiday movie riff that goes from Die Hard and Home Alone to The Grinch, romcoms, and why Hallmark is secretly elite.

(11:15) Jay and Daniel pitch their very on-brand Thanksgiving “gain 5 pounds, then lose it” logic as the ultimate holiday hack.

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/

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Pre-order Jay Schwedelson’s new book, Stupider People Have Done It (out April 21, 2026). All net proceeds are donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research—let’s kick cancer’s butt: https://www.amazon.com/Stupider-People-Have-Done-Marketing/dp/1637635206