Toucan Talks
Toucan Talks is a podcast for Wilmington-area business owners and entrepreneurs who are eager to learn from those on a similar journey. Each week, we talk with an area business owner about their successes, challenges, and experiences in business. Don’t worry – we keep it fun as we bounce from topic to topic.
Toucan Talks
Marketing in 2025: What's Already Working
Marketing never stands still, and as we move through 2025, several key trends are already reshaping how successful brands connect with their audiences. In this episode of Toucan Talks, we unpack the strategies that are delivering real results right now.
Short-form video leads the charge, with platforms like Instagram Reels and TikTok continuing to offer exceptional reach potential. We break down what makes these videos work - from capturing attention in those crucial first three seconds to delivering genuine value that keeps viewers engaged. The days of posting multiple times daily are firmly behind us, as quality now definitively trumps quantity across all marketing channels. We explore how finding the right content cadence prevents audience fatigue while still maintaining the consistency needed for growth.
Personalization through strategic audience segmentation is more powerful than ever, with today's platforms making it increasingly simple to deliver tailored messages to specific customer groups. Yet perhaps most fascinating is the growing consumer demand for authentic human connection amidst the AI revolution. As automation touches every aspect of marketing, brands that successfully balance technological efficiency with genuine human touchpoints are gaining a distinct competitive advantage.
Email marketing remains unshakable as a cornerstone of effective digital strategy, with recent social platform outages reinforcing the value of these owned channels. Subscribe now for more marketing insights, and join us next month when we dive deeper into video content strategies for 2025!
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Meet your hosts and learn more about Kickstart Collective at kickstartcollective.co
Kickstart Collective is a creative marketing agency based in Wilmington, NC. We offer our clients a creative advantage through creative content and marketing strategies.
Welcome to episode two of season three of Toucan Talks. We are here in the new and improved Kickstart Studios, so Alyssa and I today are going to be talking about marketing trends that we are already seeing in 2025 and we'll probably see more of, so we're excited to jump into that. The format of this podcast episode and the next one is going to be a little bit different than season one and season two. Our guests are just our team, which is fun. We're going to dive a little bit more into marketing. So, yeah, we can dive in.
Speaker 1:I'll, I guess, do a quick overview of what we're going to talk about and then we can get into the weeds of it. So trends that we're seeing think we're going to see more of would be short form video content, some personalization and audience segmentation, which is fun to talk about, and then focusing on quality over quantity, as well as still using and finding ways to have a human connection in your marketing, especially in the world of AI, and a lot of automations and things that we love and make things efficient, um, but just figuring out how to not lose the people behind the brand or at the company and connecting with customers. So yeah, that being said, do you want to start with short form video content?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Okay, so definitely from a marketing perspective, I think short form video content has been a trend and will continue to be a trend this year, especially on social media. Yeah, it's great for that. Instagram reels, TikToks, even Facebook reels and YouTube shorts those are great for kind of reaching people that might not be following you and it can just be really beneficial, especially for small businesses. You know that are starting out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think to your point. Like the content is obviously important. Again, we'll get to the quality over quantity piece in a second, but just especially currently how the algorithms are working and the reach that reels can get. Yeah, I hit the mic, sorry. I assume everyone probably knows what we're talking about, but the reels are your vertical Instagram videos, similar vibe on Tik TOK Facebook, all that Um, but the way the algorithms send those out or they are going to reach more people who are not following you than like a traditional image or like carousel type post would Um. So it's important from the constant content standpoint, but, like you said, really just reaching new people. Yeah, um, so it's important from the constant content standpoint, but, like you said, really just reaching new people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Um so they could change that at any moment by the time you watch this episode, but I don't think it will.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think so. And then I think some maybe practical tips with those, like when you're actually creating the content is because they are short, they've got to catch attention. Within the first three seconds I would say yeah, um, so you've got to have a good hook, you've got to give um meat to the content. You know you want someone to actually get something from watching your video. Something that I've seen recently that, um, that I kind of like is people will put a hook in the video, like text on screen in the video, and then kind of explain further in the caption, because I mean that just keeps people on your video longer reading and engaging, yep.
Speaker 1:I do like that as well. I will say, if you're a personal pet peeve, just make sure the background of your makes it so where the caption is legible, Cause it does when you're in there, like actual, real feed. It overlays your caption on top of your video and sometimes I'm like oh my gosh, you haven't like.
Speaker 2:Hold the screen down so that it disappears.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you gotta be smart about that, um, but that's nitpicky, you know. If right now you're like I just need to start creating content, I would focus on, like you said, the hook, like capturing people's attention quickly, um, and then making sure there's some something valuable in there, um, yeah, you can figure out. Phase two can get that formatting just yeah, perfect, yeah, um, cool. Should we jump to the quality over quantity? Yeah, and then we can go back to segmentation, okay, um. So I think the name of the game in years past on some of these social network things was more posts, more posts, posts three times a day, post every day, and I think the consistency absolutely matters. Yeah, you can't, and might be preaching to the choir here.
Speaker 1:We focus on other things besides our business Instagram at times, um, but you don't want to be sporadic, you want it to be consistent.
Speaker 2:But you won't get the growth that I think you're looking for if it's like once a week or every other week, or you got to be yeah, you got to stay consistent with it.
Speaker 1:But I think the quality now is more important than just pumping out content every day. So I don't know if you want to jump in more on that every day.
Speaker 2:Um so yeah, I don't know if you want to jump in more on that, but yeah, I think sometimes, if you do at least in my experience personally, like with people I follow if I'm seeing something from someone like multiple times a day or every day, it kind of just all blends together too. Yeah, Nothing really stands out to me, and then I just get annoyed. I feel like I'm being spammed with content. Um, I mean, I feel like that can go past just social media, even with like email marketing yeah if you're spamming someone with emails, it's more likely for them to click okay, unsubscribe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, if you can figure out a good like schedule cadence that allows you and your team to create content that is like valuable for people, whether that's I don't know a guide, I mean it doesn't have to be a guide, but something actionable, it could be a sale. It doesn't have to all be resource-type content, depending on your business. Yeah, let me know when you got new products, let me know when they go on sale. I don't need to see 500 emails about how to style a necklace. Yeah, agreed, I think, um, you can mix that content into one of those other emails but I don't need one every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, uh, um, a thing that I've been liking, um, that I guess is another practical tip for this is, I kind of like seasonal content too, whether it is like, oh, the new spring arrivals in our store and like centered around spring, or um summer events or summer, whatever that that makes sense with your business type. But making it kind of a seasonal thing, I feel like, is maybe easier for people to digest too and gives them something to look forward to and maybe even gives them like a sense of urgency, like I need to take advantage of whatever this promo is or whatever it might be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think, on like our end, on the like, creation and production side of all that, having some sort of whether it's seasonal or whatever that timeline is is helpful in terms of actually building those campaigns, because there's a key message that everything is going to tie back into. And then, on the business side, it makes it easier to plan out. You know how many times are we posting or emailing or doing blogs or whatever. So, yes, don't burn yourself out trying to crank out content. I would take a breath, figure out a plan, a campaign, and then figure out how to do quality pieces of content again, whether it's social email, website things, um, but just making it easier on you really, in the long run, yeah, it makes people not get tired of things that don't really matter to them because you're just trying to post.
Speaker 1:For sure, which I feel like is a great segue into audience segmentation.
Speaker 1:Oh very good. There are so many great ways you can segment your audience um, organic, social. Maybe a little bit harder to do that, um, but when you look at email, even like different things with like websites can be dynamic um, especially facebook ads meta the targeting there. You can break down your audience into probably e-commerce might be the easiest example for this but people who have purchased, people who have not purchased, people who have purchased women's clothing versus men's clothing versus just accessories, the platforms and programs I feel like these days make it super easy to segment that Um. So then the content you can build for those audiences so that it resonates and it's not just blasting people every message all the time, um and same, with like ad placements, which is great, and AI and algorithms are only making it easier. So figuring out how to do that and really connecting with your audience, whether it's the messaging or what you're selling, I think is going to always just increase in importance, but especially in 2025.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I feel like you know it's still kind of the new year, so now's a good time to maybe take another look at who your audience is and, like, really nail that down who you want to reach, who you're currently reaching, um, I mean, it's never too late, but it's always nice towards the beginning of the year to really trail that down too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Especially if whatever you're offering is again seasonal. Getting those dialed in early will make it easier as you're planning out content, because you can say, hey, we have this audience segmented, let's build some content for them. This is probably going to reach a broad audience. We can keep it a little bit more broad yeah cool. Yeah, anything else there on that front we want to hit um?
Speaker 2:I don't think so, but I think another great segue.
Speaker 1:It's like we planned this episode out, or something.
Speaker 2:You mentioned kind of, I guess, with Facebook ads, their AI capabilities in placements and targeting also. Yeah, we can segue into good old.
Speaker 1:AI, good old AI. Yeah, I mean I think it has found a place into everything white, into good old AI, good old AI. Yeah, I mean, I think it has found a place into everything. Yeah, it's here, it's mine here. So, yeah, my Gmail inbox can now summarize emails, some of them. Have you tried it yet? It's hilarious. Some of the summaries, I'm like, um, like ones that you're writing or ones that you've received. No, so if you're like in an email thread, they're like little gemini thing or like work, whatever it is will summarize the email thread for you.
Speaker 1:Um, I highly recommend still reading through all your individual emails but like some of the terms they used, I'm like with just like the client on the thread that it was on, like why are they like the words it was using was hilarious, and I'm like that does not make sense. Um, you can?
Speaker 2:you can usually some well, I don't know if I'll say usually, but you can sometimes tell when it's AI. So it is important to to double check, yes, to make sure there's a human touch, yes, on things that you put out there For sure.
Speaker 1:All that to say, I don't know where I was going with that. Ai is kind of like touching in every realm of business.
Speaker 2:It's not just marketing, it's your inbox summarizing your email.
Speaker 1:So are you? But in that, I think, something that we're already starting to see and we'll probably see more of is brands, and hopefully brands will catch up, but consumers and people wanting that human connection and not just every chat box being an AI thing and it never connects you to a real person when you're like, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what I need. That's not what I need. I still have a question.
Speaker 1:It's like this chat has ended and you're like I knew I was going to talk to a robot the whole time, um, but that's just one example of like, yeah, use a chat box to get the conversation started, to get their contact info X Y Z, but at X Y Z, but at what point? And I think it's going to need to be earlier on in the process, unless AI just keeps getting smarter and smarter, which probably will. But you need to at some point connect people with a human Um. And then, on the more outbound marketing front, I think, like Instagram reels still provides a great opportunity to see people's faces, um, and have a little bit more human connection.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, people content with like actual faces in it. Yeah, usually in our experience performs better than yeah than the opposite.
Speaker 1:So yes, so yeah, still use AI, make make your life more efficient when necessary, but still know that in your marketing and the things you're putting out, people more and more want some sort of human connection.
Speaker 2:Um, especially as that gap keeps getting wider, it feels like wider, it feels like, absolutely yeah, it can be a great tool. Um, I mean, we use tools to, you're right, make things more efficient, so it has its place. But, yeah, there is a a line or limit. Yeah, you need to to be aware of figure out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, okay, I think those hit the ones we wanted to talk about. Is there anything else you're seeing or I think we need to touch?
Speaker 2:on well, I feel like. Um just a quick note email marketing's not going away. I think we talked about that on our, on our trend video from last year, from 2024, and I think we probably both feel the same about it.
Speaker 1:So yes, email marketing is great.
Speaker 1:No it really is, and I think I mean speaking of what could have been a trend. Tiktok went bye-bye for five hours or something silly Two seconds, but I mean. I think that points back to I mean, unless something crazy happens, your email list is not going away. I mean, unless something crazy happens, your email list is not going away. So having those people that you can send a message out to and you know it's going to hit their inbox whether they open it or not, you know, work on your subject line, but you're going to get in front of those people versus social media, kind of like we mentioned before, that algorithm could change tomorrow.
Speaker 1:You're really kind of gambling with their audience versus building and reaching your own Um. So I know we've done different talks and podcasts on how to do that, so I don't I won't get on my my uh box about that one, but, um, yeah, email marketing and then um, next month's episode, or season, episode three, season three um will be a little bit more of a deep dive on video. Um, so kind of going back to that short form, quality over quantity um, we'll dive a little bit into how to make that easier. And long form content is not also not going away. Um, so, figuring out strategies to get your long form content, get your short form content from your long form content. Make them work together, make things easier for yourself. Yes, efficiency man 2025.
Speaker 2:Here we go. Is that our word for the year Efficiency.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why not? Yep, let's do it, we're going to be efficient.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, cool Well thanks for you know, coming into where we work in the studio, um, but yeah, if you guys have any questions, feel free to reach out to us. Our like main email is hello at kickstartcollectiveco. And then, um, again, we'll have episodes every month so you can subscribe on youtube, follow us where you listen to podcast, and then we'll do updates, um, when episodes are released on our instagram and then also our email list, which you can join by going to kickstart collective dot co. Um, but, yeah, thanks for tuning in and happy 2025. I guess, moving into the second quarter, yeah, trying to implement some marketing strategies, if you have questions, let us know.
Speaker 2:Thanks, bye.