Toucan Talks

Email Is Back: Why Email Marketing Outperforms Social Media

• Kickstart Collective

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Tired of chasing algorithms just to have 5% of your followers see your content? You’re not alone. This week, we’re breaking down why email, yes, email, is having a major comeback, and why it’s outperforming social media across nearly every metric that matters.

We start with the obvious question: if organic reach on social is at an all-time low, where are people actually paying attention? Turns out, it’s the inbox. With email, there’s no algorithm deciding who sees your message. It’s a direct line to people who want to hear from you.

You’ll hear how email continues to crush ROI benchmarks (an average of $36 for every $1 spent) and why smart marketers are shifting their focus back to owned channels. We’ll walk through how to build a healthy list without gimmicks, what metrics actually matter, and how to keep subscribers genuinely engaged.

Then we dig into segmentation and personalization (how to send the right message to the right people at the right time). Whether you’re separating customers from prospects, tailoring messages by interest, or using automations like welcome sequences and cart reminders, the goal is simple: make every email feel relevant and worth opening.

We’ll also share ideas for setting a consistent cadence, repurposing content you already have, and creating small but mighty automations that keep your marketing running even when you’re busy.

If your email list has gone a little quiet, this is your sign to bring it back to life. Social reach is rented; email is owned. Start building something that compounds with every send.

And if you like episodes that blend strategy with practical next steps, make sure to subscribe to Toucan Talks, share this one with a friend, and leave a quick review. It really helps others find us!

So, what’s the one email you’ll set up this week?

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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.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to Kickstart Your Week. This week we are going to be talking about once again one of my favorite marketing channels, which is email marketing. Great news for me and all of you. Email marketing is continuing to increase in engagement. People said email marketing was dead. It maybe it declined for a little bit, but it's not dead.

SPEAKER_01:

Silly.

SPEAKER_00:

It's coming back. That's right. It's coming back strong. So today we're just going to talk a little bit about how and why and what this means for your business. And we're going to talk a little bit about how it compares to social media because that definitely, I mean, at least the five last like five years, if not longer, has been super important to businesses and still is for marketing. It always will be. Yeah. But just how social organic, especially, took over email marketing efforts. But that I think the tides are starting to turn back. To turn.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Which is exciting for people like me who love email marketing. We're super cool. We're a cool bunch. Absolutely. Cool. So yeah, just a few fun facts to start out your Monday morning. On organic social media, I'm going to talk specifically for Facebook and Instagram just for the sake of the majority of our audience. Yeah. Your organic reach is about 5% of your followers. Now there are definitely some things Alyssa can talk about in a different Monday morning. On especially Instagram, how you can get your reach, you know, much higher to a new audience of not followers. There's definitely tactics. The platforms are changing. So hey, maybe next year this conversation will have already flipped again. Sure. Marketing is forever evolving.

SPEAKER_01:

That's why you need to subscribe and continue to tune in.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll keep you updated. You don't have to do it on your own. But just currently, it I mean it really it's rough. The algorithms are gonna push paid over organic, um, which I also love paid advertising and the campaigns. And I think what to segue, just on a personal note for me. I think with email marketing and with paid ads, the crossover is really the targeting and knowing who you're talking to. And you can then take your different pieces of creative and make it specifically for that segment of your audience. I love that. Yeah. Um, whereas on organic, you're posting to all your followers who ideally will be all of your potential customers, but it's not broken down. Um, so it is it's a great place to live. It's a great place by place. I am talking about the platforms of Instagram, Facebook to have your content, to be doing all the things. But when you're ready to get specific and talk to specific people, paid ads and email marketing, which is what we're talking about today, is gonna be where you want to play. Um so you know, driving that home a little bit more. Your ROI on email is about$36 for every dollar spent, um, which is great. Yeah. Um, that's you know, worth it all day.

SPEAKER_01:

Talk about value.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, we're in that, we're getting close to the holiday season.

SPEAKER_00:

We are. That's some value. Yeah, for sure. Um, so yeah, I mean, from a budgeting standpoint, email's a good place to play. Um, again, you have to have people on your email list. Yes. It doesn't need to be huge to get started. Um, but again, that's where, you know, paid ads and organic can be a good place to drive subscriptions because it's subscriptions for your email list, not necessarily your business. Right. Um, but it's a good, that's a good, easy entry point for people to subscribe where they don't, they're not having to purchase anything. Yes. You know, they're taking a few seconds to plug in their email address. Yes. Um, but it's an easy step in that sales process. Um so yeah, once they're on your email list, you own that list. It's yours. You're not fighting algorithms, you're not wondering, is this getting in front of people? It's landing in their inboxes. Yes. Um, so that is, you know, always there's not that risk of like a platform thing.

SPEAKER_01:

It is nice too, because it's it is like it's like an asset at that point. Yeah. Like it's part of your business. Like you have this list of people that only you have.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's and it's unique to who what you are offering and and and selling to people. So I think that's really cool. I don't know if people like really think of it like that sometimes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, that's true. It is, I mean, it's your lead list when you you know start thinking, pushing it over towards sales. Um, yeah, so it's something, it's something you own. You don't own your followers on Instagram. Um Instagram hasn't gone down in a while. Do you remember like when it just like the panic? And I remember we didn't have a launch that day for a client, but I think we had one like the day before the next day. And I was like, thank God. I'm like, sorry, Alyssa's over here. I'm like, do you remember this? Yeah. Um, so yeah, unless the internet goes down, usually you're gonna be okay. Right with email marketing.

SPEAKER_01:

Um back up your email list, print out your email list.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yes, go print it. Um we do actually explore email lists every now and again just to save them for what it's worth. Right. Um but anyways, all that to say, you can then segment those lists in terms of these are customers, these are, you know, leads, whatever, within your email marketing platform, whether it's MailChimp or you're using something like HubSpot or, you know, all the different, there's so many options. Um, but all those will have ways to tag and segment your list so that you can say, hey, like I want to talk to people who have never worked with us before. Like, here's why. Or, you know, you do I remember last time when I was very into these reef clogs I wanted to buy.

SPEAKER_01:

I do.

SPEAKER_00:

Man, thanks for listening. I was almost I almost bought them. I was like, that's a business expense, right? I didn't do it. But let's say I did, then I'm gonna be on their email list um be as someone who has purchased, and they can very easily then, you know, send me a follow-up email to leave a review, um, which is gonna help, you know, my valuable opinion. We'll definitely sell more of these shoes. Um I mean, it will not me, but you know, you know what I'm saying. Yeah. Um, they also then know what I like, what my shoe size is, my purchasing habits, and then they can customize all those emails after that and just show me what I want.

SPEAKER_01:

Keep pushing, keep pushing.

SPEAKER_00:

And then if I put in my cart and I don't check out, I guarantee you eventually I'm gonna get an X amount off or at least a hey, you left this in your cart. Of course. Um, and you can do a lot of that with paid uh ads as well, but you're not gonna be doing that with organic social. Um, just going real down a rabbit trail of segmenting. Right. There are some common myths about email marketing, one of which is nobody reads emails anymore. And I think that's just not true.

SPEAKER_01:

I agree. Thanks. I think that is uh bull hunky.

unknown:

What?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly. I read my emails pretty often. Um I fli it's kind of a part of my day, and I just kind of check through them as I go throughout it. So um one particular email that I will reference here, um, this this company called Botanical Interest.

SPEAKER_00:

Because you're interested in botanicals.

SPEAKER_01:

Pretty much.

SPEAKER_00:

There you go.

SPEAKER_01:

And so under niche. I'm a big uh I'm a big garden guy. And so yeah, I just they I happen to get onto their newsletter about upcoming like seeds, and they they kind of have at this point gotten a little bit of information about me how much how I like certain types of plants and stuff like that. And it's honestly worked pretty well. They've they've pushed me to several uh seeds that I wouldn't have even thought about for my fall garden that I'm kind of like in the middle of now.

SPEAKER_02:

Nice.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, no, I I totally read emails. I th I think it's very applicable to today, and I I think it's silly that people say that they don't.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, rude. Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing here is when you're on it's an email, it's like a topic you care about. Exactly. I assume the company has good products if you're you know considering purchasing them. Um and then there's that personalization aspect. They probably have an idea of your region or your zone, and so they're pushing products that you'd actually use.

SPEAKER_01:

Zone 8B.

SPEAKER_00:

There you go, folks. Yeah, I knew it was eight. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

We're in the Wilmington area. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Cool. There you go. Fun fact. Um another fun myth about email marketing is that you need a giant list to make it worth it. And that's just not true.

SPEAKER_01:

Again, silly.

SPEAKER_00:

Silly. It's like having a huge following on Instagram, but no one purchases. Who cares? Yeah. We're gonna talk about vanity metrics, I believe, next week.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

It's gonna be a fun one.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, but way more than a large list. I mean, the goal obviously should be to grow it, but grow it with people who quality who care about what you're offering and who will eventually buy or refer.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, if you have a huge list of people who like don't really care or they're not, you know, able to afford your products or they're never gonna need your products, them opening it really doesn't do you any good. Yeah. At the end of the day. Um, so yeah, and I mean start small because you have to build it over time. Um, so even if you only have, you know, 10 people on there, yeah. One of them's your mom, that's fine. She'll be proud of you.

SPEAKER_01:

And she'll she you have probably a pretty good idea what she's looking for.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and she'll probably open it too.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. Very true. She might forward it even.

SPEAKER_00:

She might, and then you get another subscriber. Yeah. Um, but seriously, just start serve what you have, get into the groove of building content. And even if it is a small list, you'll see like, okay, people clicked on a blog post. Um they didn't click on, you know, whatever. And you can start to look at your reporting and then build emails from there so that as the list grows, they're gonna perform better. Yes. Um, and then one last one. Some people say email's outdated. That's so rude.

SPEAKER_01:

Very rude.

SPEAKER_00:

I think it's rude. Um, I think it's evolving. I mean, there's definitely every now and again, I do get like some sort of newsletter email that I'm like, meh.

SPEAKER_01:

Or where it's just like pretty much just text and there's not nothing else in it.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, so I don't mind those sometimes. Oh, really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, I mean, I think this is a great, great segue.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, let's say tell me more actually. I will, yes. Um, so my e-commerce emails, product ones, I do want photos. Yeah. I want them pretty. Yeah. I want them branded. Right. I do so sub subscribe to some people that it really is just like straight educational, like newsletter. I know it's not an email they wrote to me, but it's just text-based. Yeah. Um, and that's fine. Let me skim it, let me read it. You know, if you can bold some like headlines through all that would be helpful.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Section it off a little bit.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. But yeah, in those cases, I'm like, I don't need to, you know, I don't necessarily need a graphic. Just let me read it real quick.

SPEAKER_01:

I respect that. Yeah. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00:

Depends on, you know, depends on the content.

SPEAKER_01:

Use case.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, do you get sticker mules emails?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00:

They had some controversy back in the day. By the day, I mean like last election. We don't worry about that. Um, but there are like one or two sentences of like stickers are on sale for$10 this week. And that's all it is. No, like no images, no nothing. And sometimes I'm like, can you put some effort into making me a pretty email? But then sometimes I'm like, oh, cool, stickers. That's that's all I needed to know.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, it definitely is straightforward, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, it's just to the point, it probably takes them two seconds to design it.

SPEAKER_01:

Would you even would you even call that an email, or would it just be like an E?

SPEAKER_00:

Just an electronic landing in my inbox. Um, but it works.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, that's cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's so simple. And you would think, because I mean, they do obviously a lot of design, like yeah, fancy like die cut sticker, like all sorts of things. You would think it would be like over the top, and it really is just like the exact opposite.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, it's so funny. I bet it performs well for what they need.

SPEAKER_00:

Probably. I mean, do you want do you need to buy some stickers on town? Yeah, you want some keychains? I ordered keychains, I got an email, it was like, hey, keychains, for like whatever. And I was like, sweet.

SPEAKER_01:

And that just speaks to again, know your audience, yeah, and know what it is that your audience is looking for. Because that might be the case.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they're just looking, they don't, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Busy people doing busy things, just got hey, true. I mean, there's the headline, that's all I need.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, it is mostly like businesses, like product. So, yeah, I like that. They do, they know their audience.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, they know what you they know what they your audiences need. That's that's all it goes down to.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, yeah, so all that to say, those are some crazy myths. Email is thriving, it is coming back. Um, but I really do, I mean, I think the important things to think are are that ROI, growing the list. You do need a strategy for that. Yes. Um, but then just becoming consistent. And if you don't have an email list or you haven't been consistent with it, um, I think monthly is a good place to start, but I think like every other week is a bit more consistent um and just gets people in the routine of getting things from you. Um, and it's a great place to do like promotions and sales, but also like if there's other ways you can add value beyond just pushing your service. I think that's also important. Um, because if someone's not ready to buy right now or they're not ready to buy tomorrow, but maybe in six months to a year, it's very easy to just keep them on your email list, provide value, and then eventually they're gonna, when they're ready, you'll be in their inbox.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I personally would think I've I've had examples in my email where I I've subscribed to something, but I got something like another like a couple months later or a quarter later, and I forget what they're even about. Yeah, and I unsubscribe. Yeah. So I do think consistency in that, like every week or two is is good to keep people front of mind and make sure you're actually like fresh on people's minds with that. For sure.

SPEAKER_00:

And then too, you can definitely, I mean, with pretty much any email platform, set up automation. So when someone fills out a form, they can get a quick little follow-up, a little bit more about the company, whatever it is. Um if it's e-commerce, the list is forever long of abandoned carts, subscription, yeah, all the all the things. So we don't have to list all those out. But um, yeah, all that to say, if it's not in your strategy, definitely consider it. Um, and then just figure out a cadence that works well, but just stay consistent with it. And um, yeah. Yeah, you know, if you're interested and you're not on our email list, you can get on our email list. Now's the time. It is time is of the essence. Um, because next Monday morning we'll have another video to kickstart your week in your inbox.

SPEAKER_01:

You do not want to miss it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's gonna be great. I I think it is on Vanity Metrics, but don't hold me to that. That one's coming soon if it's not next week. So, anyways, y'all have a great week. Um, if you have questions on email marketing, you can call me, text me, beat me if you want to reach me.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I love that. It can possible, right? Yeah, I love that show.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll talk to you about it all day and you'll probably want to hang up on me. So um yeah. There we go. Enjoy your Monday.