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Vinyl records are outselling CDs for the first time since 1987. Film photography is back. People are paying $10 for a cup of single-origin coffee. Farmers markets are multiplying. Movie theaters are thriving again. Board game cafes are taking over neighborhoods.
You might think this shift is driven by nostalgia. I think it’s a correction.
People are choosing owned over rented. Intentional over algorithmic. Connection over transaction. Crafted over slop. Substance over convenience. Slow over fast.
The same shift is happening in how people engage with social content.
While brands are dumping big bucks into TikTok trends and Instagram Reels, their audiences are subscribing to newsletters, joining communities, and dopamine detoxing.
If you're still betting everything on social media, you're building a streaming service while your audience is buying vinyl.
And if my last post didn’t convince you to take email more seriously, maybe this one will.
Let’s talk money.
Every creative wants to create for a living. The pivot to email centers on a simple, undeniable economic truth: the ROI of email isn’t just better — it’s worlds apart.
For every $1 spent, email returns an average of $36 (a 3600% ROI). For every $1 spent, social media returns just $2.80.
For the mathematically challenged, that’s a 12.8x difference in return. Email simply delivers more value.
With changes in consumer behavior, social media fatigue, and a longing for real connection, ambitious brands and creatives can no longer afford to prioritize virality over profitability. It’s just not financially sound.
One subscriber is worth 100 followers.
Follower count is one of the ultimate vanity metrics. It suggests reach but hardly guarantees it. When you compare the actual visibility and engagement of a social media follower to an email subscriber, the follower’s value goes kaput.
On social media, only about 2-4% of followers see your post, 0.03-0.07% click your links, and about 3% convert. Email gives you a 15-25% open rate, 3.57% click rate, and 8% conversion rate.
Email subscribers are 10x more likely to engage with your content.
For the sake of transparency, this newsletter has a 50% open rate and 5% click rate. Not bad.
Your audience is burning out.
Social media fatigue is rewriting how we engage online. Many users are actively cutting back on their time spent on social platforms and shifting from active engagement to passive, aimless browsing. Our mental health has taken enough abuse from the endless stream of content, ads, and notifications. People are exhausted. A fatigued, distracted, and overwhelmed user is not in the right frame of mind for the deep engagement required to take your work seriously, make a purchase, or join your cult.
Isn’t email dead?
No, it’s fucking thriving. Yes, even among Gen Z.
One of the biggest myths in modern marketing is that younger generations live exclusively on social media and have abandoned email. The data tells a radically different story. When it comes to communicating with brands, businesses, and creators, even the most digitally native consumers prefer the good ol’ inbox.
68% of all people prefer email for receiving brand communication — more than all other channels combined.
60% of Gen Z and 64% of Millennials identify email as the communication channel that feels the "most personal."
While social media remains the preferred space for casual connection with friends, email is the trusted, designated, and preferred channel for intentional, personal communication with brands.
Long-form content is back (and email is its natural home)
As audiences grow weary of endless, "bite-sized content," they are developing a renewed appetite for depth, intimacy, and genuine value, as exemplified by the rise of the slow media movement. This is why podcasts, 10+ minute videos, and long-form written content are seeing a surge in popularity.
Earlier this year, Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty became a part of a growing wave of brands experimenting with long form written content designed to deepen brand loyalty. There's also Blackbird, a loyalty company that rewards people who love restaurants. On their “secret Substack,” the Supersonic, Blackbird creates a space where readers can engage with interviews with legendary chefs, read personal essays where writers share their favorite childhood food memories, and receive curated stories to spark their next dinner convo.
Big brands are starting to treat email not as a marketing blast list but as a premium publication. They understand the consumer wants to be part of their story.
This shift reminds me of one of the most timeless principles of advertising legend, David Ogilvy: "The More You Tell, The More You Sell." His work proved that long copy, packed with useful information, consistently outsells shallow slogans, clever taglines, or those damn TikTok dances.
And I don’t want to hear “but nowadays people have an attention span of a squirrel in heat.” That's just another excuse to be lazy and not pour yourself into your work.
There's no such thing as too long. Only too boring.
Blaming shorter attention spans for your lack of engagement usually means one of two things: you don't understand your audience or you lack the skills to capture and hold their attention.
Think of shorter attention spans not as blockers, but as powerful filters audiences use to determine what’s worth investing their attention into.
The new playbook
The pivot to email is not about breaking up with social media. It’s about rewriting its role within your marketing system. This new playbook is simple. It assigns clear and distinct functions to each channel to maximize profitability, minimize burnout, and mitigate risk.
Discovery: Social media’s primary role is discovery. It should be used for brand awareness, participating in cultural moments, and attracting new audiences who have no idea you exist.
Relationship: Email is your owned asset, the core of your business. This is where you move beyond fleeting attention to build deep, lasting relationships. It is the channel for nurturing your audience, establishing trust, and driving meaningful conversations, conversions, and long-term retention.
Social media is the party where you meet new people. Email is the intimate, one-on-one chat over coffee that follows.
As platforms continue to change the rules and become increasingly greedy, and audiences trade quick hits of cheap dopamine for more depth, the ultimate question for any brand, entrepreneur, or creative becomes clear: who do you want to be in control of your relationship with your audience — you, or an algorithm?
Psst… before you go 👇
I get paid when you click this. It’s shit I actually like, so maybe you will too.
This newsletter you couldn’t wait to open? It runs on beehiiv — the absolute best platform for email newsletters.
Our editor makes your content look like Picasso in the inbox. Your website? Beautiful and ready to capture subscribers on day one.
And when it’s time to monetize, you don’t need to duct-tape a dozen tools together. Paid subscriptions, referrals, and a (super easy-to-use) global ad network — it’s all built in.
beehiiv isn’t just the best choice. It’s the only choice that makes sense.
Love,
