Just about all digital marketing channels are less effective than they were a year ago, largely because of privacy regulations, judging by the State of B2C Conversational Marketing, a study released Thursday by Spectrm. Of the B2C marketers polled, 90.75% have seen channels decline, including these: Email marketing — 10.2%; Influencer marketing — 11.5%; SMS marketing — 10.2%; Social media marketing — 16.7%; Retargeting — 8.0%; Search advertising — 8.2%; Display advertising — 10.0%; SEO — 8.0%; Affiliate marketing — 7.7%; Skip: we’ve not seen any channels decline — 9.2%. One problem is privacy — 59% of marketers say that the issue and the regulations have caused channels to become less effective. And 41% said collecting zero-party data is more important than ever to them, while 29% disagree.

Marketing isn’t getting any easier. Audiences are more sophisticated, more skeptical, and more overwhelmed than ever. Join Sappi for “11 Ways to Get More From Your Marketing Today” at 1:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, September 25. Print has the power to cut through the noise, build trust and connect in meaningful ways. From boosting sustainability credentials and inspiring brand loyalty to enhancing creative design and working seamlessly with digital campaigns, print delivers results across the customer journey.

Direct mail is experiencing a long overdue resurgence for retailers, hastened by the pandemic. Increasingly crowded ads on social media and Google, full email inboxes, SMS dings all day long ... while the much-maligned mailbox remained emptier as credit card offers dwindled and in-store postcard coupons were recycled. It’s not surprising that many e-commerce brands decided to communicate in a new “old” way and test direct mail. We had the pleasure of assisting several launches in 2020 — some planned before the lockdowns, others as a new COVID strategy. Two of the biggest surprises for folks new to mail are: 1. the amount of time it takes to properly put together an effective mailing; and 2. how expensive mailing can be. One of our print partners and I assisted a pure-play that mailed within three weeks of our first discussion … this is NOT typical and we don’t recommend it. Haste makes waste.