83% of Buyers are Exhausted (but not by this)

Your inbox has 47 unread emails from people you've never met who are all trying to convince you to book a demo with them.

Your LinkedIn is a wall of "thought leadership" that all says the same thing in slightly different shades of “bro.”

You've got retargeting ads following you around the internet for a product you looked at once, three weeks ago, by accident.

This is what we built. 

We optimized every channel for volume and speed until buyers just... stopped engaging. 

And now we're all standing around wondering why open rates are in the gutter and nobody's picking up the phone.

Here's the part that's hard to sit with: while we were doing that, there's been a channel sitting largely untouched. 

Digital marketing fatigue is making our work harder than ever but… we did a thing recently (more on this soon) and we found a way out.

But before we can get out of it, we gotta talk about what's actually getting in the way.

"You need to spend more to stand out."

Nope.

The best gift anyone on our team received this year was a $7 bag of sour gummy worms. The seller had remembered - weeks later, without being prompted - that someone's daughter had just seen worms for the first time in California rain and was completely obsessed.

Seven dollars. A little bit of attention. Remembered forever.

Meanwhile a $200 bottle of whiskey sent that same week to someone else? Just another bottle that ends up in the recycling bin. 

Also - only 54% of adults drink alcohol right now, the lowest rate in nearly 90 years. So that bottle isn't just generic. It might actually land wrong.

The bar for winning is whether you were paying attention.

And paying attention is free.

"Gifting is basically bribery."

There's a version of gifting that IS bribery. Too expensive, sent with obvious strings attached, designed to make someone feel obligated rather than seen.

But that's not what we're talking about.

Humans are wired for reciprocity. When someone does something genuinely thoughtful - not transactional - we want to give something back. Not because we feel pressured. Because that's just how connection works.

Send a $7 thing to someone you actually know something about and watch how differently it lands.

"Direct mail is just print ads."

I hear this one a lot and it drives me crazy.

A QR code on something physical that kicks off a whole digital experience. A scratch card. A handwritten note that references an actual conversation you had. None of that is an ad. It's a moment. And moments do something digital fundamentally can't - they stick.

Most teams are still thinking about direct mail like it's 1998, which means they're leaving one of the only high-attention channels completely off the table.

"Our industry can't do gifting."

Healthcare. Government. Finance. I've heard this from all of them.

Compliance rules are real. But "there are rules" and "it can't be done" are not the same thing.

You can donate on behalf of someone. 

You can send something under your industry's threshold. 

You can send an experience instead of a thing. 

Sometimes the most powerful move is a $20 donation to a cause someone cares about, because you actually noticed what they care about.

That's still a gift. And it'll land better than the branded water bottle the team wanted you to send anyway.

"You just send stuff and see what happens."

Pay attention: This is the one that costs teams the most money.

Gifting isn't a channel you turn on and walk away from. Before you send anything, there's one question worth asking: what do I want this person to feel when this lands?

Not what do I want them to do. What do I want them to feel.

That question changes everything - what you send, when, what you say after. And it's the piece AI can't replace. 

AI can remind you that someone mentioned their kid likes worms. 

It can flag the moment. 

But it can't manufacture the actual attention that makes someone feel seen.

If everyone's sending "hyper-personalized" gifts at scale automatically, we're right back to spray and pray.

The logo landfill

Swag that stays: something they'd never buy themselves but love having. A really nice notebook. A brand mascot plushie. A little trophy for “best linkedin comment” that makes you smile every time you see it on your shelf.

Swag that goes in the trash: another water bottle, a billboard t-shirt, a logo mug, a cheap notebook, a hat nobody asked for.

The test: would someone pay for this? If the answer's no, you're making landfill content with a logo on it.

One more (important) thing…

We're releasing a new research report soon and I'll share more here when it's out. The short version: buyers are more tired of our marketing than ever before.

Digital marketing fatigue is statistically real… and getting worse.

Winners are doing things differently and getting ahead. 

The winners aren't just doing better. 

They're operating in a different zip code. 

It’s not subtle.

The data on how far ahead of their competitors they are is… significant.