From discovery to decision, customers are rewriting the rules of buying. Dotdigital and TikTok joined forces to discuss how marketers can turn attention into action.
Gone are the days when the customer journey was a neat little funnel. Awareness at the top, consideration in the middle, conversion at the bottom. Linear, simple, and possible for marketers to control.
Customer behavior has changed. Buyers now discover brands on TikTok, compare products through AI, check reviews, ask friends for recommendations, and revisit websites before deciding whether to purchase. And not necessarily in that order.
This creates complex challenges for marketers trying to understand what influences a purchase. But it also gives you more ways to reach potential customers.
Dotdigital’s head of content marketing teamed up with TikTok’s GTM (go-to-market) strategist to explore:
- How buying behaviors are changing
- What really moves customers from discovery to decision
- How brands can join up their cross-channel marketing to get measurable results
Here’s what we learned.
Five things every marketer needs to know about the customer journey
1. The traditional marketing funnel is now a swirl
Customers move between channels and touchpoints in unpredictable ways. Every interaction could be their first impression or their final reason to buy.
2. More information doesn’t mean easier decisions
TikTok research found that for 72% of consumers, having more information available hasn’t made buying decisions any easier, and for some it’s made them harder. Brands need to build confidence as well as awareness.
3. Human influence is becoming more powerful
Dotdigital’s Customer Trend Index found that friends and family are 45% more influential in brand discovery than a year ago. Recommendations, creators, and communities can make the difference between being noticed and being chosen.
4. Brand and performance marketing work better together
With 79% of marketers increasing their focus on brand, the opportunity is to connect emotional engagement with measurable commercial outcomes.
5. Discovery is only the beginning
TikTok’s Watch It. Love It. Want It. framework shows how attention can become emotional connection, consideration, and purchase intent. Connecting those experiences with timely, relevant customer communications helps turn interest into action.
Watch the full webinar or read on for more insights.
1. Forget the funnel, embrace the swirl
Imagine you’re shopping for a new skincare product. You spot it in a TikTok video. Then you search for reviews. You ask a friend whether they’ve tried it. An Instagram ad reminds you about it. You visit the website, browse a few alternatives, and leave without buying.
Then an email arrives with some useful product information and a discount code. You click, reconsider, and finally make your purchase.
Working out which channel deserves the credit is the challenge we’re all facing as marketers.
The traditional funnel stages still help us organize campaigns, map content, and understand different marketing objectives, but they no longer reflect how people buy.
Customers don’t experience marketing channels. They experience brands
Shoppers don’t distinguish between awareness campaigns, performance activity, organic content, and CRM (customer relationship management). They simply encounter information, experiences, and recommendations that influence how they feel about a brand and a product.
And those encounters can happen anywhere, at any time. In fact, they sometimes happen in multiple places at the same time.
Let’s let go of silos
We know that treating individual channels as isolated stages of the buying journey isn’t best practice, but it can be difficult to know how to fix these silos.
So, just start small:
- Make every touchpoint equally valuable and consistent, whether someone is discovering your brand for the first time or returning for the fifth
- Keep your brand identity, messaging, and experience authentic and ‘uniquely you’ across paid, organic, and owned channels
- Create content that works independently, without assuming customers have seen anything that came before it
- Look beyond last-click attribution to understand how different interactions contribute to a purchase
Instead of forcing customers through a set journey, make your brand easy to discover, trust, and choose wherever they come across it.
2. Customers have more information than ever before. So why is buying getting harder?
Research shared by TikTok found that 72% of consumers said the time and effort needed to make buying decisions hasn’t improved, and for some, it’s increased.
Meanwhile, Dotdigital’s Customer Trend Index shows a growing preference for considered purchasing over impulse buying.
Customers can access endless product comparisons, reviews, recommendations, and AI-generated answers. But more information can raise more questions, instead of creating confidence.
This is where brands have an opportunity to help customers feel confident about making a decision.
Go further than explaining what your product does and focus on helping customers understand why it’s right for them. That might mean showing products in real-life situations, answering common questions, sharing genuine customer experiences, or making it easier to compare options.
And when someone isn’t ready to buy immediately, don’t treat that as a lost opportunity.
A useful follow-up email, relevant product recommendation, or timely reminder can provide exactly the reassurance they need to move forward.
3. The most influential voice in your marketing might not be yours
A particularly interesting finding from Dotdigital’s Customer Trend Index revealed that
friends and family are now 45% more influential in brand discovery than they were a year ago.
And that’s not the only change:
- 44% of shoppers have discovered a brand through an influencer, even if they weren’t looking for influencer recommendations
- 16% of shoppers are using AI to discover new brands
With so much influence coming from outside your own channels, give your customers and communities more chances to tell your story.
Look for ways to incorporate customer experiences, creator partnerships, user-generated content, and genuine recommendations into your marketing, across multiple stages and multiple channels – not just as a one-off.
Pay attention to the questions people are asking and the language they use when discussing your products. Treat authenticity as part of your brand identity, and use real people’s experiences to make your brand more relatable, relevant, and credible.
4. Attention is valuable, but adding emotion creates impact
Even when your content reaches the right audience, you still need to give shoppers a reason to engage. Attention alone doesn’t guarantee consideration, and consideration doesn’t guarantee a purchase. TikTok approaches this challenge through its Watch It. Love It. Want It. framework.
It’s a useful way to think about how brand-building and performance marketing can reinforce one another.
Watch It: Earn attention
Discovery starts with something worth watching. On TikTok, people actively explore new ideas, products, creators, and communities. That creates opportunities for brands to reach audiences who may not have been looking for them.
But simply appearing in someone’s feed isn’t enough. The content needs to be relevant, engaging, or useful enough to earn their attention.
Try this:
Create content around the questions, interests, and conversations already happening in your audience’s world. Lead with a compelling idea rather than a conventional sales message.
Love It: Build emotional relevance
Attention creates an opportunity, and emotional connection gives it meaning. Customers might understand your product’s features, pricing, and benefits, but that doesn’t necessarily explain why they should choose you. Trust, relevance, belonging, and authenticity all contribute to that decision.
TikTok’s research found that two in three users would consider a brand more seriously after seeing its ad on the platform.
Try this:
Show the people, experiences, and stories behind your brand. Use creators, customer voices, and real-world demonstrations to make your value tangible.
Want It: Turn connection into intent
The final part of the framework is where attention and emotional relevance create demand. Someone who was curious now has a reason to consider purchasing. They’ve seen the product, understood its value, and developed confidence in the brand.
But that doesn’t mean every customer will buy immediately, or even on the same platform.
Try this:
Make the next step easy. Connect engaging content with useful product information, relevant landing pages, and timely follow-up communications that help customers act when they’re ready.
5. Brand is back. But performance never went away
Dotdigital’s Secret Lives of Marketing Teams research found that 79% of marketers are increasing their focus on brand marketing in 2026.
But brand-building and performance marketing aren’t competing priorities. Strong brand activity creates familiarity, trust, and preference. Performance activity turns that interest into measurable action.
Email is a good example of where that connection breaks down. Our research found that marketers rank email as their highest-ROI (return on investment) channel, yet it sits ninth on their list of marketing priorities.
Your website, brand campaigns, and performance campaigns give customers the information they need to evaluate and connect with your brand. And we can help you keep the conversation going through relevant, personalized customer communications across owned channels.
A customer might encounter all of these before purchasing. The value comes from making those interactions feel connected, rather than treating each one as an independent campaign.
Stop marketing to the funnel. Start marketing to people
Ultimately, the path to purchase has become more human.
Customers want information, but they also want reassurance. They want to discover new things, but they trust familiar voices. They want convenience, but they still need a compelling reason to choose one brand over another.
For marketers, that means three things:
- Be discoverable. Show up where your customers spend time, search for answers, and share recommendations
- Be memorable. Create experiences that earn attention, build trust, and give people a reason to care about your brand
- Be connected. Bring your paid, organic, and owned channels together so that interest can become consideration, action, and lasting customer relationships
The brands that succeed will be the ones that make every interaction count, from the first TikTok video to the follow-up email.
Ready to make the path to purchase more swirly?
Watch our on-demand webinar with TikTok to explore the research, real brand examples, and practical strategies behind the changing customer journey.
Or explore Dotdigital’s latest Customer Trend Index and Secret Lives of Marketing Teams reports for more insights into what customers expect and how marketers are responding.
