Digital has added nuance to the funnel because it’s made the sales journey non-linear and it gives consumers multiple entry points into the process – a hurricane of touchpoints that influences behaviour, rather than trying to catch them all with a wide aperture and directing them on to what you think their journey should be.

Hurricane of touchpoints

A billboard catches someone’s eye, they Google the brand, check reviews, DM a friend to see if they’ve heard of it, watch a TikTok explainer to find out more about it, poke around a bit to compare prices – and then, if the experience is good, they buy.

The digital trail leads behaviour and even when a campaign feels physical, the action across it is now digital.

I’m saying that all the pillars which make up a marketing strategy now culminate in a digital experience, before someone walks into a showroom to kick the tyres or a store to feel the rub of the fabric between their fingertips – unless the digital customer experience has done such a good job that the purchase experience ends online.

Digital fluency internally and externally

What that means for brands and businesses is that they need to be digitally fluent in their understanding of their customers as well as their ability to deliver across platforms, with digital as the anchor point.

Why would you not want to know where else your customers are shopping, what they’re reading or who they’re following?

All of this information helps us understand their behaviour. Digital isn’t the channel, it’s the connection to the human element because of the way we now look at the world.

The evidence of a digital approach working is a successful and positive customer experience.

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Don’t forget the humans

I’m also all for preserving the humanity of marketing – because a proper digital experience needs to speak to humans too. We check our phones every 5 minutes, meaning that digital has become our subconscious.

It is the behavioural glue that connects intent, action and loyalty. And such is people’s loyalty to the platforms that serve them well online, that finding positive reviews or having a good digital experience is what’s going to convert them.

We’re seeing digital TTL as an expectation from smart clients – either because they’ve become more aware of that hurricane of influences that affects their own sales journeys as human beings or because they’re seeing brands which have gotten it right, flying.

More digital actually means more humanity, because spinning up that hurricane of touchpoints requires a deeper understanding of human behaviour than ever before.

If you’re going to hold up a mirror to a customer’s digital life, you better make sure they can see themselves clearly.

Just because digital is leading the mix doesn’t mean you can forget about the people who you want to be your customers.

What you want, if you’re smart, is to drive humanity through the digital trail a customer’s online behaviour leaves behind. It also doesn’t mean the death of great ideas – it just means that digital needs to be used better to spread them further, which is the point of what we’re all doing.

We’ve spoken about ‘the rise of big data’ for the longest time, but it’s risen and now’s the time to use it – just with a dollop of humanity to bring those touchpoints together and market with more relevance, where people are and when they want to meet your brand.

Campaigns today still rely on TV, radio, PR, and influencers — but what sets the most effective ones apart is how seamlessly they connect in the digital space. In 2025, success depends not on adding digital at the end, but on building every idea with digital thinking at its core.