Customer States vs Customer Journeys: A New Model for Digital Marketing

Neeraj Raje
Jan 20
7 min read

Customers don’t move through steps. They occupy states.

This article builds on Part 1, “From Customer Journeys to Customer States,” where I argued that customer journeys are abstractions—and that AI enables marketing systems to respond to human states in real time rather than push users through predesigned stages.

Part 1 focused on a conceptual shift: Customer journeys are not plans anymore; they are outcomes.

Part 2 addresses the practical question that follows:

If journeys are no longer the thing we design, what replaces the funnel as an operating model for digital marketing?

Why the Funnel Breaks Down in Practice

Funnels assume customers move forward step by step.

Buyers don't do that. They loop, hesitate, impulse buy and arrive pre-informed – often outside visible channels. This leads to "high-intent" leads that get stuck and deals that skip predesigned stages.

Funnels are optimised for movement, not resolution. They fail conceptually, not operationally.

Introducing the State Funnel

A state funnel is not a new journey map. In other words, it does not outline the specific steps that customers should take. Instead, it is a resolution-based model that helps teams decide how to respond to customers based on their predicted state in a given moment.

Stage funnels ask:	State funnels ask:
Where is the customer now?	What state is the customer in, and what would help them right now?

This is a fundamental shift.

The Core Customer States That Matter

Across industries, products, and price points, a small number of customer states show up repeatedly. These are not stages. These are conditions.

Common states seen in digital experiences

Unclear	“I don’t fully understand this yet.”
Oriented	“I understand the space, but I’m comparing options.”
Hesitant*	“This feels risky. I don’t want to make the wrong choice.”
Confident¹	“This could work for me.”
Ready²	“I should act but need to remove friction.”

*Hesitation is not a step—it can appear at any point.

^1&2Confidence and readiness are different. A buyer can believe in a solution and still delay action.

From Signals to States to Responses

The operational heart of the state funnel is a simple logic:

Signals → States → Responses

Signals are behavioural traces that customers leave behind as they interact with digital experiences. Most teams are already collecting them, even if they are not using them interpretively.

A. Signals (already available to most teams)

Visit frequency and recency
Depth of content consumption
Comparison behaviour
Pricing interactions
Time between sessions
Sales or support questions

Individually, these signals are weak. Together, they form patterns that suggest what a customer might be experiencing in a given moment. Importantly, this approach does not require new data sources or invasive tracking. It relies on identifying meaning in the data that organisations already have and using that meaning to guide how the system responds.

No new data source is required to begin.

B. State inference (directional, not perfect)

The goal of state inference is not to “know” exactly what a customer is thinking. That level of certainty is neither possible nor necessary. What matters is useful interpretation—making a reasonable judgement about what the customer is likely experiencing in that moment.

This interpretation is built from patterns, not single actions. For example:

A person who returns to the same product page multiple times and spends time with detailed or technical content is likely building confidence.
A person who repeatedly visits comparison pages, reviews, or return policies is often signalling hesitation or greater risk awareness.
Rapid movement through pages and quick actions usually indicate urgency.
Long pauses between visits can suggest internal complexity, competing priorities, or indecision.

None of these signals are definitive on their own. Taken together, they provide enough direction to decide how the system should respond.

C. Response design (this replaces “next step”)

Instead of designing the “next step” of the journey, a state-based model defines response categories with actions assigned to each category.

Clarification: a response to low understanding would be to help customer understand the product better.
Reassurance: addresses the user’s fear or uncertainty.
Validation: confirms to the user through proof or social signal that their choice is sensible.
Acceleration or friction removal: shows modules that helps user act fast by reducing complexity, effort or ambiguity.

When responses are chosen this way, journeys are no longer something teams plan in advance. They emerge over time from a series of responses. This is the point at which the journey stops being a design input and becomes a side effect of how the system behaves.

Redesigning Marketing Around States

State-based thinking does not require teams to throw away existing content, pages, or campaigns. Most organisations already have the right assets. In customer states vs customer journeys, what changes is how those assets are organised and deployed.

Content

The same assets serve different purposes:

case studies reduce hesitation
comparisons support orientation
pricing clarity enables readiness

The difference lies in when and to whom they are displayed.

Campaigns

Campaigns shift from:

Reminders → Correct underlying state
Retargeting → reassurance or acceleration to convert
Segmentation from demographic buckets → interpretation of behavioural signals

The objective is not repetition. It is to deliver messages that are more relevant in the moment.

Measuring Resolution, Not Progression

Traditional funnels are designed to measure movement. They track how efficiently customers convert from one stage to the next. Their stage is assumed by the content consumed or action they are performing in the designed journey.

State-based systems measure something different. They focus on resolution.

time spent in hesitation
reduction in common sales objections
speed from confidence to action
quality of repeat engagement
signs that content is being shared internally or revisited with intent.

Progression tells you where someone moved. Resolution tells you why they moved.

What This Changes Organisationally

The shift from journeys to states affects more than how marketing campaigns are executed. It changes how teams work together and how responsibility is defined throughout the organisation.

Marketing

moves from sequencing messages and touchpoints to response design
owns definition of states, signals that indicate them and messaging/CX logic

Sales

plays a critical role in validating inferred states
feeds real objections to refine response design

Sales insight becomes input to the system, not just output from it.

Analytics

looks for patterns that explain behaviour.
ambiguity is treated as signal, not as error.

Leadership

Moves from optimising predefined paths to optimising systems.
Variability in customer behaviour is no longer seen as noise to be eliminated, but as a normal feature of how people decide.

Common Objections (and Why They Miss the Point)

“This feels too complex.”

Reality already is. Funnels hide complexity; states manage it.

“We don’t have perfect data.”

Perfect inference is not required. A useful direction is enough.

“Our funnel still works.”

Journeys don’t disappear. They de-emphasise.

“AI will get it wrong.”So do humans.

The advantage lies in scale and speed of adjustment.

In Practice: A Handmade Cosmetics Example

To make this concrete, consider a simple consumer business: a brand selling natural, handmade cosmetics through its website.

Traditionally, this brand would organise its marketing in stages.

Awareness – content on homepage and blog.
Consideration – assets on product pages.
Conversion – pricing, promotions and optimising checkout flow

This structure is a good starting point to ensure coverage. But we know that customers won't move through these assets in a predictable order.

In reality,

Some customers are curious but uncertain.
Some are cautious because they have sensitive skin.
Some are already convinced and simply want to act quickly.

The difference is not what assets the brand has, but which assets should be prioritised in the moment.

Defining states instead of stages

In a state-based model, the marketer will start by defining a small number of meaningful customer states. For a cosmetics brand, this might look like:

Curious but uncertain
Hesitant or risk-aware
Confident but not ready
Ready to buy

These are not stages in a funnel. They are conditions the customer may enter, exit, and return to.

Using signals to infer state

The next step is interpreting signals that already exist.

For example:

A first-time visitor going through the homepage suggests curiosity.
Repeated visits to the same product page indicate evaluation.
Clicking on FAQs, or return policies suggests hesitation or risk awareness.
Adding to cart and viewing shipping information suggests readiness.

No new data collection is required. The shift is interpretive, not technical. Instead of becoming bogged down by the need to pinpoint the precise state, the objective is directional usefulness.

Designing response blocks

Instead of creating new pages for each stage, the brand designs response blocks that address different states:

Reassurance blocks: testimonials, sensitive-skin validation, return guarantees
Proof blocks: before-and-after stories, customer reviews, social validation
Transparency blocks: sourcing details, handmade process, certifications
Acceleration blocks: free shipping thresholds, limited batches, quick checkout cues

These blocks already exist in most e-commerce setups. What changes is which block is prioritised.

Responding in real time

Now consider two visitors landing on the same face cream product page.

	Visitor 1	Visitor 2
Visitor Actions	Arrives for the third time, scrolls directly to reviews, and pauses.	Arrives and immediately adds the product to cart, then checks delivery timelines
System infers	Hesitation	Readiness.
Response	Testimonials and guarantees are surfaced more prominently, and reassurance messaging moves above the fold.	Minimise friction through shipping clarity, checkout speed, etc.

The page URL does not change but the response does. The journey each visitor experiences emerges from how the system interprets their state.

How this works technically

This does not require advanced AI. Many teams begin with simple rule-based logic using tools they already have: analytics events, tag managers, CMS conditional rendering, or basic personalisation platforms. AI becomes valuable later, when inference needs to scale across more signals and patterns. But the operating model can shift long before that.

Customer States vs Customer Journeys: A Shift in the Unit of Design

The funnel was a tool for managing simplicity. Customer journeys still serve that purpose—they provide a starting structure and ensure coverage.

But optimisation now happens elsewhere.

In a state-based model, journeys are outcomes, not plans. Performance depends on how well systems interpret human states, select appropriate responses, and remove friction in the moment.

That shift—from moving customers along paths to responding to their condition—is what defines marketing in an AI-enabled world.