What TikTok gets right about attention and what email overlooks

Email marketing has been declared dead every time a new digital technology appears in all its shiny newness. And yet, email remains one of the most effective, profitable, and controllable digital channels available to marketers.

But – and there’s always a “but” – so much of the promotional email that I see in my inboxes feels a little tired.

Email isn’t broken. But so many messages look as if they were designed for the inboxes and email users of 2001. Yes, that’s 25 years ago, nearly as long as email’s commercial lifespan.

On the surface, at least, the typical email message looks a little more modern today. We don’t see many three-column email designs anymore. About 4 out of 5 emails are optimised for mobile, up from 50% or less 10 years ago.

The bigger problem with email design

It goes deeper than button or font size, into an area that we don’t talk about enough until now: Today’s email messages are disconnected from the ways people behave online today. They haven’t changed much since the heady days of 2001, when promotional email crossed the line from novelty to business necessity.

Back then, inboxes were quieter, even as the spam flood began to rise. People’s attention spans were longer, and the way they read messages was mostly linear.

The typical reader would open an email, start at the top, and then scroll through the message. Subject lines mattered, but they weren’t fighting for notice in a battlefield of notifications, apps, and infinite scroll.

Fast forward to 2026. The people reading our emails have been retrained in response to email’s attention competitors like TikTok, Instagram Stories and Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts, and a constant stream of digital interruptions.

The environment has changed, and human behaviour has evolved with it. But email marketing has largely stayed the same.

One of the reasons for this stalemate could be the traditional competition between email and social media for attention and budget. Email appears to hold the edge for trust and conversions, but we’ve always known that email can learn from social media as well.

Right now, we should look into the changes channels like TikTok have wrought and how email could benefit from acknowledging them. I’ve been researching and experimenting with TikTok for work lately, and here are my observations:

TikTok is not a social platform. It’s a behavioural laboratory

TikTok didn’t succeed because of trends, dances, or viral sounds. It succeeded because it forces creators to confront reality.

On TikTok, attention is never assumed. Attention is borrowed, negotiated, and easily revoked. Creators have seconds — sometimes less — to justify why someone should keep watching. They know that if they don’t capture that attention immediately, the thumb moves on without hesitation or remorse.

This has turned TikTok into the largest real-time experiment in human attention we’ve ever had. Creators learn what sparks curiosity, what creates momentum, and what causes instant disengagement.

Email marketers, by contrast, optimise for the inbox instead of the human. Open rates, subject-line length, and best-practice formulas dominate the discussion. We don’t usually explore the deeper question — how people actually decide what to engage with.

The three-hook model: How TikTok stops the scroll

Successful TikTok content rarely relies on a single hook. Creators stack multiple hooks to earn attention and keep it. Most TikToks have 3 hooks:

• A visual hook — movement, contrast, or disruption that catches the eye.
• A verbal hook introduces curiosity, tension, or a pattern interrupt.
• A text hook reinforces or reframes what’s happening, often adding intrigue rather than explanation.

These hooks work together. They are not optional extras. They are how creators stop the scroll.

Now, here’s where email crosses paths with TikTok. Technically, email has all three hooks, too.

• Subject lines are verbal hooks while preheaders offer supporting context.
• Design and layout provide visual signals.
• The interior headline or opening copy block can reinforce curiosity or momentum.

Here’s the difference: TikTok uses these hooks as a set, while email treats these elements as separate, often accidental, decisions rather than an intentional system.

Email puts all the pressure on one hook

Most email campaigns expect the subject line to do almost all the heavy lifting.

It must be short, clear, compelling, on-brand, benefit-driven, and clickable, all at once. Meanwhile, the preheader gets wasted or auto-generated. The header or opening copy defaults to context-setting rather than intrigue.

This approach made sense 20 years ago. In a quieter inbox, a decent subject line was enough to earn attention. Today, it’s a fragile strategy that puts big pressure on a single moment of decision.

TikTok creators don’t rely on one hook because they can’t afford to. Email marketers still do, largely because we always have.

Early momentum: Why TikTok uses early CTAs

One of the most striking structural differences between TikTok and email is how each handles calls to action.

On TikTok, creators don’t wait until the end to ask for engagement. They introduce micro-CTAs early and often. “Keep watching.” “Watch until the end.” “Comment if this sounds familiar.” These are small, low-effort actions that build momentum.

Email tends to save the CTA for the bottom of the message. A typical message has one primary action placed after all the explanation. This format assumes readers still stick around long enough to find it.

The traditional model no longer reflects how people consume content. Humans don’t wait until they reach the end of the message to make decisions. They make them along the way.

Curiosity Is not clickbait. It’s how humans allocate attention

TikTok thrives on curiosity. Open loops, unresolved questions, and partial information are not tricks. They’re how humans decide where to pay attention.

Email marketers often treat curiosity with suspicion. They push subject lines toward clarity, safety, and brevity, creating a sea of short, generic messages that look interchangeable in the inbox.

The irony is that curiosity doesn’t replace relevance. It precedes it. TikTok creators understand that you earn attention first, then deliver value. Email marketers often try to deliver value before they secure attention.

So, do I believe email should copy TikTok? No.

Email needs a new mental model

Instead of remodelling email’s top layer to look like TikTok, we should change the assumptions we bring to the channel.

We should redesign email to accommodate interruption, not for ideal reading conditions. Let’s think of engagement as momentum, not a single click. We need to accept that we will earn attention in stages, not assume we have it at the open.

TikTok didn’t change human behaviour. It exposed it.

What can email marketers learn from TikTok?

We don’t need to copy TikTok. But there’s plenty we can learn from it.

Stack subject lines and preheaders intentionally. Use opening lines to earn the scroll, not explain the email. Test CTAs earlier in the message. Design for scanning, interruption, and decision-making in seconds rather than minutes.

Most importantly, stop optimising email as though it’s still 2001.

Email’s next era is about catching up with humans

Email’s greatest advantage over social media in all its forms is that we marketers own the channel. The growing pace of algorithmic changes highlights the risks of building a marketing program on rented land.

But it’s no time to rest on our laurels. Email must evolve to remain relevant to today’s digital consumers, and that won’t come from new templates or tighter character counts. It will come from understanding how humans now allocate attention, make decisions, and engage with content, and then designing email messages to accommodate those changes.

TikTok creators are already doing this. Not because they’re trendier, but because they have to.

Email’s opportunity isn’t to compete with TikTok. It’s to learn from what TikTok has revealed about the people we’re all trying to reach and incorporate it in our email messages in a way that makes them more engaging and valuable.