Buyers today often choose to remain anonymous before revealing themselves to sellers. According to Gartner, 61% of B2B buyers choose a ‘rep-free’ buying experience and prefer ‘digital self-service’. So, buyers are hidden, and you can’t find them? Sounds scary in a competitive business landscape where you’re missing out on potential opportunities that your marketing tools can’t track? Well, you need not worry, as we, a leading B2B lead generation agency in the U.S, will help you bring the hidden buyers present in the ‘dark funnel’ into focus.
What is the dark funnel?
The term’ dark funnel’ refers to the invisible buyer journey that B2B marketers find challenging to track using traditional marketing methodologies. It is an interesting trend that the buyer journey is taking place beyond the conventional B2B marketing funnel. These are blind spots, and businesses must identify them so that they don’t miss out on sales opportunities. The traditional method of tracking the buyer journey involves reaching out to prospects who fill out a contact form on the website, call to speak with sales representatives, or download gated content in exchange for their email address. But what happens if they don’t choose these trackable channels and are still a good contender for becoming your customers? Dark funnel refers to anonymous user behavior that falls off a brand’s radar and remains untraceable with traditional marketing tools, such as email clicks or web analytics.
Top Channels of the Dark Funnel
The dark funnel comprises buyers who do not have a linear journey from awareness to the buying stages in the traditional B2B marketing funnel.
- Private browsing: Prospective buyers research using incognito mode and declining cookies, or utilize new privacy extensions that block the tracking of online activities.
- Private messaging: Prospective buyers also discuss via direct messages on messaging platforms, LinkedIn, or other social media channels.
- Offline discussions: Conversations can also occur in conferences, where people scrutinize brands and recommend specific products or services.
- Community discussion: Prospects also share their perspective in community discussions and forums.
- Third-party platforms – Prospects also research on third-party websites, and decisions are made based on research from YouTube videos and podcasts.
Why is Dark Funnel marketing important?
The B2B buyer journey is already complex. It involves several decision-makers, and the sales cycle is also lengthy. Now, this decision-making process has become even more complicated, as discussions are taking place outside the brand’s digital footprint and B2B marketing funnel. It now occurs discreetly on LinkedIn messaging, with research being conducted via YouTube videos, discussions taking place within private groups, community forums, and via podcasts. The fact is that buyers have made up their minds via thorough research even before they speak with a sales representative. Dark Funnel marketing is about tapping into this invisible demand and strengthening or altering the decision of prospects in favor of your business. The goal is to tap into their interests even before they approach you and ensure they reach the buying stage.
How to illuminate the dark funnel? Top strategies
The radical shift in buyer behavior is causing anonymous research and decisions made before the brand is even aware of their existence. In that case, it’s a matter of not discretion but survival to reach out to these buyers and build a sustainable pipeline.
- Leverage Intent data: Businesses must rely on intent-rich data to discover the anonymous buyers. Intent data platforms reveal the prospects and the topics they are actively researching. Companies can leverage these insights with first-party data. It will help them extract a deeper understanding of these buyers and identify them. Businesses can accurately score leads and focus on high-scoring leads, then engage them with personalized messages. Such a proactive approach will increase sales velocity and conversion rates.
- Data analytics: Advanced data insights can help track the otherwise opaque journey in the dark funnel and shed light on the invisible buyers’ behavior. AI has an excellent capability to analyze large datasets and identify hidden patterns across various platforms, including social media, third-party platforms, and industry forums. It can offer valuable insights by connecting the insights and findings about how buyers are being influenced, offering tailored engagement for them.
- Content Marketing: Content marketing can target hidden prospects who are yet to appear in the B2B marketing funnel, as they make decisions without being tracked by the brand’s marketing activities. When prospects are conducting research with peer recommendations, taking note of word-of-mouth publicity, or engaging in private discussions on communication channels, or perhaps getting acquainted with the brand on social media without leaving a trace of their presence influenced by your brand, content marketing can be your best target. Publishing insightful reports and thought leadership articles strengthens your brand’s presence, and whoever comes across it on different channels will likely consider your brand. Content development is not only a strategy for immediate targeting but also beneficial for the long run and demand generation. Companies must build brand awareness to make their prospective buyers aware of their brand even before they interact with it directly.
- Content syndication: Buyers want extensive information and expert advice before approaching a business. They would research on third-party sites. A better approach is to distribute content on authoritative sites and ensure that the right prospects receive the ‘help’ they need to make a buying decision. AI-powered automation tools present the right content to prospective buyers who are already in the research phase. Non-promotional and educational content can build massive brand awareness without requiring direct engagement from the buyer. Technology can track an anonymous buyer journey and offer insights beyond the digital footprint of the business.
- Surveys: Businesses can collect valuable feedback from prospects or customers to determine how they discovered their business. Conducting regular surveys should be a standard practice, targeting ideal customer profiles (ICPs), and conducting polls that mention both competitors’ and your own brands, allowing participants to choose. It will provide insight into their source of getting acquainted with the brand and help you understand where your strengths lie. Their positive or negative response can help you gauge the level of awareness about your business and make more efforts if the interest level is low.
- Social listening: Social media is a surefire way to create brand awareness, but it’s also a good medium for tracking whether your brand is already influencing your prospects. Businesses need to monitor their brand mentions and industry-specific topics closely. Such an approach will enable the brand to identify the topics that are currently of interest to buyers, allowing them to promote these topics through their content marketing and content syndication strategies. Prospective buyers who are already interested in such topics will come forward and engage directly with your brand, giving you the opportunity to interact with them more actively.
- AI-driven Account-based marketing: When buyers are anonymous, businesses must go the extra mile to personalize their engagement strategy. AI-driven account-based marketing guides businesses to target accounts with a high level of interest in your industry. They can create better communication and messaging strategies and actively tap into their interests. AI can recommend trending topics, and companies can create content and promote these topics to attract customers to their business.
Final thoughts
Businesses should understand the dark funnel to identify hidden buyers who are not yet visible to them. Buyers are becoming more informed and want to remain anonymous before reaching out to you. So, brands need to adopt a proactive approach so that the final decision goes in their favor. By lighting up the dark funnel, companies can be ahead of the curve and ensure prospects choose them over their competitors.
Do you need help with dark funnel marketing?
If you need assistance in navigating the dark funnel, you can trust the B2B marketing expert with over a decade in the industry. We leverage technology and adopt an automated approach, helmed by human expertise and rich experience in B2B lead generation, to keep hidden buyers on our radar. Adopt a smarter B2B marketing strategy with the help of experts. For more information, please call us at +1 (408) 799- 4081 or email us at info@markablesolutions.com, and we’ll be happy to illuminate the dark funnel with our tech-driven, comprehensive B2B marketing approach.
