What is the dark funnel?
The dark funnel collates the anonymous and untraceable online behavior of potential leads, with strategies and tactics used to track and engage with them throughout their buyer’s journey. The name refers to the hidden element of the traditional B2B sales funnel, and denotes leads' steps outside of a trackable buyer's journey, such as engaging with word of mouth marketing.
What is the purpose of the dark funnel?
Striving to shed light into the dark funnel helps companies to uncover not yet identified prospects, as well as locate gaps and blind spots in their sales funnel, contributing to the refining of their overall marketing strategies. Acquiring insights on the behavior of anonymous prospects, also a benefit of exploring the dark funnel, helps marketers engage prospects earlier in their journeys, enabling greater personalization and more effective lead nurturing.
How to work with the dark funnel
Marketers can attain dark funnel insights via several different strategies, such as the implementation of Urchin Tracking Modules (UTMs) in their links, or by offering user-friendly content share buttons to better understand the outreach and sources of engagement. Furthermore, social listening is also a useful tool for working with the dark funnel: monitoring mentions to a company’s name, as well as to its competitors, can help marketers glean insights on their audience’s major pain points and challenges, for example.