How to Include Dark Funnel Insights In Your Demand Generation Strategy

Every now and then, we hear an interesting brand mentioned on a podcast, discussed on social media, in a Slack channel or community discussion, brought up in a Zoom call, at an event, on a YouTube video, or even in an offline conversation. And that curiosity causes us  to look up the brand’s website; sign up for a demo or newsletter; click on an ad; or download a piece of lower-funnel content to learn more about the brand. 

This is a pretty common scenario in our multi-channel B2B buying world. And yet, the brand’s attribution software will only be able to track the second interaction – the website visit or demo signup – not the first exposure on one of those “unmeasurable” channels. 

This is a typical example of the “dark funnel” in action. The dark funnel is widely understood as the part of the demand generation funnel that cannot be tracked or measured by attribution software, but has a significant impact on buyer behavior and decision making. 

Think about the dark funnel as the part of the buyer’s journey where the seed is planted – and the attributable lower-funnel marketing elements (e.g, demo request, webinars watched, ROI calculators, case study downloads) as where that seed grows into something more tangible.

In other words, the buyer’s journey can be broadly divided into two distinct segments – one, where the demand originates (i.e., awareness), and two, where it culminates (i.e. consideration or decision-making).

Why Does the Dark Funnel Matter to Demand Gen Marketers?

It’s important for B2B demand generation marketers to understand the dark funnel to better optimize their resources on channels that drive real outcomes. 

As buyers become more self-driven and turn to a wider range of sources for education and information (and the sharpness of attribution tools improves), marketers are finding that so much of the buyer’s journey happens in spaces that cannot be tracked or measured. 

If your traffic numbers under buckets such as “direct traffic”, “other sources”, or “organic search” are significant, you too may be keen to know where exactly that demand originated and the path those prospects took to land at your site or ask for a demo. 

Considering that almost 70% of B2B buyers have already defined their needs before engaging with a sales representative, and almost half have identified specific solutions before reaching out to a company representative, it’s more crucial than ever for demand gen specialists to have visibility into what sources their buyers prefer for their information.

Improving Dark Funnel Visibility 

While getting visibility into the dark funnel is a challenge, marketers are exploring ways to improve sightlines with steps like: 

• Self-reported attribution – asking prospects and customers “where did you hear about us” to better understand their most memorable source of information
• Social media listening tools – it’s possible to get visibility via tools that track social mentions, as well as to plug platforms such as LinkedIn into your CRM, a tactic that’s especially useful for ABM. 
• UTM parameter hygiene – Urchin Tracking Mode (UTM) –  a snippet of code added to any URL – helps track the many different landing pages and content pieces that bring us internet traffic. It’s essential to track traffic emanating from the many places across the internet where your brand is mentioned or backlinked. Poor UTM hygiene leads to a lot of measurable leads falling into the “direct traffic” or “unknown source” bucket, which could otherwise have been traced back to a specific source.
• Subscribing to peer review sites and the premium version of LinkedIn help access insights that may otherwise remain hidden.

But beyond these, still lies the great unknown – the dark funnel of word-of-mouth interactions at in-person and virtual events, community conversations, and help desk requests which can give invaluable insights, context, and powerful intent signals about prospects that are actually in-market. We call them “behind the firewall” intent signals because they are firmly in the dark funnel for most demand gen marketers. 

But that is changing too. In the next section, we share five traditionally “behind-the-firewall” sources of demand gen that marketers can now get more visibility into by creating value and participating more purposefully in previously unseen phases of the buyer journey.

5 Behind-the-Firewall Channels That Don’t Need To Be in the Dark Funnel Anymore

1. Trusted community forums: specialist, closed communities, and forums are where the real conversations, word-of-mouth, peer advice, and discussions about product pros and cons happen. It’s where  IT professionals connect on what’s important, helpful, new, and in-the-moment. But the quality of the community and how well it’s run is key, in terms of providing B2B buyers a neutral and safe environment to discuss their needs. The space and all the discussions should engage and enrich members to learn, gather fresh perspectives and grow their business. Buyers don’t mind being coached through purchase decisions as long as they believe it meets their (and not the seller’s) best interests. 

The Spiceworks IT community has over 6M registered users that discuss over 4,000 topics each month. Brands can create a meaningful presence in the community with community brand representatives that share information, answer buyer questions, provide insight and ideas, and add authentic value to member discussions.

2. Editorial content on credible websites and platforms: content today needs to educate and create value, not sell. Buyers tend to prefer neutral, editorial voices such as independent analysts, thought leaders, and influencers, to help them learn and solve problems.

Spiceworks news and insights, a trusted industry publication, offers brands the chance to share unbiased articles, participate in editorial webinars, and provide resources that help business technology decision makers make informed decisions, within a neutral editorial environment.

3. Research: buyers trust independent industry research to find information and data and make more compelling internal business cases for investments. They seek vendor-agnostic research designed to reveal market truths that provide a foundation for strategic decision making.

Aberdeen Strategy and Research partners with brands to create illuminating research reports and custom surveys on the people, process, and technology issues that impact IT investment and business outcomes. This is a great way for your brand to help buyers inform themselves and be visible in the deeper stages of the buying funnel, with analyst-researched data, industry-expert designed assessment tools, influencer webinars, and knowledge briefs.

4. Help desks: IT professionals use tools and apps to better manage their organization, troubleshoot issues, and discuss business challenges that may require a technology purchase. These interactions generate data and useful insights into buyer needs. 

For example, Spiceworks offers several cloud-based tools and applications to IT professionals for free, such as a ticketing system, inventory management, and monitoring solutions. In exchange, they allow technology companies to inform them about products and services to help do their job better. This ecosystem generates rich insights about the buyer journey that tech  brands should not miss out on. 

5. Industry Events: These forums are a way for tech buyers to learn, interact, engage, and build networks – in addition to gathering information to make purchase decisions. Some tech events have stood the test of time when it comes to delivering the complete value package to attendees. Having a presence at these events really helps brands be part of practitioner conversations, as well as understand what people are hearing, discussing, and sharing with each other.

SpiceWorld is among the few IT events that has consistently given its attendees tech know-how, opportunities for peer networking, the latest IT products and solutions, and actionable takeaways year after year. Tech buyers look forward to learning about new solutions, providing feedback to vendors, and getting the information they need to make informed buying decisions. And tech brands get the  opportunity to truly understand what is driving IT buying decisions.