Taking a Look at the Bright Side of the Dark Funnel

Understanding your customer’s buyer journey is essential in creating a targeted marketing campaign that effectively delivers results. The buyer’s journey is a path to purchase that includes several stages that are influenced by many outside sources. Advances in technology and increased methods of communication have allowed potential prospects to learn about your product and form opinions of your brand even before visiting your website. As a result, studying consumer behavior is becoming increasingly more difficult. Buyers are gathering information and making decisions in places that your software is not accounting for. The “dark funnel” is that information gap between the customer and the marketer.

Understanding the Dark Funnel

Digital marketing is a tool that yields powerful insights into customer actions. However, much of the important information provided by customers is hidden from marketers. For example, visits to websites other than your own, and research conducted through third-parties. The dark funnel is a term that refers to the often-veiled insights marketers might fail to uncover as they attempt to understand the customer journey. 

The dark funnel can be an extremely influential part of the customer journey. As the digital marketing world continues to grow, so will the gaps that the dark funnel creates between marketers and potential customers. 

Challenges

It is a false belief that sales and marketing can accurately monitor the entire customer journey online. The dark funnel presents several challenges as it contains the missing pieces of the customer journey. Much of that journey takes place on third-party sites and offline. The journey seldom progresses in a linear fashion. It looks different for every customer and each contains elements that are hard to see and monitor. 

With the amount of technology we have access to today, customers often do a considerable amount of research about an intended purchase before ever coming to a company’s website. Research shows that most buyers will start their pre-purchase by either visiting your site, using reputation tools, or by doing their own research. Previous purchases, reviews, and comparative data also greatly influence buyers. Researching a brand or product online and by word of mouth is important to consumers. B2B purchases are also important to consider. Seeking information from a variety of sources – online and offline – before making a decision will be critical for any B2B sale. 

The problem marketers are facing with the dark funnel is they can’t measure the information that they are missing from the customer journey. Without the ability to measure, no actions can be taken to engage with and nurture leads. These dark zones may be creating an impact that is not being seen or measured. 

Opportunities

With the ever changing journey that customers take in decision making, marketers must keep up with the new technologies and emerging strategies in order to stay relevant. It is essential to constantly be watching the ways that the sales funnel is evolving. You can then work to improve your funnel accordingly. 

Technology plays a huge role in overcoming the challenges presented by the dark funnel. It provides a way for marketers to better pinpoint how to obtain customers by using third-party analytical data. 

Tools like 6sense are available to help marketers track and analyze consumer behavior online. 6sense’s AI platform “uses historic intent signals to reconstruct the account-based buyer journey for your business, meaning you can confidently predict where any account is in the buying journey.”

Conclusion

The customer journey is erratic and unpredictable. Shining a light on your dark funnel might be challenging. However, the implementation of the right technologies and improvements will allow you to maintain a positive influence on customers during their journey to conversion.

READ MORE

Buyer Intent Data 101

July 24, 2024

Lead Enrichment: Enhanced Prospect Data for Deeper Insights

July 9, 2024

Advanced Lead Generation Strategies for 2024: Insights and Innovations

March 29, 2024

Using Data to Align Sales and Marketing

December 15, 2023

All You Need to Know About the Demand Gen Summit

October 18, 2023

September Webinar: Signals Product Update

September 28, 2023

The Danger of Relying on Crowdsourced Data: Why Accuracy Matters

September 21, 2023

Boost Visibility and Boost Conversion: Strategies for Networking in E-Commerce

September 21, 2023

Unveiling the Secrets of TikTok Marketing: Unlock Your Affiliate Success!

September 21, 2023

McKinsey Report: Digital Marketing Trends for 2023

September 21, 2023

Video Content: A Powerful Tool for Digital Marketing Success

September 21, 2023

Newsletter Platforms: Impacting Journalism & Revolutionizing Subscriptions

September 21, 2023

Corporate Water Diversion: Maui’s Agricultural Crisis & the Need for Improved Water Rights Regulations

September 21, 2023

Level up Your Earnings with Fiverr’s Affiliate Program in 2023

September 21, 2023

Importance of Digital Marketing and AI Tools in Shaping Future of Companies – Insights on Website Visitor Behavior and Conversion Strategies

September 21, 2023

Upselling and Cross-selling: Pathways to Higher Revenues

September 21, 2023

Navigating Customer Acquisition in a Post Cookies World: The Role of AI and Adaptability

September 21, 2023

The Future of Marketing and Sales: Harnessing the Power of Signals AI Tool

September 21, 2023

The Growth of Mobile Commerce: Implications for Marketers and Sales Strategies

September 21, 2023

Start seeing your Buyers' signals

Signals is helping companies automate, grow, and close sales pipeline with industry-leading predictive intent scoring, lead generation, and real-time engagement.

Untitled design (51)