The document discusses "dark funnels", which refers to hidden customer insights that marketers may miss when analyzing digital analytics. It provides an example of a customer's journey to purchase a car that involves offline research and advice-seeking from others. This illustrates the complex and non-linear nature of customer journeys. Studying dark funnels can help marketers better understand customer motivations. The document advocates doing marketing activities that may not scale, like creating valuable content and engaging communities, to build deeper connections over time. It provides examples from the author's company of marketing efforts like podcasts and LinkedIn posts that drive customers despite not being scalable.

1. Why You Should Do Things
That Won’t Scale: The Dark
Funnel Case Study
Nemanja Zivkovic,
Founder & CVO @ Funky Marketing

2. Marketers are often focused on
understanding customer behavior.
They make assumptions about customer journeys based on
what they can see in their analytics.
But, there is a lot that marketers may not be able to see when
it comes to that journey.

3. These hidden insights are referred to as
“dark funnels” and that’s exactly what we are
going to talk about today.

4. This webinar will talk about what the dark
funnel is, its purpose, and why you should do
things that won’t scale.
We will also take a look at how to apply the dark funnel to your
business and some examples of things that won’t scale well
and are worth doing anyway.

5. What is the Dark Funnel?

6. “Dark Funnel” refers to the often hidden
insights that marketers may miss when trying
to understand the customer journey.
While the digital marketing environment provides marketers with valuable insights
on customer behavior, some of these behaviors, such as
● visits to other websites
● research undertaken through third-party sites
● and social media influences
may be hidden from view.

7. Marketers have long been encouraged to
believe that they can precisely monitor the
customer journey online thanks to the digital
sales environment.
The truth is that much of the customer journey continues to take
place offline, and even online activities rarely follow a linear path.
The customer journey is complex, with elements that aren’t
immediately obvious.

8. These hidden elements are what we refer to
as the dark funnel in the online environment.

9. Let’s take a look at an example:
Bob is in the market for a new car
that will keep him safe on the road.
He knows there are many types of
cars to choose from and has seen
them everywhere:
● online
● at dealerships
● and while driving around town
every day.

10. Let’s take a look at an example:
Bob does not just rely on his knowledge
when deciding which vehicle would be
best, he also turns to family members
and friends who have their opinions
about what they like or dislike about
certain models by asking questions and
seeking advice before settling down
with one choice.
He also checks some of the online
reviews, discussions, and other
available resources.

11. Following that, Bob is likely to go to a nearby
car dealership for a test drive and sales
conversation…
As you probably noticed, marketers are
facing a difficult challenge in identifying a
clear path to purchase due to this twisting
and complicated process that can’t be easily
tracked.
No more can they map the journey from
need, to awareness, to consideration, to
purchase — if they ever even could.

12. The existence of those hidden elements is the
reason why you should do things that won’t
scale.

13. The Dark Funnel’s Purpose
The purpose of the Dark Funnel is more than just gathering
data — it’s about people.
By studying dark funnel behavior, marketers can come to a
better understanding of how consumers interact with brands
and make purchases and the best ways to stay relevant via
marketing planning, content creation, and distribution
decisions.

14. So if the dark funnel is designed to help you
better understand how customers behave,
how can it be a useful part of your marketing
strategy?
Let’s take a look.

15. It’s not about knowing where customers are
— it’s about understanding why they’re there.

16. It’s not about knowing where customers are
— it’s about understanding why they’re there.
If you can understand why people come to your website, listen
to your podcast, or read one of your blogs you can potentially
develop much more effective strategies that play to their
deeper motivations and interests down the line.

17. It helps you define why you should do
something and what to do.

18. It helps you define why you should do
something and what to do.
When Bob showed up at the dealership, he didn’t just buy a
car — he purchased a particular model that met his unique
needs and fulfilled a broader purpose.
You can dig deep into specific motivations and needs of your
customers which enables you to develop strategies that
resonate with them.

19. It helps you understand how things change
over time.
As Bob continues to research cars by reading reviews and
interacting with friends, he may find out about a new safety
feature or special model design that will make one car a better
fit for him.
The Dark Funnel helps you anticipate how your customers’
behaviors will change as they interact with your brand.

20. As you can see, the Dark Funnel is not a new tactic or
something designed to replace traditional analytics.
It’s an additional lens through which marketers can view
and understand their customers.
This extra insight into customer behaviors and motivations
can help you make more effective decisions in terms of
strategy, messaging,
and content creation.

21. Why You Should Do Things That Won’t
Scale?

22. Because they help you create deeper, more
authentic connections with customers.
When your marketing is truly customer-centric, it
has a very high likelihood of being highly
effective in both the short and long term.

23. The first time I started to seriously think
about the things that won’t scale back in
2019.

24. To implement some Dark Funnel tactics, start
by examining some recent actions on your
website, social media channels, or other
digital touchpoints.
Think about why the customer engaged with your content in the first place.
● Was it for purely informational purposes like reading reviews of a product?
● Or was it to fulfill some more specific need or interest they had at the time
— and thus engage with you out of necessity because they saw you as the
best option?

25. Asking yourself these questions helps you uncover what is motivating
your customers. Even if that doesn’t scale.
As Bob’s story demonstrates, the answers may surprise you — and play
a big role in understanding why your customer engagement strategy is
or isn’t working.
The important thing to remember is that as long as you can uncover
why your customers engage, you can develop strategies based on
those reasons.

26. How to Apply the Dark Funnel to Your
Business?
Now you are probably wondering how you can
“apply” a dark funnel mindset to your business.
Here is what you should do to make this concept
work for you.

27. Create and distribute valuable content
Start creating and sharing valuable content. Content that is
relevant to your customers and will be interesting to them.
Create social media posts, blog posts, videos, ebooks,
podcasts, etc. that your audience and customers will find helpful.
This will not only build and increase your brand awareness but
will also help you create a community around your business.

28. Create and distribute valuable content
An important thing to note here: When doing this for your
business, focus on helping people first before thinking about
profits.
Do not ever create content and expect to profit from it right
away.
After you have started creating valuable content, share it on
relevant places such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium,
etc., to spread the word and increase awareness about what
you are doing.

29. Do something different
Allow your content to evolve and change over
time.
Something that worked once may not work again
so when creating new content don’t try and copy
what has already been done but instead do
something different and try to create new
demand.

30. Engage with the community around you
Be active on social media sites where the audience hangs out and be
open to new connections and interactions with others.
Build relationships with others and get involved in the conversation.
Connect with others in comments on LinkedIn posts, Facebook
groups, Twitter tweets, YouTube videos, answer questions asked in
communities, join groups related to your industry, etc.
All these things will make you more visible and attract others to come
closer to your brand.

31. Pay attention and listen
Pay attention and listen to what people are saying about
your brand (both positive and negative).
This will help you gain insights into customer behavior
that would not otherwise be available through more
traditional means — and then use them strategically as a
way to shift their focus from tracking meaningless
metrics like impressions or click-through rates toward
predicting key behaviors that will help build loyalty over
time.

32. Engage in one-to-one interactions with your
customers
Listen to their feedback and address their issues
or concerns to gain more insight into customer
behavior that would not otherwise be available
through more traditional means — and then use
them strategically.

33. Be consistent
Remember this is not a short-term strategy. It is
something you are doing to build up your
business and brand over time.

34. Examples of Things that Will Not Scale Well
and are Worth Doing Anyway
For this, we will use my company Funky Marketing and how things that
will not scale worked for us.
We get all of our leads inbound and most of them don’t fit anywhere in
the traditional sales funnel, and they are all in the dark funnel.
What do I mean by this?
Well, our customers come in one of three ways.

35. 1. Through referral (i.e word-of-mouth)
You do a good job and your clients recommend you.
Oldest and most powerful marketing strategy in the world — word of
mouth.
What we’re doing here that makes us different is that we experiment
and test things out first on our own before we sell them to the clients.
You can say that we do the service that we sell for ourselves first.

36. 1. Through referral (i.e word-of-mouth)
Often, I learn on the Discovery call that one of our clients
recommended us, and more and more often I hear that companies
doing more or less the same things as we are recommending us.
Interestingly, we get referrals and recommendations from people
we’ve never engaged with.
They either saw our posts or have heard our podcasts, and that’s
enough for them to consider us as authorities in the field.

37. 2. They follow me or some of my team
members on Linkedin and come to us
inbound when they’re ready to buy
We share a lot, the whole team. This is in our culture.
We create and distribute content to prove our expertise, create trust, and the
goal is not just to acquire new clients.
We share our learnings and results and use LinkedIn as a tool to get our
existing clients to the next level, advertise our services, and increase the LTV
of every client.

38. 2. They follow me or some of my team
members on Linkedin and come to us
inbound when they’re ready to buy
We’re there to create relationships, before
anything else.
When they’re ready, they schedule a call or DM
us.

39. 3. They listen to one of our podcasts and
reach out to us
We use our podcast in a couple of ways.
● Firstly, we use them to create content, establish trust, and increase authority.
● More and more, they are becoming tools for building internal company culture (a
new team member can binge episodes and see the whole journey of me and
Funky Marketing — the way we started, values, how the mindset was changing,
etc.)
● Also tools for educating clients (out of one episode we can create 3–8 pieces of
content that talk with people in the different stages of the buyer journey) and,
finally, as a community-building tool (if people are coming back to listen, ask
questions and participate, you’re building a community).

40. 3. They listen to one of our podcasts and
reach out to us
Is there a way for us to track this?
Not, there’s no way to do it. But what matters is that it works.
So what are we doing?
Continuing to create valuable content on LinkedIn, we do it as a team because we are
also big advocates of employee branding and create podcasts.
And even if we can’t track these things accurately, we know that they work and so we’ll
keep doing it.

41. “If you invest time now you will save sales
later on, especially if you are selling services,
software, or any B2B products for that
matter.”
What do we talk about though, well mostly about the
value and making a difference?
We share our thoughts, insights, and experiences.
We try to teach and inspire.

42. So I think that this is a perfect example of something that
won’t scale, but we keep doing it anyway.
Why?
Because it adds real value for customers and people
love us for it.
And it is also getting us revenue. So it’s well worth doing.

43. I could go on and on but I think you get the point — if
something works, if something is bringing you
customers and revenue, it doesn’t matter that it is not
scalable, just continue doing it.
When things are going in a good direction, you can
feel it.

44. How do you know when it happens?
The answer is — trust me, you’ll know.

45. “If you’re going after short-term wins and
quick results, sales is probably a better way
to go than branding.
But if you want a sustainable long-term
competitive advantage, branding is really
where it’s at.”

46. Ready to make dark works for you and get
your win by doing the right things?

47. I sure hope you are!
Thank you!
funkymarketing.net
nemanja@funkymarketing.net