12 Actions CMOs Can Take to Illuminate the Dark Funnel

If you’re a B2B marketer, the “dark funnel” has likely made its way onto your whiteboard, your QBR decks, and your CEO’s list of things marketing should be fixing. The term itself sounds ominous, but it really just refers to the parts of the buyer’s journey we can’t see, like anonymous research, untracked conversations in Slack groups, Reddit threads, or even private AI queries.

The problem is simple: most buying decisions are made long before someone hits your website or fills out a form. The solution? Shine some light into those hidden corners. I had the chance to moderate a panel at Dreamforce, hosted by HG Insights, featuring three powerhouse marketing leaders—Heidi Bullock (CMO of Tealium), Jeff Otto (CMO of Riskified), and Allyson Havener (VP Brand & Events at HG Insights)—who shared exactly how they’re doing it. What follows are 12 practical, actionable ways to illuminate the dark funnel.

1. Define what the dark funnel means for your business

You can’t illuminate what you haven’t identified. Heidi Bullock made this clear right out of the gate. “I think buyers always do their research... so one of the things we’ve done is define what the dark funnel even is.” For Tealium, that includes Reddit threads, anonymous website visits, Slack channels, and now even questions buyers are asking in large language models. The definition will vary by company, but the point is: make the invisible visible—on your terms.

2. Use AI agents to monitor community conversations in real time

Most of your prospects are talking, just not to you. Heidi shared how her team built an agent that scans Reddit mentions of Tealium and pushes them into a Slack channel. “Now we have visibility,” she said. “We’re aware of those conversations and we know we need to do a better job activating that community.” This simple move has opened a valuable line of early insight—and response.

3. Empower your team to build their own AI tools

Waiting for IT or RevOps to build every automation is a growth bottleneck. Heidi decided to take a different route. “We had a contest on our team to see who could build an agent,” she explained. “Everyone had to be AI fluent.” By democratizing experimentation and encouraging hands-on learning, she’s building both capability and culture and saving her team hours every week.

4. Track champion job changes as a high-conversion signal

One of the clearest signals from the dark funnel is when your biggest advocates take a new job. Allyson Havener noted, “That’s the most highly converting signal we have.” Whether it’s a past buyer moving into a new account or a contact jumping from a competitor, these transitions are golden opportunities. They know your product. They trust your brand. And they’re often in a position to buy.

5. Monitor buyer movements to predict churn and competitive risk

Jeff Otto brought another layer to the job change conversation. “You’ve got to be aware in terms of protecting account relationships when a buyer moves,” he said. “It’s a great way to detect churn.” That insight can trigger two workflows: reach out to the departed buyer at their new company and shore up the existing account by identifying a new champion. It’s not just a pipeline opportunity; it’s risk management.

6. Deliver commercial value by surfacing threat intelligence

Jeff took things even further when he shared how Riskified is using threat data from the dark web to proactively engage customers. “We go out on the dark web… and when we see fraud rings attacking a merchant, we tell them. That turns into a pipeline opportunity.” While most CMOs aren’t running security ops, the principle here is universal: give your prospects valuable intelligence they can act on, and the conversation is no longer a cold call; it’s a service.

7. Aggregate all buyer signals in one CRM dashboard

Data overload is real, especially when intent signals are scattered across tools. Heidi described how her team built a centralized dashboard in Salesforce. “We pull in signals from TrustRadius, campaigns, and more, then we integrated Copy.ai so reps can do personalized outreach right away.” By consolidating insights and automating responses, they’ve dramatically reduced the time from signal to action.

8. Turn review site behavior into outbound plays

Allyson shared a brilliant tactic from her time at TrustRadius: “A customer of WebEx was researching Zoom on TrustRadius… we flagged that as churn risk and sent it to the AE with messaging.” This type of first-party data can be a goldmine for both outbound and retention strategies. Instead of waiting for a demo request, you act on real buyer behavior before your competitors even know there’s interest.

9. Personalize landing pages at the account level with AI

Generic landing pages are conversion killers. With AI tools like Copy.ai, Tealium is creating dynamic landing pages personalized by company. “We’re using Copy.ai to dynamically personalize landing pages for each account based on company news and how they came in,” said Heidi. It’s no longer enough to use first names in emails. Personalization now means content, messaging, and even CTAs tuned to that buyer’s reality.

10. Benchmark efficiency and track operational leverage

In an era of budget scrutiny and AI hype, marketing leaders need to show the math. “You have to benchmark everything… otherwise, ‘efficiency’ becomes subjective,” said Allyson. Start with metrics like pipeline per marketer, revenue per employee, or campaign velocity. The better you are at measuring leverage, the better equipped you’ll be when your CFO or CEO starts asking how AI is impacting headcount and spend.

11. Reimagine your website as a self-serve AI-powered tool

Most B2B websites still operate like it’s 2015: clunky navigation, gated PDFs, and vague CTAs. Jeff Otto is testing something smarter. “Most people come to your website because they want to ask a question. Why not use a trained LLM to answer it instantly?” By embedding LLMs trained on your content, you control the narrative, reduce friction, and deliver a better experience—all while capturing high-intent data.

12. Remove friction by ungating your high-value content

One of the boldest moves came from Allyson. “We ungated everything—including pricing—and our inbound and outbound metrics went up.” This wasn’t an easy decision, especially given the sales pushback. But it worked. Today’s B2B buyers expect transparency and self-service. If they can’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll move on, and your competitor will be more than happy to help.

These 12 actions don’t just illuminate the dark funnel—they light the way to smarter marketing, stronger pipeline, and better alignment between sales, marketing, and customer success. As Jeff reminded us, “The more technology we embrace, the more touch we’re going to need.” So yes, build the agents. Launch the dashboards. Track the signals. But never lose sight of the fact that it’s still about the human behind the screen.

And one more thing: don’t panic. As Allyson put it, “Try not to feel overwhelmed.” This is a moment of transformation, not termination. Embrace the experimentation, empower your team, and remember—this isn’t just about shining a light. It’s about being the light.