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All Dots Connected · Ep. 1
Marketing in the dark social era: Megan Bowen on the new metrics of B2B success
Megan Bowen, CEO, Refine Labs
In this episode
Megan Bowen, CEO of Refine Labs, explains how B2B buying has shifted into the dark social era, where decisions start in untracked peer conversations. She covers balancing organic and paid, marketing the problem instead of the product, a hybrid approach to attribution, and where B2B channels are heading next.
Key takeaways
01
B2B buying has moved into the dark social era
Bowen describes three eras: the analog 1990s of conferences, events, and out-of-home, the website era driven by SEO and paid search, and today's dark social era. Digital tactics are saturated and buyers are skeptical. They want to talk to someone they trust before deciding, and most of those conversations happen in channels that can't be tracked.
02
Win dark social by being the company people recommend
Peer recommendations in Slack groups, private LinkedIn communities, and direct messages carry more trust than formal marketing, or even platforms like G2 that some see as pay-to-play. Bowen says the answer goes back to fundamentals: an amazing product, a great customer experience, and delivering on promises. Marketing's job is to create relevant content and distribute it where the audience already spends time.
03
Paid buys distribution while the organic audience grows
Bowen says every company needs both organic and paid. Organic takes time to build an audience, and if only 1% of your LinkedIn followers are in your target market, great content won't get traction. Paid guarantees distribution to the right audience while organic catches up.
04
Market the problem, not the product
Refine Labs helped Clari own the term revenue leak during a category reset, positioning Clari as the expert on the problem its platform solves. Bowen argues companies that focus their ads on themselves miss the point. The most successful ones market the problem and, by extension, the solution.
05
Use a hybrid attribution approach, not a perfect model
Bowen says no attribution model measures marketing perfectly. Software-based attribution still works for channels like paid search. For podcasts and social, she recommends self-reported attribution: ask customers how they heard about you. Combine multiple sources with common sense instead of trying to track everything.
“The most successful companies market the problem and, by extension, the solution.”
What operators can apply
- Add a how-did-you-hear-about-us question and read it alongside software attribution for podcasts and social.
- Rewrite ad copy around the problem your product solves, not the product itself.
- Run paid distribution to your target audience while your organic following is still small.
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