“You can never go wrong by investing in communities and the human beings within them.” – correctly said by Pam Moore, is the basis of Inbound marketing. It suggests that we attract our audience with brilliant content and earn their trust in the process of engaging them and finally delighting them.
A new marketing concept has set foot in the industry and it has a much broader outlook on marketing than any of the existing strategies.
HubSpot 2018 saw the launch of this amazing concept called The Marketing Flywheel. Brian Halligan broke the news and since then it has been the buzzword in the Inbound sphere.
Startups, companies, marketers and everyone in the community are looking up the internet to learn about it but there isn’t adequate information available. Businesspersons want to adapt the Marketing Flywheel into their business, but sadly, a few understand what it really is.
We, being HubSpot’s Gold Agency Partner, had a chance to discuss this with the HubSpot folks and hence, we’ve already started extending and shaping our clients’ Marketing Funnel Model into the Flywheel model. To bring more clarity to this concept, I have decided to share the details on our blog for people to understand and implement this and grow better together.
I’ll go step-wise and explain this in very unambiguous terms.
The Marketing Funnel – In Brief
Much like a funnel, this marketing concept has a wider opening which accounts for the people viewing your website. It eventually narrows down to the people who actually buy your product. The funnel strategy helps you track the viewer’s journey and how they are converted into customers.
The 3 stages of a marketing funnel:
Top-of-funnel : Awareness
The visitors that are browsing on your website to find some information are at the top of the funnel. You need to create awareness about your product/ service and attract them to the middle.
Middle-of-funnel : Evaluation
At this stage, you are introducing them to your brand and how could resolve their issues. Your content at this stage should establish trust and respect for your brand. This is where your brand building starts.
Bottom-of-funnel : Purchase Decision
Here, they are just one push away from buying your product so you provide them with a deeper idea of how your product or service would work for them.
You can learn more about the Marketing funnel in our DIY Inbound Marketing Handbook.
This is where the marketing funnel stops functioning. There is a lot more to marketing and the flywheel is inclusive of it all.
Transformation – The Marketing Flywheel
What is a flywheel?
It is a brilliant analogy made by Jim Collins to fit the definition of inbound marketing. It is just like getting a huge flywheel into motion.
A flywheel in its original sense is a machine that stores rotational energy. An external push is required for it to gain momentum and release its stored energy. As the number of pushes increase, the speed of rotation increases resulting in more efficiency of storage. The flywheel is made of different materials based on the requirements such as lead, cast iron, steel or aluminum.
The flywheel analogy applied to marketing
External push: The customer-centered inbound strategy
Momentum: The effect of the strategy in terms of leads and customers
Materials: People and Processes involved in Marketing, Sales and Service
Release of Stored Energy: The decision making power of customers
This overcomes the hurdle of the ‘end of customer journey’ in the funnel. A flywheel is a disc that keeps rotating and indulges customers to interact with the company again and again.
It sets in motion the “Attract- Engage- Delight—-repeat” ideology.
An inbound marketing strategy will gain momentum after a considerable amount of time but the effect will be an intense one. It takes a lot of small results directed in one direction by a strategy to meet the requirements. An everyday effort will make pushing the flywheel easier and before you know it, it will be moving in your favor.
Why Consider The Marketing Flywheel?
Marketing Flywheel is a brilliant evolution of the funnel. Every marketing and sales person will be well versed with the funnel concept.
- The funnel ends the journey of customer when it reaches the bottom. The flywheel aims at bringing these customers back to the top of the funnel. The people coming out at the bottom of your company can have a huge impact on the people entering the top.
- The flywheel is a more customer oriented strategy while the funnel places more importance on marketing and sales.
- The flywheel suggests a continued interaction with the customer to maximize the delight element. This way your customer becomes a customer again and is also a good option for referrals.
- When you position your elements together in the flywheel, you will unleash more opportunities for cross team collaboration and well structured alignment.
- With the evolving trends and growth in intellectual buyers, flywheel acquaints itself with customer psychology. Building a loyal and beneficial relationship with your customers helps referrals and word of mouth strategy.
How We Adapted To The Big Change
We have transformed the way we used to work with clients according to the Marketing Flywheel.
For example, one client of ours is from the manufacturing industry, and this is how we adapted the flywheel:
- We decided to create more informative and interactive content with regard to the product of the company.
- The content included news, queries, announcements, developments and general facts related to the industry.
- The channels used by us were email marketing, social media engagement and blogging.
- A regular interaction with the customers is being maintained through their social media profiles where we encouraged discussions and responded to their questions.
As a result of this strategy, more leads were generated and sales increased. Customer relationship was established and that drove more potential customers to the company.
In Conclusion..
Marketing Flywheel is the present and hopefully the future of marketing as it proves to be a more human and compassionate approach to business. Building customer equation and achieving the entire company’s focus on a single goal is an achievement and the marketing flywheel gives you that.
Have you broken the code to the new marketing flywheel concept yet? It’s completely understandable if you haven’t. Give it a try and let us know how it came out in the comments below, so that everyone in the community can learn and grow.