If you've been utilizing HubSpot services or inbound marketing for a while or have done any marketing or sales work in the past, you're familiar with some sort of funnel. A marketing funnel, a sales funnel, a buyer's journey funnel — the list goes on.
For years, we've all used a funnel model to track our marketing and sales leads' progress toward making a purchase. Yes, funnels get the job done, but you must admit they’re pretty linear.
People come in at the top of the funnel and leave at the bottom. While that's a nice, tidy way to think of leads, prospects, and customers, it does little to keep the momentum going. As soon as a customer makes a sale, they drop out of your sales funnel, never to be seen again.
Pulling in and converting a new customer can cost 5x more than retaining an existing customer, and the marketing or sales funnel just needs to illustrate this better.
Enter: The HubSpot Flywheel.
The Hubspot Flywheel is an updated method of conceptualizing how your marketing and sales efforts affect your customers and your company's overall growth. It accounts for the momentum you gain when you align your entire organization around delivering a remarkable customer experience 24/7.
When your business utilizes the flywheel, you use the momentum from satisfied customers to drive referrals and repeat sales. In short, the wheel keeps spinning!
The amount of momentum, or energy, you have to keep the wheel spinning depends on three main factors:
To be successful, you should shift your business strategies to address all three factors. New programs and procedures can increase your flywheel’s speed. You can eliminate friction by identifying where prospective customers are getting stuck in the buyer’s journey. The more you increase speed and eliminate friction, the more successful you’ll be and the bigger your flywheel model will become.
Are you wondering how inbound methodology fits into all of this? Well, Hubspot has redesigned the inbound methodology model to revolve around the flywheel. Now the new inbound methodology is a circle, and the flywheel features three phases – attract, engage, and delight. When force is applied to all three phases, the result is an outstanding customer experience.
Let's talk a little about what each of those stages means:
During the attract phase, your goal is to pull in visitors with high-quality content and to knock down any barrier so they can learn as much as possible about your company. You want to earn people's attention – not force it.
Some forces you can apply during the attract phase include:
The goal of the engage phase is to enable potential customers to engage with you. You want to focus on opening relationships – not just closing deals.
Some forces you can apply during the engage phase include:
The third phase is the delight phase. You’ll help, support, and empower customers to reach their goals during this time. Always remember – when your customers are successful, you’re successful!
Some forces you can apply during the delight phase include:
This process turns your customers into promoters: If they love your company and the products you deliver, they’ll be excited to share their great experiences with other potential consumers.
Okay, now we get the general premise of the inbound marketing flywheel, and it's not so different from the old-school funnel, right? Well, not exactly.
Though many stages are the same, the fundamental premise of the flywheel vs. a funnel is key. In today’s world, customer referrals and word-of-mouth have become the largest influence within the purchase process, which means the funnel has one major flaw – it views customers as an afterthought, not a driving force. Funnels produce customers but don’t factor in how those customers can help you grow throughout the future. The HubSpot flywheel puts the customer front and center.
Rather than thinking of each customer having a specific start and end point with your company, they're always at the center of your flywheel. Your communications with customers shouldn't end just because they've made a purchase. By keeping that customer at the flywheel's center and continuing to deliver content, support, and service relevant to their needs, you keep your flywheel spinning.
For example, customers who made a purchase might flow automatically into the attract or engage stage as they consider additional services or products your company offers.
This fundamental change — putting the customer at the center of your flywheel and visualizing it as a continuous circle rather than a funnel — sets the flywheel apart as a more efficient and productive marketing and sales model.
Check out HubSpot's transformation video for a visual:
If your company is challenging to navigate or isn’t honest throughout the sales process, you shouldn’t be surprised when people don’t stick around. Instead, start utilizing the inbound marketing flywheel and put your customers at the heart of everything you do.
You can use the positive relationships you've built with existing customers to attract and engage new leads, convert new clients, and delight customers that help you continue attracting new ones. When done properly, the flywheel spins in perpetual motion.
We hope this blog helps you understand the HubSpot Flywheel better. If you've more questions about how the flywheel works or how to pair it with your existing marketing and sale processes, the Evenbound team is here to help.
Let us know what kind of support you're looking for — we're happy to answer questions about anything ranging from marketing to sales, HubSpot services, and even company growth.
