What You Need to Know About the Marketing Flywheel

HubSpot. Amazon. They're probably two of the most vocal advocates of customer-centric marketing today.

Aside from their penchant for knowing their audience's needs, a focus on growth, and a love for experimentation, there's another thing that connects the two behemoths: the Marketing Flywheel.

"The marketing what?" you may ask. And that's okay. Unlike the Marketing Funnel, the flywheel enjoys less popularity, sometimes relegated to those who religiously follow companies, brands, or public personalities that have touted its efficacy.

But in a nutshell, the Marketing Flywheel uses the momentum of customer satisfaction to keep it running, unlike funnels (or even hourglasses) that focus on guiding the customer down a particular path.

So how does it do that? Let's explain.

The Marketing Flywheel gives you more results at less effort

Ever seen a flywheel before? Then you probably know how it works: imagine two interconnected wheels—one larger, one smaller—with the smaller wheel inside the larger one.

Instead of exerting a lot of outward force to get the larger wheel to move on its own, simply moving the smaller wheel inside (and eliminating any friction that might get in the way) gives it enough energy to turn. This energy is then stored as momentum as the wheel continues to turn. The faster it turns, the more energy it saves. That's what a flywheel is.

According to FourWeekMBA, the flywheel framework was first introduced by Jim Collins, who wrote the smash hit Good to Great. In terms of marketing, this means exerting your energy on a focal point that will make your other efforts move seamlessly. And within the flywheel framework, that's one thing: your customers.

• What is it that draws them to your brand?

• What problems are they trying to solve?

• What delights them?

These are just a few questions you'll need to answer when working at your flywheel's core. But what else is there to know about it?

The Hows and Whos: what keeps the Marketing Flywheel spinning

Another hallmark of the flywheel is that you can add outer wheels. And they'll continue to keep spinning as long as the inner wheel continues to turn. In this case, the Marketing Flywheel has two outer wheels:

• The middle wheel tells how to cater to your customers.

• The outer wheel tells you who your customers are.

The Hows of the Flywheel

Three pillars make up the middle wheel:

• How you attract your customers

• How you engage with your customers

• How you delight your customers

Instead of looking at them as separate stages (as other marketing frameworks often do), the middle wheel sees them as cyclical components that keep the flywheel turning.

If you want to attract customers, you need to engage with them. If you engage with them, you have to delight them. And when you delight them, you're sure to find more customers who'll want to work with you—partly thanks to the customers you already delighted.

When planning marketing efforts using the middle wheel framework, keeping in mind how one pillar affects the other can help prevent disjointed marketing efforts that might alienate potential clients. This goal is to be as organic as possible, all based on understanding your customers.

The Whos of the Flywheel

On the other hand, these are the four pillars that make up the outer wheel:

• Strangers

• Prospects

• Customers

• Promoters

The four usually correspond to one segment of your middle wheel. You'll usually find Strangers while you're attracting customers, while Prospects arise when you have people who both take notice of your brand and begin engaging with it. Customers usually arise when they regularly engage and are delighted with you, who become Promoters—people who are so pleased with what you offer that they begin promoting it to other Strangers.

Knowing who you're catering to in the outer wheel doesn't just give us a feel of where we are at in our marketing strategy. It also reminds us of the wheel's core: the people we want to cater to. You'll find through each step of the outer wheel their ever-changing needs. And much like your typical cycle, it's not something you can skip through.

Is the Marketing Flywheel better than the Funnel?

Now for the controversial question: Is the Marketing Flywheel better than the Marketing Funnel? Simply put—no, it isn't.

Because here's the thing: they're not as different as you think. You can even say that the flywheel is a repackaged version of the Funnel.

Marketing, by nature, is a customer-centric industry—whether they are indicated in a framework or not. It's a sentiment echoed in Dr. Philip Kotler's and Peter Drucker's works. These two figures have defined the marketing principles we use now: marketing creates value for customers because it creates a relationship with them.

Any framework, be it a funnel, flywheel, or hourglass, will always be rooted in this first principle. So there is no need to indicate where the customer stands within the framework; it's a given.

Of the different frameworks, however, the Funnel remains the most rudimentary. You'll most definitely find a funnel at the core of every flywheel or hourglass simply because it is the most basic representation of the marketing process.

But does that mean we need to dismiss other models? No! What these newer versions do bring to the table is a new light, a new way of thinking into tried-and-tested basics. Or rather, they unearth a perspective that we sometimes tend to gloss over.

The Marketing Flywheel shows us we're never really done marketing

While other frameworks give us a clear beginning, middle, and end, the flywheel reminds us that marketing is a continuous cycle.

Marketing, after all, is founded on building relationships. And like healthy relationships, you don't end them once you get what you want—instead, you hone and nurture them so they last a lifetime.