Moving from the funnel to a flywheel

Brian Halligan, co-founder and CEO of HubSpot, did exactly what we all try and avoid – he reinvented the wheel. The flywheel, that is.

This marketing model didn’t completely kill the funnel model – more the flywheel builds on basic principles of the funnel such as, attracting and converting customers, but doubles down by using them as an energy input.

As an Inbound Marketing agency in Dallas, our clients are always approaching us for ways to target their customer base and make and increase conversions. To increase efficiency of this process we suggest using the HubSpot flywheel model to decrease friction and use customers as a growth strategy.

As conferences go, sometimes the session information isn’t as ground-breaking or innovative as one would like. Sometimes you just need a reminder of the basics. That can’t be said for this keynote. Brian challenged a room full of 24,000 marketers to look at a tried and true system in a different way – the flywheel.

It wasn’t so much that Brian re-invented the wheel as much as made it better. Here’s how:

HubSpot Flywheel 101

Attract:
As every organization wants to attract customers, the flywheel model puts the emphasize on retaining customers. The “attract” part of the flywheel makes value immediate to potential customer, whether through education, information or freebies. The more you give to your potential customers, the more likely they are to create positive associations with your business and recommend you to others.

Engage:
Take responsibility of your contribution to the decision making process. If your site or team is making any part of the Buyer’s Journey difficult, you are missing an opportunity for creating an advocate customer. Provide value to your customers with helpful customer service and a simple purchasing process.

Delight:
This is where the game changes. Delight used to be the least important part of the funnel – now it’s the most important part of the flywheel. Delight is seen through educating, providing guidance, and making a commitment to your customer. Your customers success is your success and they will thank you for it.

Force and Friction

Your customers represent the force in the flywheel – through delight customers are maintained and become promoters of your brand. Word of mouth can bring exponential growth to your business.

The friction is any area of the Buyer’s Journey that does not delight your customer. An easy tell for a friction point comes from customer feedback, listen to their negative experiences. Where do they encounter difficulty? Ask your sales team for feedback as well, they work directly with customers and have insights to problem areas.

New HubSpot Features for 2018/2019

We are so excited about the updates that were announced in this session. Here is the latest and how it can strengthen your Dallas-based business.

1. Hubspot Video
   1. Hosted video, in-video CTAs, and receiving video metrics directly to your email is a new function that allows you to streamline your marketing process and reach your customers with ease.
2. Enterprise
   1. If your company is investing into enterprise software, then your money is going even further with these updates: the recently released Conversations tool, predictive lead scoring, advanced team management integrated into Slack.
   2. HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise also got a host of exciting features with the addition of playbooks, calling transcription, eSignature and quota management tools.
3. Service Hub Starter
   1. If your business hasn’t been ready to commit to Service Hub, ease into it using the starter level software that includes Tickets, help desk, and basic features to test if Service Hub is right for you.
4. Hosted CMS
   1. HubSpot is now allowing non-marketing customers to host their website on HubSpot CMS, which has previously only been accessible to Marketing Hub members. This update will be available on September 5th. Follow this link to view stand-alone CMS.
5. Hubspot Pricing
   1. HubSpot is making it easier than ever to be a customer, with lower prices on all product packages, new product releases, and the addition of customer levels to Sales and Service Hub. To learn more about pricing click here.
6. Say goodbye to the Keywords Tool
   1. Keywords became an increasingly obsolete feature because of security and algorithm updates made by Google. In favor of Keywords tool, HubSpot is using Content Strategy to optimize SEO because of its superior capabilities in predicting customer searches.

If any of these HubSpot updates get you excited about sales and marketing, Atomic is a Dallas HubSpot Agency Certified Partner that can help you navigate the packages that are right for your business.

Key Takeaway

It’s time to stop working harder and start working smarter. Business is no longer herding potential customers through a sales funnel to rack up customer conversion rates as quickly as possible. Make the process delightful and you will not only keep more customers but be endorsed by them. New features, discounted package rates, and additional customer levels make it more affordable and easier than ever to market your business with HubSpot.