In this article, we will explain the origin of this strategy, how it is defined and how it works. Join us!
How did the FlyWheel come about?
Brian Holligan, CEO of HubSpot (a pioneering software company for inbound process automation) realized, through market research, that the sales funnel was not helping companies grow quickly.
In this sense, he proposed a new way of applying the inbound marketing methodology.
At “INBOUND 2018”, all attendees of the event were shocked by this new perspective, since the sales funnel had practically positioned itself powerfully within digital marketing.
HubSpot conducts this market study with its clients every year to find out how effective its software packages (CRM, marketing, sales and customer service) have been in increasing their profits through the number of sales.
Based on these studies, it was identified that “word of mouth recommendation” is a determining factor for consumers to make a purchase, above paid advertising campaigns or content positioned on the web.
If you want to see Brian Halligan's presentation at INBOUND 2018, presenting the FlyWheel, here's the video below. Remember to set the subtitles to Spanish.
The importance of “word of mouth recommendations”
Another discovery of this study is that the sales funnel lost its “push” once the prospect reached the bottom due to not properly considering the role of its satisfied customers (brand promoters).
No matter how much effort the marketing and sales department put into attracting qualified leads and closing sales, if they did not lead the customer to ultimately recommend the product or service, they would start over with each lead that entered the conversion funnel, generating more costs and less return on investment.
In this sense, the FlyWheel emerged to solve the problem that marketing funnels were presenting by losing the energy deposited in them when the prospect reaches the bottom.
For this new paradigm, it makes more sense to take advantage of all the efforts that were implemented to build customer loyalty and ensure that the customer himself helps the company grow by recommending its products and services.
This way, new prospects will go directly to the purchase and therefore, will not go through the entire initial funnel process.
Read also: What is word of mouth marketing?
Here is a video where the Hubspot team explains the problem of the sales funnel qatar number for whatsapp and why it was necessary to think of a new model:
What is the FlyWheel?
Now, the FlyWheel is a circular representation of the sales process that was transformed at the same time into a new inbound marketing methodology.
This methodology links the functions of marketing and sales, but in a circular way, as if it were a wheel. In fact, this term is translated into Spanish as “steering wheel” and is an analogy to understand the physical factors involved: force and friction.
The FlyWheel 's proposal is to build a cyclic conversion funnel that allows energy to flow while maintaining movement and stopping exclusively due to friction, as established by the laws of physics.
Therefore, it consists of a new way of attracting, interacting with and delighting consumers , with the aim of ensuring that this dynamic does not lose strength (as it is claimed occurred within the funnel) and that it focuses even more on customer growth through word-of-mouth recommendations.
How does the FlyWheel work?
There are two important elements within this methodology: force and friction.
Strength refers to the strategies that are implemented to transform users into leads and leads into customers.
Friction occurs when the strategies being implemented are not meeting user needs or are being neglected at some point.
To avoid such friction, within this methodology, it is highly recommended to automate processes with a CRM when doing content marketing, executing social media plans, carrying out lead nurturing campaigns, implementing lead scoring parameters, providing customer service, among others.
With these strategies, friction would be eliminated and the probability of closing sales would increase. To achieve this goal, it is important that the marketing and sales teams are aligned and have common goals.
As you can see, the world of advertising and digital marketing is constantly changing.
We have moved from outbound to inbound and from the sales funnel to the FlyWheel. Today, the goal is to make customers repeat their purchasing experiences over and over again, thus attracting more buyers from their word-of-mouth recommendations.