From the funnel method to the flywheel method. Funnel marketing vs flywheel marketing is distinct from each other. In the business world, you’ve probably come across these two terms, specifically sales and marketing. For a long time, businesses have centered their sales and marketing efforts on the sales funnel. While this has been shown to be effective, there have been some failures among salespeople, business leaders, and marketers.

Given that word-of-mouth and customer referrals have the greatest influence on consumer behavior, the sales funnel is flawed in that it treats the consumer as an afterthought rather than a driving force. This resulted in the flywheel. The difference between funnel marketing vs. flywheel marketing enables us to know how it will affect sales and marketing.

What is a Funnel?

Funnel method is a model for company growth that depicts a consumer’s path from awareness to purchase, created by E St Elmo Lewis. The journey may differ based on the buying persona, kind of goods and services purchased, and other factors.

Stages

Awareness

This is the first stage in the sales funnel, during which a prospect customer learns about an existing product or service. It might be through Google advertisements, social media postings, billboards, and radio commercials, to name a few methods.

Interest

Here, the client shows interest in the goods or services. Inquiring about a product, expressing admiration for a social media post, following a firm online, actively looking for the company’s website, and signing up for the mailing list are all examples of this.

Evaluation 

The consumer will evaluate comparable goods or services from various vendors in this instance. 

Decision

After that, the seller makes a final decision and then negotiates. 

Action

The consumer makes a purchase.

Customer retention

After-sale incentives such as special discounts, technical assistance standards, and product usage instructions should be provided to ensure repeat customers and referrals.

What is a Flywheel?

This is a sales model that focuses on the momentum of delighted customers to repeat purchases and drive referrals, as developed by James Watt. It’s a customer-satisfaction-through-spending approach that works on the idea of leveraging all of one’s energy on the client, thus positively translating into not only sales but also other aspects of the company.

Stages

Attract

This is where you pique the interest of prospects so that they learn more about your company. Your consumers will be attracted to your brand at this time.

Engage

Engagement occurs when you establish meaningful connections with the client. This is where you help them choose your company by making it simple to acquire your goods.

Delight

This is where you come in after the sale to make sure that your clients have a good experience. Delight is about providing delighted customers with enjoyment throughout their journey. It entails creating an unforgettable experience for your clients that they will want to share with others.

Momentum

Force

The things you put energy into your flywheel will determine how quickly a prospect becomes a customer. Factors such as quick availability of property, reasonable pricing, unique features, outstanding client service, and offers are all examples of external factors that home builders like you may use to spin the flywheel faster.

Friction

On the other hand, friction slows down your sales. These are the factors that might prevent someone from making a purchase, such as lengthy build times or a scarcity of desirable neighborhood houses. Your objective is to eliminate this friction. For example, you could reduce the friction of long build times by ensuring that you always have a great variety of fast possession residences.

Funnel Marketing vs Flywheel Marketing

The objective of the two-stage funnel is to generate sales, but their approach varies. This shift from linear sales to a cyclic sales marketing model. The following are some of the key distinctions between flywheel marketing and the funnel marketing method:

Marketing

The marketing funnel template is more focused on recruiting one-time customers. It’s also known as a user acquisition funnel because it focuses on obtaining new users. Its structuring, which keeps the top of the funnel weighted and puts all of its energy and efforts into finding new consumers instead of repeat buyers, is easy to see.

In contrast, flywheel is intent on customer pleasure and seeks to repeat purchases from current clients. It’s long-term and curvaceous.

Marketing flywheel allows you to utilize client marketing methods such as in-person gatherings, client newsletters, and unique clients’ content to nurture your leads over time. Customer engagement ensures that they return for new goods and services from you. As a result, the momentum of your flywheel and customer base increases.

Sales

Despite the fact that both aim to turn leads into sales, the flywheel is more effective since it centers clients in its procedures and works to eliminate friction by using a straightforward pricing technique, ensuring there is collaboration and full engagement with prospects. While business requirements differ, what may be successful for one company model may not work for another.

Your customers are better marketers than you because of the ability to buy everything they need and the many alternatives available. The flywheel is all about relationships. It not only spins your wheel faster, but it also keeps it running. The flywheel gets stronger as your consumers develop. Your company grows more rapidly when your customers do so too.

Service

The term “flywheel” instantly conjures up images of movement, and this is one of the most significant changes from the marketing funnel. Gravity pulls anything you put into a funnel down, and that’s somewhat similar in the marketing funnel. We expect prospects to naturally progress through each stage of the funnel.

The flywheel, on the other hand, is always spinning. Its circular form better emphasizes the importance of the consumer in the sales process. Some versions of the funnel do include an arrow that leads from the end of the funnel back up to the top to indicate that consumers help put more people into the funnel, although it isn’t located at the core

Final Thoughts

It may be difficult to redesign a tool that is so important to a marketing team’s success. For a long time, funnels were useful for a variety of tasks. It’s possible that they still do. Despite the fact that the flywheel model shook up the online marketing industry, there have been no further developments since then. It appears that the vast majority of the industry is in agreement.

Whatever method you choose for your organization, whether it’s a more traditional approach or the most up-to-date method, what matters is that you’re tracking where your clients are coming from, what they’re experiencing, and how to overcome any growth resistance they may be experiencing.