Let me guess.

You want to grow and scale your business. You want more people to visit your website, click on your links, and for pity's sake, convert them into loyal customers. You believe that out of the seven billion people out there, you can't get at least a handful who are interested in the services you offer. And better still, you feel that you have the resources it takes to grow your business. 

But you don't have the right strategy to put these resources into work. You're probably wondering how you can reach out and sell your ideas to prospects and successfully turn them into loyal customers. Relax, your business's growth problems are over. Read on to find the spark that will ignite your growth and skyrocket your business through the flywheel effect.

Your Crush On the Prospect

A great analogy is that of the lover who wants to gain the attention of a beautiful lady somewhere and make her his lover. If he plays his cards right, she may become his girlfriend or, better yet, marry him. If he doesn't, he may also see her in never again.

That is the problem of any business that has its eyes on growth. If you are strategic and give the prospect what they love, they might consider a permanent relationship with your enterprise. If somewhere along the way or at the beginning, you mess up, that is the end of the story.

Let's assume that you and your business have a crush on your prospect; how do you lead them into from just prospects into loyal customers? By implementing the growth flywheel.

An Overview of the Growth Flywheel

The growth flywheel is a visualisation that companies use to represent their relationship with their prospective customers. You can't discuss the flywheel without mentioning the marketing funnel.

Many businesses today are switching from the funnel to the flywheel. To get a better understanding of the flywheel, we have to make a brief detour and speak about the funnel.

The Marketing Funnel   

The funnel is a marketing visualisation that represents your interactions with leads that eventually turn them into prospects. If you were to apply the funnel in your marketing, it would have three stages: lead generation, lead nurturing, and sales. Here, you assume that your interaction with leads resembles a funnel. In your marketing, you cast a wide net to prospects through advertising and then weed them out to a few who are willing to give your business a try. Your marketing funnel strategy will likely have the following stages: awareness, interest, consideration, intent, and sales. It's that easy. 

The Flywheel

The flywheel is the new visualisation every business owner talking about and is the successor of the marketing funnel and the buyer's journey. 

A flywheel is a heavy metallic wheel that efficiently stores energy and builds momentum as it rotates and uses it to increase its velocity. Now that we have efficiency, velocity, and momentum in the same sentence as your business, we must be going somewhere. The most important thing to note in the Flywheel is that there isn't any energy lost.

In the funnel, we speak of losing prospects, but since no energy is lost in the flywheel, we speak of friction. Friction represents the things that slow down your flywheel.

The Flywheel Effect on Your Marketing And Sales

How does this flywheel thing apply in my business? That's the question you must be asking yourself. The flywheel helps your business run a product-led user experience in your marketing campaign. This means that each stage of interaction with prospects is equal and related to the next stage in your lead nurturing process.

No energy or prospects are lost from the time you engage a large group of prospects to the time they convert and purchase your product. Since its circular, you must have noticed that it has no end. This means that once a prospect buys your product, that does not mark the end of your relationship but the beginning of a long-term relationship. That prospect becomes part of your momentum, and you put effective strategies in place to turn them into recurrent and even loyal customers.

What Are the Key Components of A Flywheel

Your marketing flywheel visualisation will most likely have a circle with marketing processes and strategies on the outside and customer relationship management (CRM) at the centre. The most important thing to note is that the customer is always at the centre of the wheel. Everything revolves around the customer.

Your Inbound Marketing and The Internal Circle 

If you are not yet on the inbound marketing train, you should give it some serious consideration. Inbound marketing is a form of marketing where the customer searches for your content instead of the other way round. The benefits of inbound marketing over outbound are numerous; that's why you should give it a try. The inbound marketing processes that will make your flywheel include; attracting, engaging, and delighting the prospect.

• Attract- At this stage, you are trying to attract a prospect's attention to your business. Attracting your prospect through inbound marketing will include strategies such as blogging, content marketing, social selling, search engine optimisation, and conversion rate optimisation.
• Engage- At this point, you make it easier for the attracted leads to interact with your business and products. You focus on making it convenient for buyers to buy your product at their own time and preferred means. Some strategies you can implement during engagement include website and e-mail personalisation, database segmentation, marketing automation, lead scoring and free trials, blogging, podcasts, and chat boxes.
• Delight- Once your customer commits to your product, you shift focus to the post-sale customer experience at the delight stage. Your delight strategy can include proactive customer service, multichannel availability, free shipping, reward programs, return policies, automated onboarding customer feedback surveys, and loyalty programs.

Benefits Of The Flywheel

Viewing your lead generation and customer engagement in the eyes of a marketing flywheel comes with several advantages. These include;

1. Your Customer Becomes More Than Just an Output

Marketing using the funnel leaves your leads and customers as the end-product of your marketing. The flywheel, however, sees your existing customers as inputs and resources that can help grow your business. Your loyal customers grow your business through referrals and repeat sales.

 2. It Focuses on Customer Retention

A typical marketing funnel is centred on pursuing and nurturing leads over retaining existing customers. Any industry expert will tell you that retaining customers is way cheaper than pursuing new ones. The flywheel approach not only enables you to attract new customers but also focuses on customer retention in your product marketing.

3. It is Based on Delight Instead Of Awareness

A regular marketing campaign will revolve around creating as much awareness around as many people as possible. The funnel approach not only creates awareness but leans most of its weight towards delight and customer experience. This is through strategies such as free trials, customer support, and return policies.

The Key Take-Away

Adopting the flywheel approach in your lead generation and nurturing will go a long way in helping your business reach its growth plans.

DigiKat is a one-stop-shop for all your digital advertising needs. We offer solutions that drive leads, engagement, and sales for HubSpot clients. For more information about marketing and growth strategies, contact us today and let us be part of your story.