The invention of the wheel stands as one of humanity’s most pivotal breakthroughs, fundamentally transforming how we travel and work. In a similar vein, the field of marketing has undergone its own significant evolution, thanks to a particular wheel.
For more than a century, marketers have relied on the linear marketing funnel to map the customer journey. In a traditional sales funnel, customers move through a series of stages from awareness to purchase. There’s a beginning and end to the process. However, a new paradigm—the marketing flywheel—emerged in 2018, offering a cyclical view of the buyer’s journey, with customers at the center. Instead of a one-way funnel, the flywheel emphasizes continuous growth, creating a self-sustaining loop of engagement and loyalty.
What is a marketing flywheel?
Originally designed by Hubspot in 2018, a marketing flywheel visualizes the customer journey as a continuous cycle focused on making customers love your brand and refer others.
The term “flywheel” is an engineering concept referring to any wheel that builds on its own momentum using inertia. It starts slow, but the more effort you put in, the more momentum you begin to see. Eventually, progress becomes self-sustaining.
In a marketing flywheel, this same idea is reflected throughout your marketing efforts to fuel business growth. The effects of your marketing efforts are cumulative, building customer awareness and loyalty over time.
Marketing flywheel vs. marketing funnel
A marketing flywheel is a cyclical framework, while a marketing funnel is linear:
Marketing funnel
The traditional marketing funnel has three stages—awareness, consideration, and conversion—gradually filtering out prospects until they purchase. Once a prospect becomes a customer, the funnel ends, requiring new prospects to restart the process. This can result in high customer acquisition costs and the ongoing need for lead generation. Sales and marketing departments tend to be siloed, each working on a specific section of the funnel. Typically, most effort is placed at the top, with the least at the bottom.
Marketing flywheel
A marketing flywheel uses current customers to attract new ones. Instead of considering the conversion process complete once a purchase is made, the marketing team collaborates with other departments, like your customer success team, to ensure ongoing satisfaction, loyalty, and referrals. This can lead to more customers turning into brand advocates and reduce overall customer acquisition costs.
A flywheel marketing model also includes more cross-team collaboration and better resource allocation than a traditional funnel. All teams, including marketing, service, and product, work together to enhance the customer journey at every touchpoint.
How the marketing flywheel works
A marketing flywheel has three stages: attract, engage, and delight.
- Attract. At the attract phase, you generate interest in your offerings within your target market, typically using an inbound marketing strategy that shares engaging content, social media posts, blog articles, or pay-per-click (PPC) ads. It can also involve mass-market advertising or outbound sales efforts.
- Engage. At the engagement stage, you connect with people already familiar with your brand and deepen the relationship. Some tools from the attract stage, like content and outbound sales, remain the same, but the goal shifts from building awareness to fostering ongoing relationships that convert prospective customers into loyal customers.
- Delight. The delight stage focuses on existing customers. At this point, your goal is to ensure they are thrilled to refer your brand to others. You might achieve this through exceptional customer service, surprise gifts, or unique unboxing experiences.
The flywheel model treats prospective customers as individuals cycling through these stages rather than leads that “complete” a sales funnel. As you improve each flywheel stage, you add force to sustain its momentum. When customers genuinely connect with your brand, they advocate to their friends and family, bringing in new customers. Because these new customers already have a positive view of your brand, they’re more likely to convert and remain loyal. They then accelerate the flywheel by bringing in even more like-minded customers.
Tips for excelling at every stage of the marketing flywheel
- Prioritize the customer experience
- Leverage data and insights
- Build relationships
- Listen, improve, and adapt
- Encourage advocacy and referrals
- Collaborate across departments
Applying force and reducing friction makes the flywheel spin faster. In a marketing flywheel, applying force means delivering consistent value to customers, while reducing friction means eliminating obstacles in the customer journey. Here are six ways to do that:
1. Prioritize the customer experience
Focus on providing a positive customer experience. If your customers are happy, they’re more likely to proceed to the next stage.
In the attract stage, first impressions are everything. Anticipate customers’ pain points and deliver high-quality content that addresses their questions. For example, a skin care brand might create blog posts or videos about combatting dry skin in the winter.
At the engage stage, use tailored communication, like ad retargeting or personalized emails. For example, if a prospect views a product page but doesn’t purchase, send them a targeted ad for that item. Then, monitor ad frequency to avoid to overwhelming your prospects. A sweet spot is one to two ad impressions per week per prospect.
Finally, at the delight stage, ensure customers feel heard and appreciated so they remain engaged. Use loyalty programs to drive referrals, and proactively ask for feedback.
2. Leverage data and insights
Sometimes, data is the best storyteller. Reviewing data—like engagement metrics and customer feedback—at every stage of the flywheel helps refine strategies and better meet customer expectations.
Use analytics tools like Google Analytics to monitor and optimize campaigns on the fly. Use predictive analytics to identify customers at risk of churning and proactively offer personalized incentives. Leverage cross-channel data—including website behavior, social media, email, and paid advertising—to create a cohesive experience across all touchpoints.
You’ll measure each part of the flywheel with different metrics, depending on your business. Here are the most common at each stage:
- Attract. Total website visits.
- Engage. First-time purchases and conversion rate.
- Delight. Returning purchases and NPS score.
3. Build relationships
Would you rather buy headphones at a big-box store, where details are scarce and checkout is rushed, or from a specialized audio shop, where experts take the time to guide you? The personal touch is core to the marketing flywheel’s goal of turning customers into brand evangelists through meaningful connections. The best way to do this is to have an authentic brand voice, deliver consistent value, and, most of all, listen to your customers.
For example, a skin care company might offer new customers a free skin consultation to build personalized routines. To keep building loyalty, they might send a segment of customers new formulations to try out before wider release.
4. Listen, improve, and adapt
Create feedback loops between your customers and your employees by monitoring survey responses, social media comments, and customer support tickets. This process helps you deeply understand customer perceptions of your brand. Stay updated on shifts in customer preferences; what might have worked two years ago may not work today. Adjust marketing strategies and product offerings to stay relevant and competitive.
For example, say a clothing company notices more negative customer feedback about clothing manufacturing practices. It could get ahead of this concern by launching a new, sustainable line and releasing content highlighting its ethical processes.
5. Encourage advocacy and referrals
Customer advocacy is a key part of the marketing flywheel. While happy customers naturally spread the word about your brand and bring in new prospects, you can create high-impact brand advocates through targeted marketing efforts:
- Offer referral programs or incentives, like discounts for purchases made through their referral links.
- Ask for user-generated content (UGC) to highlight real customer success stories on your websites and social channels.
- Send a post-purchase email series asking for a review.
- Create a brand ambassador program.
6. Collaborate across departments
While a marketing funnel creates siloed departments—the marketing team brings in prospects, the sales team turns them into paying customers, customer support reps manage post-purchase issues, etc.—a marketing flywheel emphasizes collaboration across teams. Each department works together to attract, engage, and delight customers.
For example, sales and marketing teams work together to create consistent messaging, while customer support departments communicate feedback to product development teams.
Marketing flywheel FAQ
What is the flywheel model in marketing?
The flywheel model in marketing is a cyclical framework that puts the customer at the center of the business strategy. It emphasizes customer retention and brand advocacy, where satisfied customers help generate referrals and repeat sales.
What are the stages in the marketing flywheel model?
A marketing flywheel model has three stages: attract, engage, and delight.
Why should you use a marketing flywheel?
Using a marketing flywheel creates a more customer-centric approach than the traditional marketing funnel. It encourages long-term relationships and promotes collaboration across departments. This results in self-sustaining business growth, reducing the need for constant lead generation.
