Hubspot flywheel vs funnel

Here’s how to think about the HubSpot flywheel vs. the traditional marketing funnel: The flywheel is a modern, customer-centric model that prioritizes ongoing delight and advocacy to fuel continuous growth, while the funnel is a more linear, acquisition-focused approach that often sees the customer as the end product of a sale. If you’re looking to build a business that thrives on customer loyalty and word-of-mouth, the flywheel is probably a better fit for your overall strategy, though you’ll still find funnel-like thinking useful for measuring specific processes within your business.

For years, many of us in business, myself included, relied on the trusty marketing funnel to map out our customer journeys. It made sense, right? You pour leads in at the top, nurture them through the middle, and bam – customers pop out the bottom. But the world, and especially how people buy things, has changed a lot. That’s why HubSpot made a bold move a few years back, essentially retiring “ye olde funnel” for their overarching growth model and embracing something called the flywheel. This wasn’t just a fancy rebranding. it was a fundamental shift in how they viewed business growth, putting the customer squarely at the center.

This whole discussion isn’t just about picking a cool new metaphor. it’s about choosing a strategy that genuinely reflects how modern businesses grow and how customers behave today. With word-of-mouth and customer experience becoming massive drivers of sales, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of both the funnel and the flywheel is key to staying competitive. We’re going to break down both models, look at why HubSpot champions the flywheel, and help you figure out which approach or combination makes the most sense for your business to not just grow, but to grow better.

The Traditional Marketing Funnel: A Tried-and-True, Yet Evolving, Approach

Let’s rewind a bit and talk about the marketing funnel. This model has been around for ages, dating back to the AIDA Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action framework first developed in the late 1800s. For decades, it was the go-to way to visualize a customer’s journey, and honestly, it worked pretty well for its time.

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Think of it like a literal funnel. You start with a wide net at the top, bringing in as many potential customers as possible, and then, as they move down, the numbers narrow as some drop off, until a smaller group emerges as actual paying customers at the bottom.

Stages of the Marketing Funnel

While there are variations, most marketing funnels typically involve these core stages:

• Awareness Top of the Funnel – ToFU: This is where potential customers first get to know about your brand, product, or service. They might not even know they have a problem yet, or they’re just starting to look for solutions. At this stage, your job is to grab their attention.
  • Tactics: Think broad reach here: blog posts, social media campaigns, SEO, paid ads, public relations, TV commercials, and mass mailings. The goal is to cast a wide net and generate interest.
• Interest/Consideration Middle of the Funnel – MoFU: Once they’re aware, prospects start to engage more deeply. They’re doing their research, comparing options, and trying to understand how your offering might solve their specific problem. Here, you’re building relationships and trust.
  • Tactics: This is where you offer more detailed, valuable content like e-books, whitepapers, webinars, case studies, product demos, comparison guides, and email newsletters.
• Desire/Conversion Bottom of the Funnel – BoFU: At this point, the prospect has done their homework and is seriously considering making a purchase. They’re weighing their final options, looking for that last nudge to commit.
  • Tactics: Free trials, consultations, personalized demos, testimonials, pricing pages, special promotions, and direct sales outreach are common here. The aim is to close the deal.
• Loyalty Sometimes included as the very bottom: Some funnel models extend to a loyalty stage, aiming to turn one-time buyers into repeat customers and even advocates. However, traditionally, the funnel’s primary focus was on getting to that initial conversion.

The Funnel’s Strengths

• Clear, Linear Progression: It’s easy to understand and visualize the customer’s journey from stranger to customer. This linearity makes it straightforward for teams to see their specific roles.
• Good for Acquisition: The funnel excels at strategizing and measuring efforts to bring in new leads and convert them. It’s all about moving prospects forward.
• Definable Stages: Each stage has clear objectives and associated marketing tactics, making it easier to plan campaigns and allocate resources.

The Funnel’s Weaknesses

• Customers as an Afterthought: This is the big one. Once a customer “drops out” of the bottom of the funnel, the model often implies the job is done. It doesn’t adequately account for how satisfied customers can drive new business.
• Loses Momentum: The energy you put into acquiring a customer often dissipates once the sale is made. There’s no inherent mechanism in the traditional funnel to leverage that positive experience for future growth.
• Siloed Teams: The linear nature of the funnel can inadvertently encourage teams marketing, sales, service to work in silos, passing customers off rather than collaborating for a continuous experience.
• Doesn’t Reflect Modern Buyer Behavior: Today’s buyers don’t always follow a neat, linear path. They jump in and out of stages, relying heavily on peer reviews, social media, and word-of-mouth before ever talking to a sales rep. The traditional funnel struggles to account for these “invisible” parts of the buyer’s journey.

The HubSpot Flywheel: A Continuous Growth Engine

Enter the flywheel. HubSpot introduced this model in 2018, proposing it as a better way to visualize and drive business growth customer-centric world. The idea isn’t new. it’s based on an old concept by James Watt yes, the steam engine guy! – a heavy wheel that stores and releases energy efficiently. Mastering HubSpot’s File Manager: Your Ultimate Guide to Digital Asset Domination

In a business context, the flywheel represents the momentum you gain when your entire organization is aligned around delivering an outstanding customer experience. The core idea is that customers aren’t just an output. they are the driving force that fuels your growth.

How the Flywheel Works

The speed of your flywheel depends on three main factors:

1. How fast you spin it: This comes from applying “force” – the strategies and programs you put in place to attract, engage, and delight customers. Think of things like inbound marketing, targeted ads, or even a freemium model.
2. How much friction there is: Friction slows your flywheel down. This could be anything from poor customer service handoffs between teams to a confusing buying process or even a bad product. Your goal is to identify and remove these friction points.
3. Its size and composition: This refers to your customer base and how strong your advocacy programs are. More happy customers and strong internal alignment make your flywheel more substantial.

Unlike the funnel, where energy is lost at the bottom, the flywheel harnesses the energy from happy customers and uses it to attract new ones, creating a self-sustaining cycle of growth.

Stages of the HubSpot Flywheel

HubSpot’s flywheel is built around three core stages, closely tied to its inbound methodology:

• Attract: This stage is all about pulling in the right customers with valuable content and experiences. It’s about earning attention, not forcing it.
  • Tactics: Think content marketing, SEO, social media, targeted paid advertising, and conversion rate optimization. The goal is to become a trusted resource that naturally draws people in.
• Engage: Once you’ve attracted people, you need to build trust and connect with them by offering insights and solutions that address their pain points and goals. This stage focuses on building relationships.
  • Tactics: Personalized email marketing, chatbots, sales interactions, targeted offers, and nurturing sequences.
• Delight: This is where you provide exceptional help and support to empower customers to find success with their purchase and achieve their goals. The aim is to surpass their expectations and turn them into promoters.
  • Tactics: Outstanding customer service, self-service knowledge bases, community forums, proactive support, personalized onboarding, customer success programs, and loyalty programs.

The beauty here is that delighted customers don’t just “leave” the system. they feed back into the “Attract” stage through positive word-of-mouth, reviews, and referrals, helping you attract more customers. Unlock Your Business Potential: A Guide to HubSpot’s Amazing Free Tools

The Flywheel’s Strengths

• Customer-Centric: Puts the customer at the absolute core of your business strategy, recognizing them as an input and a driver of growth, not just an output. This reflects how modern consumers choose brands.
• Sustainable, Long-Term Growth: Leverages the momentum from satisfied customers to generate repeat business and referrals, creating a self-sustaining growth loop.
• Reduces Friction and Promotes Alignment: Emphasizes removing barriers between departments marketing, sales, service to create a seamless, holistic customer experience. This means everyone is working towards the same goal: customer success.
• Reflects Modern Buyer Behavior: Acknowledges the power of word-of-mouth, online reviews, and peer recommendations digital . Did you know that 57% of B2B sales processes are completed before customers even contact vendors, relying heavily on third-party reviews and recommendations?
• Cost-Effective: Acquiring new customers can be incredibly expensive. Focusing on retaining and delighting existing ones is often much more cost-effective. Studies show that acquiring a new customer can be 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one. A mere 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by 25% to 95%.

Funnel vs. Flywheel: Key Differences and a Shift in Mindset

we’ve got the linear, acquisition-focused funnel and the cyclical, customer-centric flywheel. What are the big takeaways when you put them side-by-side?

1. Structure: Linear vs. Cyclical

• Funnel: It’s a straight line or a cone, to be precise. Prospects enter at the top, move through stages, and exit at the bottom. The process has a perceived end.
• Flywheel: It’s a continuous loop. Customers are at the center, and their satisfaction fuels the next cycle of growth. There’s no “end” to the journey. it just keeps spinning.

2. Customer Role: Output vs. Input

• Funnel: Views customers as the output of the process. Once they buy, they’ve effectively “fallen out” of the funnel.
• Flywheel: Positions customers as the input and driving force for future growth. Their success and advocacy directly influence the next set of potential customers.

3. Primary Focus: Acquisition vs. Retention & Advocacy

• Funnel: Historically, its main goal was converting prospects into buyers. It excelled at lead generation and closing deals.
• Flywheel: While it still attracts new customers, its critical differentiator is the emphasis on delighting existing customers to generate loyalty, repeat business, and powerful word-of-mouth referrals. Loyal customers are 50% more likely to try new products and spend 31% more than new customers. In fact, 86% of loyal customers will recommend a brand to friends and family.

4. Momentum: Lost vs. Leveraged

• Funnel: Tends to lose momentum at the bottom. The energy and effort you put into acquiring a customer often don’t directly carry over to drive future sales.
• Flywheel: Built to leverage momentum. The positive experience of existing customers creates a force that helps spin the wheel faster, attracting new prospects more efficiently.

5. Team Alignment: Siloed vs. Integrated

• Funnel: Can lead to departments working in isolation, with marketing handing off to sales, and sales handing off to service. This often creates “friction” or “clumsy handoffs” that can lead to a bad customer experience.
• Flywheel: Requires and encourages all teams marketing, sales, and service to be aligned and collaborative, constantly working together to attract, engage, and delight customers. Reducing friction is a shared responsibility.

Why HubSpot Made the Switch

HubSpot, a company practically synonymous with inbound marketing and the funnel for a long time, didn’t just wake up one day and decide to change. Their CEO, Brian Halligan, noted that the traditional funnel was showing “cracks” due to fundamental changes in how buyers make decisions.

• The Power of Word-of-Mouth: Modern buyers are incredibly savvy. They trust peer reviews, social media mentions, and third-party sites far more than direct advertising. The funnel didn’t adequately account for this organic, customer-driven advocacy.
• Customer Experience is King: It’s no longer just about the product or price. it’s about the entire experience a customer has with your brand. In fact, many believe a bad customer experience is now a greater threat to growth than competitors themselves. Businesses that focus on customer experience see an 80% increase in revenue and are 60% more profitable than those that don’t.
• Post-Purchase Value: The funnel treated the customer as an end-state. HubSpot realized that the most valuable part of the customer journey might actually begin after the purchase, with opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, and, most importantly, turning them into advocates.
• CRM at the Core: With HubSpot’s CRM at the center of its platform, it became clear that the customer data stored there could and should fuel growth across all departments, not just marketing or sales.

By embracing the flywheel, HubSpot shifted its focus to a model that better reflects these realities, emphasizing continuous customer engagement and satisfaction. Unlocking Growth: Your Guide to the HubSpot Ecosystem Marketplace

When to Use Each Model or Both!

This isn’t necessarily an “either/or” situation. While the flywheel offers a more holistic, modern view of business growth, the principles of the funnel are still valuable for specific tasks.

Use the Flywheel for Your Overall Business Strategy

For your overarching business growth strategy, the flywheel is generally the more effective model because it aligns your entire company around the customer and sustainable growth. It encourages you to think about how every interaction, from the first touchpoint to post-purchase support, contributes to building momentum and reducing friction. This is especially true if:

• You rely heavily on repeat business, referrals, or word-of-mouth.
• Your customer lifetime value CLV is a key metric.
• You want to break down silos between marketing, sales, and service teams.
• You prioritize customer experience as a competitive differentiator.

Use Funnels for Specific Processes and Measurement

Even with a flywheel mindset, you’ll still find funnel-shaped charts useful for measuring the effectiveness of particular processes within your company. For example:

• Conversion Funnels: You might use a funnel to track visitors to a landing page, how many sign up for a newsletter, or how many complete a specific purchase path. This helps you identify drop-off points and optimize specific conversion rates.
• Sales Pipeline: Your sales team will still manage leads through a sales funnel, from qualified lead to closed-won. This helps them manage their pipeline and forecast revenue.
• Campaign Performance: Measuring the effectiveness of an ad campaign from initial impression to final click can still be visualized as a funnel.

The key is to remember that these “mini-funnels” are components that contribute to the larger spinning flywheel. They don’t represent the entire customer journey or the overall business growth mechanism. Unlocking Your Earnings: A Complete HubSpot Ecosystem Salary Guide

Integrating Flywheel Principles into Your Business

So, how do you actually make your business more “flywheel-friendly”? It’s all about intentional effort to boost those “forces” and cut down on “friction.”

1. Attract Better, Not Just More

Instead of just chasing any lead, focus on attracting the right customers. This means really understanding your ideal customer and creating content that genuinely helps them.

• High-Quality Content: Invest in blog posts, videos, podcasts, and social media content that educates and solves problems, not just promotes your product.
• SEO & Social Media: Make sure your valuable content is discoverable through search engines and shared on relevant social platforms.
• Personalized Ads: Use targeted advertising that speaks directly to the needs of specific audience segments rather than broad, generic campaigns.

2. Engage Thoughtfully, Not Forcefully

Build relationships by providing relevant, timely, and personalized interactions.

• Seamless Sales Process: Ensure your sales team focuses on solving for prospects, not just selling. This means listening to their needs and offering solutions that truly align.
• Chatbots & Live Chat: Offer instant support and information, allowing prospects to connect with you how, when, and where they want.
• Valuable Email Nurturing: Send emails that provide ongoing value, tailored to the prospect’s interests and stage in their journey.

3. Delight Consistently, Not Occasionally

This is perhaps the most crucial part of the flywheel – ensuring customers are so happy they become your biggest advocates. Mastering HubSpot Email Opens: Your Ultimate Guide to Boosting Engagement

• Exceptional Customer Service: Make it easy for customers to get help. Proactive support, a responsive help desk, and empowering customer success teams are vital. 96% of consumers say customer service is an important factor for brand loyalty.
• Smooth Onboarding: The first experience after purchase sets the tone. Make it delightful and informative.
• Customer Feedback Loops: Actively solicit feedback and act on it. Show your customers you’re listening and continuously improving.
• Loyalty Programs & Referrals: Reward loyal customers and create structured programs that encourage them to spread the word. Loyalty programs can increase revenue by 15% to 25% annually.

Reducing Friction at Every Turn

Regularly audit your customer journey for any points of friction. Ask yourself:

• Are there confusing handoffs between marketing, sales, and service?
• Is your pricing straightforward, or are there hidden fees?
• Are customers getting stuck at any point in the buying or support process?
• Are your teams aligned on customer goals, or are they working in silos?

By systematically identifying and removing these obstacles, you’ll reduce the drag on your flywheel and allow it to spin faster, leading to more efficient growth.

HubSpot and the Flywheel: A Natural Fit

It’s clear why HubSpot, with its integrated CRM platform, embraced the flywheel model. Their entire suite of tools is designed to help businesses manage the customer journey holistically, connecting marketing, sales, and service under one roof.

• Unified Data: The CRM at the core means all customer data is accessible to all teams, enabling personalized and frictionless experiences at every stage.
• Automation: HubSpot’s automation capabilities allow businesses to apply “force” efficiently, automating repetitive tasks in attracting, engaging, and delighting customers.
• Seamless Hand-offs: By having all teams on the same platform, the friction often caused by transferring customers between departments is significantly reduced.
• Measurement & Optimization: The platform provides analytics to measure flywheel speed, identify friction points, and see where applying more force will have the biggest impact.

While the question “is HubSpot better than Salesforce” comes up, it’s really about the philosophy behind the tools. HubSpot’s core philosophy with the flywheel is that customer experience is paramount, and their platform is built to execute that, empowering businesses to turn satisfied customers into powerful advocates. Salesforce also offers robust CRM solutions, but HubSpot’s integrated approach and championing of the flywheel specifically highlight its dedication to this customer-centric, continuous growth model. Is hubspot a erp system

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main difference between the marketing funnel and the flywheel model?

The main difference is their structure and focus. The marketing funnel is a linear, acquisition-focused model where prospects move through stages and then “exit” as customers. The flywheel, conversely, is a cyclical, customer-centric model where satisfied customers become the driving force for attracting new customers and fueling continuous growth.

Why did HubSpot switch from the funnel to the flywheel?

HubSpot made the switch because the traditional funnel didn’t adequately account for how modern buyers make decisions, especially the massive influence of customer referrals and word-of-mouth. They recognized that customers aren’t an afterthought but a vital input for growth, and that customer experience is critical. The flywheel better represents this continuous, customer-powered growth.

Can I use both the marketing funnel and the flywheel model?

Absolutely! While the flywheel should ideally be your overarching business growth strategy, funnels are still incredibly useful for visualizing and optimizing specific processes within your business. Think of them as smaller components or measurement tools that contribute to the larger, spinning flywheel. Master Email Marketing with HubSpot Academy’s Free Certification (Your Ultimate Guide)

What are the three stages of the HubSpot flywheel?

The three main stages of the HubSpot flywheel, aligned with their inbound methodology, are: Attract, Engage, and Delight. These stages represent the continuous cycle of bringing in potential customers, building relationships with them, and then providing such an excellent experience that they become advocates for your brand.

How does customer experience impact business growth in the flywheel model?

In the flywheel model, customer experience is central to driving growth. When customers have positive experiences, they become delighted, loyal, and are more likely to make repeat purchases and refer new customers through word-of-mouth. This organic advocacy acts as a powerful “force” that helps spin the flywheel faster, attracting new business more efficiently and cost-effectively.

What does “reducing friction” mean in the context of the flywheel?

“Reducing friction” means identifying and eliminating any obstacles or inefficiencies that slow down your customer’s journey or create a negative experience. This could involve streamlining internal processes, improving communication between teams, simplifying pricing, or making your sales and service interactions smoother and more accessible. Less friction means your flywheel spins faster, leading to quicker, more efficient growth.

Is the HubSpot flywheel model just a marketing concept?

No, the HubSpot flywheel model is a business growth model, not solely a marketing concept. While marketing plays a crucial role in the “Attract” and “Engage” phases, the flywheel requires the alignment and collaboration of all departments – marketing, sales, and customer service – to deliver a consistent, delightful customer experience that fuels continuous growth.

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