In the past couple of years, there’s been less talk about funnels. At the Digital Branding Analytics Miami 2019 Conference, I had this affirmed by listening to a talk by Kathy Mayor, Chief Marketing Officer of Boxy Charm. Her segment, “A Tale of Two Worlds: Growing An Established Brand Born of Social Media Without Paid Media” really opened my eyes as to why marketers are shifting their approach from funnel to flywheel.
According to HubSpot, a flywheel approach in marketing to “use the momentum of your happy customers to drive referrals and repeat sales.” This approach is popular as of recently because customer referrals and word-of-mouth influence purchases more than ever. Where funnels thought of customers as an outcome and afterthought, flywheel places customers at the center.
Boxy Charm is one of the newer subscription box services on the block, but it has taken the makeup world by storm. The reason why? Well, Kathy broke down Boxy’s flywheel approach, which goes between the brands, influencers, and “charmers.” Brands sign on to give Boxy Charm samples of their products, which Boxy then sends to influencers who promote what’s in the box. Consumers watch the content created by influencers, create their own user-generated content, and continue to consume the brands. It’s a constant flow between all three sources that never ends. Instead of spending money to push the brand, flywheel allows customers to help the brand grow as well.
I’m excited to take this approach and see how I can transition approaches from the funnel to flywheel for a smaller B2B company.
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