By: Amber Bullis
This is the first post in a two-part series about our takeaways from Inbound 2018.
Two weeks ago, three members of the PR with Panache! team hopped on a plane to Boston to join more than 24,000 other marketers at Inbound 2018. The conference was a whirlwind of educational sessions, networking, and food trucks (yes, the food trucks were a very important part of my experience).
Hubspot founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah focused their keynotes on two ways businesses can grow better: Moving from the marketing funnel to the marketing flywheel, and implementing the customer code.
The Marketing Flywheel
CEO of Hubspot Brian Halligan showed why businesses should shift their focus from the traditional marketing funnel to what he calls the flywheel.
Source: Hubspot
In a traditional marketing funnel, turning prospects into customers is the goal, and is also where the funnel ends. However, in an age where peer reviews mean significantly more than business claims, companies must pay attention to their customer experience. Really, marketing doesn’t end when the funnel does.
Enter the flywheel, where equal force is applied to service, marketing, and sales, and where turning customers into evangelists keeps the flywheel in motion. The flywheel slows down, or fails, when too much friction is applied to the customer experience.
To start visualizing how the flywheel could work for your business, Hubspot suggests this “flywheel homework.”
For ideas on how other businesses are beginning to move from the funnel to the flywheel, a good place to start is by searching #ourfunnel on Twitter, visiting OurFlywheel.com, or talking to your PR with Panache! client lead (Not a client yet? We’re still happy to help).
The Customer Code
Dharmesh Shah, CTO of Hubspot, used humble humor and wit to share the customer code, a 128-slide deck that shows how customers want to be treated.
The Customer Code Tenets Include:
By following the customer code, you will delight your customers and keep your flywheel in motion. How well is your business doing and what tenet needs the most attention? Grade your company against these tenets by downloading a blank report card.
The shift to customer-focused service, marketing, and sales isn’t easy--even Hubspot only gave itself a score of 7.1/10. But, the simple truth is this: customers influence a huge majority of buying decisions, and trust in marketing is at an all-time low.
By thinking about customers as an input for your flywheel instead of the output of your funnel, you’ll get better at treating them according to the customer code—and you’ll be well on your way to growing better.
Thanks for sharing!