Great marketing for SME’s. The traditional marketing funnel is a bit dead, and it almost encourages you to treat customers in the wrong way. Customers become nearly an afterthought, a prospect that needs converting and cash extracting. Once they become a paying customer they are discarded, until it’s time to sell them something else or renew a contract.
The flywheel is a much better way of visualising your customers; customers are at the centre, replacing the one-way directional funnel. Word of mouth is still the single most potent form of marketing. Serve your customers well, but also give them the tools to become a fan of the product, service and importantly, your brand. The flywheel illustrates this reciprocal process; excellent service can be seen as a marketing strategy in its own right. Brilliantly low cost for SME businesses.
Keep the flywheel at the centre of your marketing thinking, really go to town on customer service and training your sales, project managers and customer service guys. If fact anyone that has contact with the customer. Give them the tools to deal with customer requests and issues. Your customers will feel valued; they will feel empowered. This will lead to customers that will do your marketing for you. They will enjoy imparting the good experience they had as a powerful endorsement in person but also on their social networks of friends, associates and family.
