Flywheels Over Funnels: How to Create a Self-Reinforcing Growth Engine

In the crowded audio product landscape, traditional funnel-based marketing and sales strategies are becoming less effective. As brands face increasing competitive rivalry, winners are shifting from a linear “convince-and-convert” strategy to a more-holistic approach that emphasizes the entire customer experience. This approach, known as the growth flywheel, was popularized by HubSpot and continues to be adopted across industries.

The fundamental shift? Placing the customer, not the sale, at the center of your commercial operations. Instead of pushing prospects down a funnel with the goal of converting them into customers, flywheel strategies are about high-quality, high-value experiences across the entire attract-engage-delight journey, creating a self-reinforcing loop where happy customers become the most potent marketing force through referral and advocacy.

Hubspot's Flywheel Model

Why Flywheels Beat Funnels

The problem with funnel-based strategies is that they focus too much on short-term conversion. The prospect enters at the top, and the company’s marketing and sales teams nurture, encourage, nudge, and cajole them through stages of awareness, consideration, and purchase.

But here’s the thing: once a customer makes a purchase, they’re often forgotten. They are no longer engaged until you have the next thing to sell them on, and you start the whole funnel sequence from the beginning. This not only leaves money on the table, but it also loses the opportunity to build customer loyalty, drive repeat business, and—critically—generate word-of-mouth promotion.

The flywheel model, is about building momentum. By focusing on how to delight customers throughout their journey—not just up to the point of sale—you foster deeper relationships. Satisfied customers, in turn, become promoters, accelerating the momentum of your business by sharing their positive experiences. Referrals become automatic, retention increases, and your marketing spend becomes more efficient because customer acquisition costs decrease as organic advocacy grows.

This approach puts the customer at the center of everything you do, encouraging them not just to buy, but to fall in love with your brand—so much so that they feel compelled to tell others how great you are. It’s a system that builds upon itself, and in an era where authentic word-of-mouth holds more weight than any paid ad, a well-executed flywheel is solid gold.

This is especially powerful in the music and audio industry, where satisfied customers are likely to share their experiences with others in the community—whether that’s fellow musicians, sound engineers, or venue operators. Word-of-mouth in this space can be more influential than any artist, celebrity, or well-known engineer’s endorsement.

Evolution of Marketing Media

Since HubSpot popularized the flywheel concept, marketing channels have evolved dramatically. In the early days, digital strategies were built on blogs, SEO, SEM, and email marketing. Then, the rise of social media revolutionized how brands connected with customers—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, (sorry I’m not calling it X, Elon) and more recently TikTok became essential platforms for engaging with customers.

Today, newer channels like video, podcasts, influencer marketing, and even AI are adding fresh dimensions to the media mix. Brands now have tons of ways to connect with customers, making it critical to design flywheel strategies that leverage the right selections among—and probably not all of—these channels.

Blogs and SEO remain powerful tools to attract customers by providing educational content. Social channels can engage them with product demonstrations, tutorials, and behind-the-scenes insights, and generative AI can create personalized support and learning content to delight an individual customer, anticipating their needs and producing tailored media for an audience of one.

The key is to make sure that each touchpoint adds value, drawing customers deeper into the brand’s ecosystem and encouraging them to spread the word.

Creating a Hypothetical Example

Let’s take a theoretical live sound mixing console brand as a case study. This fictional brand targets customer segments including bands, production companies, small-to-medium venues, educational facilities, corporate AV, and houses of worship. Their products are sold through a combination of retailers like Guitar Center, Sweetwater, and Full Compass, AV integrators, and direct-to-consumer (D2C) on their website.

Their consoles offer a good balance of features, but they face stiff competition from brands offering similar or more advanced products at comparable or lower price points.

A traditional marketing funnel would focus heavily on pushing prospects through the stages of awareness, consideration, and purchase. But given the industry dynamics—especially with recent swings in demand due to the pandemic and its aftermath—a more sustainable strategy would be building a growth flywheel. Here’s how this brand could do it.

Attract

To attract new customers, the brand could use content marketing by creating blogs, videos, and tutorials that educate users on live sound techniques. This not only helps with SEO and organic search visibility but also positions the brand as a trusted resource.

Partnerships with influencers in live sound, such as well-known sound engineers, can amplify reach. User-generated content from bands or venues using the brand’s products in real-life settings can offer authentic testimonials that attract similar prospects. Social media campaigns can also feature customer stories, showcasing how different users—from churches to bands—are using their consoles.

Engage

Once customers are aware of the brand, the next step is to engage them meaningfully. Offering interactive tools on the website, such as a product comparison tool or a configurator that helps customers design their system, makes it easier for customers to understand how the product fits their needs.

AI chatbots or responsive email campaigns could provide tailored product recommendations based on a customer’s specific needs. This is especially valuable in markets like educational institutions or houses of worship, where the operators may not have deep technical knowledge but still require high-quality sound systems, keeping them engaged without feeling like they’re being “sold to.”

Delight

The flywheel doesn’t stop when the sale is made. The brand can keep the momentum going by delivering outstanding customer care and after-sale support. This might include new-owner product training webinars and regularly updating software like adding new features, plug-ins, and model updates. Offering continued education and technical support ensures customers get the most out of their purchase, increasing satisfaction and reducing return rates.

A referral program could incentivize satisfied customers to recommend the products to their peers, creating a self-reinforcing loop of organic promotion. The brand can further strengthen this by fostering a community on Reddit, Facebook, or other social sites—encouraging users to share their experiences, provide feedback, and even influence future product development.

Playing Market Conditions to Win

The MI and pro audio market has been volatile in recent years, with swings in demand following the pandemic and an oversupply of used gear. Despite these challenges, there are still opportunities for growth, particularly for brands that focus on long-term customer relationships rather than short-term sales.

For music and audio product companies, building a self-reinforcing growth funnel based on the flywheel model is a smarter, more efficient way to grow. By focusing on creating exceptional customer experiences at every stage of the journey—attracting, engaging, and delighting customers—brands can unlock the power of organic promotion and customer loyalty.

(Thanks to HubSpot for maybe creating, but definitely popularizing the flywheel concept.)