Flywheel
In one line
The flywheel is a self-reinforcing growth model — happy customers fuel new acquisition — that HubSpot proposed as a replacement for the linear funnel.
Going deeper
HubSpot introduced the flywheel in 2018 as a replacement for the funnel. Where the funnel ends at a customer, the flywheel puts the customer at the centre and treats their satisfaction as the spinning force that pulls new customers in.
The standard three phases are Attract, Engage and Delight. Delighted customers generate referrals, reviews and repeat purchases, which feed straight back into Attract — accelerating the wheel each turn. The marketing job becomes reducing friction that slows the spin.
It has critics too. Plenty of practitioners argue it's the funnel relabelled. Where the framework genuinely earns its keep is internally — it makes it much easier to argue that customer success is a growth engine, not a post-sale support cost centre.
Sources
Related terms
Marketing Funnel
A marketing funnel is the staged model — usually visualised as a narrowing funnel — that tracks prospects from first awareness through to purchase and loyalty.
MarketingGrowth Loop
A growth loop is a self-reinforcing cycle in which existing users' actions generate new users — the modern alternative to the linear funnel for sustainable growth.
MarketingCustomer Success
Customer success is the discipline of proactively helping customers achieve their business goals with your product — increasingly treated as a core SaaS growth engine, not a support function.
MarketingCustomer Advocacy
Customer advocacy turns satisfied customers into active brand advocates whose voice — through reviews, referrals and community — becomes a primary acquisition channel.
MarketingLifecycle Marketing
Lifecycle marketing tailors messaging and channels to where each customer is in their relationship with the brand — signup, activation, purchase, repurchase, churn risk.
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