Flipping the funnel. How smart companies think about marketing.

When most companies think about launching a product or growing a business they start with a traditional marketing funnel.

Most of our money is spent getting people into the top of the funnel. The more money you spend, the more people in the top, the more customers trickle down.

The problem is this model is getting more expensive and less effective. People are becoming less brand loyal and it's harder to break through the noise.

But, a few companies are doing the opposite. They have flipped the traditional consumer funnel upside-down with amazing results. These are the ones that I'm fascinated by.

They focus on the bottom of the funnel first, getting current customers to fall in love. These customers turn into raving fans. They then do the marketing for them.

This is not "customer first". It's customer obsession.

This is the new world of marketing, where consumers are in control. Work with them, not against them.

Monzo - marketing done right

Monzo, the digital bank, recently reported amazing growth from their first TV commercial.

"Brilliant" cry the broadcasters.

Not so fast...

On first glance, you'd say this is a massive win for TV advertising. You're right, but you're also missing most of the story.

They first created a brilliant banking experience. A great brand personality. Ruthlessly prioritised making their current customers happy. Built a product that creates amazing word of mouth. Nurtured and celebrated a community of fans. Etc. Etc.

They started at the bottom of the funnel first. Helped their customers love them and worked backwards.

TV advertising was the end of the funnel, not the start.

Monzo has been recommended to me by many friends over the years. Not because they liked the TV advert, but because they love the features.

TV just pours more fuel on the fire. Once they know what their consumers love they can talk about it.

Monzo's marketing & product team get it. They understand that obsessing over customer happiness, building features that people love, nurturing a community and having a personality gets people talking.

Advertising is short-lived. Great word of mouth is sustainable.

Instead of starting your next planning cycle by creating better ads or spending more on marketing automation. Start by flipping the funnel. Figure out what your current customer truly values and make sure you deliver it.

Need some ideas to get you started? Here are three simple ways, as well as some of my favourite examples.

IDEA 1: Make your customers feel important

We want to feel important. It's human nature. From a simple "thank you" to VIP experience. We like to feel wanted.

You can make a huge difference by making your current customers feel important.

Some ideas to try;

• Share customer success stories on your site. Show how people have used your product to achieve great things.
• List quotes on your website from happy customers.
• Ask a customer's opinion about a new product before it's released.
• Give current customers priority access to sales.
• Send a handwritten note to say thank you.

There are thousands of ways to make people feel important. All it takes is some empathy and a bit of thought.

Make customers feel like they are valuable to you.

The Beauty Pie way

One of my favourite examples is Beauty Pie, who has built an amazing online community by celebrating their fans.

A few standouts;

• Their founder, Marcia Kilgore actively responds to messages on their Instagram channel, thanking customers and giving advice. When was the last time you had a thank you from a company's founder? It makes its customers instantly feel like VIPs.
• They include a post-it note with every delivery encouraging fans to #PostYourPie on social media. Their social media team then actively thank the majority of these fans. This helps people feel important as well as spreading word of mouth.
• They celebrate their #PieGirl community, asking regular members to give advice to other newcomers on products, routines and getting the most from the service. Even giving a name to this community makes people feel like insiders.

All round, Beauty Pie does a great job of making their fans feel part of something bigger. They understand the power of making customers feel important. They understand the importance of a tribe.

Your challenge

Do one thing every day to make your customers feel more valuable. Encourage others to do the same. This can be a single thank you. You'll see the difference, I promise!

IDEA 2: Inject some personality

Too often we are controlled by legal text, guidelines and processes. We forget to be human and inject fun and personality into our work.

This has a place in even the most boring of industries. Start small and see what happens.

The bar is set very low for this, so you don't have to do a lot. Invest a bit of time to make something a bit more human and your customers will love you for it.

A few ideas to improve;

• A subscription confirmation
• An order confirmation
• A template email
• An error message (e.g. 404, form validation)
• Your customer service hold music

The options are pretty much endless. It just needs you to think like a customer. What would make you smile?

It's just a simple error message

A great example is from Hipmunk, the flight search website. They changed the error messages on their forms to be humorous and quirky. People still tweet about it today! They get years of free word of mouth by just being a bit unconventional.

I bet there are a lot of touchpoints that you have with your customers that you can improve. Try injecting some personality to stand out.

11 herbs and spices

KFC is a master of this. Back in 2017, a Twitter user discovered that they had quietly changed the people they follow on Twitter to the five Spice Girls and six men called herb, in reference to their secret fried chicken recipe.

Once someone noticed, their tweet went viral, turning into huge word of mouth for the company. At the time of writing it has nearly 300K retweets and nearly 700K likes.

This was something that may have never got noticed, or maybe they leaked it, but it shows the power that tiny changes can make if you put a bit of thought into it.

As with anything in marketing, some of your work will go unnoticed, some will blow up big. It's trial and error. Just have some fun with it. You'll soon find out what works.

Your challenge

Look through your website and marketing materials today and find one opportunity to inject some personality.

IDEA 3: Connect your fans

Some of the most amazing word of mouth happens when you simply connect people who love your product.

Rather than answering questions, why don't you ask your customers to answer them for you?

We all know the power of referrals. This takes it a step further. Actively ask your customers to do the talking for you. Bring them in on conversations. Give them a place to connect and talk.

I'm not talking about curating reviews on your website. People are wise to that. I'm talking about allowing people to openly share all the positives and negatives so that people can make an informed decision.

Communities, Q&A boards, blogs and forums are all great examples of how you can make this work for you.

The key is to be open. If your product's good you won't have to worry about negativity.

Don't let legal get in the way

A great "bad" example comes from Ikea, who tried to shut down a fan website called IKEAhackers.net. A community devoted website on "hacking" and customising IKEA furniture.

IKEA sent a cease and desist letter to the blogger for trademark infringement, which caused a major backlash against them. They let legal get in the way of common sense.

Luckily, it saw the error of its ways and now embraces this community. However, not before a lot of damage was done.

The owner of the site put it perfectly - "I am a person, not a corporation. A blogger who obviously is on their side. Could they not have talked to me like normal people do without issuing a Cease & Desist?"

This encapsulates the problem when boardrooms or legal try and control the messaging. Word of mouth will happen anyway. Make sure you're on the right side of it.

Embrace your community and encourage them to interact. Encourage them to experiment and find novel uses for your product. Better to do it with your brand than someone else's!

The Gymshark Community

Gymshark is a company that's built on word of mouth and influencer marketing. They understand that word of mouth and recommendation is the highest influence on purchase decisions (not advertising).

Gymshark's Facebook Community perfectly encapsulates many of the learnings from flipping the funnel.

Their respect for their customers has evolved into creating a community on Facebook for their fans to encourage and inspire others to achieve more. Fans duly oblige, with hundreds of messages being posted every day.

The brand itself barely never sells on here, they just moderate. But, its clothing is front and centre of most of the videos and stories.

They set clear rules, connect their fans and encourage sharing and interaction. They also gain amazing insights in the process.

Key considerations for your own community;

1. Go where your fans are - if they are already on social (like Gymshark's audience) then have it there
2. Set rules, but don't be overly controlling
3. Encourage positivity
4. Don't take yourself too seriously (think of IKEA)
5. Start small - you don't have to have a full-blown team for it, you can start by just having honest open and conversations
6. Celebrate your community's successes - their success is your success

Easy challenge

People like to hear from other people. How can you connect your customers in a place where they can share learnings, inspiration or ways to get the best use of your product or service? Or how can you get out your bubble and talk to them?

Takeaway

Inject more empathy into your marketing. Give a damn about your customers. Have a human approach.

The smallest brands can now compete with the biggest brands. These barriers are getting lower by the day. Put the customer at the heart of what you do and obsess about making them love you.

Word of mouth from happy customers is far more powerful than advertising. It's human stories from "people like me".

Use it to your advantage. Create a strategy to improve it and harness it.

Most of all, just get out there and try it.

Did any brands or examples spring to mind when reading this? Good or bad, I'd love to hear your examples or thoughts.