From Leads to Loyal Customers:
The Psychology Behind the Buyer’s Journey
The buyer’s journey is the process people experience as they evolve from a potential lead to a loyal customer. What makes a person go from hearing about a company for the first time to purchasing from and advocating for the organization? Psychology, touchpoints, positive experiences, exchanges of value, and other factors. Let’s explore each step of the buyer’s journey and how you can enhance the process in your business.
Step 1: A potential lead becomes aware of your business.
If you are referred to a company by your family member, friend, doctor, or another source, you have been made aware of the business. Dentists and orthodontists refer patients to each other. Medical aesthetics practice owners refer fitness trainers and vice versa.
People can also discover your brand for the first time by searching for a phrase related to your business online or seeing your paid ad or post on social media. For example, a health professional can use Google ads to reach people searching for functional medicine lab training and Instagram ads to reach audiences interested in the training and related topics.
Step 2: The potential lead engages with your business and provides their contact information.
For an orthodontist, this equates to a potential patient calling the office, speaking with a team member, submitting a form online, and coming in for a consultation. For a med spa owner, this involves scheduling an appointment online or over the phone, providing their contact information, and visiting the office. For a senior care company, this amounts to booking a tour of the senior care residence and providing their contact information. For a health professional promoting an online training course, this can entail a person signing up to attend a webinar and watching the virtual presentation. The lead spends time engaging with your business in some capacity. Whether or not the person becomes a customer at that point, you can follow up with them because you have their email address or phone number.
Step 3: The customer performs a purchase.
For example, the patient has signed a treatment contract and invested in the orthodontic practice. The client has paid for a service at the med spa. The guardians of the senior or the senior themselves have signed a contract to begin their stay at the senior residence. The lead has initiated a checkout of the online training program by entering their credit card information into an online payment processor and confirming their purchase. You made a sale. Sales are the lifeblood of a business.
Step 4: The customer starts performing repeat purchases and referring others to your business.
If the customer has a positive experience, they may start purchasing other offerings from the business and referring their friends and family members.
For instance, the orthodontist services the siblings and parents of a given patient. They refer their neighbors and relatives. The med spa services the bride and the bridal party. The hair salon beautifies both the bride and the maids of honor. The senior residence takes care of both the elderly husband and wife. The health professional sells functional medicine lab training courses to medical aesthetics practice owners and their industry colleagues.
Step 5: The business creates a referral program, affiliate initiative, or commission structure.
Some companies create referral rewards programs to reach more potential customers. The program rewards the customers who refer other customers via rewards points, store credit, special perks, a ‘thank you for your referral’ gift card, a commission, or another avenue. The program creates a win-win situation for the customer and business, rewarding customers for their loyalty and referrals.
Enhance and optimize each step of the buyer’s journey to strengthen your business.
Digital marketing strategist Michael Guberti has witnessed the full lifecycle of med spas growth:
his clients starting them, scaling them, and even selling them.
His long-term clients successfully sold their practices from a position of financial strength after years of strategic growth.
Michael has been featured in the following media outlets:
What people are saying about Michael Guberti:
"“Michael Guberti is a Game Changer for DermAesthetics. We teamed up about eight years ago and never looked back. His depth of knowledge and consistent review of our online metrics relates directly into a more effective marketing expense and increased revenue year after year. Thank you Michael!”
Scott Tedder, CFO of DermAesthetics Anti-Aging, Laser and Medical Skin Care Center
"Thank you Michael. We appreciate everything you do for the office."
Dr. Comizio, founder of Comizio Orthodontics, top 1% of Invisalign provider offices in North America two years in a row.
“I have to give a shout-out to Michael Guberti. He is absolutely brilliant as our social media strategist.”
Lisa Topham, RN BSN
"Thank you! What would we do without you! You're the best!"
Anjie Cho, Architect and Feng Shui Expert
About Michael
Meet Michael Guberti, strategy and results-driven digital marketer with 10 years of experience building paid and organic marketing funnels for business-to-consumer and business-to-business clients.
Marketing efforts he has overseen have generated roughly $90 million dollars in lifetime revenue for his clients. He has managed and spent over a million dollars on online advertising campaigns.
Strategies that work for one business may not work for you. Michael doesn't put you into a one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter template. He implement customized, high-value strategies that goes beyond just ads.
You’re not “just another client” to him, you’re a committed, ambitious entrepreneur and the heartbeat of the economy. He wants to use advertising to propel your business.
After all, advertising is his speciality.
Other activities:
Michael enjoys promoting his client's philanthropic initiatives. His clients have raised:
- Over $100,000 for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provides college scholarships and educational counseling to the children of Special Operations personnel who have lost their lives serving our country.
- Over $3,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
- $4,000 for Kenway's Cause, a dog and cat rescue nonprofit organization.
Michael and his brother Marc have a history of giving to others. The brothers started a 501c3 nonprofit called Guberti Giving to empower the next generation of leaders. For four years, they held in-person programs at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. They sponsored students from the nearby areas and lower Westchester so they could attend and learn how to identify their passions, create products, promote themselves, and propel their careers. It was a personal and professional development program. The brothers were grateful to receive support from the New York Knicks, Nextiva phone company, and other organizations. The New York Knicks gave Michael and Marc the Sweetwater Clifton “City Spirit” Award during a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden.