Michael Buzinski’s Rule of 26 to Guarantee an Increase in Your Revenue | MP 113

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An image of Michael Buzinski is captured. He is the CEO and Founder of Buzzworthy and the author of the Rule of 26. Michael is featured on Practice of the Practice, a therapist podcast.

Have you heard of the Rule of 26? Why do many service-based websites fail to attract and convert clients? Which three aspects of your practice should you optimize to see a dramatic increase in income?

In this podcast episode, Sam Carvalho speaks about Michael Buzinski’s Rule of 26 to guarantee an increase in your revenue.

Podcast Sponsor: Brighter Vision

An image of Brighter Vision Web Solutions is featured as the sponsor on Faith in Practice Podcast, a therapist podcast. Brighter Vision builds all in one websites for therapists.

It’s that time of year again!

My friends over at Brighter Vision are once again kicking off the fall season with a month-long digital conference event they call ‘Fall Into Cash’.

For the entire month of September, they’ll be teaming up with the top brands, consultants, and coaches in the mental health industry to provide you with the best advice, tools, content, podcasts, and giveaways; all centered around one main goal – helping you grow your practice and make more money.

Plus, in celebration of the 6th anniversary of ‘Fall Into Cash’, they’re also offering a very special discount exclusively for Practice of the Practice listeners.

From now until the end of the month, they’re offering $20/month off of any website service plan for your whole first year plus no signup fees – that’s a savings of over $200!

For more information and to take advantage of this great offer, head on over to brightervision.com/joe.

Meet Michael Buzinski

An image of Michael Buzinski is captured. He is the CEO and Founder of Buzzworthy and the author of the Rule of 26. Michael is featured on Practice of the Practice, a therapist podcast.

Michael Buzinski is a life-long entrepreneur, digital marketing thought leader and best-selling author. Dubbed a “visionary marketer” by the American Marketing Association, Michael’s sole mission is to reduce the prevalence of entrepreneurial poverty in the US. Buzz, as most call him, has simplified digital marketing success with the Rule of 26 to help business owners avoid the time drain and frustration of managing profitable digital marketing campaigns.

Connect with Michael Buzinski on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Visit the Buzzworthy website and connect with them and LinkedIn.

In This Podcast

  • What is the Rule of 26?
  • Why do some service-based business websites fail to create revenue?
  • You need to determine your ideal client
  • Michael’s advice to private practitioners

What is the Rule of 26?

It is a strategy basically that I have created to simplify what we need to look at when we’re attaching or approaching the website marketing for service-based businesses.

Michael Buzinski

The Rule of 26 states that if you increase:

  • your unique traffic by 26%
  • your conversion rate by 26%
  • your average revenue per client by 26%

That you will then get a compounded effect of 100% more revenue coming solely from your website.

Why do some service-based business websites fail to create revenue?  

The most common way that these businesses fail to bring in customers is that they only talk about themselves.

You need to direct the content on your social media platforms and websites to speak directly to your user’s experiences, pain points, and goals.

Actually, the opposite is true [and works best]. We need to be talking to the user’s pains [and] the user’s dreams.

Michael Buzinski

Does your business help to solve problems, alleviate pains, or attain dreams?

You need to determine your ideal client

Look for your ideal client, and work with them. They will have friends, family, and colleagues that can also use your services, and they will pass your name along.

Those are your perfect clients. Replicate them by only talking to them, right? Because there are more … you just have to put it out on your website and then go find out where they [are] and put that same message in front of them there to bring them to your website.

Michael Buzinski

Rather than taking whoever you can get, you can boost the success and efficiency of your business by prioritizing working with your ideal clients. They, you, and the business will all be happier and more successful for it.

Michael’s advice to private practitioners

Stop ignoring your website marketing! Put effort into it because it will yield benefits.

Books mentioned in this episode:

Useful links mentioned in this episode:

  • From now until the end of the month, Brighter Vision are offering $20/month off of any website service plan for your whole first year plus no signup fees – that’s a savings of over $200! For more information and to take advantage of this great offer, head on over to brightervision.com/joe.
  • Connect with Michael Buzinski on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
  • Visit the Buzzworthy website and connect with them and LinkedIn.

Check out these additional resources:

Meet Sam Carvalho

A photo of Samantha Carvalho is captured. She is the Chief Marketing Officer and Designer at Practice of the Practice. She is the host of the Marketing A Practice Podcast and helps therapists successfully market and brand their private practices.

Sam Carvalho is a graphic designer living in Cape Town, South Africa, with over five years of experience in both design and marketing, with a special interest and experience in the start-up environment.

She has been working with Practice of the Practice since 2016 and has helped over 70 therapist entrepreneurs take their practices to the next level by enhancing their visual branding. She loves working with a variety of clients on design-intensive tasks and is always up for a challenge!

Follow Sam on Instagram to see some of her work. To work with Sam, head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding.

Thanks For Listening!

Feel free to leave a comment below or share this podcast on social media links below! Alternatively, leave a review on iTunes and subscribe!

Podcast Transcription

[SAM CARVALHO] Welcome to the Marketing a Practice podcast with me, Sam Carvalho, where you’ll discover everything you need to know about marketing and branding your business. To find out more about how I can help you brand new business visit www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. If you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Samantha Carvalho Design. Michael Buzinski is a lifelong entrepreneur, digital marketing thought leader, and best-selling author. Dubbed a visionary marketer by the American Marketing Association, Michael’s sole mission is to reduce the prevalence of entrepreneurial poverty in the US. Buzz, as most call him, has simplified digital marketing success with the rule of 26 to help business owners avoid the time drain and frustration of managing profitable digital marketing campaigns. Hi Michael, thanks so much for joining us today. [MICHAEL BUZINSKI] Thanks for having me, Sam. [SAM] Cool. So Michael, can you share with us a bit about your story and how you got to where you are now? [MICHAEL] I’ve been in business for 17 and a half years now. I started a recording studio after serving in the United States Air Force for 10 years. I was a budding musician, I was a professional musician for just over 15 years, started out as a jazz trombonist at the age of 13 and was in a number of rock bands through my teens and through my twenties. So anyway, long story short, that turned into a media production house, that media production house turned into a creative agency, a creative agency as a media production house and a marketing ad agency put together and then in 2018, I broke the whole thing up and created a separate media company and an integrated marketing firm called Buzzworthy Integrated Marketing. [SAM] Amazing. So you’ve definitely had fingers in a few pies. [MICHAEL] I’ve done a lot of different, I’ve been a minority owner for a professional football team. I have owned coffee shops along the way. Yes, entrepreneurialism is part of who I am and what I do. It’s funny, they talk about you never work a day in your life as long as you do what you love or passionate about. If you’re lucky enough to do things that you’re passionate about, it definitely doesn’t feel like a lot of work. [SAM] That’s awesome. So we mentioned in your bio that you have simplified digital marketing success with the rule of 26. Can you speak into how audience members can double their website revenue by using this rule of 26? [MICHAEL] So the rule of 26 is in my book The Rule of 26. It is a model strategy basically that I have created to simplify what we need to look at when we’re attacking or approaching the website marketing for service-based businesses. The rule of 26 states that if you increase your unique traffic by 26%, your conversion rate from your website 26%, and your average revenue per client by 26%, you will get a compounded effect of 100% more revenue coming from your website. [SAM] Amazing. So how did you come to land on the 26%? [MICHAEL] The 26% is a mathematical equation, basically. When I first approached this idea of simplifying how we approach website marketing for service-based businesses, I looked, I was doing the research and the research was, you go into like HubSpot or Spotify or any of these e-commerce and or CRM sites, and they tout anywhere between 68 over a hundred key performance indicators. We call them KPIs. Problem is that not even me, a 30-year sales and marketing professional look at over a hundred KPIs, let alone 68. I don’t even like looking at more than 10 at any given time. So we needed to figure out why. The reason why there are so many KPIs are, that’s another show altogether but a lot of the KPIs that marketers like to tout are what we consider vanity KPIs. They’re there to make us feel good both the marketer and the client, hey, I’m doing something and vanity KPIs have their place. I’m not saying that, but when it comes down to it, when it comes down to brass tax, we need as business owners look at KPIs that directly affect our revenue. So I was able to find three KPIs that directly affect revenue when it comes to website marketing. That was traffic because without traffic you have no conversions. Without good conversion rate, you don’t have people to talk to and if you are attracting bad clients or unprofitable prospects, then you are not making as much money from your efforts. So those three came together. And the way that I got to 26% is that without a goal, a specific measurable goal, so I picked double, double is something that people can understand. If I’ve got a hundred, I can do 200. If I only have 50, double of that is a hundred so it’s conceivable in our brain, it’s easy to understand and it is very attainable objectives between the three KPIs. [SAM] So why, in your opinion, do most service-centric business websites fail to create revenue? [MICHAEL] There are two main, well, there’s three main reasons and really that comes down to the strategy as well. Service-based businesses or service-centric businesses, they like, they don’t think that their websites are making the money to begin with. Most service professionals will tell you, well, all of my business comes from word of mouth and referrals. So they don’t put a lot of time in it and they don’t put any focus on what it actually is there to do. The biggest misnomer is that you just put it up, talk about yourself, when actually the opposite is true. We need to be talking to the user’s pains, the user’s dreams because as service-centric businesses, there’s only two things we do, we either solve problems, right, or alleviate pain, or we help people attain dreams. There’s only two things you do as a service-based business, period. If you’re not talking to their pain points, to their issues, to their struggles, or painting the picture of where they’ll be if they go through this process, then you’re missing the boat because nobody hears what you know until they know how much you care. That’s why so many service-centric businesses, websites don’t perform for them. [SAM] That’s really good. I know firsthand that a lot of counselors tend to just talk about themselves on their websites because I think they think that if they state their education it’s going to add to their credibility and that’s what’s going to draw clients. So I think that was really good for them to hear. [BRIGHTER VISION] It’s that time of year again. My friends over at Brighter Vision are once again kicking off the full season with a month-long digital conference event they call Fall Into Cash. For the entire month of September, they’ll be teaming up with the top brands, consultants and coaches in the mental health industry to provide you with the best advice, tools, content, podcasts and giveaways, all centered around one main goal, helping you grow your practice and make more money. Plus, in celebration of the sixth anniversary of Fall Into Cash that are also offering a very special discount exclusively for Practice of the Practice listeners from now until the end of the month, they’re offering $20 per month off of any website service plan for your whole first year plus no sign-up fees. That’s a saving of over $200. For more information and to take advantage of this great offer, head on over to brightervision.com/joe. [SAM CARVALHO] So you mentioned obviously, that service-centric businesses tend to rely more on word of mouth and referrals as opposed to their websites. Why do you think that that is a bad marketing ban? [MICHAEL] To think that your clients are keeping you top of mind when an opportunity comes is unfortunately a misstep. A lot of times it comes from this hidden element of arrogance. We think that people think about us just as much as we think about ourselves. I’ve been in business for over 17 years. I have family members who forget what I do. We’re busy as people in the United States specifically. We are just busy people. We forget to take care of ourselves, let alone remember to take care of those who have taken care of us in the past. So as a counselor, yes, we make huge impacts on other people’s lives, I get it but when they get, when they get where they want to be, now they’re busy doing what they want to do. Yes, we will have advocates that is great, but it’s not scalable and so if you want to be able to grow your business at will, then you have to have something beyond word of mouth and referral marketing because you can’t rely on those solely. They can be part of the equation. They’re part of the strategy, yes, 100%, but to think that’s where all your business is going to come from and you’re going to double in the next year, you are wishful thinking at that point. [SAM] So aside from what you’ve already mentioned in terms of how they can change the content on their website, what are some tips that you can provide on how to best market service-centric businesses in 2022? [MICHAEL] Service-based businesses and service-centric businesses are going to have to continue to focus on the user. The key now is that we have to focus on the right user. See, not all clients are good clients. Not all business is good business. If we’re able to identify the most profitable clients that we can attract and then only talk to them in our content on our website, the average revenue per client is automatically going to go up without ever touching our price. Because we’re going to be talking to the people that bring us the most joy in our work and when we do that, we’re going to be the most efficient in our work. The people are going to stick around longer for other things that we have to offer, and therefore all of that equals higher profitability. So really focus in on who you are passionate and profitably serving today. Who are the clients you go, “Ooh, I can’t wait till that appointment comes. Ooh, that person just gave me an email. Can’t wait to open it up.” Those are your perfect clients. Replicate them by only talking to them. Because there are more of them. You just have to put it out on your website and then go find out where they’re hiding on the internet and put that same message in front of them there to bring them into your website so they can connect with that message, reach out to you and become that perfect client for yourself. [SAM] So it all starts with determining who your ideal client is. For those people who are just starting out would you recommend creating a bit of an avatar around that, so coming up with, if you maybe haven’t come across your ideal client yet, coming up with a concept of who that ideal client might be? [MICHAEL] I think that that’s a great space to start in. Yes, that’s where we start. If somebody doesn’t know who their perfect client is, we’re going to find the avatar or persona as we say of that person. Now, if you’ve never been in business for yourself, then you have to go back to your why. Why did you go into practice? If you don’t have a, if the only reason why is to make money you might be in the wrong space and you might want to take a look at your business model because maybe what you’re setting out to do is not where your passion is and you need to find that and find out what your schooling can then be utilized to find your why, your actual passion. But if there’s a why, like I’ve talked to a lot of counselors who are like, “I personally had a bad childhood, so I have a passion for X, Y, Z. Or I watched my mother and my father struggle through dot, dot, dot. Or I had a friend kill themselves or, or, or.” Whatever that is, there’s a why behind we got into the business we’re in. So if you’re just starting out, rely on that why, and don’t be afraid to allow people who don’t necessarily meet that why into your office just so that you can either discover that your why is really good, or maybe there’s other things that you can be passionate about. When we’re just getting into business, we have a propensity to grab everything we possibly can. That’s fine. For the first year, do it. I have a very close friend who is a counselor. He booked himself solid within six weeks of him opening his doors. Now six, seven months later, he’s going, “Okay, now I don’t take these people, I don’t take this type of situation, I don’t, and whatever those things are,” and now he’s filtering out who he allows into his office. [SAM] That’s good. So why is ignoring your website marketing leaving money on the table for your competition to grab? [MICHAEL] Because 68% of all buying decisions start with a search query. 68%, over two thirds of people start their buying decision, when you looking for services, you’re in a buying mode and people go to search engines to do that. So if you’re ignoring your website, you are definitely ignoring search and when you’re doing that, the other people that are not ignoring their website and not ignoring their SEO are getting that business. There’s a statistic out there that says 98% of all commerce that happens for a search engine come from the first page, but only 5% of all web pages will rank on the same page. Only 5% of all web pages will actually rank on the first page of Google. [SAM] It’s so crazy. [MICHAEL] If you’re not one of those 5%, your competition’s getting it. [SAM] Absolutely. So Michael, if people wanted to get in touch with you to find out more about how they can work with you, what is the best way for them to do that? [MICHAEL] A great, a very direct way to get there is to go to my website, buzzworthy.biz, and then if you want to grab a copy of my book, the Rule of 26 that is at ruleof26.com. [SAM] Awesome. We’ll definitely have links to all of that in the show notes. And Michael, we always end off every episode with if every private practice owner in the world were listening right now, what would you want them to know? [MICHAEL] Stop ignoring your website marketing. That was really, this whole interview was about that. It is one of the things that I listen, I hear the most is that people talk about not having faith in their website, and it’s the ones who really go ahead and say Let’s spend a little bit of time there and let’s see what we can do and actually put some effort into it every single time. Those practices are doing better than their cohorts who have decided to ignore it [SAM] Amazing. Thank you for all the incredible information that you’ve provided in this episode. [MICHAEL] Thank you very much for having me, Sam. [SAM] Thanks again to Brighter Vision for sponsoring this episode. Remember that from now until the end of the month, they’re offering $20 per month off of any website service plan for your whole first year plus no signup fees. That’s a saving of over $200. For more information and to take advantage of their Fall Into Cash offer, head on over to brightervision.com/joe. Thanks for listening to the Marketing a Practice podcast. If you need help with branding your business, whether it be a new logo, rebrand, or you simply want some print flyer designed head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. If you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Samantha Carvalho Design. Finally, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on iTunes if you like what you’ve heard. Talk to you soon. Marketing a Practice podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice podcast network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Beta Male Revolution, Empowered and Unapologetic, Imperfect Thriving, or Faith in Practice, go to practiceofthepractice.com/network. This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.