What is the Rule of 26?

In this episode, Barbara and Michael discuss:

●The Rule of 26

●Finding Health Professionals

●Being involved in social media/ social media marketing

“Social media is great, but it’s not mandatory.” – Michael Buzinski

Website:  https://buzzworthy.biz/

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbuzinski/

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/michael.buzinski/?hl=en

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AnchorageSeo

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/buzinski

Twitter:  @DrBarbaraHales

Facebook:    https://www.facebook.com/theMedicalStrategist

Business website:   www.TheMedicalStrategist.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BarbaraHales

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/themedicalstrategist

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbarahales/

Dr. Barbara Hales:  Welcome to another episode of Marketing Tips for

Doctors. I’m your host, Dr. Barbara Hales.   Today, we have Michael Buzinski with us.

Michael is the CEO of Buzzworthy Integrated Marketing. He is a lifelong

entrepreneur, digital marketing thought leader and author. Dubbed as a

“Visionary Marketer” by the American Marketing Association, Michael’s sole

mission is to help entrepreneurs avoid the time drain and frustration of

managing profitable digital marketing campaigns.

Buzz, as most quote him, has simplified digital marketing success with the

rule of 26 and is on a mission to double the website revenue of service-based

businesses across America. I’m sure you’ve got the curiosity piqued for

everyone listening. What is the rule of 26?

Michael Buzinski:  The rule of 26 is a three-step process of doubling the

website’s revenue of anybody’s website. I specifically just wrote a book

called The Rule of 26 for service-based businesses. It states that if you

increase your website traffic, conversion rate, and average value per client

by 26%, you will double the revenue coming from your website. So, it takes

into account the concerns of service-based companies.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  That’s interesting. Does search engine optimization

work in the health industry?

Michael Buzinski: 100%. I’ve been doing SEO for medical service providers

since 2006. We’re coming about 15 – 16 years. There has never been a

doctor or medical professional who has come to me who didn’t benefit from

the added traffic from people looking for their specific service. A lot of times,

I work within niches like chiropractors or certain types of surgeons. I worked

with a knee doctor one time, and search engine optimization actually

matched the number of leads his paid advertising was doing on TV for a

fraction of the price.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  Why is it that they consider you a visionary type of

marketer?

Michael Buzinski:  There are a lot of visionaries out there. I’m in a small

group of folks that have been dubbed that by the American Marketing

Association when we were working on SEO back in 2006.

Around 2010, we found that once we got people up to number one in the search engines for

their particular keywords, their profitable keywords that they weren’t seen

the conversions. And so, I took a look at search engine optimization and

suggested that we need digital engagement optimization. Just because

you’re ranking number one, and the algorithm likes you, your websites

should look, feel and work for you as your salesperson 24/7, 7 days a week,

365 days a year.

I created the Digital Engagement Optimization, and it’s the methodology that

we’ve been using since 2011. And I won the Visionary Marketer of the Year

Award by the American Marketing Association for that methodology around

2012 – 2013.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  Now, many health professionals have shied away from

marketing until quite recently. They said either it’s not ethical, or I don’t

have the budget for it, or insurance companies send me patients anyway.

And since I am running now on such a small profit, why would I spend money

and budget for marketing? What will your response to that day?

Michael Buzinski:  Digital marketing is an excellent tool to sift out prospects

to deal business with. I’ve known service providers who have not made it

mandatory to take on certain insurance that is not lucrative. For example,

there was an orthopedic surgeon, a knee doctor, who does knee process for

around 25 – 30,000 dollars, and insurance companies does not always cover

it. That’s why many people like him, are cash-based.

That’s where I put the marketing strategy where the money comes back to

you and keep it away from where you will end up being busy and

unprofitable.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  It makes much sense, especially now when you have

doctors shying away from accepting insurance or have elective procedures

that insurance companies are not paying you. You like to attract patients

who can say, “Hey. I want that procedure; it should be done by you, and I’m

willing to pay for that.” How do you find health professionals in this

category?

Michael Buzinski:  I’ve been blessed with flawless word of mouth, myself,

and my digital marketing. I present I position myself for service-based

businesses. And so, they’ll find me on the internet, through search engines. I

set myself as an expert in digital marketing. We position them as an expert

in that niche. And we get that in front of the people we’re actually looking for

those services.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  You keep in mind or show them how they can be

marketing and HIPAA compliant. 100% we have to stay HIPAA compliant.

Otherwise, everybody gets in trouble.

Michael Buzinski:  HIPAA is a strange little beast. And it really gets into the

reputation management where we’re trying to get the testimonials and the

reviews. That’s where we end up having some of the hiccups. But we have

an elective when a patient decides to share their story, many HIPAA

restrictions and they forego by sharing the story themselves.

We’ve found ways to utilize reputation management tools that automate the

process of asking for that feedback. And using those who say “yes” versus

trying to get around it. It’s just like finding out who’s going to volunteer the

information. Because once they have, there’s no problem. And as long as

you don’t add to whatever they said, you’re in the clear.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  If the patient is okay with giving their name and

location, that does not breach the HIPAA restrictions.

Michael Buzinski:  No. And I have doctors that if the client doesn’t want to

say their name, they don’t put their name on, it just says, recent client and

they have a video testimonial of that person who never says their name but

sings the praises, they’re raving fans of this doctor. That person wants others

to get the same outcome through the same procedure.

Well, that’s undoubtedly an excellent way to promote

yourself. Now, there are many tools out there for reputation control. Which

one have you found the most superior?

Michael Buzinski:  I have a slight bias because I have my own. It’s called

Buzz Wrap, and its reputation management system are straightforward to use. And we also have buzz boast, which is a video testimonial mechanism that

makes it extremely easy to get video testimonials from people’s clients and

patients. So those are both going to be released, actually, in July of 2021.

Here real soon, at my website, buzzworthy.biz.

It is available right now. But it’s not like you can’t just go to a website and

click on it. But if you if you’re interested in right now, just email me at

buzz@buzzworthy.biz, and I will get you connected immediately.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  What is it that you would like to tell people listening to

you? What would you say that distinguishes you from all?

Michael Buzinski:  I wrote a book to differentiate myself, and that’s the rule

of 26. And it basically puts me on the spot through my own methodology,

saying, “Listen, we will focus on these three things that do not confuse you

so that you don’t feel like you’re on this hamster wheel spinning, trying to

figure out everything.”

We’re doing these things because they move needles. And if we can’t move these

needles, then you fire me like this.

Taking the fiduciary approach to marketing, many marketers

will not be proactive in making your ROI their responsibility. They want you

to see how complex digital marketing can be. But I have whittled it down to

three KPIs increasing your revenue by 26% to 100% – definitely more than

where you started.

From there, my clients would give me referrals as they enjoy their increased

sales, sending their kids to college, or whatever it is that their dream of

ownership brings them.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  What would you advise potential clients to ask of

people they interview to distinguish? Who it is that would be of most benefit

to them?

Michael Buzinski: If you’re interviewing a digital marketer, I feel that the

best questions are about objectives. Let’s say you’re thinking about search

engine optimization. That’s great. I want to rank number one, but what does

that do for you? What is a measurable objective besides just the ranking?

My first objective is to rank, but I’m not getting more business. What are you

going to do? Ask them because that will dictate whether you have a

technician who undergoes a tactic or a marketer who understands your

strategy. And if they don’t understand strategy on the go, you’re going to be

stuck in this up-down process, very digital, either they’re in research, or

they’re in production.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  Right now, in terms of SEO, many don’t understand

that it’s not something that they could get a big result on. That the first four

or eight weeks is an ongoing process, and that they really need to commit to

a minimum of six months before they really see the needle moving. Do you

find that that is difficult to convince clients?

Michael Buzinski:  I have a policy of not trying to convince anybody of

anything that they don’t want to believe. I tell them point-blank, “I’ve been

doing this a long time. And there are no shortcuts in SEO.” Specifically in

organic and if you’re doing it white hat, which means the way that Google

would like you to do it.

Be authentic, be yourself, and you will get what you want out of the internet.

We may not see the sizable results that we that you’re looking for six

months. But the great thing is that we can show them incremental things

that are signs of that happening.

And as the ranking goes up, if they have no rank at all, for a profitable

keyword, they’re going to see huge jumps all of a sudden. You’re actually on

the radar of Google. Suddenly, you exist. And then as it gets closer to that

top page, the growth slows because the competition gets higher, not that

your marketers doing less, they’re actually having to do more to get every

one of those rankings up there.

And when you’re in the top five, sometimes that that needle doesn’t move in

months, but when it does, you get huge traffic increase, because the top

three have the most profitable keyword set. 68% of organic traffic on Google

are in the top three rankings of each keyword. And only 1% of all websites

out there are actually optimized for search engines.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  Do you think that that would be something that they

would strive for?

Michael Buzinski:  It’s a long game, cost, and takes a lot of manpower to do

SEO. There are many marketers who will sit there and guarantee you, “First in

Google for $99.” The faster you get up there, the faster you fall. And if you

when you stop working, then it’s just like a plane, you turn off the engines, it

just starts coasting back down to Earth. Thus, you need to stay up.

Dr. Barbara Hales: Are you heavily involved in social media for your clients

as well as social marketing?

Michael Buzinski:  Yes. We primarily use social marketing as a conversion

tool. There was a study done last year that showed that organic search

produces 1000 times more website traffic and is seven times more profitable

than social. But social media is where you get social proofing, tribal thought

process, and all the other things that go into people buying into that what

your culture is.

Still, we focus less on social because business owners, especially doctors, do

not have the time to dive into many platforms. So, we need them to identify

where their niches, and then let’s focus on that. I always tell people, social

media is excellent, but it’s not mandatory.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  Do you advise or work with their staff so that it gets

done without the doctor having to actually be involved?

Michael Buzinski:  100%. We also have platforms that actually help their

staff, and themselves streamline the process. We have the “Buzz Social”

platform; it is a social media curation, scheduling, creation, and tracking all

in one. One person can log in to one place and see all conversations that are

happening about that doctor and their clinic on all platforms and do social

listening. So, if they’re being mentioned elsewhere, they can see where it is.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  Do you have a podcast yourself?

Michael Buzinski:  There are many marketing podcasts out there, and I just

haven’t found a formula that I feel would stick out like a sore thumb and be

worth that. I actually enjoy finding ways to provide value on shows like yours

where people are actively engaged and are looking for that information.

There are many facets of marketing. And I feel that shows like yours are

excellent. You’re showing them lots of sides of the same thing. Everybody’s going to get a little bit of something out of every speaker and that value is more important than me being my name on some podcasts for me.

Dr. Barbara Hales: Okay, so your take about newsletters, do you think

doctors’ offices should have newsletters?

Michael Buzinski:  If you’re a general practitioner, or if you have a practice

that involves people coming back to you for either long-term maintenance,

or periodic treatments, or anything like that, I can see where a newsletter

would be very beneficial. Other than that, if you are a specialist that you see

a patient once in their life, maybe twice in their entire life, that’s a long drip.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  Do you also help people create a logo and a tagline for

their brand?

Michael Buzinski: Brand management is something that a division of my

company does—Buzz Media. Sometimes, somebody comes in, and they’re

like, “Hey, we’ve had a website for 10 years. Here it is.” We see that they

don’t have a logo, and I just hand them to my team that their award-winning

graphic designers have been doing it for decades. We branded over 750

companies over the last 15 years.

Dr. Barbara Hales:  Well, that’s impressive. So, what final tips would you

like to impart to our listeners today for anything that we didn’t touch upon?

Michael Buzinski:  It’s crucial that in your practice, that you focus on your

ultimate goal. What is the mission? What’s the vision of you being there,

what got you there, and then what will make you happy in the end, and then

follow reverse engineer that back to what you need to do today in your

marketing to help you get there. And sometimes sales is not where it’s at.

New clients might not be where you’re at. You might be in a sunset area

where you’re trying to figure out your exit strategy. And that’s a different

type of consultant.