Speaker 1: 0:00

This is a very special episode of the Buzzworthy Marketing Show. We're flipping the script, switching seats and you guessed it, I'm taking over the reins for what promises to be a fun and insightful episode. I'm Tori Barker, coo of Buzzworthy Marketing, and I have the unique pleasure of interviewing the man who usually sits in this very seat the one, the only, michael Pazinski. In today's episode, we're going to talk about a marketer's mindset as it pertains to websites, and who better to dive into this than the marketing visionary himself, michael? Michael has built a legacy of turning websites into business generating machines, and we're going to uncover the strategies, the mindset and the magic behind his approach. So get comfortable and get ready for some buzzworthy insights. Without further ado, let's welcome the man of the hour, michael Buzinski.

Speaker 2: 1:02

Welcome to the Buzzworthy Marketing Show.

Speaker 1: 1:10

All right, Welcome to the show. I've got the man of the hour Buzz. How are you doing, man?

Speaker 2: 1:16

I'm feeling important after that intro. Jeez, louise man Jeez, thank you very much. It's weird being on this side though of the screen, even Like I'm on the other side of the screen.

Speaker 1: 1:28

I know I was going to ask you how does it feel? I mean, we've got, I took over first of all.

Speaker 2: 1:35

I feel lopsided, so it's okay.

Speaker 1: 1:37

We'll get through it. I promise you it'll be okay.

Speaker 2: 1:41

I give the reins.

Speaker 1: 1:43

Yeah, so I'm in control. So sit back, buddy, because here we go, All right. So today's episode, we are talking about a marketer's mindset as it pertains to websites. So let's take it back a further, a little step right, and let's talk about how websites have evolved over the years. So, since you've been in the business for a very long time sorry about that let's just kind of start with that. Let's let's base the conversation on how websites have evolved over the years.

Speaker 2: 2:17

Well, back when I was your age, oh shiny boy.

Speaker 1: 2:23

We had dial up. That's true.

Speaker 2: 2:29

Actually, when I first built my first website, dial up like 56K was the thing, and there are people on this earth that do not understand the shrill of a modem and what that actually means. I've actually seen those videos on like Instagram and it's like the mom and the daughter and it's like the extra mom with the uh, the gen alpha daughter, and there's like wait, and it's like, and there's like, well, what's that? You're like no, it's not that funny. It's not that funny. But 1999, that was the first website I ever built and that was for my own company and, uh, you know, back then it it was uh, the, the world of like the internet was so slow you couldn't do much, um, and unless you had a lot of money, and so it was mainly like for small businesses.

Speaker 2: 3:19

Websites were online brochures and it was a place where you could might be able to have a if, a, if a, if a restaurant had a website. It was a really big deal at the turn of the century, even that's how long ago. This is, um, the turn of the millennia. I like them. Apples, there you go so very space out ACME. I know so like that was a big deal For you to even have a business with a website. You were pretty darn fancy and, but what you had on your website wasn't all that fancy in today's standards because it was just a brochure. It was literally like what we used to make like trifold brochures In the aughts. We would take people's brochures and we'd just basically make that happen on the internet, right. And then we'd be able to put that on a business card and then they could go yeah, you can find me online, which made you really cool. It was great. And then over the years, obviously the internet gets faster and faster, and now we've got like megabit per second versus 5k per second. Just let that sink in, do the math, get your calculators out. That's really really fast, okay. I don't even know the multiple on that, but it's hundreds of times faster, thousands of times faster, okay.

Speaker 2: 4:30

And so now we have streaming video, we have a live chat, we have a live video on like. People can literally have a live video chat on their website. So somebody just clicks and says I want to talk to somebody on their website. They don't have to go anywhere else, they can pop up and and be on camera with some, with a live support person in the website Right, so to say, like it's evolved into it, into like a multimedia space right, if you have a robust website, it is a media outlet. Right, because knowledge is power. Right and unique knowledge is the most powerful, and the only place that you own in marketing is your website.

Speaker 2: 5:14

Right, and this is where we want to pull all of our stories, all of our case studies, all of our discussions with our clients before our prospective clients, before they've made a decision to buy from us. This is where we start the conversation, and so that is exactly what it has become. It has become a conversation starter and it's evolved into a choose your own adventure conversation starter. Would you like to a choose your own adventure conversation starter? Would you like to start the conversation by listening to my podcast? Would you like to start it on my social media? Would you like to start it by just reading my blogs? Would you like to start it reading my newsletters? Would you like to start it with a support chat? Would you like to start it by just reading the content that's on the website?

Speaker 2: 5:53

These are a lot of conversations that are happening in one place, right. So I think that choice is what it's evolved to the choice of how we're going to talk with our prospective clients and what information we're going to give them in order for them to make the next step in starting that relationship with us.

Speaker 1: 6:11

Yeah, absolutely. I think you know it's become more accessible. Like you talked about it was, it was something that was like amazing to have back, you know, when it first started to now, pretty much everyone has a website. If they don't, they have some sort of online presence. But it's just become more attainable and then it's just leveling up from, you know, person to person, business to business, industry to industry. So it's amazing to see how it has evolved and obviously it's still changing. We didn't even talk about AI, but, like AI is going to change the online world as well.

Speaker 2: 6:48

It's in the process of doing that right now. Well, ai has already changed websites in the fact that you have AI chatbots that will start another conversation starter, right. It doesn't even have the human element needed to start a dynamic conversation, which I think is what you're alluding to, is that we're going to have the ability to get as much information without talking to a human as we actually want, and before we could only get so much. Before we had to reach out to get more. Reach out to get more, and that was a strategy for some people in the teens the 2000 teens is that, hey, give them just enough to where they got to reach out, because there was no way to figure out who was on our website before they they dropped off. But now, I mean, you'll see people with lead magnets and a lead Mac. For those who are not, it's just something that you download from anywhere on the internet and you have to get, give some part of your personal information to get it, whether it be a text, it might be an email. If they're going to mail it in, it might be your address. This is an opt in Right, and so you might get it for free, without money, but you're not giving it for free altogether. There's no such thing as a free lunch. You're giving your personal information to somebody so they can continue the conversation Again. Conversation starters, right, I think I'm getting.

Speaker 2: 8:02

We're creating a theme here by accident. But now there is technology that you can. You'll have people who are like here, download it. We don't even, we're not even going to ask for your email. You know why? Because there's technology that can sniff your email in your everything they need to know about you, your company, who is in your company, who is, who is where, what, where and how how much money you make the whole nine yards without all you have to do is click on download and not give any information, because they can come in and scoop that as, basically end trails, if you will. On the internet. You're, you're and and basically just have everything there without you giving it to them.

Speaker 1: 8:40

Right, so I want to. I want to go a little bit further with this because my next question has to do with like key objectives of the website, and you've kind of already touched on that with conversation starters and lead magnets. But are there any other objectives that typically you advise or strategize when building a website for a client?

Speaker 2: 9:00

Oh my gosh, so many right. So you can have. You're either trying to teach people something, entertain them or solve their problem. I think that's the three right. I'm sure I'm missing something, but those are the main three right? So a person comes to a website to either learn something, be be entertained, or they're looking to solve a problem, right, and your and your problem could be that you're not living the life you want, and so you have a goal, right and? And so you, you have a problem of getting to the goal, so that's your problem.

Speaker 2: 9:37

And so some people would say obtain a goal, solve a problem, educate or entertain, and I'm like, eh, the first two are one and the same. So please, for my critics, hold your breath. But when it comes down to education, if you're only there to educate, then it's a matter of consistent content, right. If you're only there to entertain, it's a matter of constant content, right. If you're there to solve problems, this is the crazy thing. If you're there to solve problems, this is the crazy thing you usually have to continue to entertain them or educate them until they're willing to reach out to solve that problem.

Speaker 1: 10:27

That is so true, so true, yeah, so okay, let's talk. So those are phenomenal. I think that's right on point, exactly what people need to hear. Now let's talk about if, like, if you build it, will they come kind of a concept here, right? So, we can have a website, right, we can. We can build the best website, have the most amazing content, but we still have to get people to see the website, to see our content to be entertained, all of those things.

Speaker 1: 10:59

So, talk a little bit about SEO, search engine optimization, visibility and those lead gen or opt-in pieces and how we get people to see our website and the content that we put on there.

Speaker 2: 11:15

I want to. I'm going to step it back and say that there are three crises in website marketing. Okay, there's the visibility, which you had said. There's also an identity crisis, and then there's a focus crisis. Okay. So most websites and I read a whole book about this called the rule of 26. If you want to check it out, go to rule of two, sixcom, um, pay, shipping and handling. I'll give you the book for free. I'll even sign it for you. Okay, plug done, all right.

Speaker 2: 11:37

So with the three crises, though the one you're saying, you can have the best website that identifies who you serve, why you serve them and how you serve them. Right, you can have the focus on who. That is all that good stuff. But if nobody sees it, you have an identity crisis or a visibility crisis, right? So that visibility comes in a few forms. As you mentioned, search engine optimization, which is optimizing your website in a way that Google recognizes you as an authority on the problem you solve, or the knowledge you have, or the type of entertainment you provide. Okay. And then, through that process you create, you gain visibility or you can pay for it. So we have earned visibility and paid visibility. Okay, regardless, if you don't have enough visibility. What we would call a statistically significant uh data right. So a hundred people come to your website in a month is not significantly substantial data, right. So everything else we talk about is kind of null and void until you have enough right. So I'm probably saying that term wrong, but we'll keep moving on.

Speaker 2: 12:48

So the second crisis is an identity crisis. So say, you do get your name in front of a lot of people and they all come to your website. Thousands of people come to your website every month, but nobody's reaching out. It's because you have an identity crisis or a focus crisis. The identity crisis comes from you not talking to your ideal client profile, or what we call the p4, the profitably, perfectly profitable prospect profile. The p4 okay, these are the people you want to talk to, not just because they're ready to do money, but because they like to do business the way you like to do. They have the problems that you like to solve and they pay their bills usually Okay. So if you're not talking to that person directly, you're one or two. Things are happening or a little bit of both. One, nobody's reaching out and two, the wrong people are reaching out. So your website, if you have the right identity being personified on your website, you can actually get the wrong people not to reach out, while attracting the right people to call in.

Speaker 2: 13:45

So then the last crisis is focus. So we'd say you are talking to their problems, right. But then your solution is just all over the place and they're like how do you help me? You say you can help me. I don't understand how, right. They have no framework or they have no processes or they have no package, something they've got to productize your services. Right.

Speaker 2: 14:10

When we buy a toothbrush, what problem are we solving? It's pretty self-explanatory, right. But when you're a business like, say, you're a B2B professional service, right, you could say you're CPA and you're like okay, so you handle financial problems. But not all CPAs do that. Some CPAs are only there to help you with your taxes, right. And so if you just say CPA and it's like, okay, I'm a CPA, all right, you identified it and I help people with financial problems, well, what kind of financial problems? Tax problems, bookkeeping problems, financial forecasting problems, cash flow problems, right. So this that focus to say this is who I serve, this is the problem I solve and this is how I solve it can help you with both your identity crisis and your focus crisis, so that, when you overcome your visibility crisis, everything starts to click.

Speaker 1: 14:59

Absolutely yeah, and that's so important because you know if those three things aren't working, then there's something else. Right, you have to have all three in place to fully get that machine running right. You can identify that you're lacking in focus and so something's still not working. The formula is not fully, you know, revved up, or however, you're lacking in focus and so something's still not working. The formula is not fully revved up, or however you want to put it.

Speaker 1: 15:23

So it's really important to make sure you identify those three things, get those clear and then make sure that you apply those with the website and the content that you're putting out there. So leading to content. Let's talk about websites and how important it is to have consistent new content on there and that we don't want it to become a stagnant page or website, and why that's so important.

Speaker 2: 15:48

So I'm going to push back on that question a little bit. Okay, some content you're going to put on your website is evergreen, because some things that you do don't change all that often. Okay, so your consistency is in the things that change. So what are the variables in your industry that you need to stay up with, right? So let's go back to the CPA, and there happened to be a tax accountant. Every year there's something new with the tax code. So if your website becomes the place where your clients can get a sneak peek in what to expect in the next tax season, that's good content. But you haven't changed what you do. You haven't changed who you serve. You haven't changed how you serve them, right, so that? So it's really important to to realize that your website really doesn't need to be like, blended back up, if you will, freshened up, if you will, but I say every three to five years, okay, um, as a, as a, as a marketing firm and I'm we're on version five of our website. So every four years, right in the middle.

Speaker 1: 17:06

Yeah, right, okay.

Speaker 2: 17:08

Of course, I always start at year three thinking I'm going to do it at year three. It ends up in year four because it takes a long time for me to decide what I want to change. Right, Because it's weird. It's like it's like aging. We don't watch, we do not notice ourselves aging, but people who don't see us on a regular basis see it. Right, when you look at the same website all the time, you don't see it age, but the people who haven't never seen it come in and they go Ooh, that's dated.

Speaker 2: 17:34

Yeah, yeah, you always have to have somebody else looking at your website and that's why website marketers are so important. You know people are like oh, you build, you've been building websites for 25 years now. What do you think about AI replacing you? I'm like AI ain't replacing me. Ai is just making my job faster. I can do more right in the same amount of time. So now people get more bang for their buck when they get websites made by us because we don't have to spend time doing the mundane stuff that's very costly for humans to do.

Speaker 2: 18:08

Right, but if you're not looking at your content from the point of view of your prospect and or your current clients, Like some people build their websites to keep their clients engaged and so they'll push that, return traffic back to the website. For that new update, for the industry trends, for the new content, all that good stuff, which is good because it tells Google hey, there's people who like this content, so it's a good strategy, right? So, um, in the in the fact that, yes, you have new content coming, but it's not always necessarily from your pillar pages or, you know, your main homepage and your service pages, those don't necessarily have to change every year.

Speaker 1: 18:52

Yep, absolutely no good. I wanted you to kind of touch on that and then explain it's not's not like an overhaul, like we're completely changing everything, but it's important to have those evergreen or constants, you know, because, like you said, business your business doesn't change. Those pieces stay the same, but you still have to have relevant content to entertain, educate, inform all of those things and do that through different, you know avenues, blogging or whatever it might be. So, yeah, I'm glad you touched on that. Thank you for doing that.

Speaker 2: 19:26

Now let's talk about measuring the success of a website.

Speaker 1: 19:27

How do you measure the success of your website?

Speaker 2: 19:32

Well, they don't make yardsticks any longer. You know that. Sorry, I had to have an uncle joke in Insert joke here.

Speaker 2: 19:53

Got to have a little bit of fun, okay. So, oh, sorry, I had to do that, okay. So measuring is one of the things that most people don't do with their website, and so when you go to make changes for your website, how do you know what to change if you don't know what has happened, what had good happen, what bad happened, right? And so most people I mean the easiest way to measure is through, say, something like Google Analytics. Right Now, there are other softwares and platforms out there who will give you more information, but for the most part, most business owners only need the free analytical tools that Google gives us, and it takes almost no time for professionals to put that in together. So, and if you get my book, there's actually a free offer in there. Shameless plug again. That will actually do it for you, right?

Speaker 2: 20:37

So if you, if you don't know how to connect your Google ads, just email me at buzz, at buzzworthybiz. We'll get one of our folks to connect that for you and you'll be on your way, because I think that that information is the most valuable information that a business owner can have about their website how many people are coming, how many people are clicking through? How many pages are they looking at? Which pages are the most effective? Which ones are getting clicks and downloads? What content is being consumed the most? What content's not being consumed at all? Right, you want to know what's. That's the stuff you change, right? The stuff that is not getting interest, or maybe you're just not putting it in the right order, right? There's all of this analytical data that if you're even if you're not working with a marketer right now getting that historical data, so when you are ready, they have that to make educated, informed decisions with you, not for you, please hear me with you, but they can't do that with you if you don't come with the data.

Speaker 1: 21:40

Right, it's like the 50-50 paradox that we talk about, you know.

Speaker 2: 21:44

My upcoming book what?

Speaker 1: 21:45

is working and what's not right.

Speaker 2: 21:48

Yes, the 50-50 marketing paradox states that 50% of your marketing is working. You just don't know what 50% is or isn't. Yeah, so you continue to do all of it because you're afraid you'll stop doing the one thing that is working. And the only reason that happens is because you're not measuring correctly.

Speaker 1: 22:05

Right Measure measure measure. I mean it's so important and such an easy tool. Like, like you said, it's even if you're not a marketer, it's something you do the free version or you know we can even help you just implement that. Just let it run in the background, even if you don't look at it. You have that data there for when you're ready to look at it, when you're ready to freshen up your website or you start working with a marketing team, and you have that historical data because that's going to just make the changes more effective and more meaningful and appropriate for what you need more effective and more meaningful and appropriate for what you need.

Speaker 2: 22:42

I think that you're talking about something that is like I mean, there's some of that data is going to show them what not to touch.

Speaker 2: 22:46

Like it's brand new to them. They don't know. So sometimes we have to go in there and say, well, we know what won't work. We always know that, like there's always things we can without data, there's things we can do right and it's not necessarily changing your content. Sometimes it might be just functionality, technical SEO, stuff like that. And until we have that historical data and we have measured a few things, you know we don't like touching things that are not broken. So if we don't have the right diagnostics in place when we get there, then we can't really fix anything because we don't know what's broken yet.

Speaker 1: 23:21

Yeah, absolutely All right. So let's wrap this up and I want you to tell us what are I mean. We talked a lot about you know tactical things and focus and direction and importance and strategy, but if there is one piece of advice that you would give our B2B consultants business owners with their website what would it be?

Speaker 2: 23:47

The first thing I would do if I was somebody that was in the B2B marketplace and I didn't have a marketer. I'd go get a marketer, and I say that as a marketer. I understand that. But this is why I'm going to give you three good reasons why you should be working with some type of marketer with your website. One you don't know what you don't know. Number two you should be working on your business and not on your website, unless you're a website builder, okay. And number three and number three you as a business owner, as a B2B professional, are hired for your expertise, right. Why wouldn't you do the same thing for your own business and hire somebody who has that specialized expertise, expertise?