Business

Recession-Proof Medical Practice Marketing

Published

3 years ago

June 22, 2023

What’s the difference between a recession and a depression? In a recession, your competitors close their doors. In a depression, you close yours. As physicians across the country increasingly worry about their economic and financial future, the specter of the largest recession in decades or possibly a depression looms large. For medical practices, the stakes are particularly high as patients delay elective procedures, and even ongoing wellness care or chronic disease treatment.

The question that looms large for many practice owners is: how do you prepare for an uncertain financial future?

When preparing for an economic downturn, it is important to understand the difference between Practice Marketing Resistance and Resilience. Marketing Resistance is the ability of a practice to withstand a disturbance in revenue flow by putting in place marketing processes that make it possible to return to normal operations with minimal disruption. Marketing Resilience, on the other hand, is the ability of a practice to recover after suffering great harm from a serious revenue disturbance and continue to operate in a devolving situation.

This article is developed using insights from Peter J. Polack, MD, a practicing ophthalmologist who specializes in laser refractive and cataract surgery. Additionally, he is the founder of Emedikon, a venture marketing firm that leverages his proprietary Practice Domination Marketing Protocol to help medical practices improve their marketing strategies. With a family background in ophthalmology, Peter has witnessed firsthand the changes affecting healthcare practices and delivery. For many years, he has been fascinated by the role of technology and marketing in the medical field.

Peter shares his insights on marketing through his blogs on Healio Ophthalmology and Eyes on Eyecare. He is also a prominent contributor to Quora.com, an expert platform where his posts have garnered over 4 million views. This gives him an unprecedented insight into what patients want, which informs how he views crafting excellent patient experiences, which we all know is the coin of the realm.

The good news, he reveals, is that in an economic downturn Marketing Resistance and Resilience programs as integral parts of your marketing efforts can be the deciding factors in whether your practice thrives, survives, or closes its doors. The key is to understand your practice’s situation and tailor your marketing accordingly. Here are three steps that can help your practice build resilience or resistance and prepare for an uncertain future.

Step 1: Marketing Triage

The first step is to perform Marketing Triage by critically evaluating every opportunity source you are currently investing in. Make sure you have a full inventory of every lead source that brings in opportunities. Are you tracking all leads that come in through the phone, email, website, or other sources? After you have built your lead sources list, assess each one’s ability to capture leads, nurture, and convert them into revenue. Are you following up with them in a timely manner and nurturing those leads through the entire patient journey? By identifying gaps in your lead capture and conversion process, you can prioritize your efforts and allocate resources to where they will have the most impact. In broad strokes, this means you will have to do a detailed performance evaluation of your traffic and funnels.

Step 2: Focus on High-Value Cash Services (for prospects who still have money)

During a recession, as we experienced in 2009, patients are more selective about the cash services they choose. This means that practices should focus on offering high-value cash services that you know will always be in demand by patients with discretionary dollars. In the marketing world, this is known as “marketing to the affluent,” a term of art first articulated by Dan Kennedy, whose book about it is on Amazon if you’re interested. By prominently marketing these services and tailoring your messaging to emphasize their value and affordability, you can maintain revenue and build a marketing list of prospects with disposable income. You can instantly promote directly and on demand to this audience (practically free) using email and SMS. The money’s in the list.

Step 3: Diversify Your Marketing Efforts

Finally, it is important to diversify your marketing efforts to reach a wider audience and maximize your exposure. This means using a mix of online and offline channels, such as social media, email marketing, search engine optimization, print advertising, and community outreach. There are only four ways to reach your audience of choice:

Online + paid traffic – advertising on social media and various ad networks
Online + free traffic – known as content marketing
Offline + paid traffic – print, TV, radio, ads, billboards, local events, and sponsorships
Offline + free traffic – referrals, word-of-mouth, waiting room signage

With a diversified marketing approach, you reach patients where they are and increase your chances of success.

In conclusion, building Marketing Resistance and Resilience requires a strategic approach that takes into account your practice’s risk tolerance levels and its unique situation and challenges. By performing marketing triage, focusing on high-value cash services, and diversifying your marketing efforts, you can prepare your practice for a recession and emerge stronger on the other side.

Business

Inside the $4.3B Quarter: What’s Fueling Black Banx’s Record Revenues

Published

13 hours ago

January 16, 2026

Matthew Wiles

Every quarter brings fresh headlines in fintech, but few make the kind of impact achieved by Black Banx in Q2 2025. The Toronto-based global digital banking group, founded by Michael Gastauer, reported an extraordinary USD 4.3 billion in revenue and a record USD 1.6 billion in pre-tax profit, while improving its cost-to-income ratio to 63%.

These results not only highlight the company’s operational efficiency but also mark a pivotal moment in its journey from challenger to global leader. The big question is: what’s fueling such impressive financial performance?

Customer Growth as the Core Driver

One of the clearest engines of revenue growth is Black Banx’s expanding customer base. By Q2 2025, the platform had reached 84 million clients worldwide, up from 69 million at the end of 2024. This 15 million net gain in six months demonstrates both the attractiveness of its services and the scalability of its model.

Unlike traditional banks, which rely heavily on branch expansion, Black Banx leverages digital-first onboarding that allows customers to open accounts within minutes using just a smartphone. This approach is especially effective in regions underserved by legacy institutions, where access to affordable financial tools is in high demand.

More customers don’t just mean higher transaction volumes—they generate a compounding effect where network size, brand trust, and service adoption reinforce one another.

Real-Time Payments and Cross-Border Solutions

A major contributor to Q2 revenues is the platform’s real-time payments infrastructure. Black Banx enables instant cross-border transfers across its 28 supported fiat currencies and multiple cryptocurrencies, helping both individuals and businesses bypass the traditional bottlenecks of international banking.

For freelancers, SMEs, and multinational clients, this means faster liquidity, reduced foreign exchange costs, and simplified global operations. The demand for real-time financial services is growing rapidly—Juniper Research projects global real-time payments turnover to hit USD 58 trillion by 2028—and Black Banx is strategically positioned to capture a significant share of this market.

Crypto Integration as a Revenue Stream

Another key revenue driver is crypto integration. While many traditional institutions remain hesitant, Black Banx embraced digital assets early and has built infrastructure to support Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the Lightning Network. In Q2 2025, 20% of all transactions on the platform were crypto-based, reflecting strong customer appetite for hybrid banking services that bridge fiat and digital assets.

Revenue comes not only from transaction fees but also from value-added services like crypto-to-fiat conversion, staking yields (4–12% APY), and blockchain-enabled payments. For customers in markets with unstable currencies, these services act as a financial lifeline, further expanding the platform’s relevance.

AI-Powered Efficiency and Risk Management

Record revenues would be less impressive if costs ballooned at the same rate. But Black Banx has proven adept at balancing growth with efficiency. Its cost-to-income ratio improved to 63% in Q2, down from 69% a year earlier, thanks to heavy reliance on AI-powered automation.

AI now drives fraud detection, compliance, and customer onboarding—areas where traditional banks often struggle with cost inefficiencies. By automating these processes, Black Banx can process millions of transactions securely while maintaining profitability at scale. This level of efficiency is rare in fintech, where high growth often comes at the expense of margins.

Regional Expansion and Untapped Markets

Geography also plays a role in fueling revenues. Much of the Q2 growth came from Africa, South Asia, and Latin America—regions where demand for mobile-first banking continues to soar. In 2024 alone, Black Banx reported a 32% increase in SME clients from the Middle East and Africa, signaling the strength of its positioning in underserved markets.

By extending services to populations previously excluded from formal banking—migrant workers, rural communities, and small businesses—Black Banx taps into vast pools of latent demand. The strategy proves that financial inclusion and profitability are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing.

Diversified Revenue Streams

Another factor behind Q2’s record revenues is Black Banx’s diversified business model. Income is not tied to a single service but spread across multiple streams, including:

Transaction fees from cross-border transfers and payments.
Crypto trading and exchange services.
Premium account features for high-net-worth clients.
Corporate services for SMEs and international businesses.

This diversification insulates the company against volatility in any single segment, creating stable revenue growth even in shifting market conditions.

Michael Gastauer’s Strategic Blueprint

Behind these results is Michael Gastauer’s long-term strategy: scale aggressively but with efficiency, innovation, and inclusion at the core. His vision has always been to create a borderless financial ecosystem, and Q2 2025’s performance is evidence that this vision is not only achievable but sustainable.

By balancing mass-market accessibility with premium features, and by blending fiat with digital assets, Gastauer has positioned Black Banx as a category-defining player in global finance.

The Road Ahead: Toward 100 Million Clients

Looking forward, the company’s goal of reaching 100 million customers by the end of 2025 will likely be the next catalyst for revenue growth. More customers mean more transactions, more data insights, and more opportunities to refine and expand its service offering.

If current momentum holds, the USD 4.3 billion quarterly revenue milestone could be just the beginning of an even larger growth story. The challenge will be ensuring systems scale securely while maintaining trust in an environment where privacy and compliance are paramount.

A Record That Signals More to Come

Black Banx’s Q2 2025 performance—USD 4.3 billion in revenue, USD 1.6 billion in pre-tax profit, 84 million clients worldwide, and a lean 63% cost-to-income ratio—is more than a financial milestone. It is a signal of how the future of banking is being rewritten by platforms that are borderless, crypto-inclusive, and data-driven.

What fueled this record-breaking quarter is not one innovation but a combination of strategies—scalable onboarding, real-time payments, crypto integration, AI efficiency, and expansion into underserved regions. Together, they form a model that doesn’t just challenge traditional banking but actively builds the foundation for global dominance.

For Black Banx, the road ahead is clear: the $4.3 billion quarter is not an endpoint but a launchpad for even greater scale and profitability.