Raving Fan Referrals - Dean Mignola http://ravingfanreferrals.com Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:35:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 What we can learn from the fall of MySpace http://ravingfanreferrals.com/what-we-can-learn-from-the-fall-of-myspace/ http://ravingfanreferrals.com/what-we-can-learn-from-the-fall-of-myspace/#comments Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:38:32 +0000 Dean Mignola http://ravingfanreferrals.com/?p=230 MSN is reporting that in the past year MySpace U.S. traffic declined nearly 5% to 70.24 million users while Facebook’s audience has grown 97% to 70.28 million. The article points to the barage of ads and spam on the site as the chief culprits responsible for the decline. Rupert Murdoch purchased MySpace for $580 million in 2005 and obviously tried to cash in on the growing online ad market.  While MySpace is taking steps to minimize those problems, it may be too late now that Facebook has jumped ahead. What can we learn from this? Don’t kill the golden goose by overwhelming your prospects and clients with ads and promotions. Focus on giving real value and useful information so they feel cared for and appreciated. Your fans will send you more business and more referrals than any ad or promotion ever could.  That has been Facebook’s approach. The site is clean and easy to use. Spam is kept to a minimum. No wonder Facebook grew by 97% last year.

]]> http://ravingfanreferrals.com/what-we-can-learn-from-the-fall-of-myspace/feed/ 0 Sometimes You Have to Refer that Referral http://ravingfanreferrals.com/sometimes-you-have-to-refer-that-referral/ http://ravingfanreferrals.com/sometimes-you-have-to-refer-that-referral/#comments Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:19:15 +0000 Dean Mignola http://ravingfanreferrals.com/?p=143 referralI just received a referral call from a local business development coach. He’s working with a psychologist who got laid off from the county and needs marketing help to build a new private practice. I decided to turn down the referral. That may sound strange coming from me. After all, I love referrals and I specialize in helping clients generate referrals.  But not every referral is the right referral.  This particular therapist had no marketing experience and almost no client list. I would have had to start from square one with this guy and really hold his hand to get him on the right path. That would be time consuming for me and expensive for him. I prefer to work with business professionals who “get” marketing and already have a solid client list. That way I can work with several people at once and quickly help them take their business to the next level.

So what did I do? I referred the referral to Casey Truffo, MFT. Casey is a therapist who learned the marketing game and now teaches other therapists how to market their practices. She has all kinds of cool info products and services available on her website BeAWealthyTherapist.com.  My referral will be in great hands with someone who specializes in helping people just like him. Meanwhile, I can focus on the clients who I can best serve.  The lesson here it that you don’t want every client and you don’t want every referral. Work with the clients who you are meant to serve so that you can do your best work for them and provide them with exceptional specialized service. That’s the first step to turning ordinary clients into raving fans who send you referrals like crazy!

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