Advertising in this economy...

I get objections from prospects every week that include this present economy. "This economy is making it impossible to advertise right now."
Not to brag, I have spent more money this Christmas than ever. I went to Toys R Us the other day to buy a ride-on vehicle for my 2 year old son. Guess what; sold out! That's right, these vehicles range in price from $65-$399. Again, sold out!
This is what I think. People don't stop buying during economic downturns, go to a mall today and see for yourself. People do however, become more selective when making a purchase.
Great! My company offers great products, the best in the industry... So, its up to me. Am I getting out in the field and offering my product to people who need it?
Those businesses that choose to advertise in times like this are the ones that are going to come out ahead in the long run. Check out this article analyzing recessions of the past 80+ years: All Business - investing in a bad economy.
The economy will recover and history shows that those who choose to advertise during rough economic times come out ahead of those who don't.

Free AVVO listings...

Cynthia Henley is well-known and respected among criminal defense attorneys in Houston. She is a solo practitioner so she watches closely what she spends on advertising. Cynthia has a website and has some listings on Internet directories like Lawyers.com and FindLaw.com. Recently, she has received some quality phone calls from her AVVO profile.
She’s thrilled with this of course, as the profile on AVVO is FREE! Cynthia has taken the time to improve her profile by adding information and photos as well as asking clients to fill out reviews. The profile also includes a place for other attorneys to endorse her as well.
Another benefit from the profile on AVVO is the link to her website – Criminal Defense Lawyer Houston. This inbound link from a relevant, highly trafficked site is a good way to get more visits to her site.If you’re a lawyer and you haven’t taken the time to improve your AVVO listing or worse yet, you don’t even have one. It is well worth your time as Cynthia tells me that she has had a handful of good cases from her AVVO listing in the past 6 months.

Specialty site for well-known Houston firm...

JoAnne Musick is not only a respected attorney here in Houston. She is also well versed in the Internet Marketing game. Years ago she played a major role in the development of her existing site, writing content, helping with the layout, etc.
She also had the foresight to buy an extra domain name for a smaller, more specific site in the future. The theory here is this; by having a smaller more specific site you help your relevancy and conversion when someone lands on the site. After buying the URL JoAnne never found the time to do anything with it as she became busy practicing law, imagine that. When I met JoAnne in October she expressed interest in finally building a site with the other domain name. She decided that DUI/DWI cases would be a nice target as their existing site already performs well for Family and Juvenile Law searches.
With the help of specific PPC campaigns on Google and Yahoo targeting only local DUI/DWI searches, we are driving traffic to JoAnne’s new site Houston DWI Attorney. Check it out when you have the opportunity.
DID YOU KNOW? JoAnne graduated from Sam Houston State with a degree in Accounting.

Pick the ending...

Check out Yellowbook's newest commercial. Staying with the "Say Yellow To The Future" theme established by the last set of commercials, this new ad incorporates public opinion. YOU get to choose the ending that will appear on our national ad campaign.
Go to http://www.yellowbook.com/commercial/ and pick the ending that you prefer. Results will be counted soon. You will start seeing the commercial during NFL football games on Fox, episodes of CSI, ESPN Sportscenter and other national placements in coming months.
Please come back here and let me know how you voted and why. Results will be posted to the right.