This new year will bring a lot of changes in marketing, both online and in print. Below is a list of six trends you should be aware of in the next twelve months to increase your business. Most of these are not new technologies or cutting edge topics, but tried and true tools of the internet that will make major contributions to business in 2011. Here they are.

1. Online Ads Exceeding Print We knew this day would eventually come. As online media sources rise in popularity it is only natural for physical media sources to decline in favor. According to a report from eMarketer online advertising narrowly surpassed newspaper marketing in 2010, with a slightly larger margin expected in 2011. This means that advertisers are starting to see more value in taking out ads on the internet rather than in traditional newspapers. If you have not taken out any ads for your writing services, or at least not online, this may be a good time to start thinking about it.

2. Video video on the internet is growing in popularity in leaps and bounds thanks to a few related trends. According to a report from early 2010 (http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/021610-broadband-adoption-spikes.html) 63.5% of US households had broadband connections in 2009, compared to just over 50% in 2007. Couple that with the increasing popularity of set-top boxes such as AppleTV (which has sold 1 million units since the debut of the 2nd generation version in September), the Boxee Box, Tivo, and Google TV, online and on-demand video is shaping up to be a big part of successful marketing this year.

Companies are reporting increased sales conversion rates when video is used to showcase their products. Zappos.com recently began putting videos of the shoes they sell on YouTube. Simply showing the shoes from different angles has shown a marked increase in sales. This also aligns with the well known sales principle that people are more likely to believe you and to buy from you when they can see you.

3. Email Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare are popular right now, but no one can predict where they will be in five years, or even twelve months. If you do not believe this simply compare your usage of MySpace today with four years ago. No one is saying Social Media is going away,however it is very young and dependant on the players currently in the game. Email however, is one of the grandfathers of the internet. For most internet users it has become as ubiquitous as a phone. In fact in a recent study of 20-35 year olds email addresses were kept longer than physical addresses.

Email is a safer long term investment for marketing your products and services than almost any other method. Gathering email addresses can be done at little or no cost, and does not have the high production budget of video, or even the lesser budget of building or updating a top notch website. It may be old, but it still works.

4. SEO A lot of screen space was used on the topic of Search Engine Optimization in 2010, and it is not going away in 2011. As more people turn to the internet for their news and information, competition for where those eyeballs land will grow increasingly important. In traditional publishing terms the idea of SEO is the same as making sure your newspaper is in the most visible and accessible place on the newsstand. Understanding the use of keywords, descriptions and link building will grow in importance in 2011 and beyond.

5. Social Media Management As social media continues to grow more and more companies are taking notice and using it as a tool to grow their business. So much so that social media jobs are beginning to pop up at major companies as part of their marketing strategy. Individual writers have to handle this work themselves. However for those that work at a company with a few people, this may be the year to consider hiring someone for the specific purpose of managing the company’s social media pressence. If that is not an option, it may be neccesary to have an existing employee dedicate a certain part of each day to this task, or to assign different parts of social media to a few people (one person to handle Twitter, one for Facebook, etc.).

6. Smartphone/E-Reader Compatible Versions Increasing popularity of digital media is leading to increasing popularity of portable digital media. Amazon’s Kindle, the Brnes and Noble nook, and other book reading devices are a testament to this, along with those companies making software for other platforms such as desktops and smartphones. If that is not enough, Apple has promised to add in-app subscription support to the next version of iOS for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, which would allow a user to subscribe to a newspaper or magazine from within an app. This means you could ditch your paper subscription to The Wall Street Journal for a digital one delivered to your phone every morning.

Creating portable versions of your writing would not only make it more accesible, but potentially more profitable. Digital publishing provides a much higher percentage of profit to the writer over traditional publishing, since their are very few costs associated with it (no printing, shipping, space on bookstore shelves, etc.) As more people embrace this great use of their smartphones dmeand will continue to increase, making portable versions of your work much more attractive.

How will you market your business differently in 2011?

photo credit: valcanno