Entrepreneurial online advertising trends in 2011

T he battle for new and repeat business is becoming more and more competitive, and with the rise in online advertising, small businesses must be up to speed on applicable online trends.

Next year, handling the transition from online searches to in-store purchasing will be a pivotal piece to advertising, writes Lee Odden for TopRankBlog.com – an online marketing blog. Consumers purchased $155 billion in online goods and generated $917 billion worth of brick-and-mortar sales that were "web-influenced" in 2009, Forrester Research reported. Understanding that relationship is key, Odden adds.

Social media, while not yet up adopted at a significantly widespread level, is expected to become increasingly important next year. In March 2010, Facebook surpassed Google as the most visited site in the United States. That statistic should motivate entrepreneurs to adopt social media as a form of low-cost advertising.

According to Borrell Associates, online advertising will experience a 14 percent jump in dollars spent next year, while local online advertising will receive a $16.1 billion increase (18 percent), SmallBizLabs reports. In total, online advertising expenditures will reach $35.7 billion in 2011, surpassing the company's original prediction of a 5 percent jump.