This is a great time to analyze and develop strategies for your company. Make sure you develop corresponding marketing plans to capture market opportunities and to maximize revenue accordingly.
Internet Marketing Trends
Trend #1: Recession Marketing
Expect a lot of marketing messaging related to the recession. Don’t be surprised to see lots of offers that “save you money” throughout the year. With fewer purchasing dollars available, how will your marketing message be distinctive and stand out?
Trend #2: Internet Marketing-palooza
Due to its cost-effectiveness and inherent measurability, expect many more small businesses to take Internet marketing seriously in 2009. This includes everything from email marketing, pay-per-click advertising and social networking, to increased investment in websites, microsites and custom landing pages.
Trend #3: The Customer Voice
Customers are demanding a voice in your business, or they will seek alternative solutions. Think forums, blogs, crowdsourcing, feedback forms, etc. Want proof? Whereas in Q2 of 2007, 25 percent of the online audience called themselves “critics” contributing to the social media discussion, a year later this number jumped to 37 percent (Source: Forrester).
Trend #4: Video Marketing
Many studies show that adding videos to a website increases traffic and time-on-site. Look for a major increase in online videos in 2009. If your website does not yet have any videos, look to add them this year, but be sure that they are relevant and useful to your target audience. Look for interactive video technology in 2009, through which users can click on elements within the videos to be taken to associated content, microsites and shopping carts.
Trend #5: Blogging
Look for blogging to continue its growth in 2009. The barriers to entry in blogging are so low, expect many more small businesses to launch their own blogs in the coming year.
Trend #6: Social Marketing
Small businesses have been relatively slow overall to embrace social marketing. With greater verticalization of social media and social networking websites, expect more small businesses to get involved in targeted environments where ROI will be easier to achieve.
Trend #7: Mobile Marketing
It feels like everyone has an iPhone or other similar type of digital mobile device these days. According to Nielsen, nearly 40 million people in the US access email on a mobile device. Mobile marketing will finally realize its potential in 2009, especially for local businesses such as restaurants, movie theaters and just about anyone targeting Generation Y.
Trend #8: Behavioral Targeting
Expect online ads to become behaviorally based. Many new behavioral advertising networks will become available in 2009, some serving dynamically generated images and messages based on each user’s online behavior.
Trend #9: Behavioral Analytics
Complementary to Trend #8, expect the world of measurement and web analytics to take a behavioral turn as well. This means measuring not only which pages people visit on your website, but more importantly why they do so.
Trend #10: Widget Marketing
Widgets (tiny, interactive Web applications) are relatively inexpensive to develop, and they can be an effective way to ensure that your customers spend more time with your brand on an ongoing basis. What widgets will you deploy in 2009 that will save your clients time, help them get things done, or simply provide them with useful information?
Trend #11: Innovation
With the recession will come a greater intensity of competition for the fewer available purchasing dollars. With this will bring a surge of creativity and innovation in the online marketing world. Do not let your competition out-innovate you.
Trend #12: Back-to-Basics Marketing
Expect less fluff in 2009, and more marketing messages about how companies solve problems for their customers. Be sure that you understand how your business solves real-world problems, and then clarify that in your marketing messaging.
Trend #13: Relationship Marketing
Companies will move towards a relationship-building model with their customers. The downturn in the economy means fewer new customers for a business. To address this, companies are going to need to focus on thrilling their existing customers and building longer-term relationships.
Trend #14: Verticalization
Verticalization is the natural progression of many marketing channels, providing marketers an opportunity to communicate with a highly targeted audience. For example, if you are a shoe designer or retailer, think ShoeTube.tv instead of YouTube.com. Expect verticalization in the online space in 2009.
Trend #15: Personalization
What customer wouldn’t prefer a customized product or solution vs. a generic, cookie-cutter version?
Trend #16: Multicultural Marketing
In the effort to uncover new audiences, many small businesses are going to realize the untapped potential of the Spanish-speaking market right here in the US.
Trend #17: Mixing Display Ads & Search Marketing
Multiple studies have found that by adding an online display ad campaign to a pay-per-click advertising campaign on the search engines, website traffic can double and conversions can increase significantly. This type of ROI cannot be ignored.
Trend #18: The Long Long Long Tail
Chris Anderson coined the phrase “The Long Tail” to describe the strategy of businesses (e.g., Netflix) that sell a large number of items, each in relatively small quantities. The long tail represents an opportunity for small businesses to capture segments and sub-segments of any market. With the economic downturn, expect the long tail to get much longer as small businesses go after narrower and narrower niches towards the end of the tail.
Trend #19: There’s No Place Like Home
With the growing unemployment numbers, expect a surge in home-based businesses and in mom entrepreneurs in 2009. Correspondingly, expect a surge in marketing directed at this segment of the market. If you can help these individuals be successful, start getting the word out now.
Trend #20: Speed
With the growth in entrepreneurship and home-based businesses, we can expect the speed at which these businesses respond to prospective customer inquiries to be fast. As such, small businesses that want to thrive in 2009 need to operate at lightning speeds and to have websites that fully serve the needs of their customers.

Action Plan
Is your business ready? Based on the above Internet marketing trends, explore and define ways that your small business can leverage the opportunities in the upcoming marketing landscape so that your company grows and you achieve your business objectives.

Source: http://www.startupnation.com/articles/9298/1/internet-marketing-trends.htm by Tom Now

WAYS TO FIND BALANCE IN 2009
As moms, it seems to be our very nature to make sure that everyone else’s needs are met before our own. The tugging and pulling at our time and emotions, as well as the physical in-abilities to do so much, can easily create a state of imbalance. Although there are simple ways to gain a sense of balance in your life, it is important to remember that “balance” is a state of being which is constantly changing and requires constant alterations to maintain. It’s always important to remember that it’s okay to have imbalance sometime. In fact, when you recognize that you are feeling a bit out of balance, you gain a sense of relief knowing you are in control of the emotion and change is just around the corner.

From one busy mom to another, here are some ways to find family/work and self balance:

Define your Value and Priorities
The feeling of imbalance occurs when we are doing things which do not align with the priorities we feel. In other words our actions do not reflect our inner emotions. For example, as a mom you might value time with your children, but as a homemaker cleaning the garage becomes a priority. As a result you become frustrated because you are spending all day cleaning the garage instead of playing with your children. To find more balance in your life, make a list of your values and beside them write a list of your priorities as you see them today. Now draw a line between items on the two lists that are aligned. Those priorities which do not support your values are the tasks in your day throwing you into that sense of imbalance. To find balance, alter your lists to create a steady scale.

Do a Time Audit
When a person is in financial trouble, professionals advise conducting a financial audit of spending to see where changes can be made. Time is the currency of most moms trying to seek work/life balance so when life is out of balance it’s time for a Time Audit. It’s easy to do and a great way to recapture lost time in your day. For three days (one weekend and two weekdays) write down everything you do and the time associated with it. For instance, you may find you spend 10 minutes searching for your child’s lost homework and school papers every morning. Write it down. At the end of the three days, look over your days and ask these questions. Can I live without doing this every day? How can I reorganize or change the situation that allows me to lose time on this task? Who can help me do this task in order to save me time? By taking a long detailed look at the way you spend your money or in this case, your time, you are certain to find a few minutes to spend more efficiently or selfishly.

Keep Stomachs Full and Happy
Sixty-five percent of mothers, according to BSM Media research, do not know what they are cooking for dinner at 4pm. Meal planning and feeding our family is one of the most stressful activities we do a mom, particularly since hunger only intensifies cranky moods caused by fatigue. With a little bit of planning, mothers can turn the bewitching hours around dinner into a time that is more enjoyable and stress free. First, plan ahead. This might be as simple as knowing what you are cooking for the next two nights or as detailed as a week’s worth of menus. I cook most of my meals on Sunday utilizing a simple category system. Monday night is always crock-pot night. This allows me to throw a meat, vegetables and potatoes into the pot on Sunday night and just plug in on Monday morning. I roast a chicken or turkey, and during the week it is sliced and diced on a salad or stirred into a casserole. Pasta sauce is easily stored and it only takes minutes to boil noodle as a quick homemade fix.

Create a Family Communication Center
Balancing schedules is one of the greatest challenges for moms. Between sports, homework, book club and possibly work, moms have a lot going on in their daily routines. No one likes surprises when trying to keep it all straight. Create a family communication center by hanging a large bulletin board in a common area of your home. Attach a large calendar and assign a different color marker for each member of the family. Instruct everyone to write their commits and schedules on the family calendar. For papers that needs mom attention, hang an IN box and OUT box next to the communication center. Instruct kids to leave papers that need your attention in the “in” box and allow them to pick completed sheets in your “out” box. This will eliminate chaotic mornings of lost permission slips or school papers.

Exercise
Who would imagine that the law of physics would work in balancing life as moms, but it’s true. Remember “For every action or reaction there is an equal action or reaction?” or “An object in motion stays in motion?” These rules ring true in creating the momentum for your family. If mom is tired and dragging, family life is likely to imitate the energy level. Make exercise a priority each and every day. You don’t have to run a marathon or compete in a bike race, just move your body. The energy you expend devoting yourself to self-wellness will not only give you more energy, but set a good example to your family that health and fitness is important. Exercise can also be a great way to mediate on your day, create much needed alone time or be done with children as a family activity.

Implementing only a few of these strategies will help busy moms find the 25th hour in her day or gain a sense of balance along the way.

Source: http://www.bluesuitmom.com/family/balance/balance.html By Maria Bailey