Digital Video Recorders are the coming wave. By the end of this year an estimated 20% of cable subscribers will own a DVR. Advertisers take note. Prerecording favorite programs may not seem dangerous, at first. Look again. The ease of prerecording comes with built in, one touch commercial fast-forward. Yes, consumers no longer have to wait through commercial breaks to resume their program. So what are advertisers to do?

If you havent already now is the time to diversify marketing budgets. This is plain good business sense anyway and should already be in the works. For those paying big bucks for prime television spots be warned, target consumers are probably already buzzing past your colorful segments onto watching the next contestant being voted off.

Dont despair. Technology rides the tail of this trend. Naturally companies want to maintain revenue by providing as many advertising spots as possible. With consumers zipping past traditional ads technology is being created to change consumer behavior once again. Commercials will soon be built into the fast forwarded segments, including pop ups with tantalizing rewards for viewing the commercial in full. Talk has touched on lowering cable bills for watching complete commercials to integrating coupons for use online.

While this technology is very real, also plan to pay top dollar for such spots. Integrating television ad with online shoppers is the wave of the future. Most every business will want to get in on this new, vital market. Imagine targeting specific consumers rather than a time slot or geographic area. Think how perfect it would be to pinpoint consumers interested in your products without wasting resources on others.

Consumer behavior is being tracked via cookies on websites, links and online search histories. People regularly divulge information on their preferences, their interests, their shopping habits. Whats so far fetched in taking this information, integrating it into the entire consumer experience and offering products and services a consumer wants and needs rather than bombarding him with products hes highly unlikely to purchase.

So where does DVR become an issue? Currently small to medium businesses cut a slice of marketing budget for television spots. These spots are becoming less important, less prime, less viewed overall. While the number of DVRs per household is still minimal the habit is spreading. Cable companies push DVRs on consumers providing the above projection of 20% of US households to have the ability to skip your commercial. Can you afford to lose 20%?

To ease this transitional phase and to get in good with the increasing television to internet shopping trends internet marketing is required. Whether your focus be on organic listings or paid search, or the recommended combination of the two, internet marketing is a necessity for playing with the big boys.

Large companies like GM and Microsoft can continue throwing large sums of money toward these newly invented technologies while their still in the works, many smaller to mid sized companies cannot afford this technology as of yet. In fact, the technology has not been released to the masses, it is still being created. Dont think it will be cheap coming out of the gates. With the advantages targeted, DVR placed ads can express not everyone will be able to partake. At least not yet.

So, the best option for small to mid sized businesses would be to begin the shift to internet marketing. Not to suggest cutting television spots just yet, but a solid game plan will help any business through marketing transitions. Internet marketing does not need to be costly. Experts are available to help revamp your website, or build one if needed. Experts can review your site, provide a plan of action mirroring your goals, and help market your site to the millions upon millions of online consumers. ContentWorth is a full service search engine marketing firm offering paid and organic search assistance. We provide everything from pay per click ads across numerous search engines to original content to avoid the duplicate content fiascos now building. ContentWorth also provides link campaigns options and redesign. If youre ready to take your company to the next step contact us for a consultation.