A recent report surveying 750 small business owners found that while small businesses are predicted to maintain steady marketing budgets in 2011, over 15% of respondents planned to increase their spend on website development, email marketing and social media. This compares to only 3% of the respondents planning to increase their spend on television and radio.

The shift to interactive marketing vs. traditional media is not a fad and is here to stay as smart metrics-driven business owners realize the cost-effectiveness and bottom-line smarts of building an online presence. Businesses that continue to resist the new online channels at their disposal and embrace marketing traditions of the past are leaving a lot of low hanging fruit on the table and – more importantly – are placing themselves at a competitive disadvantage that their competitors surely are relishing.

How do you intend to spend your hard earned marketing dollars in 2011? Are you planning for the future or living in the past?