In a global situation where more than 45% of the entire world population is active on social media networks and the number of active users increases by 350 million from 2018 to 2019, the art of appealing to customers is an important one.
Having stated that, it must be noted that this art is not new.
In fact, new is the medium used. With such an increase in the number of social media users, it is expected that every business expert must be familiar with the different facets of Digital Marketing.
The advancement of technology in the incorporation of globalization of commerce has led to a rise in digital marketing or the practice of attracting customers through various social media platforms.
Digital Marketing industry is a dynamic one. In understanding the evolution and history of Digital Marketing, hopeful digital marketers and business experts can enter it with the necessary skills they require for future success.
Digital Marketing is an umbrella term for the marketing of products and services using various digital technologies, mainly online, but also including display advertising, mobile phones, and several other online mediums.
The History of Online Marketing
Some like to certify Italian inventor, Guglielmo Marconi as the first digital marketer because he discovered the radio. Others believe that the era of digital marketing started in 1971 when Ray Tomlinson sent the first email to himself, as nobody was using email at that time.
Though both these instances exemplify significant moments in the technology evolution, it won’t be right to say that they launched digital marketing what we know today.
The mass adoption of the internet as a daily part of the regular life of human beings is the single largest occurrence that has affected marketing over the last decades. Though early desktop publishing software n the first PC’s prompted a rush in the print market in 1980, the computers were a bit more than a typewriter.
Even though history Digital Marketing rose in the early ’80s, it is right to say that 1990 is when Digital Marketing was actually started. Why? Because this is when Archie, the first search engine was invented and was an index for FTP sites.
As per the Digital Marketing Institute, a succession of technological advancements at the turn of the 21st century set the stage for a massive and modern digital audience. Among these, the internet, smartphones, and big data are regarded as the most important.
Though it is most often argued that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) developed with the launch of the foremost website in 1991, or when the first web search engine was launched, the official of SEO started a bit later, about 1997.
It is impossible to expect what the future of online marketing holds, mainly due to its dynamic nature. But to have a fair idea, it is vital that we look back.
Let us look at the three most important technological advancements that have changed the way we look at digital marketing: big data, the internet, and smartphones.
The Internet
Though the theoretical origins of the internet go as far back as 1960, the World Wide Web was invented by the scientist, Tim Berners-Lee in the year 1989.
His main objective was to connect computer networks at CERN, his employer. In 1991, the first person outside CERN was asked to join.
In 1994, Netscape, the main successful mass-market browser, was released.
In a couple of years after the Netscape’s entry to the public sphere, the number of individuals using the web rose from 16 to a massive 70 million people.
The quick growth of internet users caused a changing landscape. The use of email, advanced search engines like Yahoo and Google, and the concept of e-commerce sites like eBay and Amazon paved new and modern ways for businesses to reach customers.
Email became a marketing tool and search engines became a means for consumers to find several products and services.
The earliest SEO methods were also launched, which included extreme tagging, keyword stuffing, and using backlinks.
Big data
The introduction of digital activity gave an increase to new developments in data recording and storage technology.
Online customer activity could now be recorded, saved, and analysed. This proved invaluable to businesses, as it provided insight about who their customers were and their behaviour which in turn permitted them to find ways that were the best to connect with them.
The advent of social media websites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook allowed big data to expand even more considerably, as the users posted more personal info on social media platforms.
Ultimately, big data helped businesses to track customer patterns, develop defined marketing strategies, and even provide predictive analysis. This further permitted them to connect with the customers on a personal level than earlier.
The Evolution of Technology
In a very short span of time, technology has taken over human life. Smartphones, tablets, and computers- we can’t seem to operate without any of these, professionally or personally.
Websites progressed hand in hand with the internet. Suddenly, everyone had a GeoCities or a Tripod website which was dedicated to themselves. This is the same time when blogging frenzy started to set in on the customer level with the launch of “weblogs”.
Fast forward a few years and sharing the info changed from CD-ROMS and floppy discs to USB sticks, and saving documents on laptop/desktop and then emailing them to contacts.
Nowadays, Wi-Fi is almost everywhere, and where it is not, customers have access to mobile data which every mobile service provider provide these days. Plus, there are apps for everything.
Messaging has developed from text messages to images, videos, emojis, and gifs. Furthermore, video calling apps like Skype, Facebook Video Calling, FaceTime, etc has improved high-quality video and streaming capabilities.
With more and more users engaging in video/web conferencing online, geographic barriers that once hampered communication are totally torn.
Instead, businesses can engage with customers in a humane manner, experts can talk face-to-face with each other.
People can connect to their loved ones across borders effectively and reach out to people no matter wherever they are in this world in a faster and much easier way.
Recent Trends in Digital Marketing
As digital marketing trends evolve fast, digital marketing experts should always stay updated with the changes in order to become familiar with the modern technologies.
This will help them in attaining a competitive edge and at the same time will help them to find new ways to expand their businesses, generate new leads and enhance the relationship with their current customers.
Having mentioned that, there are a few new developments that are gaining popularity in the world of online marketing.
- Voice Search– Voice search is noticing a big increase in the number of users. In fact, many industry experts had predicted that by 2020, nearly 50% of queries will be voice-based. Top names in the industry are developing strategies on how to deliver their assurances using different voice-enabled devices as they are reasonably priced and provide greater possibilities than ever before while more visitors are making use of voice searches in order to interact with these companies.
- Virtual Reality and Augmented Marketing– Augmented reality ads are one of the main applications that are now utilized by some major businesses like Lenskart, Michael Kors, etc. It is a method to bring imaginary or static environments into a realistic experience, something that would incorporate the “offer” with the “reality” of the purchaser.
- Social Media– Social Media Applications like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are a few reasons why live content has become the fastest-growing division of internet video traffic. Live streaming content is free of cost, it consumes less time, and viewers utilize your content depending on your time, rather than theirs.
- Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning– With worldwide business leaders like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon extending their resources machine learning and AI, this trend is going to stay. Artificial intelligence allows digital marketers to foresee the future plausible patterns of their customers based on the composed data. With this data, the experts can then establish how to connect with their active customers in a better way by using various digital media channels like sales outreach, direct mail, and digital advertising.
It can be concluded that digital marketing training in Bangalore is expanding exponentially, and it is bringing huge opportunities to users and businesses every day. If you want to establish your presence in this digitized world, then you must use all these opportunities wisely.
Yes! Finally something about Digital Marketing.
It is really very nice to see such a wonderful article on Digital Marketing – the explanation starting from its history till recent trends. People need these type of articles in order to understand the importance of Digital Marketing. The importance of Digital Marketing is growing day by day and in this era of internet and Social Media, it is a must to educate people on concept of Digital Marketing. A highly recommendable article.