Evolution of Digital Marketing

At the moment, digital marketing provides a lot of opportunities, and many individuals do not want to miss out on them. Digital marketing evolves through different phases to reach today’s stage.

Each year, many types of research are done in the technological field that brings out new concepts and products and it shits the digital market to the next step of its evolution.

Thanks to the internet and smartphones, more than 170 million individuals regularly use social media. In contrast, digital marketing professionals are working to educate themselves on the fundamentals of digital marketing so they can pull in more customers.

A company can easily reach its target audience by using digital marketing to promote its goods or services through a number of online channels.

These days, there is no doubt about the importance of digital marketing for company promotion campaigns, and it is anticipated that it will soon completely replace traditional marketing. Due to its unimaginable features and opportunities, digital marketing will fully replace offline and traditional marketing.

People would prefer digital marketing to traditional marketing because they find it easy to use digital gadgets like smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Now, everyone is tech-savvy.

At first, the digital marketing term was introduced in 1990. The Web 1.0 platform was developed at the time to help people discover the information they needed. Though, they were unable to share this knowledge on the internet.

Now, the advantages of digital marketing are known to marketers and industry professionals. Since the internet had not been widely used in the past days, they were unsure if their online marketing strategies would be effective.

In 1993, the first clickable Web banner was officially launched. For marketing and promotion at the time, HotWired purchased a few banner advertisements. A new age of internet marketing had begun.

In 1996, a number of search tools and engines were introduced, including Look Smart, HotBot, and Alexa. The very first social networking website was launched in 1997 and was called sixdegrees.com.

Google was founded in 1998 so that year was the turning point for digital marketing evolution. Additionally, in the same year, Yahoo Web search and MSN by Microsoft were also introduced in the market. Two years later in 2000, an internet bubble burst, eradicating all smaller search engines. The industry’s giants now have more space and opportunities to grow.

LinkedIn was established in 2002 as a network for professionals. MySpace was introduced in 2004, but WordPress was introduced in 2003. Gmail was first introduced in 2004. Then, in 2005, YouTube was released, completely revolutionizing marketing practices.

Another noteworthy year was 2006 when it was reported that search engine traffic rose by 6.4 billion in a single month. In addition to Twitter’s launch that year, Microsoft also introduced an MS live search.

In 2007, Tumblr was established. Hulu, a web streaming service, was also founded this year. Exactly the same year, Apple unveiled the iPhone. Both Groupon and Spotify were introduced in 2008.

In 2009, Google Instant was launched to deliver search engine results instantly. AdSense, a cost-per-click advertising service, was created by Google. AdWords are three-line adverts that show up at the top or to the right of search engine results.

With time, Google started to tailor its advertising to the preferences of its users, and as a result, it became a significant player in the online business market. When Google Buzz and WhatsApp were both introduced in 2010, they gave businesses new ways to sell their goods and services.

Google Panda and Google+ were released in 2011. People had already begun spending time with other media by this point, and their viewership had surpassed that of television.

Social media dominated 2012. The funds allocated to social media ads by the businesses had grown by 64%, and Google Knowledge Graph had been created. Facebook and Myspace were the social networking sites with the highest usage rates.

Companies were trying to sell their products and brands on various social media platforms since they understood that such sites would help them expand their businesses over the internet. They have also tried to advertise their businesses on social media. Yahoo bought Tumblr in 2013.

For the first time, PC users were outnumbered by mobile and smartphone users in 2014. Targeted advertisements for iWatch, LinkedIn, and the Facebook Messenger app were all introduced. WhatsApp was purchased by Facebook earlier that year.

In 2015, Snapchat launched its Discover feature. In the same year, several new technologies were also developed, including analytics, wearable technology, and content marketing. Facebook also introduced the “Instant articles” function this year.

Another important turning point in the history of digital marketing was Cookie. The first cookie was set up to record the user preferences. Over time, the cookie’s purpose has evolved. Today’s cookies are frequently designed to provide marketers access to a wide range of ways to gather actual user data.

It could be noted that digital marketing is fast growing and it can provide online users and company owners new opportunities every day.

Even though the world is increasingly dependent on digital platforms, current marketing still uses a number of traditional marketing strategies but also calls for a more sophisticated and technological approach.

A successful business is one that can adapt to changes according to the situation and is well-equipped to handle problems. A key characteristic of a good marketing strategy is its flexibility, which enables it to change as per the need.

The marketing strategy shouldn’t depend just on one type of marketing to reach out to the target customer because both traditional and digital marketing may complement and reinforce the brand message.

The right fusion of several marketing strategies should be the main emphasis in order to maximize results. A more digitalized reaction is required by rapidly developing technology, which modifies some elements of the established marketing strategy.

While modern marketing strategies concentrate more emphasis on recognizing consumer demand and meeting them through innovative techniques like social media marketing, traditional marketing strategies still place a higher emphasis on selling products.

This modern approach focuses on how to engage the audience, allay their concerns, and provide them with the most enjoyable experience possible so that they could come back later to finish the transaction.

No one can predict where digital marketing evolution brings us. However, in the near future, digital marketing heavily depends on automation and AI technology. Marketing can’t depend on human judgment for making marketing decisions with accuracy. No matter, how intelligent one is, he or she cannot analyze all data to make rational decisions all the time.

In the field of digital marketing, a huge quantity of data is created. AI technologies are the key to overcoming the difficulty of managing and analyzing this massive data, allowing businesses to use it to boost the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.

AI is better at understanding and analyzing data and information. AI is becoming more competent than humans at identifying market trends. Marketers are using machine learning and artificial intelligence to save costs and save time.

Based on a user’s browsing and purchasing history, AI may be used to tailor marketing messages, suggestions, and content for that user. Customer support, answering commonly asked inquiries, and problem-solving may all be done by AI chatbots. In order to more effectively target their efforts, marketers may use AI to forecast consumer behavior, such as the goods people are most likely to buy.

By automating operations, analyzing data, and customizing experiences for clients, AI has the potential to increase the efficiency and efficacy of digital marketing campaigns.

Traditional marketing just allowed a little amount of growth but the advertising may assist organizations—particularly small businesses—in growing more quickly. Given the size of the digital marketing industry and how rapidly trends change, it is crucial for digital marketers to stay informed.

Brands may use digital marketing strategies such as social media marketing, SEO, email marketing, mobile marketing, content marketing, and others. The company should make sure that the website really reaches out to new buyers and offers the top service possible while launching the digital marketing campaign.