Over the course of the past thirty years, marketers have experienced a paradigm shift from typical marketing strategies to digital marketing. It was not long ago when the first PC became available in the market; about 30 years ago. Since then, the digital world has progressed manyfold. It was then necessary for marketers to quickly adapt to digital marketing, especially on social media platforms which grew like wildfire.
Let us now discuss the history of digital marketing; and how it has changed over the ages. We must first know its origin and its progress till the present date and finally, we shall share some future horizons.
History
Over the past thirty years, the world has witnessed a mass adaption of the Internet; a slow but steady shift from the conventional methods of marketing to digital marketing. Digital Marketing allowed information to be sent far off compared to the traditional methods, it set the marketers free of their geographical limitations as the Internet went global. The earliest forms of digital marketing date back to email marketing and some of the early search engines include HotBot, Alexa, and LookSmart, etc. In the same time period, the first social media site (SIX DEGREES) was launched in 1997 followed by the tech giant ‘Google’ which launched a year later. The internet and its application continued to grow until the first digital marketing campaign was started by Universal Music which marked a turning point in digital marketing.
Things continued to expand when WordPress and MySpace launched in 2003. They were followed by Facebook which went live in 2004. Internet grew massively when YouTube became a reality the following year with Twitter coming out in 2006. By this time Amazon was making $10 Billion a year through e-commerce. The next couple of years made room for most of the present-day realities including Instagram, Whatsapp, Spotify, Tumblr, Groupon, Pinterest, etc. As consumers’ behavior changed with the internet, marketers also began adopting similar strategies to keep up with the change. Stuffing keywords and fake backlinks were the only SEO used at that time. SEO and marketing techniques have advanced a lot compared to what they were back in the day; therefore it is vital to understand the current state and scenario of digital marketing.
Current State
To explain the current state of digital marketing we must know that the digital ad spending of the United States crossed $100 Billion in 2018 and is still growing rapidly. Digital marketing now accounts for more than 60% of the total market share. The present state of digital marketing is very much intact with automation. We have auto-play features on Facebook and YouTube, Amazon has virtual dash buttons, and a lot more examples that indicate the presence of automation in the digital world. Videos and video marketing have become the norm with an increasing acceptance of social media.
Consumers now desire more and more interactions with the brands which have become possible through social media platforms. With all the new social media apps being launched every day, digital marketers need to adapt to create interactive and engaging content for consumers. A recent example is TikTok, founded in 2016, which has now surpassed $100 Billion in the private market (2020). Therefore companies and markets have a totally new medium for their ad campaigns.
Another significant thing in the present world of digital marketing is AI or Artificial Intelligence. These algorithms are designed to provide an accurate and personalized analysis of all consumer interactions. No doubt these machines can acquire a lot more than what humans and marketers can, with AI increasingly being used in most tech platforms. This poses a very serious yet scary question about the survival of digital marketers and SEO techniques…..!
Current State
When Artificial Intelligence and machines are running search engine algorithms, they could definitely have a tough time for digital marketers. The learning and analytics made by machines have a greater tendency and potential to better analyze consumer needs and customize the contents according to the consumer’s preference. This could make it tricky for marketers to create effective and persuasive ad campaigns. Moreover, voice searches continue to grow rapidly with the increasing applications of devices like Alexa and Google Home, etc Therefore SEO users need to adapt to the fact that consumers do not use the keywords while searching verbally, in fact, they use complete language phrases. All SEO experts and users must keep these user habits in mind to keep up with the increasing progress of the digital world and to rank their pages amongst the top pages.
All this discussion does not foretell an end to SEO, it is just an indicator that no matter how advanced the digital marketing field may get, SEO is and will be an important aspect of the digital marketing arsenal. Search Engine Optimization is an industry that continues to grow and change with the progress in the digital world. With new keywords and newer search methods being invented every other day, it is a challenge for a digital marketer to foresee and predict what people might want to search next. As we are already witnessing, social media sites continue to bloom and revolutionize the marketing industry with new algorithms that filter away unwanted and weak content. Now the main challenge for marketers shall be to create unique and quality content exclusive to their brand or business, keeping in mind the fact that Google will only entertain and push the most relevant, attractive, and accurate information.
Final Word
At the end of the day, we can conclude that digital marketing is a challenging task and marketers need rapid adaptation to the advancements in technologies. Just like the CineCrown Creative Agency and video productions which have taken all possible measures to stay in the game and provide their customers with the best experience possible. With the world moving steadily into voice search and machine learning culture, marketers must adapt to modern trends and use fresh and latest keywords in order to get their page ranked highest in the market. All of this may seem new to marketers but with the right skills and broad mindset, this adaption can be made fruitful for both the consumer and the digital marketers.