The history of digital marketing

23 Jul The history of digital marketing

First of all, what is Digital Marketing? And where did it all begin? Digital marketing is defined as the marketing of a product or service using online platforms, such as; social media, PPC, email marketing and SEO. As technology has evolved over time, our lives are becoming increasingly more dependant on digital components. Mobile phones and computers allow us to do pretty much everything we need, therefore, it makes sense that the traditional forms of marketing are now shifting more towards digital platforms.

The timeline of digital marketing so far…

In 1990 the first ever search engine was born called Archie Query Form, an index for FTP sites. A few years later, in 1993, the first ever clickable web-ad banner went live – another breakthrough for the history of digital marketing. From this, in 1996, smaller search engines began to launch and in the following year the first ever social media site was launched!
The birth of Google happened in 1998, and because of this the smaller search engines were wiped out from 2000. From this happening, the digital and social scene grew rapidly, with social media platforms such as; Myspace, LinkedIn, and in 2004, Facebook! Following the grand launch of Facebook – YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, and Spotify are all founded and Google+ launches in 2011.
Fast forward to today, where mobile usage has exceeded desktop usage and we are more digitally inclined than ever before!

The benefits of digital marketing

Digital marketing is now able to reach a much larger audience in a shorter space of time than traditional marketing techniques – and the cost of digital marketing is significantly lower than traditional marketing. With digital marketing, one of the best benefits is being able to measure growth and engagement levels from your followers and customers. Another main benefit to using digital marketing, is personalisation aspects. You can now target offers to specific customers, meaning they feel more valued and as the offer is targeted towards them they are probably more likely to pursue the offer, which in turn, should positively impact conversion rates.

The future of digital marketing

With almost anything, history has a tendency to repeat itself. However, with digital marketing, we often see patterns of disruption. As the rise of digital marketing attributes are increasing, the consumer engagement demands are increasing also. Consumers want everything at ease, whether that means putting everything onto the same platform, or simplifying any attribute even further – who knows.
Take a look at our blog and read about the benefits of using a digital marketing agency here, for more information on digital marketing.