Digital marketing has turned into a buzzword in recent years. There are lots of books, articles, and stuff being published on the subject and many organizations are seeking digital marketing professionals to assist them in their ventures.
The term “digital marketing “first came into existence in the 1990s. The Internet we know today is very different than the Internet of the years the 1990s. Called Web 1.0 it was primarily static and let only text or some form of media, mainly restricted to simple images, be transferred. It lacked interaction and it was mainly in the form of a magazine or book online.
Emergence of Search Engines
The first search engine appeared in 1994. It was a simple crawler and it was called (Web Crawler). Web Crawler changed the history of Internet marketing and digital marketing forever because it changed the way people perceived the Internet. Four years after that Google was introduced to the world and a new era emerged.
Modern Internet Age
The introduction of Google to the world coincided with the emergence of Blogger and after that Myspace. These companies caused the start of the Modern Internet Age. The main characteristic of the Modern Internet age is that the Internet went mainstream at this stage. Before it was a reserve for only those who had technical backgrounds, but the new era meant that everyone was able to use the Internet and publish on it.
Social Media, a new phenomenon
Myspace is regarded as more or less the first true social media platform. Before there were some platforms and brands that provided the ability to interact with one another, but none were as influential as Myspace. However, this platform was not very successful in going full mainstream, mainly due to UX inadequacies.
Web 2.0
As it was stated above, the first version of the Internet was called Web 1.0. Websites developed at this time were mainly static websites that did not allow much interaction. Web 2.0 was an update to that and it came into existence in the year 1999. This era was all about interaction and social media and networking.
Web 2.0 was an enabler for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and many other social media platforms that we know of today. Social media played a major role in the success of the Internet and digital marketing as a result.
While the Internet has undergone so many enhancements since its introduction, none was as successful as Social Media to attract people. Social media caused the Internet to go mainstream. Once people signed up on social media platforms, it seemed impossible to live without it.
This feeling of dependence on social media led to the increasing use of smartphones and it meant marketers now have found a medium through which they can reach people any time of the day at any time.
To Sum Up
No other communication medium can provide such omnipresence and it meant that this medium is highly worth the investment. Aside from all the benefits stated above, digital marketing is cheaper than other media. It also is highly trackable and marketers can easily evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing activities.
