The debate over who was the first digital marketer has been ongoing for years. Some say it was Gugliemo Marconi, who invented radio in 1896, while others credit computer engineer Ray Tomlinson for sending the first email in 1971. The term “digital marketing” was first used in the 1990s, when the Internet and Web 1.0 platform were developed. This platform allowed users to find information, but not share it over the web. Marketers were unsure of how to use this new digital platform, as internet usage among adults was still low.
However, with the launch of web browsers in the early 90s, personal use of the Internet skyrocketed. Companies like Computer Literacy and Amazon began selling products online in 1991 and 1995 respectively, and email became a popular marketing tool. Search engines like Netscape allowed companies to tag and put in keywords to get noticed, while social media sites like Facebook made it possible to track data and adapt to consumer trends. Digital marketing activity continues to grow worldwide, according to leading global marketing index.
An effective digital marketing strategy combined with the right tools and technologies allows you to track all your sales to a customer's first digital touchpoint with your business. The best digital marketers have a clear idea of how each digital marketing campaign supports their overall objectives. It's different from internet marketing, which includes marketing on social media sites and mobile apps. Regardless of what your company sells, digital marketing involves creating shoppers to identify the needs of your audience and creating valuable online content. Digital marketing creates many more opportunities by allowing you to reach potential buyers across a wide variety of channels. As digital marketing depends on a technology that is constantly evolving and changing rapidly, the same characteristics should be expected from digital marketing developments and strategies. To create a planned digital strategy, companies must review their digital proposal (what they offer to consumers) and communicate it using digital customer segmentation techniques.
Digital marketing also allows you to track campaigns on a daily basis and reduce the amount of money you spend on a given channel if you don't demonstrate a high ROI. And the rise of smartphones also meant that digital marketers could no longer ignore the mobile market. One of the main changes that occurred in traditional marketing was the emergence of digital marketing, which led to the reinvention of marketing strategies to adapt to this big change in traditional marketing. The digital marketer typically focuses on a different key performance indicator (KPI) for each channel, so that he can correctly measure the company's performance on each channel. Internet marketing is advertising that is done solely on the Internet, while digital marketing can be done through mobile devices, on a metro platform, in a video game or through a smartphone application. And as the world becomes more connected, digital marketing will continue to drive innovation on the Internet, just as the Internet drives innovation in digital marketing.