Changing Trends of Digital Marketing: The Evolution from Conventional to Digital

In this digital age. World is considered as a global village because of ease of connectivity between people living in two ends of the globe. The importance of any digital medium in a person’s life is for sure. We are not only just using digital media. But we have become dependent on them for so many things now like entertainment, information, business and many more. In other words, it has become an essential part of our lives. Without which it would be hard for us to survive just like some of the necessities like food. This blog will help you give an idea about the evolution of digital marketing over the years.

Now everything is being operated digitally, and without being associated to it. You may be left behind in many aspects. The digital technology has come a long way from the time of its inception. Become a vital tool to market any business. It gives a vast exposure to a business without reaching out to the masses in person. But we all are interested in knowing about where it all started.

Inception of Digital Marketing:

The history of digital spread back to the time of invention of the first digital computer in the early 1980’s by IBM. It was the time when brands also started reaching out to the public to market their products in innovative ways. So in mid-1980’s, the concept of database marketing started emerging. Where computer databases were used to keep an account of marketing strategies, client’s information and contracts.

1986 was the year when a marketing company ACT launched the first marketing software. Which had ample storage available for keeping a record of client’s data. Robert Kestenbaum is considered the pioneer marketing automation. Who together with the help of Robert Shaw developed different database marketing models. Both of them incorporated many new things for digital marketing. Like marketing strategy optimization, marketing analytics, marketing campaign and resource management.

All these efforts were a build up for a revolution in digital marketing, that actually took place in the 90’s with the invention of first customer relationship management software. Later in that decade in 1999, Siebel Handheld invented the first CRM mobile app.

Offline Marketing:

This type of marketing is done through the mediums that do not require internet for their operations like television, digital radio and electronic billboards. This is very effective and popular way of marketing because of the scope of it. It caters a huge amount of audience, and its impact is very powerful. Following are some of the most popular medium for offline marketing:

Television:

Marketing through television has been around in one or other from a long time since the invention of first television in 1920’s. The first paid ad on television was aired on television in July 1941.But since the cope of our blog is about digital marketing. So we will cut to the chase and start with digital TV marketing.  

The possibility of a digital television emerged in early 1990’s with different digital satellites being tested out for inearly-1990’s. The first commercial digital satellite platform was launched using the DSS standard by direct TV network of united states in 1994. After two years, digital cable broadcasting was tested in 1996 and launched by time warner and TCI. In 1998, ON digital network United Kingdom making use of DVB-T standard, launched the first digital terrestrial platform.

With the turn of century, the prospects of digital television also took a huge turn and in early 2000’s. The digital television broadcasting started officially. With digital television giving more graphic and high definition visuals. So the potential of running marketing and advertisements on television also enhanced. Companies started diverting their marketing budgets on television. Rather than other mediums like newspapers. Because they felt they had a better chance of promoting their product in masses through television. The benefit with marketing on television is that you get your message through to all classes of people. Whether they like it or not.

Television Marketing and Advertisement:

Television marketing became a big thing in themid-2000’s with different brands spending millions of dollars on running their marketing campaigns. Popular brands started hiring topnotch celebrities to actin their advertisements to be aired on television. Companies started putting in extra effort in the marketing strategies. So they can make the most of this ideal exposure that they were offered. Different methods like storylines, songs, jingles were incorporated in the advertisements to grab the attention of the audience. The advertisements that were aired on the peak hours like during Super bowl. Cost thousands of dollars per minute, and every company wanted to run their campaign in that timeslot.

Companies saw a boom in their sales during the course of the decade. Because advertisements became a part of every household and people started loving them. The employment opportunities also grew in this duration. Some people making a fortune through this thriving opportunity. With the availability of internet to masses and emergence of online marketing. Things started to change for the worse as far as television marketing was concerned.

Radio:

Radio is probably one of the oldest mediums for marketing and has been around over 100 years. But as its availability became possible through internet. The importance of radio marketing has taken a huge leap. The audience of radio has surely dropped due to introduction of other mediums. But still, there is a large committed audience that listens to radio regularly. According to an estimated, more than 80% of population in united states has access to radio. Regularly audience spends 2 hours per day listening to radio. The cost of advertisements may not be as much as for some of the other mediums like television. It varies depending upon the airtime.

This presents an opportunity to companies to market their products via an extensively available forum. The strategies deployed for radio marketing are slightly different. Because of the nature of the medium. Just like for other mediums. You have to devise a thorough plan to run an effective digital marketing campaign on radio. You have to consider many factors. While devising a marketing strategy for radio like listenership, genre of content and demographic location. Like, if you are making an advertisement for the channel whose biggest audience is millennials. You would incorporate some trendy and cool content to get their attention.

As there is only one mode of communication in radio, so you have to focus all your attention in perfecting it. The sound effects and voice quality should be top tier for audio stimulation of the audience. So that they can be persuaded. The content should be relatable and interesting so that the listeners do not get bored. Try using some innovation like a storyline to convey your message. Rather than directly bombarding listeners with your offers in an advertisement.

Electronic Billboards:

The days of conventional billboards are gone now and electronic billboards is the new hit in the streets for marketing purposes. The reason for that is the visual and graphic nature of the content on an electronic billboard. They make use of digital technology like LEDs to make the advertisement more appealing to the viewer. The cost of hiring an electronic billboard for an advertisement has drastically gone up as the effectiveness of it has increased. The traffic on a place and location can also vary the amount for hiring a billboard. Like, approximately 330,000 cross times square everyday making it one of the prime locations around the globe for running an advertisement on electronic billboard. You might pay as much as 4,000,000 $ for hiring a bill board in times square for a year.

It all goes down to human nature that there is a lesser attention span for a stationary object rather than a moving one same case applies to electronic billboards. The advertisements on electronic billboards are displayed in a way that there is a constant change in the images appearing in front of the audience, so they are more likely to be hooked up to it to see what’s next. Also, the video marketing on electronic billboards is also very effective as it really engages the viewer to get the message across because of its high definition imagery.

Electronic Billboard Advantages

The prime benefit of advertising through an electronic billboard is that it creates a brand awareness among people. No matter whether you like the ad or not but if you had a glance at it, then the name of the brand is saved in your subconscious. So, putting an effective advertisement on electronic billboard in the vicinity of a rival company can increase your acceptability amongst the potential clients of the competitors.

Electronic billboards also can be a very good way to cater targeted audience of a specific locality or society because you have a free will of marketing your product in any site. What it does is, it helps you to devise a marketing strategy according to requirements of people of different locations that is more likely to yield favourable outcomes. You can make a relatable advertisement for local community, and you can convey your message in the best possible way.

Phones:

The scope of marketing through phones took a huge leap as advancements started to happen in technology. With the invention of new variety in phones, the level of audio and connectivity increased a great deal. It provided a great opportunity to companies to market their products to the audience. Phone is something that is available in every household. And running a good marketing strategy through this medium can prove to be very beneficial. We will be discussing marketing through following two kinds of phones. Depending on the scope of this blog:

Digital Phones:

Emergence of digital phones has truly revolutionized the telemarketing in the true sense of the word with clarity invoice and improved connectivity with people around the globe. It has given the businesses a launching pad to run their marketing campaigns effectively.

Outbound telephone marketing is the most popular trend in telemarketing because it allows you to have an interaction with your potential client on personal level. You can market your product by telling specification to the listener and also cater to their particular needs like listening to their problems and providing solutions. It is a very good way of creating a goodwill relationship with your target client because you make them feel like you are there to serve them in any way possible.

The key to running a successful in/outbound telephone marketing is to be very polite and pleasant while talking to the target client. Also, confidence and proper planning are other vital factors that can persuade your listener because no one wants to listen to mumbling voices and confused descriptions. You should be preplanned before dialing a call about how to market your business and preempt the possible questioning and prepare their answers.

Mobile Phones:

The real game changer in the phone technology has to be mobile phone because it totally changed the horizon of possibilities. So it has opened so many new opportunities for marketers as well to reach out to the target audience. The aspect of mobility made it so easy to run marketing24/7 without any restrictions. With smartphones coming into play, marketing prospects cranked up a notch.

SMS marketing is one on the most popular types of marketing through mobile phone. Hence, the advantage of running SMS marketing is that you can include all the description of your business in single message.  So you can convey your message to anyone you want whether they want it or not. Just like in marketing via calling, you have to be very planned before approaching your audience. You have to create a message by keeping a sense of regard for the receiver in mind. You should appear polite and giving to the reader through choice of appropriate words. Try to use an innovative way of giving your message rather than mentioning your product straight away. In this way, there is a likelihood of the acceptance of your business.

Marketing is also done through calling and QR codes in mobile phones but is not as popular as some of the other methods. This way of marketing is usually popular in banking sector.

Online Marketing:

Online digital marketing is the type of marketing for the digital age. Over 3 billion people in the world have access to internet, and it comprises of more than half of the world population, 55.1% to be precise. This leaves an open playground for marketers to promote their businesses around the globe without any hindrance. There are many ways to conduct online marketing, and some of the important ones are explained below:

Social Media Marketing:

Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways of online marketing where you can cater a large audience on multiple social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. The goal of social media marketing is to promote your product by keeping the interest of the audience in mind.

One way to turn a social media marketing is via blogging or articles in which you include all the details of your business from services to limited edition offers. This is pone of the older styles to run a marketing campaign on social media as it is not too interactive in nature. But if you have generated a reader-friendly content that is easily understandable, then you are in with a chance of getting viewership.

Ad posting is one of the most popular ways of online marketing currently being practiced by business around the globe. It can grab the viewer’s attention while they are scrolling down in any social media platforms. The subtle nature of this way of marketing has proven to be very effective as it promotes your product without putting the audience into any inconvenience like going on a link or opening a page. Companies are trying to be more innovative and creative in their ad posting campaign on social media to get the attention of large number of audiences.

Another to market your business on social media is through influencers which have a huge following that can give your product a great exposure. Different influencer charges different for sponsoring posts. They could be celebrities or other social media hits that have prominent presence on social media platforms.

Pay Per Click:

In this type of marketing, the advertiser gives the publisher a cut on every single click on their ad. So this is becoming a popular way to advertise products on internet because it is a win-win situation for both parties. Different tools are used to keep track of PPC marketing like Google AdWords. So they help to keep account of changing activity on your ad like clicking, visiting etc.

Search Engine Marketing:

Search engine marketing is another popular way of online marketing where you incorporate various techniques to increase your ranking and visibility on different search engines. There are many ways to do SEM including usage of appropriate title tags and meta description, URLs, keywords, backlinks etc.

In SEM, paid digital marketing is also included in which there is a fixed amount of money being paid by businesses to search engines to run their marketing campaign. This may and expensive method to reach out to targeted audience but is effective like no one else. The concept of pay per click (PPC) is also done in search engine marketing.

Search Engine Optimization:

Search engine optimization is an important way of SEM to cater large audience on search engines. In SEO marketing you take all necessary measure to improve the ranking and visibility of a website or e-commerce store on search engines. So, as we there is a humungous amount of traffic that operates on different popular search engines, so the likelihood of increase inorganic traffic on your website is great. Different popular techniques used to optimize a website are given below:

Keyword Usage:

Analyzing the quality of the content is the first step in SEO marketing where website is examined in detail from writing style to word choice. Such that there are many top ranked keywords in various niches that can help improve the visibility of content. Incorporating these keywords on your website can do wonders to your traffic. So the top-rated keywords are accommodated in various prime locations within a content like heading or title tags to improve the visibility of the website.

Backlinking:

Another effective way of doing SEO marketing is through usage of internal and external backlinks. In internal backlinking, you have to connect all your webpages within a website through links. So that there is a convenience for user to move to other locations. So in external backlinking, you connect your webpages with popular external websites via backlinks. It helps to derive the traffic of the other website on to yours.

Analytics:

This is an effective SEO technique to run analysis for your marketing campaign. So it includes all the detailed insight on the traffic trends and factors that are influencing ranking of a website. This technique is very useful in letting the business know about their marketing flaws that should be eradicated to run a better marketing campaign.

Content Marketing:

In this type of online marketing companies generate appropriate content for their niche to reach out to audience. In this type of marketing different forms of content is made to be posted online like photos, videos, emails, blogs, articles, infographics. It is to be made sure that the kind of content made resonates with the targeted audience other wise all efforts will go in vain. The content should be engaging enough that it could grab the attention of the viewer. More innovative and graphic the content is, greater is the chance of persuading the audience.

Affiliate Marketing:

In this type of marketing, a business hires a publisher to run their marketing campaign online and give a fixed share to the min case of favourable outcome. However, this is a favourable way to run a marketing campaign for a business. Because they do not have to spend money until and unless they get their reward. Affiliate or publisher is usually an influencer or a popular marketing company that caters your promotional needs on the internet.