Digital Marketing: A constant evolution

In the past two decades a universal dependence on technology has emerged. With my mere nineteen years I struggle to imagine an education without google, a social life without Facebook and a Business without an online presence. I doubt this post is the first to enlighten you of the digital world’s rapid growth, however when we reflect on the sudden development of digital marketing it really is fascinating.

Digital marketing has arguably shaped the business world today. In 1993 the first clickable banner ad was employed, five years prior to the emergence of Google. Since then search engines have become central to advertising, companies must work to reach the top of the search list or their webpages may remain redundant. If you lie on the second page of results you may as well be on the 100^th.

So how can you climb this ladder? This is where SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or PPC (Pay Per Click) comes in. These two factors are increasingly important in ensuring a webpage entices new visitors. I first found it hard to justify that companies could pay around fifteen pounds per click for an advert linking to their website – 1.5 grand for 100 seems quite extreme – but this really does highlight how significant web-marketing has become. If you acknowledge how many ads you ignore whilst surfing the web, it becomes quite obvious what is financing the cyber world.

Social Media is another element central to the evolution. Targeting clientele where they naturally gravitate has always been a key strategy for marketers. For me Facebook is my first call of action in a dull lecture or whilst procrastinating for an exam. With over 70% of internet users having a presence on social media channels, I am no exception. As sad as it sounds, this is an area we find ourselves most comfortable and businesses must compensate for this. Companies must maintain a professional and exciting brand image on this platform and maximize the opportunity to reach such a large audience.

Now onto our most recent and perhaps uncertain stage in the evolution process, Growth Hacking. Many of the aforementioned strategies largely require substantial funding and resources, for start-ups this may not be an option. Growth Hackers incorporate an innovative approach employing social media and viral marketing to expand their business. This is what I find most exciting. The process exposes the beauty of digital marketing; it demonstrates how technology offers companies an opportunity for rapid growth despite their background. However having only emerged five years ago, we have no idea how successful this area will be. In a cyber-world that is becoming increasingly competitive, will there be room to produce more software to promote low-cost growth?

So what’s next in store along this digital journey? Twenty years ago, the advances that would so rapidly follow the Clickable banner Ads were entirely underestimated. This uncertainty has left me wondering in what areas the field could possibly expand. What we can be sure of is the importance of remaining engaged with emerging software. To sustain our evolution we must continue to find new environments to access our customers, new software to greater analyse the success of our sites are and new content to maximise the population we reach.