The Evolution and Growth of Digital Marketing | Sigil Digital Marketing The Evolution and Growth of Digital Marketing | Sigil Digital Marketing

The Evolution and Growth of Digital Marketing

Undeniably, people are utilizing more and more digital content on a daily basis — from their mobile phones, laptops, desktop, computers, to other technology driven things. For this reason, businesses have used these resources to their advantage in order to market their products and services to the public.

Digital marketing has been the choice of most businesses as their main strategy to effectively promote their company. In the Philippines, video production houses or agencies can certainly assist an enterprise to generate advertisements that can lead in the business’ success. Thus, marketing engines and tools have incontestably improved all throughout the years.

But what is digital marketing and how did it all started?

What is Digital Marketing?

  • Digital Marketing, as the name suggests, is a type of advertising wherein products and services are promoted over digital channels like internet, mobile phones, or any other digital forms. Since its introduction in the 90s, a number of businesses and companies have made sure that they use digital marketing in their business plans. The reason behind this is that digital marketing purely allows their businesses to reach a larger audience in a short span of time.
  • It is indeed a fact that the era of traditional marketing, such as newspapers, magazines, and radios, no longer has the audience impact it once had. Today, customers spend more time using and browsing social media sites, mobile applications, email, and e-commerce in buying and selling products and services online.

The Rise of Digital Marketing

The introduction of digital marketing definitely opened a whole new world of possibilities to companies and businesses, whether it’s a start-up business or a multinational company. But how did digital marketing move its way up? When did it start?

 

1990s

  • When the debut of the digital age took off in the 1990s, technology then brought the Internet and the Web 1.0 Platform to the world. If you are wondering what the Web 1.0 Platform is, this is a developed platform that allowed users to search various information, however its results were previously not permitted to be shared over the web.
  • This was the same time the term “Digital Marketing” was first used. Though, several marketers from across the Globe were still unsure if this type of platform would work since the internet was not yet deployed in the whole world.
  • It was then that Archie came along. Archie was the first ever search engine that people used to look for something on the internet. It was also when the number of businesses, which saw value in this platform as a channel for promoting their products and services, grew.
  • In 1993, the first clickable web banner went live. It was intended for advertising a certain product, service, or information that a potential customer would ultimately click and visit. This action ultimately led to customers being able to make a purchase on the internet. It marked the beginning of the transition to the digital era of marketing.
  • The Digital Marketing’s monumental shift, then, lead to new technologies entering the digital marketplace. In 1994, Yahoo! was launched. In its first year, Yahoo! received close to 1 million hits. This also encouraged changes in the digital marketing space.
  • Since Yahoo!’s success, several search engines and tools were launched. HotBot, LookSmart, and Alexa were some of the search engines and tools that were developed in the year 1996.
  • In 1997, the first ever social media site, sixdegrees.com, was launched. Sadly, sixdegrees.com is no longer operational. However, this year saw an exponential raise in the number of internet patrons and users, which businesses took advantage of.
  • By 1998, technology underwent an enormous update. It was the year when Google was born, Microsoft launched its own search engine—MSN, and Yahoo! developed its own search engine, which is Yahoo! Web Search.

 

Early 2000s

  • When the millennium year came, the internet was then crowded by a lot of search engines. This was when smaller search engines were either left behind or wiped out, leaving more space for enormous ones in the business. As a result, Microsoft put MSN as a low priority and launched its Live Search to compete with Google and Yahoo!
  • Google then saw this as an opportunity to expand. It introduced AdWords, which is known as a 3-line ad that shows up at the top or the right part of search engine results. AdSense was also developed by Google; it is a cost-per-click advertising system. By 2004, online advertising and marketing brought in a total of $2.9 billion in revenue.
  • This was the time when the rise of mobile phones emerged across the globe, offering a variety of uses and features that any consumer can enjoy. In 2001, an official mobile marketing campaign was launched by Universal Music who targeted consumers, who, in turn, interacted through their mobile phones.
  • Soon after, social media sites began to transpire. MySpace was the first social networking site to arrive in the internet world. It was quickly followed by Facebook. A number of companies then realized the potential of these social networking sites for their businesses. They foresaw them as new doors of opportunities to promote their products and services. All these new platforms, which were newly made available to the world, signaled the start of a fresh chapter in the business industry.

 

Late 2000s

  • As each year passes, the digital marketing industry became more up to date. In 2014, more and more people started using their mobile phones and tablets rather than a traditional computer set-up to use the internet. By this time, digital marketing was already widespread all over the globe.
  • Because of this, businesses improved their marketing strategies by using a number of social media sites as platforms to advertise their products and services online. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest are a few examples of these social media platforms that were used for social media marketing services.

Traditional Marketing VS Digital Marketing

In the business industry, most companies struggle to decide what kind of marketing strategy they should use. Essentially, they get to pick between two choices: traditional marketing and digital marketing. It is very seldom for companies to pick both choices, particularly because they only have a certain budget and limited resources. This is the reason why they must take a closer look on the pros and cons of these marketing strategies.

  • Traditional Marketing refers to the type of advertising campaigns that has been used by companies for several years now. Some examples of a traditional marketing strategy is consisted of newsletters, billboards, flyers, and newspaper and magazine print ads.
  • Choosing traditional marketing over digital marketing would mean that there is a great possibility for you to reach “most” of your audience, since you are more likely to deliver your ads by means of radio, mailbox flyers, newspapers, or magazines. When you deliver your ads through these channels, you can always have and keep a hard copy of your advertisement materials. In addition, the contents in this type of advertisement can easily be understood by people because they have been used to and exposed to this kind of advertising.
  • However, using the traditional marketing also has its downsides. One of them includes having only a small interaction between your used medium and your customers. It can also be really pricey, especially since paying for print and radio advertisements can be very expensive. Lastly, monitoring and measuring the results of these strategies is not easily done.
  • Digital Marketing, on the other hand, is the type of advertising that uses digital channels as a way of marketing products and services. One of the most known platforms when using this type of advertisement is the internet, social media sites, email, and ecommerce. It’s possible for every business out there, whether it’s a Philippine company for video production and social media marketing services, or a business selling solar panels.
  • Using digital marketing as your main strategy for your business will enable you to target your local audience as well as international ones. By reaching more audience, your campaign will surely be more effective. Your interaction rate with your audience also has more chance to increase. In addition, your audience can always choose how they want to receive your content – it could be in blog post, YouTube video, or Facebook ad form – which will ultimately result in you having a viral, valuable, and trusted brand. Additionally, it leads you to real time results.
  • But remember that it also has its own fair share of downfalls. Although the internet is already known worldwide, some people are still not computer or internet literate. Online scams, fraudulent activities, and spamming are also some downfalls of digital marketing.
  • To understand these better, let’s list down the benefits and downsides of each marketing strategy.

Traditional Marketing

Pros
  • Can easily reach your target audience
  • Materials can be kept
  • Easier to understand
Cons
  • Little interaction between the medium used and the customers
  • Print or radio advertisements can be pricey
  • Results in this type of marketing strategy cannot be easily measured

 

Digital Marketing

Pros
  • Your audience can choose how they want to receive your content
  • Digital Marketing is cost-efficient
  • Data and results are easily recorded
  • Level playing field
  • Real time results
  • Brand development
  • Becoming viral
Cons
  • Some people are not computer and internet literate
  • Existence of fraudulent activities and online scams
  • Setting-up a website can be costly
  • Needs constant attention and surveillance
  • Spamming

 

Given these facts, these 2 marketing strategies are both effective in their own ways. It is just a matter of how you will materialize and execute your chosen marketing strategy.

Different Channels of Digital Marketing

Since technology took over the world, the growth of digital marketing’s engines, tools, and channels has also increased. Essentially, being knowledgeable about these things can thrust your business way ahead of your competitors.

Here are some of the most effective digital marketing channels used by SEO, social media marketing, and Philippine video production companies in the business industry today:

 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

  • Also known as SEO, this marketing channel has the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a specific search engine. This type of channel is used when you want your website or your web page to be the first one to appear when people search for something on the internet. Basically, aiming for your website to rank on a specific keyword (i.e. video production company in the Philippines) is a means of SEO.

 

Pay Per Click (PPC)

  • This is a marketing scheme that uses search engine advertising to gather and generate clicks to a website instead of receiving clicks. Pay per click channels can be recommended most to searchers, advertisers, and company advertisements.

 

Social Media Sites

  • This channel is one of the most important digital marketing channels in the digital world today. Aside from the fact that it is a computer-based tool that is audience-friendly, it is also one of the commonly used digital marketing channels that businesses and companies, whether it’s a Philippine video production, a health awareness campaign, or a worldwide competition, use to promote their products and services.

 

Email Marketing

  • This type of marketing channel has a more personal approach since it involves a commercial message to a certain group of people using email.

 

How Digital Marketing Helps Businesses Thrive

Different businesses have been able to grow and flourish thanks to the help of digital marketing. These results can be easily attributed into 2 things:

Digital Marketing Levels the Online Playing Field

  • Whether you are a venturing freelancer, a budding entrepreneur, a start-up business person, or a multinational business owner, digital marketing has leveled the playing field in the business industry. In other words, digital marketing has provided both small and medium companies, either a video production agency in the Philippines or worldwide, the chance to compete with big corporations to attract their own share of target audience and traffic.

 

Digital Marketing Entices People to Take Favorable Action

  • Digital marketing usually uses resilient and effective strategies that will eventually entice people to take favorable actions to your company’s products and services. Additionally, digital marketing also makes use of clever and innovative ways to lure their customers to Calls-To-Action.
  • Calls-To-Action is the process wherein you attract your customers to do something – whether it is to like, sign up, download, buy, or call. These calls-to-action can also be optimized according to its color, scheme, or graphics; it can be made to look creative to tempt a business’ target audience to do a certain “action”. For instance, a ‘Subscribe’ prompt on your YouTube channel for a Philippine company video production project to gain subscriptions from viewers.

 

Picking the Perfect Digital Marketing Company for Your Business

  • The truth remains in the fact that the digital market is in a constant flux, most especially in this era wherein technology is ever-changing and updating. For this reason, it is a must that every company or business must always find ways to keep up with the inevitable change. Additionally, they must also keep up with the best digital marketing company that can provide the impeccable marketing campaign that suits your company.
  • Sigil, a digital marketing company, can suit you and your company’s needs. It will ensure that you will be provided with the best and most updated service you will ever need in your digital marketing strategy. It will also aid you generate a successful ad campaign, with the help from the writers, artists, editors, cinematographers, and talents.
  • Interested? Visit our website and contact page today to learn more about our services!

About Us

Sigil is a digital marketing company that focuses on the ROI (return on investment) of your brand in the digital space. We do this through effective creativity and the power of digital marketing.

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