Marketing at one point of time used to be about creating a myth and selling a product, but with internet, things have changed. It is now about finding a truth and sharing it. With so much information on every topic available online, customers can no longer be tricked into buying things. Marketers can no longer indulge in creating fiction and dispensing them as gospels. However nobody could have predicted that marketing would become what it is today and given how the internet is evolving, we cannot tell what marketing is going to evolve into either.
- Advent of Internet
The World Wide Web project that was launched by Time Berners-Lee did not take offuntil the release of a successful mass market browser, Netscape. In just two years the number of people who could now be found on the web rose from 16 million to 70 million.
The online landscape underwent major changes with increase in the number of users. Apart from sending e-mails, users could now perform online search on search engines like Yahoo! and Google. They were also given the power to buy things online with e-commerce sites such as Amazon and eBay.
What was previously used for correspondence within organisations then evolved into an outbound marketing tool. E-mail had joined the arsenal of radio, print and TV advertisements. More and more websites were getting created each day and search engines catalogued them allowing users to access information and find products from the comfort of their home.
The popularity of search engines increased and so did the number of websites on the internet. The leverage slowly shifted from websites to search engines and PageRank became an important determinant. This gave birth to the concept of optimizing websites and the process came to be known as Search Engine Optimisation. Marketers basked in the techniques of SEO such as inserting keywords, tagging and building backlinks to generate high rankings.
The online landscape underwent major changes with increase in the number of users. Apart from sending e-mails, users could now perform online search on search engines like Yahoo! and Google. They were also given the power to buy things online with e-commerce sites such as Amazon and eBay.
What was previously used for correspondence within organisations then evolved into an outbound marketing tool. E-mail had joined the arsenal of radio, print and TV advertisements. More and more websites were getting created each day and search engines catalogued them allowing users to access information and find products from the comfort of their home.
The popularity of search engines increased and so did the number of websites on the internet. The leverage slowly shifted from websites to search engines and PageRank became an important determinant. This gave birth to the concept of optimizing websites and the process came to be known as Search Engine Optimisation. Marketers basked in the techniques of SEO such as inserting keywords, tagging and building backlinks to generate high rankings.
- Big Data
Online activity since the advent of internet has been stored as digital information. A study that was conducted in 2000 revealed that it was the most rapidly growing type of information and most of it is in the form of text. This type of information is known as big data.
Big data over the last few years has replaced most of its counterparts such as film, paper and optical discs (CD and DVD). With the discoveries in storage and data recording technology, big data has become an irreplaceable resource for marketing.
Marketing tactics saw a paradigm shift after the early hype of internet and dot come bubble burst in 2001. Inbound marketing was now the preferred choice of marketing which involved user-centred design, collaboration and information sharing. The rise of social media websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace and Twitter further accelerated the use of inbound marketing as it enabled internet users to share more personal data.
With the help of big data, it was now possible to track trends and patterns of human behaviour. Due to this feature of big data its use is likely to increase in the field of marketing. A number of companies have tried to harness this technology and this proves how much momentum data driven marketing has gained in recent times.
There are companies that utilise the power of predictive analysis and specialise in digital precision marketing. Big data is used by these companies’ marketing cloud that helps it to connect with customers more effectively by acquiring data on their emotional intelligence. With such an analysis, they are able to create better strategies that are aimed at strengthening customer relationships.
Big data over the last few years has replaced most of its counterparts such as film, paper and optical discs (CD and DVD). With the discoveries in storage and data recording technology, big data has become an irreplaceable resource for marketing.
Marketing tactics saw a paradigm shift after the early hype of internet and dot come bubble burst in 2001. Inbound marketing was now the preferred choice of marketing which involved user-centred design, collaboration and information sharing. The rise of social media websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace and Twitter further accelerated the use of inbound marketing as it enabled internet users to share more personal data.
With the help of big data, it was now possible to track trends and patterns of human behaviour. Due to this feature of big data its use is likely to increase in the field of marketing. A number of companies have tried to harness this technology and this proves how much momentum data driven marketing has gained in recent times.
There are companies that utilise the power of predictive analysis and specialise in digital precision marketing. Big data is used by these companies’ marketing cloud that helps it to connect with customers more effectively by acquiring data on their emotional intelligence. With such an analysis, they are able to create better strategies that are aimed at strengthening customer relationships.
- Smartphones
Smartphones and tablets made an entry into the digital world just a few years back and we are still struggling to completely utilise their potential in marketing. A world without smartphones and tablets is quite unimaginable. Smartphones have overtaken personal computers by becoming the most commonly used medium to access the internet. According to a recent study the average time spent by us on internet in a single day was just 46 minutes in 2011 but has now increased to a whopping 258 minutes.
There were many attempts at designing hand-held computer devices such as PDA’s but they were not able to gain much popularity. This necessitated the innovation of smart phones and the first one on similar lines was manufactured by BlackBerry in 2003. This phone supported text messaging, email, web browsing and phone calls. However this smartphone was mainly used by business professionals which is exactly similar to what happened around the time computers were introduced.
IBM held a firm belief that computer was useless to the general population but what happened years later was exactly opposite to what they believed. It was Apple that held ground and championed the cause of making personal computers reach every household.
The result? Computers penetrated into almost every household and manyyears later smartphones repeated the feat. It was once again Apple that introduced us to the true prototype of what a smartphone should be like, the kind we use nowadays. According to statistics, smartphone ownership in the UK alone is about 76% and this number is increasing as you are reading this. The rise in the number of 4G subscribers has caused a sharp decline in the number of traditional voice calls.
Thus, with smartphones the world is now in our pockets and information is just a tap away. This also makes us wonder where we’re headed. Probably to a future with greater transparency, personalisation and agile marketing.
There were many attempts at designing hand-held computer devices such as PDA’s but they were not able to gain much popularity. This necessitated the innovation of smart phones and the first one on similar lines was manufactured by BlackBerry in 2003. This phone supported text messaging, email, web browsing and phone calls. However this smartphone was mainly used by business professionals which is exactly similar to what happened around the time computers were introduced.
IBM held a firm belief that computer was useless to the general population but what happened years later was exactly opposite to what they believed. It was Apple that held ground and championed the cause of making personal computers reach every household.
The result? Computers penetrated into almost every household and manyyears later smartphones repeated the feat. It was once again Apple that introduced us to the true prototype of what a smartphone should be like, the kind we use nowadays. According to statistics, smartphone ownership in the UK alone is about 76% and this number is increasing as you are reading this. The rise in the number of 4G subscribers has caused a sharp decline in the number of traditional voice calls.
Thus, with smartphones the world is now in our pockets and information is just a tap away. This also makes us wonder where we’re headed. Probably to a future with greater transparency, personalisation and agile marketing.
- Transparency
Information is now readily available and at no extra cost to us. We can look up on any subject and verify the facts that are presented before us. This transparency has empowered customers to research on products and compare them to make an informed choice. It has severely impacted the process of sales as most of the conversion now takes place behind a screen. Due to the digital transformation as much as 70% of a buyer’s journey is complete even before he walks into a store.
This forced marketers to realise the power of digital marketing and SEO in particular. They realised the importance of online presence and how it can benefit their marketing campaigns. The result is that even big brands are now looking for ways to rank higher on search engines as they do not want to lose their clientele to those who appear higher on SERPs.
Traditional forms of marketing still play an important role in the marketing campaign of any brand. But even the firms who have the ability to market themselves aggressively through traditional ways, cannot ignore digital marketing. Firstly because digital marketing ensures that you can reach out to a segment of population that doesn’t watch much television or reads a lot of newspaper and secondly because it is an effective technique with good return on investment.
Digital marketing was quickly adopted by many sectors and due to its flexibility it could be used effectively in almost any industry. As a result, online marketing for finance, engineering, chemicals and other such industries started gaining a lot of popularity. Apart from SEO, various other techniques used in digital marketing are newsletters, content marketing, paid ads, webinars, videos, sales tools etc.
But there are always two sides to a coin, and the other side of this coin is what makes its necessary to have greater transparency. The vast amount of marketing that is done online has left many consumers confused about the authenticity of content. According to a recent study only 19% customers could tell the difference between commercial and non-commercial content on social media sites and about 30% showed lack of trust in the content that they come across on such sites.
Customers are now in the driving seat and marketers cannot afford remaining blind to this fact. There is now a greater need for them to have an ongoing conversation, create real relationships and brand loyalty.
This forced marketers to realise the power of digital marketing and SEO in particular. They realised the importance of online presence and how it can benefit their marketing campaigns. The result is that even big brands are now looking for ways to rank higher on search engines as they do not want to lose their clientele to those who appear higher on SERPs.
Traditional forms of marketing still play an important role in the marketing campaign of any brand. But even the firms who have the ability to market themselves aggressively through traditional ways, cannot ignore digital marketing. Firstly because digital marketing ensures that you can reach out to a segment of population that doesn’t watch much television or reads a lot of newspaper and secondly because it is an effective technique with good return on investment.
Digital marketing was quickly adopted by many sectors and due to its flexibility it could be used effectively in almost any industry. As a result, online marketing for finance, engineering, chemicals and other such industries started gaining a lot of popularity. Apart from SEO, various other techniques used in digital marketing are newsletters, content marketing, paid ads, webinars, videos, sales tools etc.
But there are always two sides to a coin, and the other side of this coin is what makes its necessary to have greater transparency. The vast amount of marketing that is done online has left many consumers confused about the authenticity of content. According to a recent study only 19% customers could tell the difference between commercial and non-commercial content on social media sites and about 30% showed lack of trust in the content that they come across on such sites.
Customers are now in the driving seat and marketers cannot afford remaining blind to this fact. There is now a greater need for them to have an ongoing conversation, create real relationships and brand loyalty.
- Personalisation
Sharing has become an integral part of the changing internet landscape and every generation changes the way information is viewed and shared. In recent times there is a growing emphasis on personalisation and relevance. Unlike earlier times when the only medium of communicating with customers was papers, TV or radio now to that list desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets have also been added.
We can achieve personalisation by using big data as it can help us to determine on which platform most of the content is viewed. For instance if content is mostly viewed on smartphones but websites do not have a properly developed mobile website then it can result in bad user experience. That's why the website and content should be optimised and personalised depending on the medium selected by the customer to access information or interact with a company.
Marketing campaigns designed keeping in mind the requirements of a user is likely to have an influence on their choice and result in more business for the company. An effective way of reflecting the requirements of a user is having a user generated campaigns. With these campaigns your potential customers get a glimpse of how your product is being used by those who have already made the purchase. The fact that they can participate in such campaigns raises their belief in the authenticity of content.
An example of such a user generated campaign is Nikon cameras running a competition wherein its customers are asked to upload the pictures that they have captured using a Nikon device and the winner is rewarded with a gift.
We can achieve personalisation by using big data as it can help us to determine on which platform most of the content is viewed. For instance if content is mostly viewed on smartphones but websites do not have a properly developed mobile website then it can result in bad user experience. That's why the website and content should be optimised and personalised depending on the medium selected by the customer to access information or interact with a company.
Marketing campaigns designed keeping in mind the requirements of a user is likely to have an influence on their choice and result in more business for the company. An effective way of reflecting the requirements of a user is having a user generated campaigns. With these campaigns your potential customers get a glimpse of how your product is being used by those who have already made the purchase. The fact that they can participate in such campaigns raises their belief in the authenticity of content.
An example of such a user generated campaign is Nikon cameras running a competition wherein its customers are asked to upload the pictures that they have captured using a Nikon device and the winner is rewarded with a gift.
- Agile Marketing
The efficiency with which an organisation achieves its marketing goals is measured by agile marketing. An agile marketing team is able to provide its shareholders a lot of strategy and theoretical results in order to execute the campaign as quickly as possible. One of the most important factors is ROI that means return on investment.
It is a marketing approach that is tactical in nature and such teams are required to identify and focus their efforts on projects that are of high value to the organisation. They should be able to complete such projects with mutual co-operation and improve these results over time.
Social media is one of the main reasons behind the rise of agile marketing. Brands, for the last many years, have invested a lot of efforts in figuring out how they should interact with their target audience. These efforts were taken to understand which strategies are most suited to work and what type of content is likely to strike a chord with the audience.
This has helped brands develop a certain kind of personality about their brand by using a particular tone and voice. It serves both purposes of fostering transparency and marketing their product effectively. The speed at which content can get shared on social media has made these brands realise the importance of quick response. The ability to quickly respond to an event is highly revered in the field of marketing.
For example there was a black out during the 2013 Superbowl event and few companies were quick to respond to the event by putting up an advertisement on social media riding on the back of Superbowl’s misfortune.
This type of marketing has been trending since a long time and it is likely to remain in popular demand for the times to come due to the expectations of consumers regarding immediacy. It is highly beneficial for the company as it helps them strike the right conversations with their consumers and fosters a strong brand-user relationship. It enables marketers to have real time dialogues with customers and also brings their reactions to them in the fastest way possible.
It is a marketing approach that is tactical in nature and such teams are required to identify and focus their efforts on projects that are of high value to the organisation. They should be able to complete such projects with mutual co-operation and improve these results over time.
Social media is one of the main reasons behind the rise of agile marketing. Brands, for the last many years, have invested a lot of efforts in figuring out how they should interact with their target audience. These efforts were taken to understand which strategies are most suited to work and what type of content is likely to strike a chord with the audience.
This has helped brands develop a certain kind of personality about their brand by using a particular tone and voice. It serves both purposes of fostering transparency and marketing their product effectively. The speed at which content can get shared on social media has made these brands realise the importance of quick response. The ability to quickly respond to an event is highly revered in the field of marketing.
For example there was a black out during the 2013 Superbowl event and few companies were quick to respond to the event by putting up an advertisement on social media riding on the back of Superbowl’s misfortune.
This type of marketing has been trending since a long time and it is likely to remain in popular demand for the times to come due to the expectations of consumers regarding immediacy. It is highly beneficial for the company as it helps them strike the right conversations with their consumers and fosters a strong brand-user relationship. It enables marketers to have real time dialogues with customers and also brings their reactions to them in the fastest way possible.