Monday 6 January 2014

The Evolution of Marketing.


It is not a hidden fact that for any successful business one of the most important things is marketing. Marketing is simply a method of promoting your products or services; companies have been spending millions of dollars on marketing every year in the form of TV and radio commercials, sponsorships to events, and roping in big celebrities to talk about their products. Marketing has evolved a lot in past few years, day by day it has become more creative both in terms of the way of an advertisement is presented and where is it presented. The advertising agencies are trying to find new and innovative ways to attract customers for their clients. The shift from physical advertisement in form of hoardings changed to video commercials on Television and now, when the customers have shifted to internet, so have the advertisers. In the 21st century, if you are not available online, you do not exists for this generation, whether it be food, clothes, stationary or travel, customers like to check reviews online and if possible visit your website and have a brief idea of your products and services before they actually plan on using them. With the advent of Smartphones it has become easier for people to get this information even when they are at your door step. Online presence can be in the form of a website, a facebook fan page, twitter etc; being present online is just half the work done but promoting your business online is more important to attract new customers who do not know about your business. For example if somebody knows the name of your business, he can search it online, but for instance, if somebody is looking for “authentic Italian food in city square” or a car repair shop in a particular area, even if your services are best, they cannot find you and you can lose a potential client if your business is not promoted online.

Not only has online industry made it easier for customers to find what they are looking for but some business owners are taking as much benefit from it as possible to lure customers. Mary, a restaurant owner, uses facebook page to connect with everyone who walks in her restaurant. She has been actively updating about festival and weekend specials on her page and so that she remains in sight of her customers all the time. The Online Marketing industry, also known as Digital Marketing, is vast field and many areas are still to be explored. The main activities without which it is difficult for a business to survive in online industry are Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing (SMM), Blogging, Video Marketing, Online Advertisements, email and web feeds etc.


“Digital Marketing” as a term was first used in early 1990s and the first clickable banner adds was generated in 1993 and hence started the most dynamic form of advertisement. In late 1990s as Google became popular people started realizing the benefits of Search Engine Optimization. It had been growing slowly and steadily for more than a decade but with the beginning of 2000s it shifted gears. The rise of platforms like Wordpress, Linkedin and Facebook changed the script of marketing future, and by the end of 2004 $2.9 billion was generated by online advertising in US. There was no looking back from here and soon came Youtube, Twitter, Digg etc. Just when the world thought that this is could be the biggest breakthrough for a few more decades to come we were introduced to mobile marketing and everything that had made their space in the online industry started scaling down to mobile and by 2010 mobile marketing generated approximately $650 million. The Marketing industry is growing with lightening pace and to keep any business running the most important thing is to get accustomed with it and be present at spots where your customers are searching for you.


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