Marketing in the digital age

Digital marketing is not technology in marketing, but marketing in the digital age

The development of digital marketing since the 1990s and 2000s has changed how brands and companies use technology for marketing. As digital technologies and the devices and solutions based on them enter everyday life and are used by them for shopping, obtaining commercial information and social dialogue, they are increasingly being used by marketers. This article is mainly about the conceptual understanding of digital marketing, how digital marketing helps today's business and marketing.

From the very first lines of this chapter, I would like to immediately form an understanding among readers of the important

Electronic marketing - (digital -, digital -, Internet -) marketing is not some other, different marketing and the subsequent narrative does not cancel everything that is said about marketing in the book "Fundamentals of Marketing", with which, in fact, I propose to start diving into marketing. If you want to learn more about real estate directory, follow the link.

The beginning of digital marketing as a continuation of marketing

The beginning of "digital marketing" is considered the 1990s, which became the beginning of the digital era. The beginning was very humble. Existing analog marketing technologies, methods, techniques and practices have been transferred "as is" to computers, the Internet and digital media, through the keyboard.

For example, it was quite logical in digital this to make e-mail from mail messages in envelopes. Books, pamphlets and manuscripts have become electronic. From physical desktops, cabinets with cardboard folders containing paper files, marketers have moved to their digital counterparts. Moreover, the appearance, principles and architecture of folders and files were transferred all the same - "as is".

Direct mail marketing with envelopes and stamps has been brought into the digital world in the form of email marketing. When telephone sets were replaced by IP-telephony, it never occurred to telemarketers to claim that now they are doing something different from what all other marketers have been doing for a century. Paper product catalogs have replaced their electronic counterparts. Street storefronts have remained, but in the digital age they have analogues - electronic storefronts of digital stores. Advertising in television series is nowhere to be done, but in parallel with it, online advertising began to develop on website pages, in product catalogs and on digital storefronts

At the same time, the principles of direct communications, window dressing, advertising design have not changed, they have only been adapted to the digital capabilities and limitations of the first years.

Marketers, at first cautiously, then more and more began to pick up technologies and use them in their usual practice of market activity.

What technologies of the digital age have marketing specialists begun to use? First of all, those that significantly facilitated marketing processes and management:

• Technologies of communication with consumers;
• Advertising creation technologies;
• Technologies for the digital process of selling physical goods and services;
• Technologies for the creation and distribution of electronic goods and services;
• Technologies for analyzing the effectiveness and quality of work.

Digital technologies have led to certain significant innovations in marketing, which, by the way, do not cancel the principles and essence of marketing, but make marketing effective in the digital age. Interested in how to get a background check, follow the link to find out more.

Digital Innovation in Marketing

Digital marketing is more than could fit in the format of this article and it is impossible to give an idea of ​​the scope, depth and speed of change that technology has brought to marketing. However, there are a few digital mechanics that are especially important for marketing and need special attention from marketing professionals:

WebsitesDirect marketingDigital AdvertisingSMMMobilityE-CommerceSEOSEADigital AnalyticsSERMAffiliate marketingDigital PRCRM

• Websites - points of presence of the company, brand and products in the digital world;
• Direct marketing - that's just not Yandex.Direct, but personal marketing communications - when there are two communicators: a company and a consumer, a contractor and a customer, so everything is here, including direct mail, chats, SMS;
• Digital Advertising (Display, Text, Video) - digital advertising, mass advertising in the digital environment. Advertisements may be placed under the following conditions:
• Pay-per-click (PPC) - pay-per-click advertising. One of the most common types of PPC ads are SEAs (see below). Other channels for such Facebook ads, promoted tweets on Twitter, sponsored posts on linkedin.
• Ads placed for a specific time
• Ads paid by the number of impressions
• SMM - Marketing in social media (social networks);
• Mobile (mobility). Mobile devices and means of communication and digital technologies that allow for mobility - the ability, while moving, to "stay in touch": request, receive and exchange information;
• E-Commerce - digital trade: online stores and marketplaces;
• Search Engine marketing (SEM) - search engine marketing:
• SEO - site optimization for better issuance of its pages for search queries typed in search engines;
• SEA - two advertising formats: search advertising (advertising on the pages of a search engine when results are returned at the user's request) and contextual advertising (online behavioral advertising) - advertising on other host sites that cooperate with the search engine and form its advertising network. The mechanics is based on the collection of information about the user's online activity over time on different, unrelated websites in order to tailor advertising to the interests and preferences of that user.
• SERM - online reputation management;
• Digital Analytics - digital analytics, obtaining, systematization, processing of marketing data in digital form, which helps to better analyze the information received;
• Affiliate marketing is affiliate marketing, a type of advertising based on the payment of a commission for the promotion of goods and services.
• Digital PR is the practice of highlighting activities and events through digital publications. It is very similar to traditional PR, but in a digital environment.
• CRM - electronic online systems "Customer Relationship Management" or online customer relationship management systems;

Now we will limit ourselves to a simple list, since the task being solved now is to introduce into the discipline and outline the general contours of digital marketing. We will talk about each of the digital innovations, about the principles of marketing in the digital age and about the tasks of marketing specialists, later and in detail.