Internet marketing (also known as online marketing or digital marketing) encompasses all those advertising actions and strategies that are executed in the media and Internet channels. This phenomenon has been applied since the 90s as a way of transferring offline marketing techniques to the digital universe.
Parallel to the tremendous development and evolution of digital technology, Internet marketing has been experiencing, in a progressive and very fast way, profound changes in both the tools and the possibilities offered to users.
How Internet marketing was born?
In the beginning, online marketing was based on web pages 1.0, a translation of advertising from traditional media (television, radio, paper media…) to the first web pages, which did not allow bidirectionality in the communication with users. The advertisers controlled the message completely and limited it to exposing it to the audience.
In addition, the publicity of the web stage 1.0 was limited, in most of the occasions, to reproduce a showcase of products or services in the form of an online catalog. Even so, this type of advertising already pointed interesting virtues, such as the potentially universal reach, the possibility of updating the contents, and the combination of texts, images and, little by little, also multimedia formats.
But, in a few years, the revolution arrived. A frenetic technological development allowed the massive introduction of a higher-level Internet. Web 2.0 was born and, with it, marketing 2.0 (as it is also known today’s digital or online marketing).
From that moment, it became possible for all users to share information easily thanks to social networks, forums or platforms, allowing the almost instantaneous exchange of pieces that were previously impossible, such as photos and video.
The Internet became much more than a means of information search and became a large community. Currently, the network is only understood as a means of exchanging information in two directions. The feedback is, therefore, total and fundamental between brands and users, with the pros and cons that this entails.
The advantages of digital marketing or online marketing
Digital marketing is an essential strategy for brands because of the great opportunity for growth, positioning, and sales or the acquisition of clients they represent. Potential customers are constantly connected to the Internet from their computers and, in recent years, also through their mobile phones or tablets. This context has led to a wide range of advantages of digital marketing, among which are:
- Affordable costs: Online marketing is accessible in terms of budget, especially when compared to traditional marketing channels such as television, radio or the press.
- Greater capacity for control: Optimization and correction of campaigns due to the collection of real-time consultation of the results.
- Great flexibility and dynamism: With the ability to perform tests and changes on the fly, based on the results obtained and the behavior of users regarding a campaign.
- It allows a very specific, personalized, and precise segmentation: In an online marketing campaign, the company can segment considering the sociodemographic, psychological data of users, as well as their behavior on the Internet.
- It allows an exact measurement of the campaign: Results obtained, benefits, return on investment (ROI), etc.
