Developments in technology and the evolution of marketing are inextricably intertwined. Technology has underpinned major milestones in the history of marketing since its inception. The process tends to go something like this:

▪ New technology emerges and is initially the preserve of technologists and early adopters.

▪ The technology gains a firmer foothold in the market and starts to become more

popular, putting it on the marketing radar.

▪ Innovative marketers jump in to explore ways they can harness the power of this

emerging technology to connect with their target audience.

▪ The technology migrates to the mainstream and is adopted into standard marketing

Practice. The printing press, radio, television and now the internet are all examples of major breakthroughs in technology that ultimately altered the relationships between marketers and consumers for ever, and did so on a global scale. But, of course, marketing isn’t about technology; it’s about people: technology is only interesting, from a marketing perspective, when it connects people with other people more effectively. There are plenty of examples of technology through the ages having a significant impact on various markets – technology that may seem obscure, even irrelevant today. The mainstream adoption of digital technology – the internet, the software applications that run on it,and the devices that allow people to connect both to the network and to each other whenever, wherever and however they want to – promises to dwarf all that has come before it.

The first global communications network: ‘the highway of thought’

To understand the explosive growth of the internet we need to look back at how early communications technology evolved into the global network of interconnected computers that  today we call the internet. The story of electronic communication begins with the wired telegraph – a network that grew explosively to cover the globe, connected people across vast distances in a way that seemed almost magical, and changed the world for ever.

Early Networks: 

The internet story really starts in 1957, with the USSR’s launch of the Sputnik satellite. It signalled that the United States was falling behind the Soviet Union in the technology stakes, prompting the US government to invest heavily in science and technology. In 1958, the US Department of Defense set up the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a specialist agency established with a specific remit: to make sure the United States stayed ahead of its Cold War nemesis in the accelerating technology race.

You’ve got mail E-mail,

 which is still often described as the internet’s ‘killer application’, began life in the early 1960s as a facility that allowed users of mainframe computers to send simple text-based messages to another user’s mailbox on the same computer. But it wasn’t until the advent of ARPANET that anyone considered sending electronic mail from one user to another across a network. In 1971 Ray Tomlinson, an engineer working on ARPANET, wrote the first program capable of sending mail from a user on one host computer to another user’s mailbox on another host computer. As an identifier to distinguish network mail from local mail Tomlinson decided to append the host name of the user’s computer to the user login name. To separate the two names he chose the @ symbol. E-mail, one of the Internet’s most widely used applications, and one of the most critical for internet marketers, began life as a programmer’s afterthought. The ARPANET was a solution looking for a problem.

From ARPANET to Internet :

The term ‘internet’ was first used in 1974 by US computer scientist Vinton Cerf (commonly referred to as the ‘father of the internet’, and now a senior executive and internet evangelist with Google). Cerf was working with Robert Khan at DARPA on a way to standardize the way different host computers communicated both across the growing ARPANET and between the ARPANET and other emerging computer networks. The Transmission Control Program (TCP) network protocol they defined evolved to become the Transmission Control Program/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite that’s still used to pass packets of information backward and forwards across the internet to this day. In 1983 the ARPANET started using the TCP/IP protocol – a move that many consider to signal the true ‘birth’ of the internet as we know it. That year, too, the system of domain names (.com, .net, etc) was invented. By 1984 the number of ‘nodes’ on the still fledgling network passed 1,000 and began climbing rapidly. By 1989 there were more than 100,000 hosts connected to the internet, and the growth continued.

Making Connections – ‘birth of the Web’

It was in 1989 that Tim Berners-Lee, a British developer working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, proposed a system of information cross-referencing, access and retrieval across the rapidly growing internet based on ‘hypertext’ links. The concept of a hypertext information architecture was nothing new, and was already being used in individual programs running on individual computers around the world. The idea of linking documents stored on different computers across the rapidly growing internet, though, was  nothing short of revolutionary. The building blocks for the world wide web were already in place – but it was Tim Berners-Lee’s vision that brought them together. The first web page on the internet was built at CERN, and went online on 6 August 1991. It contained information about the new world wide web, how to get a web browser and how to set up a web server. Over time it also became the first ever web directory, as Berners-Lee maintained a list of links to other websites on the page as they appeared.

The World Wide Web – A New Frontier

Up to this point, the internet had been the realm of technologists and scientists at research institutions. But the advent of the web changed the landscape, making online information accessible to a much broader audience. What happened next was explosive. Between 1991 and 1997 the web grew at an astonishing 850 per cent per annum, eclipsing all expectations. With more websites and more people joining the online party every day, it was only a matter of time before innovative tech-savvy marketers started to notice the web’s potential as an avenue for the marketing message.

In August 1995 there were 18,957 websites online; by August 1996 there were 342,081 (‘Fifteen Years of the Web’, Internet timeline, www.bbc.co.uk). It was an era that saw the birth of some of today’s most well-known online brands: sites like Amazon, Yahoo!, eBay and, in September 1998, Google Inc.

Boom, Boom. . . Bang!

For a time it seemed as though the halcyon days of the late 1990s would continue forever and that the dot.com bubble was impervious to bursting. Fuelled by speculative investment and high profile high-tech IPOs, the Nasdaq Composite stock index continued to rocket upwards. Each new dot.com success fuelled the fervour for technology stocks, blowing the bubble up a little more. On 10 March 2000 the Nasdaq index hit an intraday high of 5,132.52 before settling to an all-time closing high of 5,046 points.

Enough Technology – let’s talk about people

One of the key things to remember is this: digital marketing isn’t actually about technology at all; it’s all about people. In that sense it’s similar to traditional marketing: it’s about people (marketers) connecting with other people (consumers) to build relationships and ultimately drive Sales. Technology merely affords you, the marketer, new and exciting platforms that allow you to connect with people in increasingly diverse and relevant ways. Digital marketing is not about understanding the underlying technology, but rather about understanding people, how they’re using that technology, and how you can leverage that to engage with them more effectively. Yes, you have to learn to use the tools at your disposal – but understanding people is the real key to unlocking the potential of digital marketing.

A huge and growing market

Although internet companies suffered bruised finances and a tarnished public image in the wake of the dot.com crash, the internet itself never stopped growing, in terms both of the number of websites online and, crucially from a marketing perspective, of the number of people with internet access. In March 2000, when the dot.com bubble burst, there were an estimated 304 million people in the world with internet access. By March 2003 that figure had doubled to 608 million, and in December 2005 the global online population passed 1 billion. As of December 2007 the figure sat at around 1.3 billion people. That’s 20 per cent of the world’s population – and climbing (Internet World Stats, www.internetworldstats. com). As global and local online populations have spiralled upwards, so too have the levels of broadband penetration.

Conclusion:

In the ever-evolving digital marketing landscape, understanding and leveraging the core technologies that fuel innovation is essential for businesses to stay ahead of the curve. From artificial intelligence and machine learning to data analytics and automation, these cutting-edge technologies have revolutionized the way companies approach marketing, enabling them to deliver personalized, data-driven, and highly targeted campaigns.

By harnessing the power of AI and machine learning, businesses can gain invaluable insights into consumer behavior, preferences, and trends, allowing them to make informed decisions and craft marketing strategies that resonate with their target audiences. Data analytics tools provide the ability to meticulously analyze vast amounts of data, uncovering patterns and trends that can inform content creation, campaign optimization, and customer segmentation.

Furthermore, marketing automation technologies streamline and optimize various processes, from lead nurturing and email marketing to social media management and content distribution. This empowers businesses to achieve greater efficiency, consistency, and scalability in their marketing efforts, freeing up valuable time and resources to focus on strategic initiatives.

To stay competitive in this rapidly changing digital environment, it is crucial for professionals to continuously develop their knowledge and skills in these core technologies. Digital marketing classes in Shivajinagar Pune, Digital marketing training in Shivajinagar Pune, and reputable Digital marketing institutes in Shivajinagar Pune offer comprehensive programs and resources to equip individuals with the necessary expertise to navigate the digital marketing matrix successfully.

By staying abreast of the latest technological advancements and embracing a culture of continuous learning, businesses can unlock the full potential of digital marketing, fostering innovation, driving engagement, and achieving sustained growth in an increasingly competitive and dynamic marketplace.