Digital Marketing: Past, Present, and Future

"There is only a moment between the past and future..." Is an overview of digital marketing the dark past, troubled times and uncertain future? It went without saying that during recent years the rules of marketing have substantially changed. Those days are long gone when an annual marketing plan and allocated budget were the minimum required in order to feel confident in conditions of fierce competition. Today, marketers have to adapt continually to changing client requests in real time, while taking into account the appearance of new information and other technologies.

The reality is that today even the most talented marketers are not able to adapt to the non-stop mode of the SEO environment, citing as justification to the lack of resources, skills and technology. The first and second reasons can be somehow solved but here is the third one that causes bewilderment. Did technologies not advanced far enough to maintain stable operation for a marketer? Looking for answers, we have to travel a bit in time, looking into the past, present and even the future of digital marketing. So, let's go on the road!

The Recent Past

The first media channels broke into our lives rather modestly and steadily. The TV since its inception in 1947 has become available to the general public only 50fifty years later, while this purpose has taken less than 25twenty-five years to achieve for the Internet. Nevertheless, so far we cannot see the whole picture of the mobile Internet spreading, but the available data allows us to judge the geometric progression of new trends in the media.

Today, there is even a so-called "viral marketing", by usmeaning whichen the need for buying traffic is missing, as it's generated by people involved in, thatnd who can be attracted in significant proportions. As an example of viral spread can be the YouTube video «Gangnam Style» that for a year has collected over 1.7 billion views. Besides, about 90% of the total amount of the Internet data haves been created over the last two years. In part, this is due to increase proliferation of mobile platforms: tablets and smartphones.

The Present

Despite the availability of data, even the marketing leaders complain of the lack of ability to integrate software and computer platforms. Thus, setting goals and their practical implementation in the web, social and mobile environment is only an illusion of technological progress. Historically, single-channel optimization (website management, analytics, e-mail services) allows you to process only a limited amount of data.

In addition to low bandwidth, most systems cannot boast an established integration with similar or third-party applications for working with clients. For example, the exchange of data between marketing and other databases is performed through strictly coded programs that are expensive, prone to breakdown and do n'ot give instant results. Marketing applications are more suited for design and content processing than for analysts. The famous "drag and drop" apps are only convenient when handling files and information... not more. Can you name at least one program that would take into account the algorithms of content creating, changing market conditions and other factors? No? Fine!

The Future

At the annual Dreamforce event, a known marketer Marc Benioff, predicted that marketing will be the next priority direction in program development, while Gartner was more accurate in their judgments assuring that investments in marketing software will exceed the expenses for IT products by 2017. These assumptions are not surprising, as today's market requires cloud-based solutions in digital marketing. The future is uncertain, so at the moment, analysts have more questions than answers. How to handle data in large volumes? Whether the creation of new platforms will be required for it or can it be implemented by modifying the existing resources? There are many questions and the only time will tell answers.