Digital Marketing: Meaning, History, Types, Comparison and Many More

Hello Friends, Today we are here to get through the introduction to digital marketing and learn what it is. So first know the meaning of digital marketing.

Digital Marketing is just another type of marketing that is done on the Internet. In other words, it is the promotion of a business’s goods and services through a digital medium.

Table of Contents

We all know that smartphones have become an integral part of our lives and we spend most of our time here for different works so businesses use the medium of digital marketing to promote it to a large number of people who present there.

This marketing is an evolution that is invented or begins as the number of people increases on the Internet so its success is also measured by the number of people who are present online because if people are not present online there is no sense for businesses to promote their goods or services through online mode.

You see examples of this marketing daily while you are using your smartphone or any other device but you may ignore some of it and also click on some links that you prefer which we read further in the examples section.

So stay remain to know how the term digital marketing came into existence, what it needs, its different forms, and many more. So Let’s Go to learn about it in deep.

Final and Exact Definition of Online Marketing

As we go through an overview of digital marketing in the introduction, let’s try to know a standard, final, and exact definition of online marketing.

Digital marketing also known as online marketing is a technique or process of promotion of one’s goods and services, skills, and other things through the online mode so people can get their preferred goods and services and businesses can get consumers through it.

In other words, We can say that online marketing is the interaction of consumers and businesses digitally or online.

There are many examples of it, many types, myths, and many more so let’s see about digital marketing further.

History of Online Marketing

The beginning of digital marketing is thought in the 1990s when Archie’s search engine was created which brought a server-client architecture and CRM( Customer Relationship Management) into existence. At that time relationships with consumers became the most important to knowing their preferences which helps the marketing department to deliver the product according to consumers’ needs.

Evolution over Years

In 1994 after the birth of the Internet, the First clickable banner ad went live on the Internet, and in four months 44% of people who saw the ad clicked on it.

With the increase in Internet users in the 2000s and the birth of the iPhone, people started searching for their preferences on the Internet which created a new problem for the marketing department as people now not approach salespersons and ignored them. In the 2000s, PPC( Pay Per Click) also became popularized with the introduction of Google AdWords.

At that time, Google Adwords was used for finding keywords and allowed businesses to sponsor their products or services on Google’s Search engine results page so people might find them.

Beginning of the Social Media Era and Digital Marketing

In 2004, with the birth of Facebook, there was a new evolution came where people could make their profile and send images and videos worldwide, so businesses use it to share promotional images and videos that people might see and take some actions.

Businesses also can make their business page there and also can make sponsored ads through Facebook ads.

YouTube was introduced in 2005 and one can share one’s videos worldwide there, businesses also use it to share promotional videos related to their products and services.

In 2006, Twitter also added a new feather to the hat of digital marketing by enabling businesses to send promotional tweets there.

The period between the 2000s and 2010s introduced a new term in digital marketing which is social media marketing.

Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, and WhatsApp are some platforms that are used by Businesses to promote their goods and services.

This period also brought about an increase in the number of internet users due to these platforms as people started making friends, chatting, and adding connections there.

People can watch videos there also which become a main source of entertainment. So businesses also start practicing digital marketing on these platforms and Hence online marketing grows.

Now we see how digital marketing comes into existence so now let’s read further to know about it more.

Online Marketing vs Traditional and Gorilla Marketing

In the previous section, we learned the history of online marketing. Now in this section, we are going to do a detailed comparison between online and traditional Marketing.

So before doing the comparison, it is important to understand the meaning of Traditional Marketing and Gorilla Marketing.

Traditional marketing: Traditional marketing refers to marketing where the promotion of goods and services is done physically or traditionally where salespersons come to us and like it going to one by one to anyone and promote the goods or services physically.

Gorilla marketing: Gorilla marketing can be defined as the marketing where big brands try to establish an emotional connection with consumers.

Now see the comparison!

Table of Comparison

Factor	Digital Marketing	Traditional Marketing
Reach	Unlimited reach because of the wider reach of the internet and the increase in several people present online.	Limited reach because of physical interaction one by one.
Cost	The cost incurred on Running ads, social media management, and SEO but optional.	The cost incurred on Banners, salespersons, pamphlets, T.V. ads, and radio is necessary and expensive.
Speed of Process	Fast process instant publishing, engaging and consumers start purchasing or viewing.	Comparatively slow because of time spent on preparing print ads, T.V. ads, and radio messaging, and salespersons can’t reach to anyone at once.
Targeting	Can targeting globally or apply to whole nation irrespective of demographics, languages, taste, etc.	Only reach a broader audience and can’t target a specific audience because it is limited by demographics so only worked locally or regionally.

Table: Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing

So now after analyzing this table of comparison, we can say that Digital Marketing wins over factors like reach, speed, better results, and cost-effectiveness but are still limited by online scams and loss of trust among consumers digital marketing is still used widely because of its better features than traditional marketing.

People now start making trust in digital marketing. Hence, they gradually begin making payments online, but this online payment is still limited to only reliable and big brands.

Types of Online Marketing with Examples

After knowing its correct definition, its history and its comparison with others now let’s see its types, forms, and methods, Let’s try to know what we doing in digital marketing.

We all are here present are students, businesses, small shops, digital marketers, and others. So it is important to know what we do actually as a digital marketer or what strategies we are following as a business.

So let’s read one by one every single form and element of digital marketing.

Website Designing

Website designing is the number one part of online marketing because it is a must to have a website on the internet to perform the marketing process on that website.

If we do not have a website, we do not have any objective to do marketing. So let’s see how we can make a website.

First, define a website, A Website is a combination of web pages which is published on the internet and anyone can see it online. You see many websites on search engine result pages because it is published on the internet.

To publish the website on the internet, we must purchase a hosting that let us to get a space on the internet. There are various hosting providers on the internet. After purchasing you have to purchase a domain name domain name is the name of your business.

After combining the domain name with hosting, we get a website. But how you can design your website? Now you can choose the option of hosting which software you use to design your website. I choose WordPress but You can choose any according to your need.

After designing your website, It is ready to launch. This is how you can make a website without coding.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, in short, SEO, is the heart of Digital Marketing. We can not even imagine online marketing without it. So, What is SEO? Let’s learn.

Search Engine Optimization is the technique or process of getting your web pages visible on the top ranking of the Search Engine Results pages. We can also say that it is the process of optimizing web pages according to the needs of search engines so your website may be visible on the search engine result page.

So let’s know about its part in much deep.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is the process of performing SEO process on your website’s web pages. For example- When we do internal linking (Linking the other content of your website to a page of your website), so your website gets traffic from that link. I also include making meta titles and descriptions for the web page.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO is performing SEO for our website on web pages outside your website to increase its search engine visibility. For example, create backlinks for our webpage on other websites’ webpages so you may get traffic from there.

So SEO is important for every website to get organic traffic and there are others Technical SEO and Local SEO which we read in detail in a separate blog post.

Read More about SEO: Introduction of SEO

Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing is very similar to SEO. Still, the only difference between these two is that the former is done for especially Search Engine and it is paid but later is performed to get a higher ranking on search engines and it is not paid, paid in some cases but optional.

It is evolving around Google ads in which we will learn campaign making, ad making, keyword research, and many more.

Social Media Marketing

It is another type of online marketing in which business can promote their goods and services through social media platforms.

There are many types of social media platforms present on the internet which used by a large number of people everyday.

Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and X( Formerly Twitter) are such platforms that can be used for digital marketing. It also involves Whatsapp marketing.

Businesses can make their account or business pages on these platforms. They can share their promotional message there. People can watch their promotional images, and videos and start taking action.

So it is a very cost-effective and easy method of online marketing.

Paid Advertising

As we previously talk about it in the Google ads part, but there is another part of it, which is Facebook ads.

Facebook ads are just like Google ads, the only difference is the place for showing ads and platforms. We can watch Facebook ads on Meta platforms like Instagram and Facebook. But we can watch Google ads on Google Search Engine Result pages, YouTube, any webpage which is monetized. You see ads before playing videos also Google ads. You see webpages on Google with sponsored tags are also Google ads.

Facebook ads have also sponsored tags which you can check. Pay-per-click is also a part of paid advertising in which a business pays an amount according to clicks.

Content and Email Marketing

Content marketing is marketing in which a business promotes its goods and services by writing blogs on it. People read those blogs and if they prefer, they take further action.

Email marketing refers to marketing in which a business promotes its goods or services by sending cold emails to potential customers.

Now we read in short about that all types but you can read about all these things in details in our website. So keep remaining on our website to check new updates.

Advantages and Limitations of Online Marketing

Digital Marketing is very beneficial for modern business but it also have some limitations. So let’s see its advantages and disadvantages.

Digital Marketing	Advantages	Disadvantages
1.	Wider and Global reach to everyone helps in the promotion.	Businesses may face problems of growing due to excessive competition.
2.	Efficient and cost-saving process compared to traditional marketing.	Beginners or small businesses may confused due to its complexity and some important expenses.
3.	Easy to analyze systematically. Result-oriented process.	The rise of Digital scams and frauds creates a problem for digital marketing.
4.	Traffic increased through social media and brand awareness increased.	Requires content creation skills for SEO techniques otherwise it is useless.
5.	Increased consumer interaction with businesses and helped businesses to find consumers.	It is more time-consuming and results can be seen after a long time i.e. 6 months or more.

Pros and Cons of Online Marketing

After analyzing its pros and cons we can say that digital marketing is quite beneficial to use. But we should remain aware of its limitations also and do digital marketing accordingly.

So now here, we have learned about the basic concept of digital marketing, we only learned an introduction and still, there remains more to learn. We have to still learn about it in detail, its types in details, and its strategies in detail. So please keep remaining on our website and keep checking for regular updates.

You can also ask questions on this topic from the Ask a Question section of our website.

Digital Marketing: Introduction, Meaning, History, types, Comparisons etc.