How Could Marconi be the Inventor of Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is often equated with social media, SEO and Google AdWords. However, it is only part of internet marketing. Online marketing encompasses a lot more than that. When you advertise, market and promote products and services by using digital electronic devices, it is said to be exactly what web marketing constitutes. While internet marketing is a relatively new term, it’s origin dates back to 100s of years, specifically the 1890s.

It can all be traced back to 1895, when Italian engineer, aristocrat and inventor Guglielmo Marconi transmitted wireless radio signals across a long distance. By 1896, his invention of the radio was well known. In 1899, Marconi demonstrated the first wireless transmission through a radio to England. So, what has this got to do with digital marketers in the modern age, tapping social media and online channels? Everything, according to the marketing experts who hold Marconi to be the father of online marketing. Here’s how it works out.

• The Rise of Radio Marketing

As the radio caught on as a medium of communication, it rapidly became an innovation for digital marketers as well. After its invention in the late nineteenth century, the radio was used for the first time for the live broadcast of an opera performance at the Metropolitan. After the show was broadcast, it became so popular that there was a surge in ticket sales and curiosity among individuals to see the show. Well, this marked the birth of digital marketing for many.

So, whether it’s search engine optimisation, social media optimisation, pay-per-click, content/email/social media marketing or more, digital marketers devise marketing messages that resonate with audiences online using electronic and digital devices.

In contrast to this, Ray Tomlinson who invented the email in the 1970s is credited to be the father of web marketing by others. The debate, an age-old one, centres around whether digital marketers are using internet-based technologies or electronic devices to get their messages across. They are, of course, using both so this debate is likely to remain one that constantly intensifies.

• The History of Web Marketing

While some contend digital marketers saw their star rise with the emergence of the radio, others credit the growth of this discipline to the internet. Either which ways, web marketing actually caught on in the 1990s, with the birth of the first search engine for FTP sites, named Archie. In the year 1994, Yahoo was born and Google followed swiftly just 4 years down the line in 1998. The revolution was just beginning even as the dot-com boom went bust in the early 2000s.

It was during this time that video marketing began, with the advent of YouTube in 2004. Social media sites followed, including Twitter and Facebook. Google+ did take shape but could not emulate the success of its predecessors. Meanwhile, 2012 marked the first time smartphones overtook desktops as ways to access the world wide web for internet marketing. In 2015, responsive, mobile-friendly sites were deemed a Google ranking signal. And the smartphone revolution was thus birthed.

The growing sophistication of search engines made it easier to make the transition to SEO and SEM-friendly internet marketing campaigns. And the rest, of course, is history. As we surge towards the new digital age, with AI, AR, VR and machine learning defining online marketing, it seems the paradigmatic shifts and changes in the field of web marketing are only just beginning to propel the industry to new heights of achievement and advancement.