The world appears to be changing at an even more rapid rate than ever before, whether this is to do with the invention and evolution of the internet or simply a change in consumer habits, it is incredible just how much things have changed since the late 2000’s.
The Print Marketing Era
Up until 2008 it was still common place for companies to advertise in newspapers and magazines, direct mail was one of the go-to marketing methods for small businesses and most people got their news from the TV or a newspaper. In recent years, some of these sectors have been completely decimated, others have just lost a large chunk of their revenue and influence. There is still a place for this kind of advertising, particularly on bill boards and a few select magazine but it tends to be reserved for only the largest companies due to the prices involved. One of the key reasons this sector has lost out however is when it comes to results and analytics, unfortunately it is extremely difficult to actually quantify the returns from print advertising especially on any kind of granular level. The only thing that a business can look at is what the overall increase in sales has been since a campaign was launched.
The Digital Marketing Era
In 2010, digital marketing as we know it really began to take off, it had been around before then for around 10 years but it was fairly niche and the vast majority of people knew nothing about it. In 2023 it is the go-to marketing method for any business and is what those looking to get into marketing need to know about. The growth in money and power of social media networks is something that nobody could have foreseen. We have now reached the point where the richest people in the world are owners of social media networks, people get all of their news and information from social media and in turn that is where they also tend to be most available to be advertised to. Social media marketing entails running advertising campaign across a variety of channels including Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, TikTok, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Each channel has its own demographic from younger people on TikTok to older people on Facebook.
Aside from social media marketing there are also options using search engines like Google. Google Ads and Google Shopping are the two ‘paid’ options to get your business known for a variety of different keywords a customer may search for. On the organic side of things you also have SEO which you don’t need to pay for directly to achieve a presence but in all likelihood you will use a digital marketing agency for it because few people have the knowledge to actually run an effective campaign. When looking in to SEO, try and got for a Manchester SEO agency rather than a London one as it will be cheaper.
The Future
Looking forward in all likelihood it seems like future marketing will revolve around AI in some way but AI in itself will only be the method of making your marketing choices smarter, it isn’t in itself a marketing method. We’ve seen the rise to prominence recently of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) as a way for brands to try and make themselves known to customers whilst giving them something tangible like a filter or a lens on Snapchat/TikTok which advertises their services whilst the filter is being used and collects customer information. We are likely to see more of this appearing in the future.