It is said that digital marketing began in the early 1990’s when the internet was still in its infancy. By 1994 the banner ad became a thing, and this was considered a pivotal moment for the commercialization of the internet. It is thought that the term digital marketing was coined at this time.
As internet technologies began to advance, other forms of digital marketing began to appear. Search engine optimization and email marketing were two of the early digital marketing technologies to develop and were possible with the crucial advancement of web browsers such as Netscape.
By the 2000’s Google Ads and ecommerce shopping burst onto the scene and the world wide web would never be the same. Early adopters coined the internet the “Net”, and every website domain started “www”. It was a wild time to live in, with big corporations adopting these new digital marketing technologies. Technologies like Google Ads, SEO, email marketing, ecommerce and even Google Analytics all became standards in the digital marketing industry.
Today 20+ years later we have come to a place where AI is going to again change not just the playing field where we do business daily but could very well change the playing field entirely in ways never imagined. While technologists at Affordable Marketing and in-fact the entire world look to the advancement of AI to further and even change the digital marketing industry, we also should take extreme caution when allowing “non-human” sources to be the key factor in our business success. Lest we lose control of our own success and become utterly dependent on elements we have little or no control over.