1. History
According to Christiane Waterschoot “The web is a major technology of the 21st century. Its nature, structure and use have evolved over time, and it is clear that this evolution has also profoundly modified our practices.commercial and social. »(From web 1.0 to web 4.0)
This growth is made up of several phases: first there was Web 1.0 (or traditional web), present between 1991 and 1999, “it is above all a static web, centered on the distribution of information then arrived web 2.0 (or social web), present from 2000 to 2009, “it favors the dimension of sharing and exchanging information and content”. Currently, we are in the phase of web 3.0 (or semantic web), which appeared in 2010, "it aims to organize the mass of information available according to the
context and the needs of each user, taking into account their location, preferences, etc. ”. And this is not over ! Some are already talking about web 4.0 which will appear in 2020, "characterized as an intelligent web it will aim to immerse the individual
in an increasingly significant web environment. »(Christiane Waterschoot: From web 1.0 to web 4.0).
In ten years, Internet use has grown significantly; today, there are more than 2.7 billion Internet users worldwide. This universalization of the net has led the world to digitize the economy and affect all sectors of activity, which forces organizations to review their marketing strategies.
According to François Scheid, Renaud Vaillant and Grégoire de Montaigu, “marketing is one of the basic activities of an organization, just like sales or production, which, like all the activities of organizations, has been deeply affected. by the emergence of New Information and Communication Technologies (NICT) ”(Digital Marketing). Hence the emergence of the term "business" coined by Lou Garner, president of IBM from 1991 to 2001.
E-business would therefore be defined as the use of NICT in the marketing actions of a company. However, according to the three authors of Digital Marketing, “this definition is not enough to make the professional reality of this activity. […] The role of the e-marketer remains associated with the Internet and marketing tactics around a website [...] whereas in a few years, the field of action has widened considerably.
Today an e-marketer works on a multitude of digital channels: website, email, social networks, mobile, tablet, . " To designate e-marketing, many terms are used: “in particular that of digital marketing, which could be translated as digital marketing. But it is used as such in French in the form of digital marketing ”(Le Marketing Digital)
2. Importance
The web revolution is underway and as we announced earlier, there are over two billion internet users worldwide who are spending more and more time on the internet. It has two major characteristics according to the authors of Digital Marketing:
- Speed first. “The one with which the internet has been adopted by the world population, the even larger one with which social networks have become the first use of the web, […] the one with which new uses and new behaviors are emerging. "(Digital Marketing)
- The second is the universality of its impact on the "customer journey". “Digital is not only about business communication, but also marketing, sales and distribution. [….]. "(Digital Marketing)
Beyond these major characteristics, digital has also brought new ways and new tools to better monitor and analyze Internet users. If a company has these specific tools called "web analytics", it can, depending on the authors of Digital Marketing, “analyze the characteristics, tastes, preferences, purchases, behaviors, […] of Internet users. "
In the face of this revolution, "every company must, strategically and culturally, strive to be ahead of its competitors, or at least not fall behind. " (Digital Marketing). And yet, according to Hervé Kabla and Yann Gouvernnec, "understanding the Internet is still too often, in companies, considered as a separate thing and not as an extension of economic life" (La Digital Communication Explained to My Boss)
3. The weight of digital in the world and the economy
According to the authors of Digital Communication Explained to My Boss, "Some communication experts announce [...] that the future of the world, of marketing and communication, is digital. ". The majority of the population is not convinced by this,
However, this assertion is justified when we analyze certain statistics and figures that clearly demonstrate the weight that digital represents in the world and the economy.
In France today there are more than 40 million internet users, almost two in three French people. We are also making progress in the "new screens" sector, with 50% of the population equipped with smartphones in 2013, or 27 million users; and 7.9 million tablets. (Fifth edition of the Quarterly Marketing Barometer
Mobile, produced by the Mobile Marketing Association, in partnership with comScore, GfKet Médiamétrie)
With regard to the average equipment in French households, a study carried out by the Institut Médiamétrie in its Screen360 study (end of 2012), shows that in each household there are no less than 6.3 screens on average (Television,
computer, phone, tablet, etc.)
Moreover, if we compare the advertising investments made on the internet compared to other media according to a study carried out by France pub and IREP, internet therefore comes in fourth place and represents 11% of advertisers' budget. (Digital Marketing). In short, when we collect this data, we understand that this increasingly massive equipment in connected screens is an indicator of
possibilities offered by digital marketing.
4. The opportunities and challenges of digital marketing
Digital creates extraordinary opportunities, and the range of possibilities is very vast. Many companies still work without a real digital strategy and use it only in a tactical way, while there are real issues and many opportunities to seize!
According to Xavier Campo (Director of Development of the Factory NPA, Media Brands: the new challenges of digital), digital has created new expectations and has profoundly changed the relationship between brands and their audience. "Today the customers / prospects expect a brand to be in permanent conversation with them, to respond to their messages […] ”. This has been favored by the development of social networks and the ease of publishing content, expectations are now increasingly high.
The supports and actors have also multiplied, which has "led to a specialization of Internet professions (social marketing, e-commerce, e-marketing, etc.) and a greater web presence of advertisers. »Being present on social networks is an opportunity for e-commerce companies. This makes it possible to increase its image as well as being close to customers.
Likewise, content is at the heart of a web marketing strategy. It allows "to improve SEO, to engage fans, in order to trigger sales", but again, "few brands have a formalized strategy". The need for more content in addition to many requires planning publications and a thoughtful strategy so as not to get caught up in the budget.
Still according to Xavier Campo, “to succeed in the face of these new challenges, companies must be able to reinvent themselves and regularly question
their processes, devices and organizations ”. What he means by that is that the web requires new skills, and that we must always be aware of what is happening because it is an environment in perpetual evolution.
Digital has therefore transformed the way of marketing. From now on, we integrate into our strategies dialogue, personalization, the taking into account of customer journey, etc. The way of doing and thinking about marketing has changed. Now, the subject is knowing how to set up and master the new techniques of digital marketing.