The field of marketing has experienced many changes as technological advances, human and corporate goals as well as consumer habits have evolved. From humble beginnings as early-human paintings of animals to carefully segmented content, marketing has developed into more than just a method of communication, it has become a tool for perfecting what is communicated. The following is a list of events in the marketing world and human development which have led us to where we are today. One huge difference between the infancy of marketing and today’s technological capabilities is the idea that marketing should be inbound instead of outbound. Gone are the days where advertising and harassment were one and the same. With software like marketing automation, marketing has taken on a new role, one that defines leads based on their real-time actions and preferences. Marketing has shifted its focus to an inbound philosophy, providing relevant content to the right people at the right time and allowing sales and marketing to work together.
Cave Paintings 15,000 BC Cave paintings are created depicting hunted animals. Egyptian Heiroglyphs 3400 BC Oldest example of Egyptian Writing Moveable Type c. 1041 Chinese moveable type made of porcelain is invented by Bi Sheng Newspapers 1704 First American newspaper advertisement appears to find a buyer for an Oyster Bay, Long Island estate in the Boston News-Letter Magazines 1864 First magazineadvertisement appears in Harper’s Magazine
Posters mid-1800s advertisement posters banned from private property in London, creating a demand for human posters (sandwich boards, shirts, etc.) Billboards 1835 First billboard created to advertise a circus in New York Radio 1922 First radio commercial for condominiums in Jackson Heights, Queens T-Shirts 1930’s T-shirts became a popular form of advertising that we still see today TV 1941 First TV ad for Bulova Watches in New York during a baseball game
Telemarketing 1950s Telemarketing began with housewives calling potential cookie buyers Spam 1978 first spam email “Arpanet” sent from Digital Equipment Corporation Mobile Phones 1984 First commercial cellphone became available, it weighed 1.76 pounds Computers 1985 Microsoft begins the friendly war with Apple Internet 1994 Earliest banner ads appear, including one by AT&T on Hotwired
Email 1996 Hotmail becomes first web-based email service Search Engines 2000 Google launches Adwords SEO 2001 Google revolutionizes page ranking and search algorithms, preventing spam tactics from generating false relevant hits Email Marketing 2001 MailChimp founded
Blogs 2003 WordPress launches 2004 Merriam Webster declares “blog” the word of the year CAN-SPAM Act 2003 Commercial messaging laws are passed, notably to decrease the amount of spam emails Social Media 2003 More social media appears- LinkedIn launches, 2004 Facebook launches, 2006 Twitter launches
Smart Phones 2013 79% of smartphone users look at their phones within the first fifteen minutes of waking up Mobile Internet Usage 2012 31% of mobile phone internet users say that they mostly go online using their cell phone, and not using some other device Marketing Automation 2013 Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost
