
Elevate your Brand : Digital Marketing Insights.
Digital marketing effectively began in 1990 when the Archie search engine was created as an index for FTP sites. In the 1980s, the storage capacity of computers was already large enough to store huge volumes of customer information. Companies started choosing online techniques, such as database marketing, rather than limited list brokers.[9] Databases allowed companies to track customers' information more effectively, transforming the relationship between buyer and seller. In the 1990s, the term digital marketing was coined.[10] With the development of server/client architecture and the popularity of personal computers, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications became a significant factor in marketing technology.[11] Fierce competition forced vendors to include more services in their software, such as marketing, sales, and service applications. Marketers were also able to own online customer data through eCRM software after the Internet was born. This led to the first clickable banner ad going live in 1994, which was the "You Will" campaign by AT&T, and over the first four months of it going live, 44% of all people who saw it clicked on the ad.[12][13] Early digital marketing efforts focused on simple HTML websites and the burgeoning practice of email marketing, which allowed for direct communication with consumers.[14]