How Digital Marketing came in my life?(SEM, SEO, Display advertising, Email marketing, Affiliate marketing, Social media optimization, blogs, banners)

My first interaction with digital marketing came in April in 05. Coming from conventional/traditional advertising background, I didn't have much clue about digital marketing except for Email/messengers and visiting few big sites. In this new job I was asked to handle digital marketing with a colleague. Well it was like I was thrown in a rough sea and had no clue how to manage the big waves (of questions on digital marketing- Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, banners, Emailers, Web analytics).

For me branding or reaching out the potential target audience was only possible through advertising on TV, Press, outdoor and to an extent radio. We have seen brands like HLL(HUL), P&G, Pepsi, Coke, reliance etc doing big time TV advertising/hoardings and reaching out audiences. Internet and digital media was not even in the consideration set for them in India. As a novice I use to think who will come to Internet to buy and how can you buy on Internet. I use to feel it’s a wrong decision, which I have taken in my career. Then the ray of hope was my wife who joined the booming dotcom business sometime before me and was able to sell advertising on portals. I started reading about Internet marketing on the net. This made me realize the potential of this medium. Even to understand the medium I am using Internet as a medium. From thereon I googled everything...

I feel digital marketing is the only medium where you can figure out end to end solutions for any brand. You can figure out who is the customer, what he did with your product (searched, reviewed), interaction with brand (how long he stayed on the site), what he bought, when he bought (time), from which city (place), where did he leave your site (exit page), the list goes on….

Digital Marketing has grown leaps and bound in last few years in India. I will try and take up a topic on daily basis(SEM, SEO, affiliate marketing, email marketing, web anayltics) and would share my knowledge and would welcome inputs/discussions from users/visitors.