When I started working in digital marketing, there were just a few of us, and I mean that literally. The percentage of us who were dedicated to it and our audience were minimal. The Internet was a promising trend, very promising (so much so that the digital bubble burst).
In this time we have gone from measuring Internet penetration to measuring mobile penetration and in both cases we have run out of scale. And we are looking for the next big innovation.
We don't know if these are innovations that come usa numbers list from a long time ago or something new. We are talking about big data, voice, artificial intelligence,... or a combination of all of them.
The Internet has gone from being fundamental to essential
In one of the last episodes of my podcast (“ To sell, you don’t always have to sell ”), I was interviewing Aurora Llanos (Digital Sales Manager at IBM), reviewing the changes suffered by digital sales due to COVID. In doing so, we saw a clear trend: the Internet has gone from being fundamental to being essential.
In the case of B2B sales, we have seen how they are becoming more and more digital (main topic of the interview), we see how for decades people have been looking for ways to optimize the sales process by shortening deadlines and travel.
For some time now we have seen how sales were becoming more and more digital, but there was some reluctance to make them completely digital. But then COVID and the lockdown came along and we found that digital sales were the only way.
The result is that the “experiment” has not only worked, but both buyers and sellers want it to continue this way. This means accelerating the process of digitalisation of companies as much as possible. Either you adapt to this process or you are left out. In certain sectors, you may be left without options.
That is why the Internet has gone from being fundamental to being essential.
If we look at the history of the Internet in perspective, we see how the importance of the Internet has grown:
In its early years, we were four early adopters trying to make sense of digital business in a context of low digital penetration.
Then the digital bubble burst and the Internet became an outlaw in companies, a necessary evil. We were clear that it was the future, but so much money had been lost that the level of distrust was enormous.
From 2003-2004, with considerable digital penetration, the numbers began to add up and the sector was revived.
Until 2020 we have been growing at full speed, making mistakes, experiencing transformation processes, innovations, etc. but the Internet has gradually gained the consideration of a fundamental communication channel for any company.
From 2021 onwards, the Internet will cease to be an option for a few and something essential for many others, becoming an essential channel.
The question is, what is the next innovation that will make us grow? There are many on the way, but there is still no one as clear-cut as the Internet or mobile phones.
COVID has caused a new digital revolution
In my opinion, this acceleration in the digitalisation of companies is creating yet another digital revolution. Not in the technological sense, but in the strategic sense. COVID is providing the final push for companies to take the plunge.
The problem with this push is that it is happening too quickly and in a haphazard manner. We are experiencing a new wave of companies saying: “I want to go digital and get results now.” And this is obviously not realistic. They want to implement a process that takes years to complete in months.