As shown by our sheer volume of blog posts recently, we at CLAi are trying to harness the possibilities of digital campaigning to expand our clientele and increase name familiarity. (Is it working?) Digital campaigning is a relatively new media collective that has shown remarkable success over the last several years. While many other businesses were struggling in 2010, US online advertising grew by 13.9%, bringing in an exceptional $25.8 billion, according to Fox Business . Yet even though digital campaigning is a thriving industry, there’s a certain way to go about it in order to get the desired results. The two aims of digital advertising are to increase brand awareness and generate revenues for your business. In order to obtain both aims, there are three aspects of digital advertising that must be addressed: social media outreach, display advertising, and e-mail marketing. We too are trying to generate information, generate buzz, and, of course, generate revenue.

According to Fox News, there are two broad steps in getting started with digital campaigning. The first is getting your business out there by harnessing successful digital advertising campaigns and the next is putting it all together.

1. Starting successful digital advertising campaigns: Putting your name out there is the first step to generating a customer base, and social media websites are here to help. There are many to choose from – Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and LinkedIn are just a few of the many options. Promoting your business through social media sites is a good starting point to get your business noticed, spread your message to a broad audience, and bring potential customers to your website.

Social networking sites, specifically, are not only great for promotion, but also for display advertising. It’s the same idea with a bus stop poster – the sheer volume of users on these sites makes them an important advertising tool that many businesses cannot pass up. For example, Facebook experiences an estimated 35% growth in ads per year. Even a small blurb in the corner of the screen can generate thousands of clicks per day – which is why most of these sites charge advertisers per click on their ad. Here you are integrating your company into an Internet site that people are already drawn to daily.

E-mail advertising is still an important tool, even though it is not as new as social networking and has left many people thinking of it as spam. But now e-mail technologies can provide a more a personal approach where you are able to contact your customer directly and invite them to your website, offer a promotion deal, coupon, explain new products, or simply remind them you exist. Rather than the customer seeking out your business, e-mail advertising offers the opposite approach to those who have already shown interest in your market.

2. Putting it all Together: The goals behind digital advertising are to spread the word about your business and, obviously, get more business. Actively using all three methods of digital campaigning – social media, display advertising, and e-mail marketing – is the most effective way to obtain both of your goals.

Digital campaigning can generate a great response for your business but it must be done in an intelligent and creative way. Putting all your eggs in the “social media basket,” “display advertising basket” or “e-mail marketing basket” most likely won’t give you the traffic you could get by using all three tactics. This new wave of digital media convergence is focused on generating a real response by getting your business noticed by as many people as possible and generating revenues. So if you have been inundated by CLAi updates, then you have noticed our efforts – if you haven’t, we aren’t as successful as we’d hoped. Check us out on Linkedin and Facebook.