AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. Each concept represents one stage of the consumer's buying journey. Companies use this model to determine what messages to convey to customers at each stage. Before we show you specific examples of how to work with the model, we'll explain what each stage represents.
AIDA is a marketing model commonly used in digital marketing or sales strategies to break down the customer buying process into four phases. AIDA is an acronym, an abbreviation created by combining the initial letters of several words. In this case, it is four English words:
Sometimes you may also see the acronym AIDAS. The letter S stands for customer Satisfaction.
Elias St. Elmo Lewis is associated with the AIDA model, who wrote in 1898 in The Inland Printer magazine about three advertising principles. These were based on his practice, arguing that successful advertising should always follow a pattern.
"The mission of advertising is to arouse the reader's attention, so that he will look at the advertisement and begin to read it; then to interest him, so that he will continue to read it; then to persuade him to believe what he has read. If an advertisement contains these three elements, it is a successful advertisement."
Lewis's principles still hold true more than a century later. Come read how to put the AIDA model into practice.
You can use this formula when writing blog articles, newsletters, social media posts or even advertisements. To get a better idea, we will explain the steps of the AIDA model on our services.
Don't assume that everyone knows about your services and products. Therefore, it is important to catch the attention of your customers with your content (whether it is an ad or an article). The goal is to make them stop and wonder what your company actually does. At this stage, the customer asks, "What is it?"
Example
For example, one way to help you increase attention is to publish articles on topics that your customers are interested in. On our blog, we share just such articles that touch on our services. For example:
We use articles to solve potential customer problems, inform about new developments or share our know-how. In addition to publishing articles on the blog, we also post them on social networks or send them out in a monthly newsletter. By using multiple platforms, we increase the chances that our services will be noticed by potential customers.
You've got the attention, but now you need to keep it. Why should users continue reading your newsletter or blog article? Why should they click on your ad? Make sure the information is structured and easy to read, with interesting subheadings and graphics. Focus on what's most important to your target market in relation to your product or service, and only convey the main message you want to convey to consumers. What do customers care about?
Example
You can try to attract attention in articles, newsletters or even advertisements. In articles, you can use a headline that encourages clicks - for example:
If, on the other hand, you send newsletters, focus on the subject line, which is the second most important piece of information after the sender's name. These two elements have an impact on whether someone opens your newsletter. For example, we used the following subjects:
Within newsletters, you can also increase interest by personalisation - segment your contact database and send newsletters only on certain topics. In our case, we could segment clients who are interested in the cloud, enterprise systems, cyber security or even GDPR.
The second and third steps of the AIDA model go hand in hand. Since you hope to generate interest in a product or service, it is important to help customers realize why they need that product or service. Make sure you provide the customer with enough information about the benefits of your solution and about yourself. If the customer doesn't find what they are looking for, they are at risk of leaving for a competitor. So back up your offer with specific benefits - because at this stage of the AIDA model, you want the customer to say: "That's what I want."
To increase your credibility, also show case studies or testimonials to nudge the customer to take the next step. Also think about how you are better than your competitors and what you offer in addition.
Example
Suppose a potential client is interested in an ad about cloud storage and clicks through to a product page. In addition to being able to try the service for free for 14 days, he learns that we can help him arrange a subsidy for cloud services, saving him up to 40% of the cost.
In the next section of the product page, we describe the benefits of working with us, which include:
On a given page, we not only describe the service, but also mention that we have been in the information technology market for over 25 years. At the end of the page we also give you the opportunity to read how we have helped our clients in case studies and to contact us using the contact form.
Complete your message with a clear and concise CTA (call to action). After all, the customer has decided to buy from you, so give them instructions on what their next steps should be. Should he fill out a contact form? Respond to your email or click the CTA button?
Make the buying process as easy as possible for your customers. Place CTA buttons in several places along the length of the page, and don't forget to put the contact form at the end.
The AIDA model does have a few limitations when it comes to marketing.
AIDA does a great job of describing the linear thought process of buying decisions, but not all buying decisions are linear. Some buyers may skip the attention and interest stages because they realize the desire for something earlier.
A potential customer may go through several or all of the AIDA phases at once.
With the AIDA model, you can fall into the segmentation trap of applying one letter from the model to each tactic in your marketing strategy. Maybe you think articles should spark attention in users and nothing else. Ideally, however, an article should attract attention, spark interest, and drive action.
Even an advertisement can trigger three or four stages of the AIDA model at once and spur a potential buyer to action. You can see this, for example, in our banner, where each message has a hierarchy and there is no lack of a call to action.
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