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AIDA in Marketing: From Attention to Action
September 9, 2024
10 mins
AIDA is a classic marketing model that describes four key stages a consumer passes through before purchasing. In this article, we'll uncover the Model and its major applications. Sergey Kovalev, Promodo Expert, explains the importance of AIDA stages.
As defined, AIDA is a sales funnel. Its up-to-date version differs from the classical model while it no longer exclusively relates to the relationship between the buyer and the company: recently social networks have expanded this process and helped companies achieve various goals of the AIDA model owing to the content created by others. It’s the Model’s outdatedness mostly blamed for its shortcomings, though AIDA is still in good use. We’ll outline the pros and cons at the end of the article.
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Attention. Owing to the appealing content, a potential client initially pays attention to a product or service. This is done thanks to catchy headlines and visual elements on billboards, banners, or websites that make us pay attention to the offer.
Interest. The main task here is to arouse and maintain consumer’s interest. You may provide your potential customers with useful and interesting information, and emphasize the benefits and unique properties of your offer with informative videos, photos, or how-to-use examples.
Desire. At this stage, you form a positive emotion about the product, which heats the need in a consumer’s perception. This happens owing to the emphasis you instill in your product. Companies leverage customer reviews and special offers to evoke the desire.
Action. The final step is the moment when a consumer makes a buying decision. It is important to provide clear instructions on how to make a purchase and motivate them to take immediate action. This can be a special “Buy Now” button on the website, a discount offer, or a clear CTA part of your ad message.
More often than not, marketers neglect the attention-grabbing stage, assuming that their product or service is well-known to consumers. Conversely, it’s erroneous to assume that everyone already knows about your product. One of the most effective ways to attract attention is through “creative disruption” - the destruction of existing behavioral patterns through creative messages. Sergey Kovalev, Team Lead, Customer Success Department at Promodo.
The AIDA funnel is rather a communication model than a decision-making one. The model is still being applied everywhere, with intent or without, when planning or implementing a marketing communications strategy.
AIDA serves as a universal and effective model for various types of businesses, ranging from small entrepreneurs to large corporations regardless of industry or business niche. It can be implemented in various aspects of marketing:
Advertising and promotion: allows you to structure ad messages to attract attention, arouse interest, heat desire, and stimulate action.
Digital marketing: for building automated email chains, creating effective landing pages, and launching targeted social media campaigns that lead to targeted actions like registrations or purchases.
Website: the AIDA is applied within the page structure, starting with catchy headlines, attention-grabbing visuals, and clear calls to action. On landing pages, the model predetermines design solutions where each single element guides customers through AIDA stages.
Commercial texts: Companies apply the Model for ad materials, brochures, landing pages, and email campaigns, AIDA generates content to inform and boost action. That’s how lead companies maintain an emotional connection with their readership.
Packaging design: AIDA is often beneath product design through visual elements, placement, and text formation.
Merchandising: AIDA is integrated into the right presentation of goods through colors, displays, location, or special offers.
We suggest using emotional triggers in texts, visuals, and offers at each stage of AIDA to establish deeper connections with your customers.
For the best effect, align the AIDA with the customer journey map. It’s pivotal to account for the stage a potential customer is in and adapt your messages and offers for each stage of interaction accordingly, Sergey Kovalev Team Lead - Customer Success Department at Promodo.
1. Attention-grabbing. You have a few seconds to grab a consumer’s attention. It's vital to remember that most people are unaware of your products or services. So, how would you best draw attention to your product?
Experiment with the marketing message:
Grab attention to the content of the message:
2. Arising an interest. You must first know your potential customers well. Audience segmentation is a sound way in this pursuit. By understanding your target audience, you’ll know their needs, expectations, queries, and the way you may best help them. You should convey a desire to help through your messages.
The idea here is to generate interest right from the headline or the first explanatory sentence. Use short sentences or illustrations.
3. Heating a desire. At this point, the client should say: “I need this”. Refer to convincing arguments and showcase the best features of your products or services. Ask yourself, why they are important for your potential customers. How will they benefit your target audience? You need to know the answers to these questions and understand all your product’s benefits.
Call-to-Action. Now that you have won the attention of a potential client, it’s high time you made them interested, heated a desire, and made them buy! On your website, you’ll rely on attractive call-to-action buttons like:
Once that’s a blog post, you may call your customers to subscribe to an email newsletter offering up-to-date information on the topic.
In your email to a potential customer, you may suggest an appointment with your company's sales team to answer all their questions.
Or, you may send your customers a special offer or a limited-time promo code.
Sergey Kovalev showed how Promodo applied AIDA in promoting a new online electronics store:
ATTENTION:
Tools: SMM, Google Display Network, YouTube Ads.
We kicked off the campaign with colorful banners on Google Display Network, showing the latest gadgets with an emphasis on their unique features and design. We then published short video reviews about top products on social media and ran commercials on YouTube Ads to showcase how good are the new devices.
INTEREST:
Tools: YouTube, website blog, email marketing.
On the YouTube channel, we published detailed reviews of new smartphones, laptops, and gadgets with core features and expert feedback comparisons. We published articles on our website's blog on how to choose equipment like “Top 5 smartphones for business” or “A laptop for gaming”. We send personalized recommendations via email based on the user's previous searches and browsing.
DESIRE:
Tools: SMM, Google and Meta Ads, email marketing.
On social media, we demonstrate real-life capabilities of gadgets: photos from the new smartphone cameras, or the speed of new processors to heat customer desire to purchase. We referred to Meta Ads to offer discounts for first-time buyers and/or promote product bundles. We used Google Ads to gather the target audience seeking specific models or product categories with a particular commercial interest. We then sent special offers to users via email like free setup or extended warranty offers.
ACTION:
Tools: Website, retargeting via Google and Meta Ads, email marketing.
We inserted call-to-action buttons like “Buy Now” with a simple and convenient checkout process and provided an option of paying by credit or in installments. We used retargeting in Google Ads and Meta Ads to remind users who have left items in their carts about an unfinished order and offered extra discounts or bonuses for those who would complete a purchase within a limited period. We leveraged email marketing to catch up with users who had left items in the cart and did not complete the order.
AIDA is beneath successfully created ad copies. Here are some tips on how to apply AIDA effectively.
Grab attention
A powerful headline is pivotal in attracting a reader. 73% of buying decisions are made owing to an attractive headline. Use catchy phrases that provoke interest and create an emotional response.
Arouse interest
Once you've grabbed a reader’s attention, you need to maintain their interest. The first paragraph should stick to the promise you’ve made in the headline and provide clear benefits. Don't make readers search for information throughout the text - be clear right from scratch.
Heat desire
Marketers don't sell products - they heat desire. Along with outlining your product’s best features, emphasize its benefits and show how well it solves customer problems. Show that your product or service is one’s best choice and fully meets your customer needs.
Boost action
Attracting attention and heating desire are not enough. The final step is a clear call to action. Use strong calls to action like “Leave a comment,” “Share with friends,” or “Click to buy.” Make your CTAs user-friendly to boost conversions.
Personalize your content: use the customer's name or personalized appeals to increase engagement.
Test multiple calls to action: A/B testing will help you determine the most effective wording for your audience.
Focus on emotions: create stories and situations that evoke an emotional response and compel the reader to take action.
Optimize customer journey: make sure that every step of your customer journey is simple and convenient to mitigate churn.
AIDA is a reliant background beyond your promotion strategy. You should understand that marketing strategies for an online electronics store and a car dealership will much differ. That’s why there are multiple AIDA variations, depending on the specificity of the stages involved. For instance, the AIDCAS model, with extra stages C (Conviction) and S (Satisfaction) that are omitted by the basic AIDA model. The STDC (See, Think, Do, Care) model, where STD is an AIDA model (the Do stage combines the Desire and Action stages) with an additional Care stage that accounts for customer retention. Sergey Kovalev, Team Lead - Customer Success Department at Promodo.
In-depth market comprehension. The AIDA model clearly defines the stages of interaction with customers, explores behavioral patterns, and provides you with enhanced market knowledge.
Improved customer relations. AIDA focuses on the stages of customer interaction and helps to understand customer behavior. This allows marketers to get to know their customers better, meet their needs, and improve customer experience.
Market relevance. The model informs about customer requirements and current trends, so you can change your strategies accordingly.
Engaged customers. AIDA makes engagement far more attractive while businesses better understand their customers and meet their needs by solidifying connections. In their turn, consumers may express their opinions and feel comfortable.
Time-saving. AIDA determines all the necessary steps that streamline and effectuate the process and boosts sales.
Outdatedness. AIDA was created more than a hundred years ago. Since then, marketing has evolved significantly with the emergence of new strategies and technologies. Therefore, despite its versatility, it is worth integrating other tools into the strategy.
Lacking essential components. AIDA is a fairly simple model that focuses only on four stages and omits essential marketing aspects like customer satisfaction and retention.
Irrelevant to brand building. AIDA does not account for the aspects related to brand reputation or value. It ignores the importance of developing brand awareness and loyalty crucial in today’s marketplace.
We often use Google's See Think Do Care (STDC) model as an up-to-date modification of the AIDA model. It displays the customer journey and helps us align marketing messages with different stages. The model is best for building a promotion strategy with tailored tools, messages, and creatives for each stage, and effectiveness. Sergey Kovalev, Team Lead - Customer Success Department at Promodo.
AIDA is a tool that helps marketers and businesses effectively convert traffic into customers. A proper understanding of each stage of the model and its adaptation to the specific business needs will help you advance your marketing campaigns and achieve the desired results. Despite some limitations, AIDA remains popular in promotion.
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