The AIDA is a marketing model, also known as a hierarchical marketing model, which implies that customers move through a series of steps when they make purchase decisions. The four steps are Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. It has been in use since the late 19th century. The term, AIDA and the overall approach are associated with Elias St. Elmo Lewis, an American advertising and sales pioneer. Nowadays, it is a commonly applied marketing strategy. Companies use the AIDA model to find the best approach to their targeted audience.
1. Attention
Raising the attention of your brand to your potential audience can lead to positive word-of-mouth communication, which further drives sales. The internet, social networks, and online communities provide consumers with powerful communication platforms that can have a notable impact on your business’s reputation. Because word-of-mouth advertising encourages customers to share authentic and sincere marketing messages on your behalf, it’s one of the most cost-effective and powerful promotional solutions out there.
92% of people around the world said they trust recommendations from friends and family (earned media) above all other forms of advertising. You trust your friends and family, don’t you? This is why word of mouth marketing is the most valuable source of marketing, essentially, it is free advertising triggered by customers’ (positive) experiences.
2. Interest
Getting customers to know who you are is the first step, the second one is to get them interested in your product or services. Here is where you need to show the benefits of your products and create “that itch” so your potential buyers start to research further. You can get creative, use humor or personalization for instance, but the essential is to keep customers interested to move to the next step. It is imperative to identify the needs and problems of a potential customer and show how your product or service solves that problem. If a person understands that he needs your solution, he will continue to get acquainted with what you are offering.
3. Desire
This is where you want your customers to start to think, “I want this!”. A well-designed website can make your potential buyers desire your products or services. The seller provides clear examples of the advantages of the product or service, taking into account the daily lives of the targeted audience.
The focus should be on what modern people value the most: saving time is vital in modern times, taking care of your health and the health of your family is an important topic and saving money is relevant for all audiences. Here you can show them why your product is useful and all of the benefits it provides and prepare them for the final step.
4. Action
As soon as the desire to buy is aroused with the customer, this must be transferred into action, the purchase. Creating a straightforward and distraction-free purchasing process can help drive conversion, which is the main goal of AIDA model, you want your customers to take action. Ensuring your site or ordering system is as easy to use as possible helps promote seamless action by your newfound customers. It should feature some of the following words: buy, order, call, come, etc. Use one of these words, which is best suited for the specific situation.
5. Benefits of quality content
The creation of quality content should be the foundation of your website and its structure. Quality content helps to attract the right audience to your website, engage them and work towards getting the user to take action on your website. If the user finds the content valuable, then they are more likely to share it. Consistent, high-quality, and engaging content impacts audience decision-making more than any other technique. Quality content-marketing enables you to build relationships with customers by putting your brand in front of your customers in a way that helps them.
6. AIDA model is flexible
The expanded AIDA model includes post-purchase stages, while other variants feature adaptations designed to accommodate new, digital and interactive media, including social media and brand communities.
You will get upsell or more sales by retention. Some marketing specialists even added the letter “R” in AIDA making it AIDAR to highlight the importance of retention. You want your customers to be happy, so they will come back for more purchases or give you leads for more sales.
Satisfaction is also a very important post-purchase step. To make sure that your customers are happy after buying, you can send them a survey form and let them rate it. That is the best way to find out what works for your customers and what needs improving. If a customer has reached the stage of satisfaction, it is important not to lose them after the initial purchase. An advertiser’s goal is to satisfy customers so that they share positive experiences with others.
Your business also has to have a good customer service team that is available and knowledgeable, as it is also one of the factors leading to future sales.
7. Cost vs benefit
Since the cost is close to none and the benefits are plentiful, the principle is equally useful to both startups and seasoned companies as well. AIDA marketing model has been used even by the biggest companies in the world such as Coca-Cola, Nike, and Apple. They have perfected the art of attention-grabbing commercial advertisements in all forms of media TV, print, internet, social media, etc.
Understanding what AIDA is and implementing it as your company’s marketing model, will absolutely help you to attract the attention of customers, generate their interest, create their desire, and call to action. The AIDA model has been in use and shaped the views on marketing for over a century. The system can still be found in current standard marketing textbooks. We do hope that you enjoy our topic today and help you have a new marketing strategy to grab potential buyers.
Author
Sophie Douglas is a digital marketing specialist and a journalist based in Columbus, state of Ohio. She is passionate, innovative, and ambitious.
Before becoming a writer for DigitalStrategyOne, she was writing short stories, screenplays, and directing short films.