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What is the AIDA model?
AIDA is a classic marketing communication model that allows businesses to understand consumer perception when making buying decisions. Since then, marketers comes up with strategies that are suitable for each of these stages.
Aida stands for 4 customer cognitive processes, including Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. These are considered four important steps that will help you effectively convince others about a problem they do not know.
This model is based on the fact that; firstly, you need to attract the attention of others, then show them useful, interesting points to spark their interest. Next is to create for people the desires, and finally direct customers according to your intentions. This is one of the best formulas successfully applied to many fields, especially in marketing strategy.
What AIDA model stands for
Attention
The first step in the AIDA model is to attract the attention of your target audience. To attract the attention of target customers, the Marketing must choose the right marketing method and tools to attract attention, forcing them to stop receiving the message.
For example, in Google, a business can effectively engage its target audience with search results pages (SERPs). So what can businesses do to attract consumers’ attention when they are searching for information related to their needs on Google? An interesting answer is found in the case study conducted by Adrian Durow of ConversionArium.
Adrian’s team used eye-tracking software to analyze where the most attention was drawn to the participants in the study. They found that the position of the green dots represents where the participants are looking.
As the results show, many dots appear around the top of the page title and the domain name. Therefore, to attract the attention of target customers, businesses must focus on optimizing the title and description for their SEO articles.
Interest
Attracting the interest of your target audience can be the most difficult stage for your business. After attracting the attention of the business’s target audience, how can the business excite customers’ interest in products and services? The key here is access to information relevant to their needs.
Marketing teams have to ask themselves the question, “why are my customers coming here?” Or “What do they need to find out?”. Ask yourself these questions, and then create content that is truly helpful to your customers. If you are selling products, this could be the answer to your most frequently asked questions or answers related to your product or service. During this exciting period, your content must be really “quality” and stand out, or your business will easily sink into the sea of saturated information.
Desire
After gaining the attention of your target audience, the next step in the marketing communication model is to create the desired business interaction with your target audience.
The success of marketing communication is not in trying to sell your product, but in the fact that the customer really wants to buy the product from your business. There are two simple ways for businesses to stimulate the desire of customers. First is increasing the real experience of the products and services. The second is that businesses provide to users or target customers positive experiences about products and services.
Selling via social media might take many forms. Still, in the end, you are generating customer desire by providing valuable and detailed information through a range of user influences. This news delivery can take the form of user-generated reviews, testimonials, or case studies and interactions on social media.
You can show your audience something others have experienced that they have never had before, and in turn, show them the desire to achieve. This is the general mentality of businesses wanting to create a buying desire in the consumer’s mind.
After arousing the desire in the hearts of targeted customers, the last important and critical step is that the targeted customer must make a “Call to Action” purchase from the business.
Action
Maybe your business has attracted the attention of your target customers, making them interested in and wanting to own the company’s products and services. Still, all of the above efforts will be “zero” if the customer ultimately does not act.
Some notes to “Call To Action” (CTA) effectively for businesses:
- Calls to action are not much needed but must be clear
- Use words to stimulate effective actions (Buy now, register now, etc.)
- Make the CTA stand out (contrasting colors, large fonts, etc.)
How to apply the AIDA in marketing
The application of the AIDA model must depend on each situation of an enterprise to provide appropriate solutions. When used in each stage, each channel must have characteristics that match the goal in that phase. At the same time, you need to use a specific methodology to measure.
#1 Attention
Objective: Increase brand awareness and gain attention from customers
This is the stage when the customer does not know your business. SEO is the most effective tool because search engines are still favored by most users today. When your website is on top of Google; You will reach a large number of customers. People searching for keywords express their needs; that is, they really need something.
Google Ads and social advertising are also effective ways to reach customers without much effort and time. Besides, you have to invest in content so that it is attractive and curious for customers.
Measurement tools: Organic traffic, advertising campaigns, views.
#2 Interest
Objective: Create a connection between customers and businesses
To keep customers, you have to deliver value to them. So you need to develop a website with useful content. Also, it would help if you aimed to build content, campaigns that can respond to problems or questions from customers. Therefore, in this stage, the targeted marketing content will be the way to solve problems from customers. Furthermore, you need to combine with email marketing to maintain customer service with helpful content.
Measuring tools: Number of website visitors, how long users stay on the website, clicks on advertising campaigns, interactions on social networks, number of website visits from Email Marketing campaigns.
#3 Desire
Objective: Highlight the value your business offers; customers know you can solve their problems
At this stage, you can turn useful content into sales content. In this step, you have to be really ingenious to lead the customer to the buying decision. Marketing content needs to have the evocation towards the needs of the customer. When the content catches the customer’s problem that is to be solved, it is easy to take them to the final stage.
With preset customer service through email, you can combine regular sales content to reach customers.
Measuring tool: The number of inboxes to learn more information on social networks, the number of visits to the sales page on the website.
#4 Action
Objective: Conversion of customers through online marketing channels
The call to action is the most important content. You need to create strong, persuasive content for your customers to act. You can offer promotions or deals to make their decisions more quickly. Besides, the use of social networks to drive traffic back to the website is a fairly effective method.
To close the deal, you can apply email marketing. By placing calls to action, an email will be the source of many potential orders in a long-term contracting process.
Measuring tools: Number of orders, number of shoppers.
AIDA model example
A typical example of a business successfully applying the AIDA Model is Hyundai. This firm noticed that many potential customers were interested in purchasing a new car, but they couldn’t pass the desired process. When they bought new cars and then lost their job, customers were afraid that their new cars and credit ratings would be affected negatively.
To handle this problem, the firm offered the Hyundai Assurance Program in 2009. This ensured that buyers who financed or leased new Hyundai cars returned their cars without cost and harm to the customer’s credit rating during one-year unemployment. This program made customers more certain about buying car decisions without worrying about the future economic recession. So, from interest, Hyundai customers turned into desire process of buying, and finally, action.
After the Assurance campaign, sales of Hyundai surged 85 percent in the month.
AIDA is a marketing communication strategy that can be completely realized to help businesses capture audience attention, generate interest, cultivate desires and drive positive actions of target audiences. If your business is ready to try a new strategy to turn a target audience into potential customers, the AIDA model will be an effective method.
