What AIDA in Marketing Communications Means (Updated 2018)

Unlike the Broadway musical of the same name, the AIDA that I am referring to is not the story of the timeless love between a Nubian princess and an Egyptian prince, but rather the 4 “timeless” fundamental elements of effective marketing communications.

This easy acronym is designed to help structure your integrated marketing communication publications to get the most out of them. Combine this method with the involved practices of Inbound marketing, and you’re well on your way to a successful piece of content that will resonate with your readers.

AIDA stands for:

• Attention/ attract
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

Since content creation and copy writing is literally how I pay my bills, I’m going to break down each section with you and give you some personal insights I’ve learned that work for me.

Attention

Your audience is barraged by thousands of different advertising messages and communication inputs every day. Because of this, people are very good at skimming and not retaining what they read. Ensuring that your message is seen and read will mean the difference between success and failure.

How do you do it? Well, I’m glad you asked!

A good starting point is to make sure you know who your target audience is. Craft your content topics around the needs, interests, and pain points of your target demographic. Your content should be educational, not salesy. Use your content as a platform to address customer needs or frequent questions. The reason for content is customer connection and satisfaction, not sales pitching and bragging.

That being said, your content should be designed to move your viewers through the buyer’s journey and eventually convert into active customers. By using Inbound marketing practices to put the customer first, you’ll eliminates instances of old style Outbound marketing practices.

Your headline or subject line should be a bold, literally bold your header or use an <h1> tag, and compelling beneficial statement that connects to the reader. Make it as personal as you possibly can! Think of your headline as a “hook” to bait your viewers with. Unless what’s on the hook is appealing and stands out from the ordinary, it’s going to be passed by. Use strong adjectives and action words in your title to connect to your readers emotionally. Instead of saying “bad” use “devastating”, or try out call to action (CTA) words like “achieve”, “create”, or “dominate”. Words have the power to motivate, so if you want to see results from your writing, you need to use the right ones.

Insights from industry leaders like Niel Patel and Brian Dean show that including numbers and parentheses in titles greatly increase the amount of shares and click through rates (CTR) of content. Viewers like to know what they’re getting into when they click your headline. If you can give them a solid title to help them set an expectation for the piece, and then deliver on that expectation, you will start to develop a solid following.

People like numbers and statistics, they want some proof behind what you’re saying. Several studies have shown that brackets and numbers boost CTR by more than 25%! I’d be more likely to click on an article titled “10 Tools You Need to Become a Craft Brewer” than “Becoming a Craft Brewer”. Using numbers alerts your readers that you intend to break up your content in easy to digest parts, making it easier for viewers to understand and retain.

Interest

Now that you’ve gotten your readers to actually click on your headline, how do you keep them on page to actually read what took you a good chunk of research and time to write?

Look around in your own world. What advertising messages get your attention? Follow suite with your marketing communication techniques.

Use the following tactics to keep your readers engaged:

• Ask a questions and answer it in the body of your text
• Take a controversial stance on a popular topic
• Use images and charts to illustrate your point and break up your text
• Use sub headers to introduce new topics
• Write short, concise paragraphs that are max five sentences long
• Use second person language (ie: “you” and “I”)

These practices make your content more approachable and visually appealing to viewers. This will also make your articles and post appear like conversations, rather than scripted instruction. Take the time to dig deep and show your readers you care by watching tone, style, and length.

Long form content has been popular for a while, but recently it seems to have taken over completely. If you want your content to get views and shares, you need to write at least 1,000 word count posts. Research shows longer content does better on does on social media, plain and simple. Additionally, it’s suspected that Google intentionally ranks long form content higher, because it’s better at providing in-depth answers to searched questions.

Desire

This is the set up for the grand finale… It’s very important that you get this part right. If you don’t, all your efforts up to this point will be for naught. Your task is to reach out and generate desire for your product or service.

There are a couple surefire techniques to do this:

1.  Tell your readers, in bold and vivid detail, what they will get when they purchase your product or service

2.  Use customer testimonials and Google reviews on your site to establish authority. This alleviates the “Guinea Pig” factor — the concern that they are the first to buy or use your product or service. This provides a great resource for your future customers to check out when considering to buy from your business.

People are always looking for ways to make their lives easier and eliminate problems. You need to demonstrate how your product or service will accomplish this. It’s even better when you can point to past success stories of your product and how it specifically helped customers in the past. Building and promoting brand awareness will help your marketability with potential customers and demonstrating existing customers’ brand loyalty of your product will establish reassurance with search engines and clients alike. When an individual buys your product, they are contributing to your success and aligning themselves with your mission and values. You need to demonstrate that your business is worth their trust and investment.

Once you create that need in your potential buyer, it’s time to bring it on home and give them a way take action.

Action

In a word, this is where you close the deal. Be specific and keep it simple. You need to align your call to action (CTA) with the benefits of your product or service. Let your potential customers know exactly what’s going to happen and make sure to send a thank you email with further contact information or possibly suggestions on other products they may find useful.

Something as simple as “Lean More About X”, “Start Your Free Trial Today”,  or “Download the E Book Now” is generally all that’s required. Using time sensitive and action words can push your reader to more immediate action. Additionally, have a template in place where a customer can leave their email or ask a question. You then have their information for future contact or email marketing campaigns.

If you’re marketing your product or service correctly, the “action” portion of the sale should be an easy decision for potential customers.

In Conclusion

By using the AIDA (Attention/ Attract, Interest, Desire, Action) communications method, you can make sure your content is well crafted and serves the purposes of your audience, as well as your marketing and sales funnels. Carefully constructed content is what moves your potential customers through the Buyer’s Journey and, if done correctly, will convert leads into sales.

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