Free Advice - AIDA
AIDA is far more than a useful marketing acronym, it should be at the heart of every piece of advertising you do.
A = Attention. With any advert, leaflet, web banner etc. you have a few seconds to capture the attention of your target. Your attention getting headline has several jobs:
- Attract the right people, those most likely to buy, this is especially important if it is a pay-per-click advert where you can spend a fortune if you attract too many non-buyers.
- Keep their attention long enough to draw them in.
- Be relevant to the next part of your advertisement.
I = Interest. Once people have been draw to your advert you need to generate interest in what you have to offer. You do this by understanding why your target might buy the product or service you have to offer, they have certain needs that your product can fulfil and you have to know what these are and write about how you meet those needs. This is the difficult time where you will lose as many as you keep, holding people's attention is difficult, an art you will have to work hard at.
D = Desire. The few who are still with you by this point need to be convinced.
- How well will you meet their needs
- Can they trust you
- why you product rather than a different one
A = Action. Scarily enough this is the area where most companies fail miserably. Any prospect who has read though to the end of your pitch has shown commitment but they need to do something other than flick on to the next thing that catches their eye. The call-to-action must be simple, powerful and preferable time-bound.
The best call to action will drive people to a web page or to call a number. Maybe it is to walk into your shop? What you really, really need to know is how successful your advert has been and to do this you need to build in some metrics.