A few years ago, we posted this article about the AIDA principle, and how it can benefit your marketing communications.
To recap, the AIDA model is:
- Attention: Grab attention with a compelling headline or opening.
- Interest: Highlight the key aspects and benefits of your product or service.
- Desire: Explain why your offering is valuable and beneficial to the customer.
- Action: Clearly state what action the customer should take next.
This model can be applied to all modern marketing channels but is even more important nowadays where our attention span is even shorter with increased competition.
Here are some practical tips on how to effectively apply the AIDA model to your marketing communications:
Attention: Write for your audience
Different audiences will have different needs, desires and pain points. Reiterate that your communication is for them in the headline. For example, if you are an estate agent targeting people looking to move, then use a headline such as ‘Looking to sell your house?’ or ‘Struggling to sell your house with your current agent?’. if possible, you can extend this idea with an even more personalised approach ‘Struggling to sell you house in (town name)?’ Instantly, the headline highlights who the communication is targeted at and acknowledges their pain point.
Interest: Keep the audience intrigued
Whether it’s digital or print, it’s essential to keep the audience engaged for as long as possible. By increasing user engagement on Tiktok, Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts for example, you also help the algorithm in identifying your target audience, which in turn, reduces your advertising costs (if you are running paid ads) and enhances the likelihood of your posts going viral.
With video content, you must provide viewers with a good reason to watch the video until the end. For instance, if you were showcasing jewellery, you could introduce one product initially and then raise curiosity by revealing the contents of closed jewellery boxes one by one. If the viewer finds the first piece intriguing, they are likely to remain interested and watch the reveal for boxes two and three. Make sure that your video maintains a fast pace and remember to include a call to action at the end.
A similar principle can be applied to Instagram carousels. By tailoring your content specifically to your audience, you can make each slide build anticipation and intrigue, encouraging prolonged engagement. Numbering each post as 1/5, 2/5, and so on makes it easy to recognize that each slide contributes to a bigger message, and it’s clear when the series concludes. This way, the viewer will know upfront how much time they need to invest in reading your post.
Example of Instagram Carousel cards, more information on this project can be found here
Desire: Show everything in context and highlight benefits
Where possible, try to demonstrate the advantages of your product or service within the context of everyday life. Taking the jewellery example once again, apart from including the studio shots on neutral backgrounds, it would be useful to showcase the item in real-life situations. Show how the item appears when worn by a model, how it compliments the person’s skintone, and how it pairs with various clothing items. All these supplementary images accentuate how the product can enrich the person’s life.
Action: Simplify the call to action
What do you want the viewer to do as a result of seeing your communication? Get in touch? Subscribe to your channel? Sign up to your newsletter? It’s amazing the amount of marketing communications we still see that have no obvious call to action. Make sure it’s simple and straightforward. Remember, whatever your message, it should only be a single stage in your sales funnel i.e 'Follow for more', 'DM me for a free trial' or 'Call for a free no obligation evaluation' etc.
Of course, the implementation of AIDA will differ across different marketing channels, but the overall concept is timeless and remains the same. Try to embrace the AIDA model in your marketing strategy, and your communications will become even more powerful and engaging.
