There are a lot of different frameworks and marketing strategies to use when trying to push customers through your marketing funnel, but the AIDA is tried and true.
The main goal of marketing strategies is to convert people who may know nothing about a brand into paying customers. Easy enough, right? The only issue is that you’re not the only one trying to do this. Every marketer is.
So along with this growing need for strangers’ attention came a formula, or best practice, called the AIDA model. It stands for attention, interest, desire and action.
These are the four stages that a consumer’s mind goes through as they engage with a brand’s content.
Attention
This is the very first stage of the process. At this stage, the consumer is thinking “What is this?” Consider it a first impression. With that said, it’s always best to make a great first impression, right? So in order to do that, you need to grab their attention.
This is where brand awareness and messaging come into play.
If you’re showing people the right thing at the right time, it will grab their attention. A blog is a great way to achieve this.
Example
When you put out content on a regular basis (in the form of a blog), it gives you the opportunity to be noticed by Google. If the content you’re putting out is something that people are searching for, you should be able to drive a lot of traffic to that blog post, and more importantly, to your website.
HubSpot does a great job of pulling this off. They produce high-quality, educational content that attracts their ideal audience — people who want to learn more about marketing, sales or service. The old marketing adage says that in order for a consumer to actually remember your brand, they have to see it at least seven times.
So to pull that off, you need to be frequent and consistent with your content distribution.
Interest
I’m sure you’ve seen a “learn more” call to action (CTA) on everyone and their mom’s website in the past. Well, “interest” is the exact stage they’re targeting. Once you’ve grabbed someone’s interest, they’re naturally going to want to find out more about your brand and how you can help.
The best part about this stage is that you can show off the reason why you’re the one to come to for their specific problem. It allows you to really shine some light on your story — so home in on that and wrap your brand around it.
Example
Once you have someone’s attention, you just have to give them a good reason why they should stick with your brand. The best way to get this across is by allowing them to opt into your marketing communications. This can be in the form of a newsletter (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly) or just regular marketing emails.
DM Insider is Digital Marketer’s weekly newsletter that gives people tactical marketing ideas and strategies every Monday morning. By doing this, you begin to build trust with your audience. The more you’re able to show people that you know your stuff, the more trustworthy you’ll be within a certain industry.
Desire
By this point, you’re not far away from a consumer handing you money, but there’s still some work to be done. You have to actually make them want what you’re offering. The best way to do this is to keep sending them content that is relevant and valuable.
If they opt into your blog, follow you on social media and download offers from you, then there’s a good chance you’ll get them to convert.
Example
Further their understanding about what you say with validation. You need to be able to show them you know what you’re talking about by displaying proven results or experiences you’ve given others like them. A great way to do this is through the use of case studies.
Mailchimp does a really good job showing off their skills by allowing visitors to check out a few different case studies on their site. The heading copy is also important. “How The Happiness Planner Creates More Content in Less Time” just makes you want to click it.
Action
Once you’ve reached this point, it’s best to give the consumer a chance to act on it. Whatever your CTA, it should be low-friction but high-incentive. What I mean by that is you should be offering the highest amount of value possible while making it very simple for them to gain access.
Example
This bottom-of-funnel CTA can be a free consultation, evaluation, audit or trial of some sort. Whatever you’re offering here should be something that will actually give them concrete knowledge or understanding of what you can do.
Microsoft 365 allows users to try it out for 30 days. This gives people ample time to familiarize themselves with the product, and Microsoft will have a lot of time to nurture them.
Using the AIDA Model
There are a lot of different frameworks and strategies to use when trying to push customers through your marketing funnel, but the AIDA is tried and true. Begin building this into your content marketing plan and track to see your results. It’s a very simple way to visualize your funnel and keep relevancy at the top of your strategies.
When implemented correctly, your buyer’s journey becomes a lot more clear.
The original version of this article was originally published in Newsweek by Chris Davis.
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