AIDA model – as a key element of an advertising campaign?

The prevalence of the Internet and social media is obvious. They have become very popular among people of all ages around the world, but the way they are used varies from person to person. Nowadays, social media has become a new marketing platform for small and medium-sized businesses and large corporations, where the activities of competitive marketing strategies are directly applied. How does the consumer find himself in all this? How, from the perspective of the enterprise, to bypass the media hype, the competition, to break through with their offerings?”

Marketing-on-needs-stands

Every day, big new challenges await entrepreneurs of small businesses and organizations with few resources when it comes to marketing their services and products. They also face constraints on financial resources, which further limits their chances to grow and compete with large and established companies. It doesn’t get any easier further down the road. But just take a moment to listen, and it’s worth it, because you can gain an incredible advantage over your competitors.

What to listen to, or rather who to listen to? It should go without saying that understanding your customers is crucial to the health of your business, but how can you get relevant information? Through data, of course! Companies should actively collect data on their customers whenever possible. Check their social media pages to see what conversations are happening there. For B2B business partners, browse their websites to learn more about them. Some mobile software tools allow field reps to create custom forms for each customer, allowing them to digitally collect, organize and share information relevant to that customer in real time. Invaluable to Marketing in this process is GA4, which 24/7 allows them to collect, process data and create reports from it for analysis

Your customers are your biggest assets. Without a strong customer base, your company will fall apart. While acquiring new customers is essential to a company’s growth, maintaining good relationships with existing customers is equally important. In fact, organizations spend six to seven times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Understanding customer needs and being able to meet their demands gives a company a competitive advantage. By analyzing the needs of your customers, your organization will be better prepared to deliver offerings and customer service in line with those needs. What’s more, knowing your customers enables your organization to create more targeted marketing strategies, maintain strong customer relationships and increase customer value over time.

Definition

Advertisers have long used a variety of advertising techniques to motivate consumers to go through various stages and persuade them to act positively. The AIDA model is an advertising effects model that identifies the stages an individual goes through during the process of buying a product or service. The AIDA model is commonly used in digital marketing, sales strategies and public relations campaigns. AIDA is an acronym for the various cognitive stages of customers’ progress when they are motivated to make a purchase. These stages are Attention (Attention), Interest (Interest), Desire (Desire) and Action (Action). The first cognitive stages, namely Awareness and Interest, occur when a consumer acquires information about a product intentionally or unintentionally. The consumer then feels the desire to make a purchase. The fourth stage, is a mental state and a consequence of the previous three stages. In this stage, the consumer decides whether he or she will commit to a purchase.

Companies use the AIDA model to determine how they should shape and distribute marketing messages to their target audience at each stage of the customer journey. The AIDA model is considered a hierarchy-of-effects model, meaning that consumers must go through each stage of the model to take a desired action. As in a typical marketing funnel, each stage has fewer consumers than the previous one.

By creating campaigns and structuring your website with the AIDA model in mind, you can gain greater control over the paths of potential customers to make a purchase decision. The theory is that as you proceed through each stage of the model, consumers who learn about the brand develop a specific feeling or emotion toward the product or service, which ultimately prompts them to take action.

The model’s theory is that consumers who learn about the brand develop a specific feeling or emotion toward the product or service, which ultimately prompts them to take action.

attract attention

In the first step of the AIDA model, the goal is to attract the attention of the potential customer by focusing on a few key elements. To facilitate this task, a key step is to precisely define your target audience before launching. Knowing your potential audience allows you to personalize your message, which in turn will increase the chances of achieving high conversions. The first step is the “Attention” element, which involves introducing the recipient to your company and building awareness of your brand and the products and services you offer. 

There are several key elements to capture the attention of the recipient:

1. Headline or title: You should create an attractive headline text that can point to a solution to the recipient’s problem, appeal to emotions, present customer opinions or surprise with interesting data
2. Graphics and visual effects: People’s eyes are attracted to photos and videos, so it is worthwhile to ensure high quality graphics and interesting visual effects. These elements will also keep the attention on the advertising content.
3. Non-standard ad format: Through the blitz and all the noise, it is often difficult to stand out with your ad. Choosing custom templates, interesting colors and distinctive typeface helps with this. 

It is important to remember that an effective advertising campaign combines these elements in a coherent way to direct the attention of potential customers and get them to take further action.

Arouse interest

Once you have captured the attention of your audience, that is, they associate your brand or product, the next step is to present your offer. This should be done in a way that attracts and maintains focus and interest. This is the moment when you highlight the unique features of the product, the benefits to the customer, and create an interesting narrative (storytelling). Creating interest requires understanding the needs and expectations of the target audience, which makes it possible to deliver personalized content. There are a number of ways to ensure that the content provided is positively received by the user:

1. Adequate content and formatting: Ensure that you provide content in the right amount, while avoiding information overload. Proper formatting and sticking to the rules of copywriting is also important.
2. Sticking to the theme: It is important to respond to the desires and pains of the customer with advertising.

Finish with a question: An attempt to engage the viewer is to pose a question so as to arouse interest and curiosity.

Stimulate desire

In the “Desire” stage, the goal is to create desire to have the product offered or to use the service. This is the point at which values and benefits are presented in such a way that the potential customer feels the desire to own the product. Various strategies are used, such as customer reviews, exclusive offers or proof of effectiveness, to reinforce the desired feeling among potential customers.

It is worth noting that effective communication requires speaking the language of benefits and prioritizing the needs of customers. Few are interested in a dry presentation of a company’s activities or history of its seniority in the market. In fact, most people prefer to talk about what they can gain. 

Focusing on the benefits to the customer, partner or recipient is key. It is necessary to follow the rules of telling the truth and avoiding excessive misrepresentation. It is worth remembering that life will always verify the promises presented. Even if you manage to win a customer through a temporary eclipse of reality, there is a risk that this customer will not return to you in the future if he or she felt cheated. Therefore, operating on a solid and real basis is the key to building lasting business relationships.

Build action

The final stage is “Action” – the moment when the customer is induced to take a specific action, most often a purchase. A clear call to action, time-limited offers or buttons “Buy now”, “Contact us”, “Call now” are key in this stage. Action can take many forms – from buying online to signing up for a newsletter or taking advantage of a promotion.

Summary

It is worth noting that the AIDA model is dynamic and can be applied to advertising campaigns as well as content marketing or e-commerce strategies. The key to success is to flexibly adapt the message to changing market needs and customer expectations to keep their attention and encourage them to take action. The AIDA model thus provides not only a theoretical foundation, but also a practical tool to help effectively communicate with customers at every stage of their buying journey.