The AIDA Model: A Proven Framework for Converting Strangers Into Customers

In 1898, Elias St. Elmo Lewis, an eventual inductee of the Advertising Hall of Fame, anonymously wrote a column about three advertising principles he found helpful throughout his career in a printing magazine called The Inland Printer, one of the most influential American magazines of the 19th century.

In his column, he states that a successful advertisement should always follow a specific formula.

“The mission of an advertisement is to attract a reader, so that he will look at the advertisement and start to read it; then to interest him, so that he will continue to read it; then to convince him, so that when he has read it he will believe it. If an advertisement contains these three qualities of success, it is a successful advertisement.”

In other words, copy is only good if it attracts attention, generates interest, and creates conviction in that order.

Over a century later, Lewis’ principles still ring true. They’re expressed as an acronym, AIDA, and are widely used in the advertising industry. In the digital age, brands have even based their entire marketing strategy on the AIDA model.

Before we cover how to apply the AIDA model to your content marketing strategy, let’s go over what it is and why it works.

The AIDA model is considered a hierarchy of effects model, which means consumers must move through each stage of the model to complete the desired action. In theory, as they progress through each model step, consumers who learn about your brand will develop certain feelings or emotions about your product or service, ultimately compelling them to act.

Brands use the AIDA model to determine how they craft and distribute marketing messages to their target audience at each stage of the buyer’s journey. Like a typical marketing funnel, each stage has fewer consumers than the previous one.

How to Apply the AIDA Model to Your Marketing

Attracting Attention

Research your target audience’s problems and passions to boost your brand awareness. Then, create content that solves their problems and focuses on their passions. Your target audience should be able to discover your content through Google, social media, or another website.

If your content can grab their attention and engage them deeply, your target audience will become curious about what your company does.

Generating Interest

Once your target audience is interested in your product or service, they’ll want to learn more about your brand, the benefits of your solution, and your potential fit with them.

To make it easy to learn about your brand, solution, and fit, feature your mission statement on your website, explain exactly what you do on your homepage, describe the benefits of your solution on your product pages, and offer ungated case studies.

Providing instant access to this information will help your target audience visualize a pleasant future with your solution in their lives.

Stimulating Desire

The prospects you’re most likely to close are the consumers who envision a future with you — they already enjoy consuming your content and think your product or service will be even better.

But to generate enough excitement in your prospects to compel them to act, you need to ensure their affinity for your brand hits a certain threshold.

The more prospects interact with your brand, the more they trust you, boosting the chances they’ll eventually buy your product or service. To do this, keep serving them content. Make sure they subscribe to your blog, follow you on social media, and download your offers.

Spurring Action

After you generate enough desire for your product or service, give your prospects the chance to act on it. Place “request a demo”, “free trial”, and “contact sales” CTAs on your homepage, pricing page, and product pages. After all, what’s the point of creating content and building deep relationships with prospects if there isn’t a clear next step?

A Proven Formula

The AIDA model is a sturdy framework for guiding your audience through the buyer’s journey and spurring them to act. And if you apply it to your content marketing, you’ll be leveraging a proven formula that can consistently engage, persuade, and convert an audience into customers.

Source: Hubspot