When thinking about launching a product or service, you want to make sure people know about it and can lead your customer through a successful purchase. The AIDA model helps you trace the customer’s journey and the stages they go through in their buying decision process.
AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Each concept represents a stage of the customer’s journey. The AIDA model has been widely used since the 20th century. The model was developed by Elias St. Elmo Lewis1 in 1898 when he was explaining how personal selling works, by describing the process a salesperson must lead a potential customer through to achieve a sale. Although Lewis focused on the sales process, the model was extensively used by marketers and advertisers over the next half-century.
In other words, the AIDA model is a marketing funnel that is used to lead customers through the buying process of a product or service. The AIDA model is a great marketing tool, that helps businesses and brands to prioritise communication channels and different touchpoints that could be used by future customers in their decision-making process.
The AIDA model is based on four stages a customer goes through before purchasing a service or product.
The first stage is to grab the attention of your target audience or your buyer persona, that customer you want to reach and may not know about your product or service. If you can grab the attention of your target persona and engage them they will begin to get curious about your business. This stage can be reached by creating disruptive and engaging content, to raise brand awareness.
once you have grabbed the attention of your target audience, you can raise their interest in your product and services by showing them relevant information, as they want to learn more about your brand. The content and information you present must have a hook, so you don’t lose their attention; you must present relevant information, like a blog post about your business or brand, detailing which problem are you solving through appealing storytelling.
Your customer must trust you, they must want your product or service because, after all the content that you presented, they trust you. Your content must show them why they need you and feel a personal connection with your brand, so make sure they are following you on social media, and have trusted testimonials of your business or brand.
In the AIDA model, this is the final stage. If customers have successfully made it through all of the previous stages, you should expect them to take action. Your content should end with a CTA, a call to action, for example, a “book a demo now”, or enjoy a “free trial”.
While this framework has been used for decades, some limitations make it impractical for modern-day marketing as the customer’s journey keeps evolving, and there are new tools and channels of communication and forms of content. The AIDA model has been criticised for being too simplistic2, especially for buying decisions that are way more complicated, and there are also more resources for the customer to research and compare your product or service.
It also doesn’t take into account a non-linear buyer’s journey or impulse purchases and long-term sales cycles. AIDA is also focused on first-time purchases, but marketers must also implement a strategy to retain their customers and create loyalty and a good reputation. Marketers today search for a more holistic model.
That is why there are new variations3 of the AIDA model, like:
Action, Interest, Desire, Confidence, Action, Satisfaction.
Reach, Engage, Activate, and Nurture.
Need, Attention, Interest, Trust, Design, Action, Satisfaction and Evaluation.
The AIDA Model is a framework for understanding the thinking process of consumers who are considering making a purchase. It can be used by companies to plan their marketing strategy and develop creative content. AIDA can help you reach more customers by incorporating it into your digital marketing strategy, but to do so, you need to know your customers and the channels through which you can reach them.
1“AIDA.” Oxford Reference, https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095432783. Accessed 20 July 2022.
2,3“AIDA Model - Understand the Steps in the AIDA Model Hierarchy.” Corporate Finance Institute, 27 January 2022, https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/aida-model-marketing/. Accessed 20 July 2022.
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