AIDA: The Simple Marketing Framework Your Small Business Needs

Photo By FirstCom Academy

What if you could simplify your entire marketing strategy down to four essential steps? Good news, you can. It’s called the AIDA model, and it been the secret weapon of marketers for decades and it’s now accessible to every business owner. Let’s dive into how this framework can help your small business.

The AIDA Breakdown

AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. This model is used in various aspects of marketing, sales, and public relations to guide the customer through the buying journey.

Attention is the consumer becoming aware of a category, product, or a brand. a few ways a small business can get attention is by having strong headlines, use headlines that are intriguing and directly address a problem your audience faces. Be sure to incorporate compelling visuals, catching the eye is key, especially on platforms like social media.

Interest is the customer becoming interested by learning about brand benefits and how the brand fits their lifestyle. You can create interest by offering content that educates your audience and helps them solve a problem like blogs or articles. It can also be generated by email marketing, webinars or demonstrations, or testimonials where you showcase real life examples of how your product or service has helped others.

Desire is when the consumer develops a favorable disposition towards the brand. Generating desire is about convincing the audience that they don’t just like your product, but that they need it. Connecting with your audience emotions is important, show them that your product may make them feel happier or more secure. Highlighting the benefits of your product and creating a sense of urgency by offering limited-time sale can also make your product more desirable.

Action is the consumer forming a purchase interaction, shopping around, engaging in trial or making a purchase. To fully complete the sale, use a clear call to action that uses straightforward language that tells the user exactly what to do such as “Buy Now”. Ensure that your business has an easy checkout process because longer checkout processes can lead to consumers abandoning their carts.

A Small Business Case Study

Okay now imagine you are a small local bakery looking to revamp your marketing technique using AIDA, lets dive into how that will look.

Attention: The bakery wants to get attention of the local residents.

Example: The bakery posts a short video, that is visually appealing showcasing what they have to offer and posts it to their social media.

Interest: The customer is intrigued by the video and clicks on the bakery profile

Example: The customer explores the website and see a gallery of beautiful cakes and use your website to determine which product they are interested in.

Desire: The customer is now interested and needs to be convinced that this bakery is the right bakery for their needs.

Example: The website’s “Testimonials” page displays reviews and photos from satisfied customers. The website also highlights the use of fresh, local ingredients, appealing to the customer’s desire.

Action: The customer is ready to make a purchase.

Example: The bakery has a clear “request a custom order” button on every page. It’s a simple form that can be filled out explaining all the details of the order. The customer places the order, and the bakery responds with a quote, leading to a new sale.

Outcome: The customer was attracted to the business after seeing a post on social media, the customer then did their research and felt the desire to learn more about to business which led to them placing an order. This resulted in a sale for the bakery

Conclusion

Remember that AIDA is a great framework to implement into your small business and can help tremendously when aligning the customer journey. Audit your marketing techniques and identify where they are following AIDA. Focus on one stage where you feel is the least effective and focus on improving it. Refine your call to action and make sure it is clear and concise to get customers to feel motivated to purchase your product. Following these steps will be a guaranteed way to increase sales and how you connect with your audience.