Table of Contents
What is AIDA
When you start blogging the chances are your thoughts are all over the place…
‘i can create this …and this …and this…and….’
After a while you take a breath and look around at what you have created and wonder….
Wonder why there are no visitors, wonder why no one is taking up your offer…can’t they see the value…oh hang on no one has visited….
This is when you need to take a step back and start to get organized….
You need a marketing plan…
Gone are the days of ‘build it and they will find it’…
Google will look at your site and see whether there are any social interactions to prove your content is good…
But it will wait to start to rank you naturally…
So how do you go about setting up a marketing plan…
One of the earliest, and still used, marketing acronyms is the AIDA model…
You may have heard of it…
Originally from the offline advertising days…
But in case you haven’t then it is worth looking through and mapping it to your online journey…
What do the four letters stand for…
A= Awareness (or Attention depending who you talk to) ….
I= Interest
D=Desire
A=Action
So what do we do with them…
Let’s explore them in more detail….
Awareness
Ask yourself are people even aware of you …
How are you making them aware of you…
Do you know where your niche are online …
Have you talked to them…
Introduced yourself….
Made a bit of noise…
Maybe even been a bit controversial….
It all starts with people starting to talk….
And with so much noise on every channel nowadays, ti is becoming more difficult to break through the noise…
You need to plan before you start your blog, but it’s ok if you are just getting into it….
Look for the channels and learn how they work…
Answer their questions, and when they answer back let them know you are starting a blog about it…
You may not be able to post your link but if you have it in your profile then those that want to will find you…
And don’t make it difficult to find you….
Add it to your header image on social media, everywhere you can…
So now you have been able to start getting a bit of notice taken of you…
And other have started saying you name in conversations…
You know that you have started raising your profile…
What you can do to see if eny of this is happening is to do a google search for any mentions of your profile….
If your profile name is your site name then try doing a google search
[profile name] -site[sitename]
And this will show you where you have been mentioned, with or without you being aware…
Once this has happened then you wil lhave started to see an increase in traffic to your site…
You have been creating articles about your niches fears or problems and how to help them, haven’t you….
This all helps with the …
Interest
Now you have got above the noise you have got people’s attention…
The content on your wordpress site must be on topic….
It must relate to their problems, fears or desires…
It maybe that there are several problems that can be solved without recommending any products…
In which case you may need to look at what you are going to get out of it…
You do think of any communication as an exchange don’t you…
They may not be conscious of it but they want to get as much out of you, their perceived value must be high…
Other wise they will not stay….
But there must be an exchange or they may leave dissatisfied….
So your writing must evoke some interest in what they didn’t realise they were seeking …
Or what they were seeking….
And you need them to move to the next level…
Desire
If you go into a shop and spy a salesperson, most of us …unless we are looking for one.. will try to avoid them.
If you go into the shop and there is someone sat there, drinking coffee…reading a news paper you may
be more relaxed…knowing you won’t be pounced on any time soon…
So the next level after they have found that you have something they want is not to create a sales pitch and jump on them…
But to let them desire your product…
Get them an emotional tie with it…
Show them how it will improve their lives…
Make their lives easier….
Let them relax more…
And once they are in this mode…
You let them move up to the next level…
Action
Taking action…
Now this doesn’t have to be a sale, it is just the outcome you want after giving a large amount of value…
It can be a signup for a newsletter…
It can be requesting a phone call to set up a coaching session….
It can be signing up for a webinar…
But the fact is that they want to do it…
You don’t force them …
Those that are unsure or don’t want it…
You let go…
Because those that really want it…
As long as you treat them right and they find tremendous value in it …
Will help you with your marketing…
Even after the exchange takes place you can ask for a bit more….
Get them to leave a testimonial or fill in a review…
Ask a few questions about what they want next….
But you have taken people from not knowing you to being suspect …aware of you but not ready to buy …to prospects, who are looking to buy …possibly from you… right through to being customers
Is that the end of the road….
Hopefully not and this is where the AIDA stops but you mustn’t….
What’s next
A customer is very valuable …
Even if they have bought something of nominal value or left you their email address…
They are interested in what you are, stand for and your products…
Now you don’t have to go through the first half of the buying funnel again with this person…
They are aware of you and know what you stand for….
Remarketing to these people will be a lot easier than with cold traffic…
But you must still work on the cold traffic to turn them into customers…
Does it work
It does work and thousands of businesses are trying to get your attention daily…
They are working on a business model…
They may have been taught to sell…
But in digital marketing with little feedback you only have your words on the screen to convince people that you know what they are feeling….
And understand them…
Then the level of trust goes up and they become more receptive to your solution…
If they can see themselves using your solution then they have almost bought it…
All you need to do at that stage is to make it easy for them to get hold of it….
Is there a better model
There are more modern models than AIDA…
But are they any more effective or are they just a respin on that model…
You have the DRIP ( differentiate, reinforce, inform, persuade) model…
But i can see the AIDA formula in that…
Or the RACE model (reach, act, convert, engage)…
This one is mainly for digital products but again i can see AIDA in the first 3 letters with what you need to do after in the engage…
So to me you can follow a model from the 1800’s and still move your visitors from not knowing about you to being loyal customers…
But do we need it….
Do we need a model
Some would question whether you need to follow a model…
After all you are not in the marketing business…
I disagree, anyone who starts a business is in the marketing business…..
So if you don’t follow a model how does your business operate…
Do you just create content and hope…
Is there any planning of content level…
Do you target people who may be becoming aware for your business and then move them more into the interest and desire stage through internal linking…
You may be following a model but not be aware of it…
And that’s ok…
But if you become aware of it then you will be a lot more effective…
You will be able to create content funnels or plans to move visitors within your site towards your products or services…
And using your analytics you can now start to see if your campaigns are working….
So always remember AIDA…
And look back through your articles and see if you have been following this sort of model without knowing it…
If not then create a content plan and a calendar to start to plan out campaigns and funnels…
And always remember to give massive perceived value to the visitor and ask for something in return for your hard work…
What model do you follow or are you going to start to think in terms of campaigns…
Let me know in the comments what you plan to do…
Thanks for reading
phil
About the author
Phil has been working online since 2015 and working with computer for longer than he can remember..
He has successfully built a few sites that are ranking highly...
He is now experimenting with techniques to see how far google has gone with the ranking process, with an eye on the speed of the sites along with the web core vitals...
His philosophy is 'if you can control it then do'....
If you want Phil's help then please use the contact page to reach him...