AIDA Formula – How to Design Effective Marketing Materials
It doesn’t matter what you’re selling or what industry you’re in…if you selling online or offline you can only stay in business if you’re making a profit. That profit comes from either increasing sales or reducing your expenses…
This blog is about both, because when you make your marketing materials more effective — you’ll increase your bottom line.
I’m a big believer in systems, formulas and concepts… anything that’s proven to produce positive results. Here is a basic formula that you probably have heard of… or at least are familiar with if you’ve ever read any good sales material.
It’s called the AIDA Formula.
AIDA is an acronym for the formula used in creating powerful and effective marketing communications, sales letters, and is widely used in advertising too.
A – Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer. Stand out!
I – Interest: raise customer interest by demonstrating features, advantages, and benefits.
D – Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs.
A – Action: lead customers towards taking a specific and measurable action.
Gather up a few samples of your marketing materials or view your website and ask yourself these questions:
- What’s the PURPOSE for the specific marketing Piece or web page? Again, the AIDA formula applies to your website, print materials and Radio or TV advertising too!
- Is it to provide information & support the sale? – Is it to help prospects gain knowledge? Or…
- Is it to get the prospect to take immediate action? – For selling & promotion?
- Is there an attention getting headline? Sub-head?
- Is there a clear Benefit Message?
- Who is Your Target Audience?
- Is it designed with Your Prospect in Mind?
- How would you score this piece on effectiveness from 1 to 5 stars with 5 being very effective-and 1 being boring and a cure for insomnia?
- Always ask yourself: “Does this convey the message I want my reader to get?”
Now, make a note of this Action Step: Review all of your materials and see if they follow the AIDA formula, and then identify your super stars! You might be surprised by what you find when you look at your materials through the AIDA formula. This exercise will help you identify which pieces are designed well, and which ones need to be re-designed.
Of course the best measurement for any marketing materials is the response it generates. But when you’re planning your designs you’ll have a head start when you follow the AIDA formula.
Now that you know what to look for, let’s see what you should do when planning new marketing materials? Our goal is to follow the AIDA method. Remember, regardless of your role in the process, if you’re the CEO, Marketing Director or staff member, it’s important for you to understand and use these strategies even if you’re only using desktop publishing or creating more elaborate materials.
Plan ahead by answering the 5 W’s… This is very important.
Get focused on:
Who are you designing to? Who is the target prospect?
What do you want them to know or do?
Why should they care? Why should they pay attention?
Where can they get more info?
When should they respond or take action?
It’s helpful if you actually create a Word Document or template with the 5W’s… Who, What, Why, Where, and When? This will help you and/or your designer understand the purpose of the piece.
Now that you’ve have an understanding of AIDA and the 5W’s, I’d like to explore the two main parts that make up every marketing piece or advertisement… The first part is crafting a compelling message-writing the copy (the words you’re going to use to communicate value). The second part is the layout & design.
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Great explanation of the AIDA method, best I’d heard.
Would be great if you could have examples of how to apply this to different types of online content.
eg.. what to do specifically to get attention in a blog post or video of prospects fast.