AIDA (not the Opera or Musical)!

Since the advent of modern marketing people have understood there is a process individuals go through when making a purchase decision.  It’s even present when making impulse buys albeit in a condensed time frame.  Acknowledging and incorporating this concept into your marketing is central to creating successful content.

First off, it breaks you out of psyche of concentrating on your own “message”.  By and by people don’t give a hoot about your message.  Everyday our minds are occupied with the solving the problems the world or our work have set out in front of us.  If you aren’t offering something that helps me solve my problem I have no interest in what you have to say.

The most common metaphor associated with this process is the sales funnel.  Really, this is a pretty good one.  Getting its start way back in 1898, the first attributed version goes to St. Elmo Lewis and his four stage AIDA model.

1. AWARENESS of the existence of a product or service;
2. INTEREST in paying attention to the product’s benefits;
3. DESIRE for the product.
4. ACTION netting a purchase.

Since those days the concept of the funnel has been iterated many times over.  It’s been interpreted from the customer side (lifecycle spin), and expanded and refined to include lead methodology and changes in purchasing behaviors.

While certainly there is value in the incremental thought applied to the base AIDA model, I still favor the simple, classic four steps.  To me, anything more is over-engineering.  Regardless of how we try as we might to describe the psychology of the buying process, there is no way to systematically define such an ambiguous, human process.  Any additional layers or added detail, therefore, simply adds additional overhead that won’t deliver commensurate results.  Maybe AIDA in its raw form isn’t a good fit, but try to keep it simple (KISS – not Gene Simmon’s tongue).

From a content perspective, why AIDA is so important is because it provides a progression for deepening your understanding of the customer.  After all the time spent investigating their needs an issues, this starts the process of crossing over and trying to think about a day walking in their shoes.  What is the problem faced?  How do they encounter it?  Then begin the journey of building knowledge and ultimately solving it?

If you can answer questions like these your likelihood of producing content that is relevant and valuable to the person living in those circumstances is dramatically improved.

Takeaways

• Everyone goes through multiple stages when making a decision
• Craft your own funnel, but keep it simple.
• Live a day in your customers shoes.  Feel, smell, and experience the issues they face as you work to solve a problem.
• Forget about your “message” and focus on them and their interests