The Secrets from AIDA You Need to Know to Boost Your Sale

A lot of web designers and marketers totally forget AIDA when they design a shop.

I have seen a lot of company who has a shop in the real world (off-line) who have started an online shop. But suddenly in the online world they forget everything about AIDA.

When we have our off-line retail shop we know we have to make people aware of our shop, we have to put some good ads in the paper and put some signs up in the window. We have to make the people interested in our products. They have to desire the product. And yes – we need the action too – we need to sell the product right.

Let me show you that off-line and on-line shops are not so different regarding to AIDA – we just have different tools we can use.

So what is this AIDA?

The AIDA model is a very famous model, and chances are that you may already know it. And if you don’t know it already then I am very pleased to be the one that introduces it to you.

• A – Attention (Awareness): This is where you have to attract the attention of your customer
• I – Interest: Tell your customer about the advantages and benefits of your product or service (not the features)
• D – Desire: Here you will have to convince the customer that they want and desire your product or service. And tell them that it will satisfy all their needs
• A – Action: Now we have to lead the customer towards taking action and buy our product or service

We will lose some percent of the customers moving down this ladder. But this system gives a general understanding of how to target our market effectively.

But I just give the AIDA model a little twist. I want you to take the social media serious for every step in the model.

Get attention from your customer

Maybe you have the best product in the world, and maybe you have the best prices in the world – BUT (yes there is always a BUT right?). If your customers don’t know about your product, service or your prices you will not sell anything. This is true both online and offline.

You properly want to place your offline shop on a crowded street. So you know you will have a lot of traffic walking in front of your shop. The more people that see you shop, the more people will properly come into your shop too. Yes you will need some signs in the windows. Maybe will put up a yellow sign saying “half price” or “Sale” from time to time?

Now you will have the attention from potential customers.

To get attention to your online shop you will have to use different tools. But in fact it’s all the same. How do you get the traffic? Oh yes – you will have to be visible in the search engines (I love SEO – so I love this part). If you can’t be visible in the organic free search you can buy some Google Adwords or PPC ads on some of the other search engines. Maybe your ads should say the same as your offline shop “half price” or “Sale”.

When somebody is landing on your page you will only have a few seconds to catch her or his attention. First of all choose the right landing page – not the homepage – the user wants the information she or he is looking for. Don’t make the product page to crowded. Too many items distracting items on a page can make it difficult for the user to find what he or she is looking for.

Remember that with social media make a massive attention. Offline people might talk to 1, 2 or 3 people. Or maybe even 10 people if they have a family dinner. But with social media people have 50 or 75 friends. So when somebody is telling their friends “Wow I got a super duper pair of new shoes today for only 10 dollars” 50 people will know where to get cheap great shoes – right?

So this is the modern form of word of mouth.

Get interest from customers

So now you have the attention from some of your customers. The next step is to make them positive interested in your product or service.

Maybe your customer has seen your yellow sign outside your offline shop and walks inside. Yes she is interested – new shoe for only 10 dollars? Hmm interesting right? And yes one of the first things she or he is looking for is properly the price. You might know that if your customer is in your shop – many will buy some candy. So even though you don’t sell the shoes you will sell a lot of candy (I just love chocolate).

So now – what about your online shop.

Yes it’s just the same. You might have a Google Adwords – telling people that you are selling great quality Nike shoes for only 10 dollars. And you will get a lot of clicks. People are really interested in your Nike shoes. But when they in your webshop – you might show them a must better quality shoe for only 5 dollars more or another color. Now this could be interested right? (I could use a new pair of shoes by the way).

The good part is that if people have been clicking on a Google Adword ad, you know they are showing interest in your product. So your task is not so much on this interest step – you better show them why they should act NOW. You need to make them desire your product or service.

The social media help you with the interest too. Maybe you don’t really like theses Nike shoes but now your friends start to talk about them on the social networks. “Do you know you can get them in pink too?” – “They are just awesome” – “And the other day I found out I could put them in the washing-machine too” – “wow so easy to clean”. Well now you are interested right?

Now what about desire

Now how could be make your customer say or think “I really want those shoes”. There’s a big difference between being interested in something and to desire it. You need to convert your customers’ interest into a strong desire for your product or service.

So what happens when my girlfriend sees this pair of shoes? Well she will get very emotional; she thinks that the shoes will change her life, career, relationship. Yes yes yes – she just has to get those shoes. It’s almost a matter of life and death. (I will not show her this article – please don’t tell her I wrote this).

We have to communicate our messages. Make the messages interesting to our potential customer. We will use promotions, writing news and informers encourages the customer to engage in our product or service. With an online shop you will have a lot of opportunities to give a lot of information to the potential customer about your product or service.

So a real desire is when you see a product, you want to touch it or try it and you will start to imagine to get this wonderful product. Desire is really a private moment for the customer. So it’s not so easy to influence. But it’s very easy to destroy the moment. If something is wrong with the display or maybe the wanted sofa is slightly damaged. You will destroy the moment.

But you have several tools you can use to make people desire your product. So make your page readable, great product description. Use high quality multiple images (maybe from different angles). Use video. If it’s possible to show your product or service “inaction” that would great to show the potential customer.

The social media is useful here too. Your customer is aware of your product, she is interested in it – and with the social media she will get more and more information about the product. She will inform about it from friends – she might join a group called “We need shoes” on Facebook (I am sure there is a group called that lol).

With social media you can engage your customers. Make a picture competition. Win something. Give out something free. If they tell their friends about your Facebook page, they might win something. They will start to use the social media telling about your product and page. People will start to talk about your product. You will engage people.

And yes – your customer really wants those shoes. In fact she can’t live without those shoes.

Now we need some action

This is the final stage. We are in the sales business so we need to sell our product or service right. Action is when the customer is paying you. This is the action we want – online or offline.

In an offline shop you want to make sure people know and can see where to and buy it. Make sure people don’t have to wait too long in a line to buy the product.

In an online webshop I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a very clear call to action on your page. It must be very very easy to find your “Buy Now” or maybe your “Add to Cart” button. So make it big and in a different color.

Make sure your “Buy Now” button is not distracted by other elements on your page. It could be different banners. You don’t want your “Buy Now” button to compete with the other elements.

You have to make of your mind what is most important to you. Is it to sell or to get signed up for your email club and Facebook or Twitter accounts? You can always have the other elements on a category page – but your product page should be as free from these distractions as possible.

I want to show you this article about the buying process with social media. . It will show you that you have to think of social media in every part of the buying process.

Don’t forget to use AIDA

So I hope after all this and next time you are designing a webpage you will think of AIDA.

Have a great day out there. Carpe-diem
Henrik