What is the AIDA funnel and how to optimize it for your marketing strategy?
The marketing funnel model was developed by American advertising and sales pioneer Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1899. Today his idea is often referred to as the AIDA model.
The AIDA model traces the customer's journey through Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. It is one of the best-known marketing models, and for a good reason. Whether it is used consciously or subconsciously, when most marketers plan their marketing communications strategy, elements from the model are present.
What does the AIDA funnel stand for?
· Attention (Awareness) – The customer becomes aware of the existence of a product or service
· Interest – Actively expressing an interest in a product group
· Desire – To acquire a particular brand or product
· Action – Taking the next step towards purchasing the chosen product
We've progressed quite far since 1899 and Mr St. Elmo Lewis' days! Today, with the proliferation of social media marketing, the AIDA model’s goals play out in different forums and successful brands recognize the importance of building loyal communities online.
Remember it does not matter what you say about your brand, what matters is what others say to their friends and network about your brand.
The AIDA model is considered a hierarchy of effects model, which means consumers must move through each stage of the model to complete the desired action. Just like a typical marketing funnel, each stage has fewer consumers than the previous one.
Let’s take a closer look at each step to consider different ways to apply the AIDA funnel into your business.
Attract customers
First, you need to research your target audience. Who are they? When you know the person you're selling to, it is much easier to create the content they are looking for.
However, your target audience needs to find you. So be where they are.
Social media is a great tool to attract potential customers to your brand. If the audience likes your content, they will start engaging with your company and might want to know more about you or your product.
A great example of this is Bubbleroom, they have invested most of their marketing on Instagram because they know this is where their customers are.
Build interest
Now that you have their attention, you can deepen their interest.
Give your audience something they will identify with. When you show them that you understand them, they become more willing to listen. UGC is a great way to get your customers' attention and at the same time gain their trust. Studies show that 84% of people trust online reviews as much as friends.
Encourage desire
When your target audience starts liking your content, then a desire to buy your product will be developed in their mind.
Encourage their excitement so that their desire will only be fulfilled by buying your product or service.
Again, social media is a great tool to influence people; spend the time and effort to grow your followers and post regularly. The more your community interacts with your brand, the more they will trust you. All these things increase the chances of buying your product or service.
A great way to increase your followers and UGC content is to get your employees involved, if you can. Bik Bok started a competition using employee generated content (EGC), to showcase their new spring jeans collection as well as to inspire their followers and engage their employees. Read more about it here!
Push to take action
At this point prospects are ready to complete a transaction. They may go through a few more steps before making the purchase. Such as looking for promo codes, sales and free trials for example. Once a retailer is selected, all phases of the buying experience must be seamless and easy to execute, or the consumer is likely to go elsewhere.
Flowbox encourages product discoverability, click and directly purchase the product.
Bubbleroom is a good example of a seamless experience, with a shoppable gallery on their site.
To summarize, the AIDA Sales Funnel is excellent for guiding the potential customer on a journey of buying your company product or service. The AIDA funnel represents the linear path of customer purchase. However, nowadays, not every customer functions linearly. But if you combine the Aida funnel with your content marketing strategy, you will be unstoppable.
Constantly keep engaging, persuade, and convert your audience into paying customers.
If you want to learn more about how to optimize the collection and distribution of UGC through a content handling platform like Flowbox, get in touch!
More information:
Olivia Carloni, Jr Digital Marketing Specialist, Flowbox
olivia.carloni@getflowbox.com
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