Dr. Linda Ralston's Electronic Marketing Secrets Blog

Evaluating website designs with AIDA

4/11/2017

AIDA is a marketing acronym that is often overlooked by companies when designing their websites. Web Designers are often focused on getting the coding, accessibility, and including the information regarding products and/or services posted on a website. It is important that they consider including AIDA in their layout of a website. First, what is AIDA? Let me give you a brief summary: AIDA stands for Attention/Awareness - Interest - Desire - Action. When customers come to a website you need to capture their attention within 3 to 5 seconds and appeal to their interests. How did they discover your website? If it was a search engine, make sure that the keywords used in common searches for your company, product, or service play an important role in the web page title, sub-headings, and images that shows how this page fulfills their search. If it was an advertisement or a social media message that brought them to your website, it is important that you provide information that provides greater information that grabs their interest stimulates them to click on another page within your website that provides the information that leads your visitor to want what it is you are selling. Desire may be stimulated by prices, highly visible "SALE" - "LIMITED TIME" - "TALK TO US NOW" or "CONTACT" opportunities on your website. The key is to move the visitor from Attention to Interest to Desire and to the main goal ACTION. If possible, you want to ensure they make a reservation, order product, or schedule a service.

Perhaps a graphic model might provide a bit more clarity for you. Check out this AIDA illustration of how a website should move a visitor from Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

Illustrating how the AIDA Model applies to Website Design

Examples of AIDA Applications

The best way to demonstrate this concept is with a few examples. The students in my emarketing course have just published their blogs evaluating various websites according to their ability to move visitors from Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Why not visit their blogs and check out how these agencies/companies have applied the AIDA concept to their websites? Please leave a comment for my students or come back here and let me know how the students are doing.

Alaska Coach Tours bit.ly/2p3YSgt
Arbor Manor bit.ly/2p1WgTg
Black Diamond bit.ly/2pqe7Ql
Boys and Girls Clubs of America http://bit.ly/2p1YQbQ
Clubmed bit.ly/2o0EE5E
Delta Airlines bit.ly/2ovWXTY
Disney bit.ly/2pqiNpu
Five Utah Parks bit.ly/2p41mLK
High Cascades bit.ly/2o0uEt6
Hospitality Management bit.ly/2ovZRsa
Hotel Monaco bit.ly/2o3CuTr
National Park Service http://bit.ly/2p25b7k
Ometepe Island bit.ly/2oUPSh4
Parks and Recreation bit.ly/2nBaXfY
Porcupine Pub bit.ly/2o0G9AF
Salt Lake Bees bit.ly/2p1XX3f
SkyDive the Wasatch bit.ly/2p1XL3E
Starbucks bit.ly/2p4aD6S
Travel Portland bit.ly/2omIrMr
Visit Greece http://bit.ly/2omMetc
Wasatch Adventures Guides bit.ly/2o3usKw
Zermatt Ski Resort http://bit.ly/2omLrse

Feel Free to come back and let me know which of the blogs were the best!

6 Comments

AIDA & Website Design

1/2/2017

9 Comments

This semester during my electronic marketing class, the students will be creating their first blog. After setting up their blog websites in Weebly (Yes, I love the Weebly . . . simple and clean.) Their first blog assignment will be to apply the AIDA marketing model by evaluating 2 websites. I thought it might be a good idea to lead the way with a blog on a website. Let us consider AirFareWatchDog.com . .  . Please note the red triangles that highlight the AIDA in the screen shot below:

A=Attention: Obviously, visitors to the AirFareWatchDog.com website expect to find the best air fares available today when they arrive at the website.  The folks of AirFareWatchDog.com deliver on that promise immediately.  Yes, the prime real estate in the top left corner of the page is the logo but immediately located to the right below the logo is a light blue box with the headline “Search for Best Airfare Deals.” My attention is captured immediately upon arriving at the website.

I=Interest: The designers have ensured that even if I do not know a particular destination to consider for a trip, they provide the lowest fares available today from my home city. Of course, they start with the lowest airfare available in order to secure my interest and draw me into exploring the opportunities for my next trip. When I clicked on the Airfare Details for flights from my home city, a pop-up box provided me with an immediate opportunity to act by subscribing to the website.  Their “Get Our Best Fares in Your Inbox!” teaser line was clean and simple to understand.

D=Desire: It is my opinion that the designers slip up a bit by failing to deliver on the desire. Yes, there are options in the navigation bar to search for low fares to a city, check out their Watchdog Community, or a variety of tools including writing a review, but they are easily overlooked. If it were my website, I would include a lead-in to a “hot news story” related to travel fares, a recent review of an airline, or list of recent new routes or published promotions. It could be a simple box between the Lowest Fares and Follow Us on Twitter. The key here is to get the individual to see the benefit of checking out the website on a regular basis and not just when they are considering a trip. Admittedly, there were several features that automatically pop-up once you started exploring the airfare deals, such as the opportunity to save up to 30% by booking your flight and hotel together. This was clearly an effective message that communicated how the website could save you money. Further demonstrating the benefit that could be secured by visiting this website . . . saving me money on my travel.

A*=Action: (Note the A* denotes Action on the graphic below.) This is where this website shines in its simplicity and effective delivery of Action opportunities. The “Search for Best Airfare Deals” is front and center above the 600px “fold” of the website (Viewers do not need to scroll down to Act.) I really like how the “From” box is pre-filled in with my home city making it very easy to proceed with a search to find the fares that best meet my needs. They also provide action opportunities with the “Follow Us on Twitter,” “Join Us on Facebook” and the “Tell Us What You Think” boxes. When I visited the site today, the current poll results indicated that the most important factor to visitors when booking a flight was price (by 83%).

Overall, the AirFareWatchDog.com website does an excellent job of moving visitors from attention to action with their overall layout and use of color, graphics, and whitespace.

A screenshot of the airfarewtchdog website with AIDA points identified.

9 Comments

Composition Tips for Images

3/4/2016

2 Comments

Consigli di Steve McCurry
Ecco alcuni consigli di Steve McCurry per fotografare come un professionista!ISCRIVITI su www.spreafotografia.it e carica le tue foto in alta qualità
Posted by IL FOTOGRAFO on Friday, May 8, 2015

Attention my eMarketing students:

Check out these tips for composing your images in this short video. A great illustration of many of the concepts we discuss in the Photoshop lessons.

2 Comments

Electronic Marketing ePortfolios

2/12/2014

5 Comments

E-marketing Skills are essential

The following ePortfolios were created by my students in PRT 5460/6460 Electronic Marketing class. Their first assignment was to evaluate a website using the AIDA (attention-interest-desire-action) model. The majority of the students in this class will be graduating in May 2014. If you are looking for a capable employee with knowledge of electronic marketing, then check out these eportfolios:

Katheine Araya: http://katherinearaya.weebly.com/
Shane Baldwin: http://www.shanebaldwin1.weebly.com
Kathleen Barton: http://kathleenbarton.weebly.com/
Adam Crook: http://adamcrook.weebly.com/
Kelly Deleon: http://kellydeleon.weebly.com/
Drake Doherty: http://drakedoherty.weebly.com/
David Forsman: http://daveforsman.weebly.com/
Mael Glon: http://maelglon.weebly.com/
Kevin Guthormsen: http://kevinguthormsen.weebly.com/
Brett Haacke: http://bretthaacke.weebly.com/
Sarah Hall: http://www.sarahhallutah.weebly.com/
Warren Hallmark: http://warrenhallmark.weebly.com/
Shuting Hu: http://shutinghu.weebly.com/
Gejiang Huang: http://gejianghuang.weebly.com/
Spencer Jacobson: http://spencerjacobson.weebly.com/
Jae Kim: http://kimjaehyun.weebly.com/
Christopher Knowlton: http://christopherknowlton.weebly.com/
Eric Larsen: http://ericlarsen.weebly.com/
Sean Long: http://seanlongeportfolio.weebly.com
Madison Martin: http://madisonmartineportfolio.weebly.com/
Arthur Matthews: http://arthurlmatthews.weebly.com/
Nicholas McMillen: http://nicholasimcmillen.weebly.com/
Mark Pairitz: http://markpairitzportfolio.weebly.com/
Jake Palmer: http://jakepalmerportfolio.weebly.com/
Sidney Severson: http://sidseverson.weebly.com/
Katie Sikkema: http://katiesikkema.weebly.com/
Emily Stapley: http://emilystapley.weebly.com/
Tyler Teran: http://www.tylerteran.weebly.com/
Brent Uberty: http://brentuberty.weebly.com/

5 Comments

Super Bowl Commercial Favs

2/2/2014

1 Comment

Coca-Cola & the Super Bowl

One of my favorite commercials this year during the Super Bowl was Coca-Cola's feel good anthem “America the Beautiful” sung in seven languages with images of diverse American faces enjoying activities, many scenes featuring beautiful scenery of America. What did you think of the commercial?

Check out those amazing views of the beautiful land we call home. You can't miss identifying the trademark red rocks of Utah. Here is another of my favorite commercials. This one produced by the Utah Office of Touism. . . check out the Might Five!

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"Social Media Update" Published

4/24/2013

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Read the free online newspaper on social media updated today!

Dr. Ralston has prepared a summary of today's headlines on social media. It is fully accessible via the web. Find a story you like and click on the link to read the entire story. Save time and catch up on the news.

The headline story for April 24th features Google+ . . . check it out along with other stories, photos, and videos.

Other feature stories include Earth Day, Social Media & Boston Marathon bombings, Google+, Managing the Social Media Mix, and UNESCO Director-General deplores continuing destruction of ancient Aleppo, a World Heritage site.

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The Castle Island from Pinterest

3/30/2013

13 Comments

The supposed Castle Island in Dublin, Ireland is an image that is often pinned and repinned on Pinterest. It is making the rounds again.

I find it disappointing that so many people pin and repin fake images on Pinterest with statements that they hope to visit there someday. The truth is that they will never be able to visit it because it does not really exist. Someone created this image for a contest on www.worth1000.com. So perhaps if they see the two images that were combined to create the one that is misrepresented as a castle in Ireland, then they might at least realize that they cannot visit this location and see a castle atop a rock pillar in Ireland.

Lichtenstein castle in Baden-Württemberg, Germany was originally built in 1200 but has been destroyed twice. Today it stands atop a rocky crag overlooking the Echaz Valley. The current castle was built in 1840-1842. The castle and the grounds are available to the public.

Ko Tapu island in Phang Nga Bay, Thailand

This beautiful photo is of the real location called Khao Phing Kan (Thai: เขาพิงกัน) or Ko Khao Phing Kan (เกาะเขาพิงกัน) which is a pair of islands off the west coast of Thailand in Phang Nga Bay (Andaman Sea).

Before 1974, the island was a little known paradise. The 1974 James Bond movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" featured the island as the hideout for the villain. Unfortunately, the sudden popularity of this indigenous area resulted in pollution and litter spoiling the scenic area. The government established the Ao Phang Nga Marine National Park in 1981. The park has many limestone and karst features alone the Andaman Sea. It is feared that Ko Tapu may collapse due to the weight of the island is supported by a 13 foot diameter (4 meters) at the water's edge. In an effort to protect Ko Tapu from erosion or damage due to tourist boats, the Thai government has outlawed access to the island.

13 Comments

Chinese Social Media explained

3/8/2013

9 Comments

The Chinese home grown social media channels that have sprouted up in the vacuum created by the Chinese Great Fire Wall challenges marketers to understand which channels might reach their target audience.

Douban is an open forum popular among college educated market for movie, music and book reviews. The majority of the content is accessible by unregistered users; therefore the 60 million+ registered users may be representative of a portion of its use.

Jiepang is a newcomer that is similar to FourSquare as a location based social media.

Momo is a recent entry in the Chinese social media landscape. Momo is a dating app.

QQ Instant Messaging service (800 million approximately) is popular with the under 18 target audience.

Qzone is a social networking site where users can write blogs, share photos, and listen to music. It is popular with the under 18 age group.

Sina Weibo: A cross between Twitter and Facebook, this microblogging platform allows users to include images and video, as well as longer comments. Weibo has more users than Twitter has world-wide. Approximately a quarter of Chinese citizens are members of Weibo.

Renren is considered China's Facebook is very popular with college students and the college educated market. Although there are 147 million registered users, only 31 million are active each month.

Wechat formerly known as Weixin is the up- and-coming social media channel to watch currently. As I walk around China it seems everyone has at least one cell phone. I won’t get into the differernces between the mobile market of USA versus China, but this — is a mobile voice and text app with social features like “friend discovery."

Youku and Tuduo are video sharing (aka YouTube) that merged last year. Interestingly, Youku is not constrained by copyright laws in China so they commonly have copyrighted feature films available to view in Mainland China.

9 Comments

Real or Fake Travel Destinations?

2/23/2013

2 Comments

Built as a summer residence in the early twentieth century, the impressively real Dar al-Hajar crowns a rock outcropping near Sana'a in eastern Yemen.

Molokini is a crescent-shaped, partially submerged volcanic crater which is very popular with scuba divers and snorkelers. You can see several tour boats located inside the crater. Unfortunately, the star island does not exist. So yes, you can travel to Molokini island from Maui. Please do because the sea life is amazing.

This is not a castle in Dublin, Ireland. It is a digitally manipulated image.

The castle is Germany's Schloss Lichtenstein, and the island rock is James Bond Island in Thailand. Obviously, neither exists in Ireland.

A Pinterest pinner called this as the Snow Cathedral of Norway, but although it is a real destination it is not located in Norway. It is a real living structure in Italy. Click on the image to check out the website that shows how it was developed.

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Found on Pinterest but are they Real or Fake?

2/22/2013

1 Comment

According to a pin on Pinterest, you can use food coloring to create these colorful oranges. Really? Even if you injected the food coloring into the fruit, it would never result in such smooth and even coloring particularly on the skin of the fruit. Yet, this is repinned time and again . . . I sincerely hope no one destroys delicious oranges in an attempt to use food coloring to create this effect. I assure you that this was indeed digitally manipulated using Adobe PhotoShop.

In my previous post I asked why this was necessary with some of the images. Allow me to continue this discussion with the question "Where do we draw the ethical limits to photo manipulation?" How much is too much, how far is too far? Obviously, it depends on the purpose of your editing efforts. Many times, I rush to capture a photo of a bird before it flies off to parts unknown or attempt to capture a waterfall at sunset. The result may be a slight blur, underexposure or overexposure, or a crooked horizon. I am sure that we have all taken a photo of a child's first birthday and they close their eyes each time the flash occurs. I love taking photos of my pets and the result is the "red-eye effect." Things happen and Adobe Photoshop allows me to correct the errors without mis-representing an bird, animal, person, or destination. Anyone seeing the images will have a true representation of what is real.

What is the purpose when distributing an image that is not real? For example, the above image has been altered to add a shrine in the middle of a limestone pillar located in Zhangjiajie National Park in Hunan Province, China. Visiting Zhangjiajie was a wonderful experience. In fact, I have visited here 3 times and enjoyed it completely. When I first saw the image on Pinterest, I questioned if I had missed seeing it. So I sent it off to my friends at Zhangjiajie to see if they knew where this was located. They revealed that the shrine does not exist. Numerous pinners have pinned this image to their dream vacation boards, so I really hate to tell them that it does not really exist. Again, I am left with the question why? Why would someone intentionally distribute an image that does not accurately represent the destination?

When I teach my electronic marketing students how to use Photoshop, the first lessons are focused on creating aesthetics, such as following the rule of thirds, straightening the horizon, or sharpening the focus. When we move into the more artistic tools of Photoshop, the purpose is to create effective typography, combine images for advertisements, or create an original image. In order to ensure that we are truthful, I stress it is important to reveal to the viewer how the image was manipulated. This is essential when preparing marketing images and messages, for example when working with travel images. In my next blog post I will illustrate several manipulated travel related images. Will you be able to identify the real destination from the fake destination?

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Dr. Linda Ralston (alias UTourDoctor) teaches at the University of Utah in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. My blog on emarketing is designed for my students just beginning the journey of exploring the world of electronic marketing.

Check out my other blogs:
eLearning Blog
ePortfolio Blog
Responsible Tourism Blog
Sabbatical Blog (2009)

Linda Ralston

Evaluating website designs with AIDA

Examples of AIDA Applications

AIDA & Website Design

Composition Tips for Images

Electronic Marketing ePortfolios

Super Bowl Commercial Favs

"Social Media Update" Published

Read the free online newspaper on social media updated today!

The Castle Island from Pinterest

Chinese Social Media explained

Real or Fake Travel Destinations?

Found on Pinterest but are they Real or Fake?

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