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AIDA Follow-up

9/17/2012

This week I would like to share some of the blogs created by my students in PRT 5460/6460 Electronic Marketing. Their first assignment was to evaluate a website using AIDA (attention-interest-desire-action). The majority of the students in this class will be graduating in May 2013. If you are looking for a capable employee with knowledge of electronic marketing, then check out these blogs:

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Apply the principles of AIDA to your Website Design

9/3/2012

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Last week I was a bit surprised that the bright students in my electronic marketing course had not heard of the AIDA marketing principle during a previous marketing class. . . so it really got me to thinking. Do most webmaster/web designers consider the power of AIDA when designing their websites?

Why not check out the web sites to see if there are some that have
achieved success incorporating AIDA?  So let us take a little trip to check out some good examples of AIDA. But before we take off for a global search, allow me to review the principle of AIDA to ensure that we are all on the same starting point.

A – The first “A” in this acronym stands for attention or awareness. This makes total sense because if we cannot get a viewer to pause for more than a few seconds to consider what we have to offer, we will never get them to act and make a purchase. The first step in getting a viewer to your website is to have an effective search engine optimization strategy. I believe that the vast majority of websites just neglect the basics of a descriptive title and a brief but effective description that appears in the search engine outcome. How many times have you skipped over a high ranking search engine result because the URL or the title just did not seem to reflect what you were looking for in your search? I covered how to include the title in a website on the second day of the class . . . that should demonstrate how important it is to the development of any website.

Once the viewer is to your website, you need to grab their attention quickly. Research shows that our eyes typically gravitate to the top left corner of the
website. This is prime real estate in web design. Most websites use this for their company logo or name. You may elect to use a brand logo, a headline in a large font/type, a graphic or animation to grab a visitor’s initial glance.  Regardless of what you place in this corner, it is essential that you somehow ensure that the viewer’s eye will move to something that will grab their attention and generate interest to dive deeper into your website.

I – Interest: Once you have got them on your website, you need to entice them with content that interests them to stay and explore. Let us use an analogy here . . . fishing! You have selected a great looking lure or a tasty morsel for bait and the fish begin to swim around your line.  How do get them to bite the hook so you can reel them in on your line? My father taught me to jerk the line just a wee bit.   Add a little movement to illustrate just how tasty that bait is or create a little glint off the lure. We advertise just how delicious that morsel is for the fish.  We do the same thing on a website. We need to demonstrate the benefits and advantages of what we have to offer for our visitors without boring them with paragraphs of jargon. The best way to generate interest is to utilize bullet points or steps to itemize the benefits succinctly and clearly. Therefore, we need to create chunks of information that can be delivered in brief and informative statements or in images. The goal is to create the impression that we have just what they need and want on our website.

D- The third letter in our acronym is “D” for desire.  Your viewer is now sufficiently interested that they are spending some of their valuable time to explore our website.  Now we need to deepen their interest by generating desire for our product or service. This is the time to deliver high quality videos or images that showcase your product or service in the best possible light. If you
have followers on social media, this is a great opportunity to share their testimonials or link to reviews on other independent websites (i.e., Angie’s
list, TripAdvisor, etc.). If you have had some prestigious clients that might be willing to share their experiences, ask them for their testimonial or review. Don’t  be shy, brag about awards and recognitions that demonstrate your quality and reputation for reliability. I even appreciate a company or agency that shares that they volunteer or support a local charity. Some companies list their followers on Facebook or subscribers, but I am not convinced that this really means as much to the average visitor. I know there are some companies and agencies that entice people to like them on Facebook by offering prizes.
Therefore, I take this with a grain of salt.  But if I read a great review by an independent blogger for a restaurant or hotel, you can bet I will check it out myself. Nothing is more powerful than "word of mouth" and social media has increased the power of "word of mouth" by 10 fold.
fold.

A- Action! If you have effectively delivered the information and design that fulfills Attention – Interest and Desire then they are ready to act! You need only get them to purchase or sign up for a newsletter, email alerts, or membership.
Sounds easy . . . not so fast. Many websites fail to make this “Call for Action” Alert clear and simple. Use a large and colorful button surrounded by whitespace to grab their eye and ensure that your wording is direct and concise. “Buy Now!” Be careful to not overwhelm or confuse the visitor with too many options. I have left many a website because I could not find where to order the item.  I have also left a website because they did not provide a payment method that I utilized. So know your target audience and know how they like to pay for items. Make it easy to secure that sale!

Next week I will have my students bring in the names of websites they feel fulfill the AIDA principles, so check back.  I will post the best and worst websites right here and link to their new blogs.

Note: I have been working my plan from last week’s blog. Hopefully I can maintain this pace . . . but it is always difficult to establish a regular habit.
So I am not ready to celebrate following only my second Monday.

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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

AIDA Follow-up

Apply the principles of AIDA to your Website Design

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