Welcome to "The Marketing Bulletin" for March 22, 2007.
The AIDA Advertising Model
This is the Marketing Bulletin for March 22, 2007. This episode is about using an advertising model to help make your advertising more effective. You get the podcast at http://pauljamesmarketing.com.
Good, effective advertising is a hard thing to pull off. Most advertising that I consume is so poorly targeted that it is offensive. Most advertising I consume is created so poorly that it is distasteful. Most advertising I consume is so irrelevant that it is odious.
How do you create an advertisement that will be effective? How do you develop an advertisement to meet your objectives that is targeted, creative, and effective? Well, I’m here to help you answer these questions. There are four attributes that all your advertisements should have, and they are so easy to comprehend, that anybody can apply these principles.
I’ve worked in these Northwoods communities for quite a while. I placed advertisements in all of the available media here. Of course, I worked through salespeople who represented their medium.
These salespeople, who are responsible for creating, scriptng, and directing your advertisements, did not have the basic understanding of how to conceive an effective advertisement. In fact, one of the salespersons from NRG Media, a firm that owns most terrestrial radio stations here, argued with me about how I wanted creative execution of the advertisements I was placing with her. This was a pretty large media buy of over fifty-thousand-dollars.
I won the argument: I did not place the order with her.
So, how do you know if your advertising salesperson is working for you to create the best possible advertisement? The answer is pretty easy; employ the AIDA advertising model. Here are the four basic elements for effective advertisements using this model: Awareness, interest, desire, and action. This advertising model is literally on page one of every advertising textbook that I’ve read. This model is so basic, that if your media salesperson doesn’t know what this is, you’re better off not using that medium.
The model is simple to employ, and it’s useful in all media. I’ll give a quick example now. Say you’re placing an advertisement in a local newspaper. You will need to first draw the attention of the reader. This is usually accomplished with a strong headline/image combination that triggers an emotional response from your target market. Next, you provide sales copy about your product for the reader that appeals to their needs (emotional, spiritual, physical, etc.) and that holds their interest. Together, this drives a desire for your product, if executed properly. Finally, your advertisement must stimulate action.
Stimulating action is usually easy to accomplish by creating a sense of urgency and scarcity of the product. For example, you could exclaim a limited-time offer, or limited inventory, or one-time-offer, or the like.
Using the AIDA model is an easy way to guide the creation of your advertisements. There are many nuances involved that interact to create a great advertisement. Once you start to use this advertising model for your own advertisements, you will notice how a small change to one part of your ad affects the other areas, and ultimately your profits.
Go ahead, be bold! Use this model when you create your advertisements.
Of course, if you’d like to have those pesky advertising salespeople stop calling on you, just click here. I’ll be happy to help you eliminate them.
This is Paul James for The Marketing Bulletin.
