AIDA model explained: Examples and tips for using this strategic marcomms planning model the real world

The AIDA model, tracing the customer journey through Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action, is perhaps the best-known marketing model amongst all the classic marketing models. Many marketers find AIDA useful since we apply this model daily, whether consciously or subconsciously, when we're planning our marketing communications strategy.

What is the AIDA model?

The AIDA Model identifies cognitive stages an individual goes through during the buying process for a product or service. It's a purchasing funnel where buyers go to and fro at each stage, to support them in making the final purchase. It's no longer a relationship purely between the buyer and the company since social media has extended it to achieving the different goals of AIDA via information added by other customers via social networks and…

Planning your communications strategy with the DRIP Model

What is DRIP?

The DRIP model is used to support marketing communication planning and is useful when setting broad communication goals. It can be applied when launching a new product or repositioning an existing business, for example. DRIP stands for Differentiate, Reinforce, Inform and Persuade and can be an alternative to the AIDA model. It was created by Chris Fill and will be familiar to readers of his classic Marketing Communications text.

How to use it?

These are the aims within each of the DRIP elements, it’s a working 'communications flow’ model. Differentiate:  Differentiate your product or service by defining where it's positioned in the market and often the 7Ps digital marketing mix can inform this. Reinforce: To reinforce the brand's message, consider consolidating and strengthening your messages…

Each teacher is a gateway to hundreds of pupils and parents. Here's how to reach them.

It's back-to-school season for more than just students and teachers. It's time for marketers, too, to dust off their school supplies. What do I mean by that? I'm not talking about today's marketers needing additional education (though some of them would certainly like it). I'm talking about business opportunity.

Earning and Learning

According to the National Center for Education Statistics' May 2016 data, the U.S. spends an average of $9,200 per full-time elementary and secondary student. At the post-secondary level, that figure jumps to $27,900 per full-time student. With more than 70 million students in the U.S., that's some serious untapped revenue. What's more, educators make a grade-A audience for brands. Teachers spend an estimated $1.6 billion per year out of their own pockets on school supplies. And when you reach teachers, you reach parents. At the elementary level, each teacher influences the buying habits of 30 or more…

How to make your contest promotion more effective

There are a number of factors that will impact conversion rate for a contest campaign. In this article, I will talk about conversion rates for contests specifically. Keep in mind however, the general principles outlined can be related to coupons, samples, loyalty, email, content and other types of digital promotions. Note: Specific examples provided below have been sourced from Qoints’ repository of digital engagement and performance data.

Conversion Rate Optimization 101

No matter how many consumers you reach online with the message to enter your contest, some will drop off the radar during their engagement with the promotion before fully completing the entry process, or converting. When thinking ahead to the end of your promotion and how many full conversions you’d like to have when it’s all said and done, you can build a stronger case for choosing certain tactics over others. The first consideration…

Plus three ingredients that you can combine to create a powerful name and strap line

The name you select for a brand, product or service will clearly have a major impact on how prospects and customers perceive your service, but what are the options for choosing the best name? There are lots of ways to name a business, a service, or a product. The addition of a strap line can take the name a little further. From nonsensical words, like Google, to highly descriptive names, like Compare the Market – there are just so many ways to think about naming! Whilst it's true that naming is a bit of an art and today we are often constrained by domain name availability, there are certainly a few issues to consider to guide you to choose a name that can work much harder for you.

1. Nonsense names – e.g. Google

The benefit of a name like this is that once you’ve lodged…

Prize draw options, tools and legal compliance to help create  an effective prize draws

Online prize draws are an increasingly common tactic used by marketers to encourage engagement and also to increase leads, particularly in key sales periods. I think this is largely due to the simplicity of devising and setting them up using social media campaign tools  and their popularity on social networks which facilitate sharing. I'm finding that I am often being asked about best practice for planning and running online prize draws. While I think the best approach differs in detail by audience and compliance needed for each brand and industry there are some general best practices we can summarise. In this post I have outlined a process I follow and included some of the tools you can utilise too.

Set-up and Planning

Key to any successful marketing activity is planning, I have outlined an approach to…

How a new analytics company use Branded Swag to integrate the digital and physical marketing worlds

How big is your stockpile of branded startup T-shirts? Chances are most of them are collecting dust somewhere in the back of your closet. This is problematic for two reasons. The first is that the swag, which was meant to be a means of branding and exposure, is not doing it’s job. It’s burning a hole in the company’s pocket. The second: seemingly every startup handles production of their swag the same way; by simply giving it away, but startups are supposed to be different and disruptive by their very nature. Careless swag management is irresponsible for any company; but it’s particularly problematic for startups that often work with a very limited marketing budget. The Office’s Michael Scott, the world’s best boss, said SWAG is 'stuff we all get' and…

Getting your message across with a Message House

Message Houses are a simple but effective tool for helping your teams stay on message in their marketing communications across different channels. They can be applied not only for general company marketing and brand positioning, but also for other projects (such as events and conferences) and even for the messaging of an organization as a whole.

You might have seen Message Houses that look like the one in the image below: with an 'umbrella statement' inside the roof, three rooms underneath (each containing a different 'core message'), and with a first floor full of 'evidence, proof or support.'

Let's call it the 'multi-room Message House'.

The idea is to have the contents of your Message House inspire all other communications. Consultants like to tell their clients: 'Stay inside the Message House, and you'll be safe!'

At the …

Two months ago correction fluid/tape brand Tippex launched their hit YouTube campaign, "NSFW. A hunter shoots a bear!," featuring a reluctant hunter faced with shooting a bear wandering up to his tent. [caption id="attachment_3589" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Don't shoot the bear!"][/caption] The hunter decides he cannot shoot the bear - instead reaching outside the frame of the video - a cool rich-media tactic - and using the big Tippex dispenser in the ad alongside him to erase "shoots" from the video's YouTube title. As with the Burger King's classic Subservient Chicken campaign it's up to…

I've always believed that the most engaging, most effective blogs for marketing are not CEO blogs, rather they use guest bloggers; either different employees, or better still, customers. The award winning Tourism Ireland Taxi Challenge is another good example social media campaign of a customer video blog I featured a couple of  years ago.

The Blog Your Way to Antarctica campaign

The Blog Your Way to Antarctica campaign example I feature here is similar, but in this case social media is being used effectively to recruit the customer blogger. You may think this is a me too campaign similar to the "Best Job in the World Campaign" , but I think the way of getting customers involved is different in that it focuses more on blogging and encouraging bloggers to link back to the site.

Campaign results

A Yahoo search linkdomain:www.blogyourwaytoantarctica.com -site:www.blogyourwaytoantarctica.com shows nearly…