These are perfectly described by the AIDA funnel model ! which is an acronym for: Attention ! Interest ! Desire and Action .
Generally speaking! your job and the job of your content during these stages is to grab the user’s attention! generate interest in your brand! stimulate desire for your products or services! and lead the user to complete a purchase.
The AIDA model! perhaps the most famous of the marketing funnels ! actually works in a hierarchical way. The user must go through each of those phases to get to the action you want them to do. This is where the concept of the sales funnel comes from! with each passage from one phase to another the number of consumers is increasingly reduced compared to the previous one.
But the truth is that consumers may enter
your funnel at different points! not necessarily from the first. It is essential that you have a clear idea of the path that customers take and what you offer them at each stage in order to be able to structure an effective strategy that does not make you miss out on business opportunities.
So! let’s see each stage of the AIDA funnel in the next paragraphs.
Phase 1: Attention
In this first phase you need to make sure you grab the attention of users.
They may be looking for a solution to a problem! or they may be spending some of their free time on social media. In any case! you need to distract them from what they are doing to get them interested in what you are proposing .
Attraction and engagement are the key words of this stage. Imagine consumers asking themselves “What is this?”
But to make them notice your communicative message! it is necessary to offer them contents that promote the solution to their problems ! that focus on their passions or that stimulate their imagination.
At this stage! they may find your content on Google or social media. In the first case! it is likely that they are already doing an interested search for a specific topic; in the second case! they are simply surfing online to entertain themselves.
They are still far from making a purchase decision! but they could start thinking more concretely about the possibilities that the market offers. The best thing for you would be to make them think about the solutions that you offer.
You can do this by delivering highly personalized messages that are targeted to your target audience.
Let’s move on to phase number two.
Phase 2: Interest
If you have been able to attract your potential phone number list customers! the time comes when you have to satisfy their interest . They will want to know more about your company! your brand! the benefits that your product or service can offer them and any customizations they can get.
At this stage! users are still wondering whether they want to make a purchase and whether! specifically! it is the one you are offering them. So! your goal is to convince them to say “I like it”.
On the other hand! they are still in the evaluation phase! so they will search for similar products but from other companies or other types of products. They want to be sure to have an overview of everything the market offers! so they will not stop at the first ad they see. They will compare prices! product/service features and even the values of the reference companies to see if they match theirs.
Here too! there is specific content that helps you create interest. You need to make it easy for them to find information about your company and the answers to all the potential questions and objections that come to mind.
The more information you can convey ! the more you will instill in them the confidence and comfort of finding everything they need with minimal effort.
Let’s move on to phase number three.
Phase 3: Decision
The potential customer is increasingly convinced that he or she must or wants to make the purchase decision ! but there are still two or three options up for grabs.
The time has come to make him your real proposal! in short! your best offer to stimulate his desire.
You have to aim to make him say “I want it”! you have to create that necessary trust that will bring him closer to the final phase.
Keep in mind that the easiest potential customers to convert are those who imagine a future with you and who are already accustomed to consuming your content. For this reason! it is important to stimulate a continuous desire ! perhaps through communication on your blog where they can always discover more about you and your products.
Or encourage them to follow you on social media where they can see and interact with your company every day. You have to make them feel that with your offers they can go from where they are to where they want to be. You have to become familiar to each of them.
The more you are in front of users’ eyes and the more you show them what they can get with your products! the greater your chances of being recognized! remembered and chosen for their purchases.
From here you will easily move on to phase number four.
Phase 4: Action
towards the end of the conversion process! where the customer must take action.
Your goal is to get them to say “I’ll take it” so convincingly that they’ll decide to complete the purchase. At this point! users must accept your call to action and convert into actual customers.
But even at this stage the work is not finished because there are pitfalls that could make the user change his mind at any moment and just one step away from the sale.
So! it is not the time to give up but you must continue to make the value of your brand and your product perceived! you must offer security guarantees and make the purchase as risk-free as possible.
How can you do all this?
Once again using the right content : you can offer a free trial or benefits related to the product itself. For example! free shipping! a discount marketing plan: what it is and how to do it in 2024 (with example) code on the next purchase! a free item! the formula “satisfied or refunded”.
In short! you have to make your offer really attractive to be able to stand out from the competition! to bring them to your e-commerce cart to make the transaction as light-heartedly as possible.
Now that we have seen the AIDA model I have to tell you that it has some disadvantages. It does not take into account the non-linear paths of buyers! nor impulse purchases or very short sales cycles.
For this reason it has been replaced 1000 mobile phone numbers over time by the Flywheel Model ! or flywheel! which considers customers as the driving force of the sales increase process.
But before we get to the marketing flywheel! let’s look at a sales funnel that also takes customers into account after the moment of purchase.
