AIDCA

That’s a
really good point. Start by thinking about what you want your leaflets to
achieve. Think about who you’re talking to, what their problems are and how
your product or service solves them. Now make a list of what you need to tell
people in order to get them to buy. So often when we write copy we fail to
follow a basic rule, which is that your copy should mirror the sales process.
You need to attract attention, show people how they’ll benefit, really make
them want the product, reassure them they’re not making a mistake and ask for
the order. If that seems like a lot to remember, think of AIDCA:

Attention:
you have less than three seconds to grab attention. Do it with a compelling
headline.

Interest:
what do your audience need to know (make sure you tell them about what they
want to hear, not what you want to tell them).

Desire:
what’s the impact of them buying/ not buying. People buy for fear or greed.
Which does your product satisfy?

Conviction:
how can you reassure them they’re not making a mistake? Testimonials and
endorsements are great here, as are trade body memberships, but the real gold
dust is the 100% no quibble money back guarantee.

Action: what do they need to do next?

Tagged as in AIDCA

I had a great marketing consultation with a client last week who really got me thinking. Just how ‘accessible’ is AIDCA? To me, it’s second nature. Attention, Interest, Desire, Conviction, Action. And yet to Julian, it was only when I explained the concept in plain English that the lightbulb really came on. And so I now share my ‘Plain English’ AIDCA formula with you.

(Just in case you’re wondering what on earth AIDCA is, in brief it’s a fantastic tool to help you make your marketing more effective – a process, a structure, which mirrors the way that people buy. For the full story read my detailed AIDCA breakdown.)

Although I always encourage my clients to write from the point of view of their customer, it often helps to just draft something from your perspective to start with, just in note form, to get your head around it. So the process I’m about to share with you won’t be the finished article. You’ll need to do a LOT more tweaking, refining and most importantly, writing from the perspective of your customer rather than your own business. But just to enable you to get your head around AIDCA, here’s my plain English version of what it actually means to you as a business:

Attention: We sell widgets that will help your business
Interest: Here are the benefits of this widget to your business
Desire: This is why I know you can’t live without this widget
Conviction: If you’re worried you’d be making a mistake, don’t be – here’s some reassurance (in the form of testimonials or a guarantee)
Action: Here’s what I want you to do

How about for your business? Can you see this working? Does this ‘plain English’ version make AIDCA any easier to understand or to apply?

If you’d like to understand how to put this, and other marketing techniques into practice then you will definitely find the Marvellous Monthly Marketing Workshops useful – you can find out more on our website at www.marvellousworkshops.co.uk

Tagged as , AIDA, AIDCA, copy, Copywriting, literature, marketing, writing in AIDCA, Copywriting, Workshops

I had a one to one marketing consultation with a Personal Trainer yesterday who was frustrated that her leaflets weren’t bringing her in any business. She recognised that the paper quality and design were having an impact on this, and realised that she needed to invest in some professional design and print. But what surprised her was that her copy wasn’t pulling enough of a response.

Be brave and just use one proposition
Heather had used a common copywriting technique to grab her reader’s attention by asking them lots of questions. “Would you like more energy? Would you like to feel fitter and healthier? Would you like to lose weight? Would you like to invest more time in YOU?” It’s a common technique, but the challenge with this approach is that you’re confusing the reader with too many propositions. What are you trying to sell? Weight loss? Vitality? Time for yourself? Successful copywriters are brave, they just stick to one proposition and then ‘unwrap’ that proposition by leading the reader on a journey, via subheadings and body text, which makes the product or service they’re selling irresistible.

Create interest and generate desire
Secondly Heather had made another common mistake – assuming that her readers would be as passionate about her services as she was. And so she’d skipped straight from her questions to the call to action. “If this sounds like you, call me on 07xxx xxx xxx.”.

The challenge with this approach is that she simply hadn’t built up enough desire in her reader’s minds. It was all to easy to do nothing, to take no action at all.

So to combat that you need to make sure that you save some space to build the story. Imagine if you were selling your products face to face with someone. You’d talk to them, understand their needs, overcome their objections and only then would you ask them if they’d like to make an appointment with you. And you need to follow exactly the same process on paper. Persuade, engage and entice your target audience and then ask them to buy.

Tagged as , AIDCA, Copywriting, direct, leaflets, mail, marketing, text in AIDCA, Workshops

Tell me would you like to: Stop your mailings going straight in the bin? Build trust with your target audience? Increase the number of people that buy from your leaflets or marketing literature? Well now you can. Here's how… Over the next few days I'll be sharing some incredibly simple secrets to making your marketing [...]

Tagged as in AIDCA, Copywriting

On Thursday I was talking to an independent financial advisor client who was disappointed that he wasn’t getting any business from his website. He was getting plenty of hits, but no one was booking an appointment with him. He spoke to his web designer who told him “There’s nothing wrong with it”. And it’s certainly [...]

Tagged as in AIDCA, Copywriting, Web Design

Good design really can make the difference between success and failure. Have you ever sent out leaflets through people’s doors? How successful was the campaign? If you’re like the majority of small businesses – probably not very. There are many reasons a door drop campaign doesn’t work for many businesses. This doesn’t mean they don’t [...]

Tagged as in AIDCA, Case Studies, Graphic Design

Applying the AIDCA formula to your marketing can really make an impact on the success of your promotional material. Now we come to the end of that with Action. You would be amazed at how many great pieces of marketing fall at the last fence and fail to tell the reader what to do next. [...]

Tagged as in AIDCA, Copywriting

We’re nearly there in the Fiona Humberstone guide to AIDCA – the most fantastic tool to make your marketing work harder for you. And so we come to the little known ‘C’ element of the AIDCA model. You’ve worked hard to grab the readers attention, you’ve sold them the benefits and made them realise they [...]

Tagged as in AIDCA