The AIDA Curve

In defining the type of lead or other customer action you want to obtain, the most crucial question is, “Where do my target customers stand in the buying cycle? In what stage of buying are they in relation to my type of product or service?” To answer this question, you need to compare your potential customers against the AIDA curve.

The AIDA curve is a well-known principle of contextual marketing. Contextual marketing is the concept of organizing your marketing campaigns in context with the mindset of the buyer at the time. It is one of the simplest and most effective tools a marketer can use.

Without knowing where your potential customers are in the buying cycle and how close they are to making a buying decision, you may send them the wrong offer or the wrong message at the wrong time. If this happens, you will end up wasting your lead-generation budget on an unsuccessful campaign.

In Figure 2.1, you can see how the AIDA concept covers the four stages of the buying cycle. AIDA is an acronym for Attention, Interest, Decision, Action.

The AIDA curve examines the mentality of your potential customers when you grab them as a lead. According to AIDA curve theory, not every customer is in the same frame of mind or at the same decision point in considering your offer. Therefore, you need to learn which stage of the buying cycle each customer is in, and then cater your lead-generation tactics to reach the customer in that stage.

FIGURE 2.1. The AIDA Curve

You may already be familiar with the AIDA curve. In the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, based on the play by David Mamet, Alec Baldwin plays Mr. Blake, a ruthless sales executive at the corrupt Chicago real estate firm of Mitch & Murray. He gives an iconic “chalk talk” speech to the salespeople at his firm, trying to motivate them to sell shoddy real estate packages. In his speech, Baldwin explains the AIDA curve (and even writes it on a blackboard), and orders the sales force to concentrate on pushing the customer through the Attention-Interest-Decision-Action buying cycle in order to make sales.

In recent years, the AIDA curve has fallen out of fashion in the business world. Maybe because of Alec Baldwin’s famous speech, it’s now considered a cliché. But examining your potential customers through the prism of the AIDA curve is an absolutely essential part of planning your lead-generation strategy.

Throughout the AIDA curve process, the potential customer is asking a series of questions about your product or service or your type of product or service. It’s up to you to provide him or her with answers.

THE ATTENTION PHASE

Potential customers in the Attention phase have just become aware of your type of product. It’s not that they’ve just learned of your particular brand of product or service; it’s that they’ve just learned about the product or service itself!

If your product or service is brand new, then customers never knew it existed until you came along. Or, if it’s a new variation on an existing product or service (e.g., a hybrid electric car that uses less gas and gives off less carbon emissions), it solves a problem in a way that they’ve never heard of before.

At this stage, the customer is asking the following questions:

An example from my own experience helps to illustrate the AIDA curve. A few months ago, I became aware of a weight-loss device called a Body Bugg, a small electronic calorie counter that you attach to your arm with an arm band. The Body Bugg measures how many calories your body is burning at any given time. Every day, you download the measurements to your laptop or mobile device. A Body Bugg application lets you compare your daily caloric burn against how much you are eating to determine whether you’re doing enough daily physical activity to meet your weight-loss goals.

A few months ago, I didn’t know the Body Bugg existed. Once I became aware of it, I was intrigued enough to do some research. At this point, I was asking myself, “What exactly is this computer-aided weight device? How can it help me to lose more weight?”

In the Attention phase, you’re selling potential customers on the whole purpose of the product class in general, not necessarily on your version of the product. You’re informing them that the product exists and what it can do for them.

Tread carefully when educating customers in the Attention phase. One of the classic mistakes of lead-generation marketing is to try to close a sale, or do a hard-sell, in this phase. Customers contact you, wanting to know more about your product in general—and you send them an offer to buy your product at a 30% discount.

The problem is, these customers are not ready to buy. They are still learning about the product, and don’t know whether they really need it or not. When you send Attention-phase customers a discount offer, it’s often a turnoff for them. They may decide that you are being too pushy with your product. They may lose interest in it, or at least lose interest in your brand. They won’t move on to the Decision or Action phases with your company, and you’ve thrown away the opportunity.

Instead, try to educate your Attention-phase customers using case studies, webinars, your website, and other vehicles. Give them basic product information, and explain its benefits. Help them to figure out whether this product is of interest to them.

THE INTEREST PHASE

Once potential customers become aware of the type of product you sell, they may have some interest in it. But they are still unsure about buying it. At this stage, the customer is asking the following questions:

Or if you’re offering a service, the customer is asking:

Once I became aware of the Body Bugg, I was in the Interest phase. I started to do research to find out if it was the right product for my needs. I compared it to other weight-loss products, and decided that the concept and features of the Body Bugg could help me. At that point, I decided I was in the market for a product like this.

With Attention-phase customers, you are selling the general benefits of your type of product. With Interest-phase customers, you are trying to interest them in your type of product versus other products on the market with similar solutions.

This is where a webinar or a well-written website can be very effective for you, by providing information that will inspire the reader’s interest in the product. You should also use white papers, case studies, and customer testimonials. You need to sell the benefits of your type of product, not the features of your particular brand.

If you send out an e-mail to Interest-phase customers, you should ask them to download a white paper or product sheet. You want to educate them so they quickly recognize (1) their need for a product like yours, and (2) that your product provides the solution they are looking for.

THE DECISION PHASE

Customers in the Decision phase have decided that they like the product or service enough to buy it. You need to prompt them to act now, and most importantly, to act in your favor.

At this stage, the customer is asking:

If you’re offering a service, the customer is asking:

Here, you should focus on the quality or uniqueness of your product. You also need to make sure that your version of the product is in the customer’s “consideration set.” If competitors manufacture other versions of your product under their own brand, they will likely be in the potential client’s consideration set as well.

In my research, I discovered that there was more than one Body Bugg brand on the market. Each calorie-counting device had the same function, but vendors were charging different prices and bundling different services with each model. I had to decide which version of the Body Bugg was the best bargain, which one fit my budget, and which store I should visit to purchase my Body Bugg.

The vendor I went with (www.bodymedia.com) did a very good job of giving me reasons to buy their version of the Body Bugg. Their website allowed me to compare the advantages of the Body Bugg over other weight-loss devices.

For Decision-phase customers, you should use white papers, sell sheets, and product comparisons to explain to the customer why your version of the product is the best on the market. You should also use customer testimonials: “Don’t take our word for it. Let our customers tell you how good our product is.”

Also, with Decision-phase customers, you should start to focus on where they can buy the product, how easy it is to buy, what kind of support they get for it, and other helpful information. You might not ask them to buy the product at this point, but you may, for example, offer them a free 30-day trial to convince them that it is worth buying.

THE ACTION PHASE

In the Action phase, your potential customers buy a product or service. They have made a decision on one particular vendor or service provider, so they contact the vendor or service company, go to a store, or go to an e-commerce site and make the transaction for the purchase.

The Action-phase customer is asking one question: “Why should I buy this product or service right now?”

When I decided to buy the Body Bugg, I chose the vendor (BodyMedia) with the best overall product and the best support package. BodyMedia’s website provided a list of local fitness stores where I could buy the device, rather than having to order it online.

You need to offer Action-phase customers reasons to buy now. This is where you should make special offers, such as sales, 30% discounts, and timed coupons (e.g., “Buy within the next two weeks, and get 50% off”).

You must be timely and strategic in making your offer to customers who are ready to buy. Again, you don’t send a discount offer to customers in the Attention or Interest phase; these customers are still seeking information about the product and haven’t made up their minds whether they really want it.

Likewise, potential customers who have visited your website 26 times are most likely in the Decision and Action phases. This is the time to send them a special offer, since these customers are probably interested in buying something from you. They just need a little prompting from you to take action. Don’t send them white papers or product data sheets (unless they request them), since these customers already have all the information they need.