Writing copy that converts - AIDA

I’m now into my third week at TBB towers, and one of the skills I’ve been learning is how to write ‘copy that converts’. Our resident wordsmith (Accounts Manager Dave) taught me a marketing acronym called ‘AIDA’; a recipe for writing content which will appeal to the reader in a concise and relevant way.

AIDA stands for:

Attention- Grab the initial attention of the reader to entice them into reading your content. This could be an eye-catching image or a headline, for example.

Interest- Something relevant to your article/product which the reader would find interesting e.g. a fact/statistic, or a catchy tagline.

Desire- Tell your reader why they want your product. This should not merely be a list of features, but rather how those features benefit them.

Action- A call to action! You’ve done the hard bit and persuaded your reader that your product is the one for them; now make it easy for them to contact you or buy the product! This could be a hyperlink to a ‘Contact Us’ form or to an online checkout.

I’ve been putting this system into practice and I’ve found that it helps me a lot; particularly because it kerbs my tendency to waffle! Using AIDA has meant that my copy has been more concise, relevant to the reader and rich with appropriate information rather than just full of ‘noise’ which could bore the reader.

I’ve found that now I know about AIDA, I see it used everywhere (a particularly good example being the Apple website above). Have you seen any sites which use AIDA particularly well? We’d love to hear about them!