AIDA
Why it matters
Most weak marketing fails at one specific stage, and AIDA tells you which. If a cold email is opened but not answered, attention worked and the problem is interest or desire. If a landing page gets read to the end but nobody clicks, desire is there and the ask is wrong. Without the model, the usual reaction is to rewrite everything.
How to apply it
- Write one sentence for each stage before drafting the full page or email.
- Match each stage to a number: opens or impressions for attention, time on page or clicks for interest, replies or demo requests for desire, completed bookings for action.
- Keep the ask until the end, and keep it to one step.
- Use it for ads, landing pages, cold email sequences and sales decks.
What it is
AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. It is usually credited to the American advertising pioneer Elias St. Elmo Lewis, who described the idea in the late 1890s, and it is still a standard way to structure a page, an email or a pitch. Each stage has one job:
- Attention: stop the reader. A sharp headline or a relevant opening line.
- Interest: show the message concerns them. Describe their situation in their words.
- Desire: make them want the outcome. Proof does this best, such as a result, a case study or a number.
- Action: make one clear request, such as booking a call.
Common mistakes
Asking for the sale in the first message. Treating the stages as a rigid path, when a reader who already wants the product can skip straight to action. Writing a clever hook that has nothing to do with the offer, which earns attention and then loses it.
