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10 Ways to
Write More Effective Ads
The Structure of
AIDAS
There’s a well-known structure in successful
sales letters, described by the acronym AIDA.
AIDA stands for:
·
Attention
·
Interest
·
Desire
·
Action
First, you capture your prospect’s attention.
This is done with your headline and lead. If your ad fails to
capture your prospect’s attention, it fails completely. Your
prospect doesn’t read your stellar copy, and doesn’t order your
product or service.
Then you want to build a strong interest in your
prospect. You want him to keep reading, because if he reads, he
just might buy.
Next, you channel a desire. Having a targeted
market for this is key, because you’re not trying to create a
desire where one did not already exist. You want to capitalize
on an existing desire, which your prospect may or may not
know he already has. And you want your prospect to
experience that desire for your product or service.
Finally, you present a call to action. You want
him to pick up the telephone, return the reply card, attend the
sales presentation, order your product, whatever. You need to
ask for the sale (or response, if that’s the goal). You don’t
want to beat around the bush at this point. If your letter and
AIDA structure is sound and persuasive, here’s where you present
the terms of your offer and urge the prospect to act now.
A lot has been written about the AIDA copywriting
formula. I’d like to add one more letter to the acronym: S for
Satisfy.
In the end, after the sale is made, you want to
satisfy your prospect, who is now a customer. You want to
deliver exactly what you promised (or even more), by the date
you promised, in the manner you promised. In short, you want to
give him every reason in the world to trust you the next time
you sell him a back-end offer. And of course you’d rather he
doesn’t return the product (although if he does, you also
execute your return policy as promised).
Either way, you want your customers to be
satisfied. It will make you a lot more money in the long run.
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