A Formula for Profit-Building Web Pages

Oct 29, 2011 | Better Web Copy

If you’re a copywriter or a marketing student, you’ve probably heard of the AIDA formula. The formula was originally created by advertising pioneer E. St. Elmo Lewis in the Nineteenth Century to reflect four stages of selling. In the original and most common version of the formula, the letters stand for the following things.

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

I’ve been using the formula for decades, but I modified it to reflect some of what we’ve learned about how human beings think and buy. Here’s my version.

Attention. You get attention with your headline. The headline should stop the reader and inspire them to read your copy.

Involvement. Establish emotional involvement with stories or examples or engagement devices like quizzes.

Data. Support your claims with data. Great copy mixes emotional involvement with facts that support the feelings.

Action. After you’ve made your point emotionally and logically, ask the reader to do something. It might be asking for more information or buying a product or anything you choose. Asking the reader to take a specific action is the best way to increase the odds that they will do it.

Bottom Line

AIDA is a copy formula that’s worked for over a century. Use it to make your web pages and marketing copy better.