Applying the AIDA Principle to Promotional Video
You might have been running a company, or managed a sales department for years and never heard of AIDA
– so here it is.
AIDA stands for:
- Attention
- Interest
- Desire
- and Action
Every sale, knowingly or not, goes through the AIDA process, as in:
Attention – nobody ever bought without you winning their attention first.
Interest – nobody ever bought without being interested
Desire – no matter what the interest level, Desire is essential for the purchase to take place.
Action – once desiring, people need to be told what to do next.
Let’s see how this applies to promotional video.
Attention
It pays to start with a bang.
You have literally 5-15 seconds to onboard the audience
– or they’ll press the back button.
So emphatically ensure you grab their attention in the first and second lines of the video.
You can use graphics, animation, music, script or stunning footage – anything that boldly wins attention.
Tip: Put your biggest sales point right at the beginning.
Interest
Once attention has been won, you have to keep your viewers watching & listening.
So tell them what they’re interested in:
- we’re cheaper
- we’re faster
- we’re better
Do all this inside the 1st 30 seconds if you can.
For example, the latest research on Executive Online Video Viewing Habits is that they’ll watch a long video
– so long as the 1st 30 seconds is front loaded with enough benefit for it to be worth their while to keep watching.
Whether your video style is graphic or film-based, make it interesting.
Tip: Quickly spell out your 3 big benefits from your video audience’s point of view
Desire
More sales are lost through lack of desire than almost any other single factor
For example, how often have we all heard:
“That’s very interesting. Thank you. I’ll think about it”.
Thought so.
The simplest way to generate desire is to use video to help the viewer imagine the use of your product or service
– and how wonderful life will be forever more.
Enabling the viewer to imagine is powerful.
For a sophisticated B2B professional services audience this might be different to a B2C new floor cleaning product
– but the principle is the same.
Film the product or service in use – create pictures that engage the imagination.
Tip: If you want to win, then make them imagine.
Action
There’s a saying:
“You’ve got to catch the lightning when it strikes”
The lightning in video terms is the desire you’ve just ignited in your potential new customer.
Now quickly catch this lightning by telling them exactly what you want them to do next.
Such as:
- make an email enquiry
- buy now
- take up our special offer
- ask for a demo
A simple caption or lline of voiceover can do this for you.
Tip: Never forget a call to action
Summary
Just as AIDA helps companies plan the structure of sales visits
– it can also help you plan your next sales or promotional video.
It gives you a reliable, time tested framework to work from
– and it’s ultimately flexible
– capable of adapting to virtually any product or service in any marketplace.
From face2face business meetings to youtube online selling, the AIDA Principle happens whether you want it to or not
– because it’s based on the way people feel and act the World over.
And its not dependent on the style of your video
– whether presenter, animation or film-based.
Check it out for yourself.
Attention, Interest, Desire & Action should be found in every promotional video you watch.
Here’s a page of B2B video samples that all have AIDA in there somewhere
