Written by Paul Allan Reading time: 7 minutes
Now if you’ve been around the marketing block once or twice writing copy or building websites. You’ve heard of the trusty old AIDA format. You know the one your granddaddy would tell you about when you were a kid! He’d sit you down and he'd tell you. “Son, if you want to make money online and build a landing page that converts, the only thing you need to know is A-I-D-A”.
Well I hate to break it to you Grandpa. There's a new framework in town and it's here to put AIDA out of business. Say goodbye to the tired old AIDA format and say hello to its new incarnation ATIDFA!
This powerful new framework is ready to blow your existing controls out the water. Supercharge your conversion rates and have your customers screaming "Take my money"!!!
I learned of this new layout inside the Conversion Rate Academy from ConversionWise. I'd recommend checking it out to level up your CRO game!
It's run by the best landing page designers and CRO minds in the industry! With everything you need to build great landing pages. Send your conversion rates to the moon and start making SALES!
Alright, fire up your page builder app and let’s get into it…
So the old AIDA model stood for
- Attention
- Interest
- Desire
- Action
Now I want to be clear!
The AIDA formula for laying out landing pages WORKS! It sets your potential customer on a journey through your page. Provides them with the information needed to make an educated buying decision. This in turn "can" provide a good conversion rate there's no doubt.
But…
There's adjustments we can make to this format that takes us from good to great! These new elements can help us future frame our prospects. Better handle objections. Leading to a higher conversion rate when we next create a landing page.
Don't just take my word for it ConversionWise have spent the last 10 years perfecting this layout!
Introducing ATIDFA
- Attention
- Transformation
- Interest
- Desire
- FAQ
- Action
We’ve introduced two new elements to the traditional AIDA model that through testing is guaranteed to increase your conversion rate! From my own testing I've seen an instant 23% uplift on a product page built for cold traffic in the CPG space!!!
ATTENTION
This is our ‘above the fold’ section and arguably the most important section of any landing page. The main objective here is to capture our users' attention AS FAST AS POSSIBLE! We’re now living in the age of TikToks, short form content, ADHD and low attention spans. You have mere seconds to break potential customers out of the endless scroll inertia and force them to pay attention to what you're selling.
The majority of your results will be generated from your above the fold section! I’d argue 80% of your time should be spent developing and optimizing this section.
Think of the 80/20 rule here. You can spend all the time you want inside the Shopify theme editor but if your traffic hits your landing page and immediately bounces before seeing the rest of your page…
All that hard work on your online store will be for nothing!
For a killer Attention section you need:
- Strong value proposition - What's the biggest benefit your target audience will receive from using your product or service!
- Trust and credibility - Who are you and why the hell should they care!
- Social proof - Tap into the herd mentality heuristic & show your customer other people who have used your product and achieved the results they want! Show your product helping them.
- Imagery - The first time a customer uses your product is inside their own head! Show them a mixture of high quality and UGC style creatives to plant the seed.
- Scarcity - Only a limited number of spots available!" or "Offer ends soon!" to create a sense of urgency and drive action!
- Call to action - Tell them to buy!
TRANSFORMATION (NEW)
This is the first of two new sections we're adding to the AIDA formula. By now if you've done your job correctly in the previous section your customer should've had their interest triggered with your USP and began to consider the benefits of your product!
Now we need to double down on this shift in your prospects psychology. We need to start to get them to imagine the actual benefit and experience of introducing this into their life and also eliminate any potential hesitations they may have about delivery times etc.
Now we start to build out the Transformation section:
1. How easy it is to buy - How & When will they get it (Instantly as a digital download or in 2-3 days if shipped to them etc).
2. The "end goal" or transformation from buying your product or service. Double down on the benefit of your product or service and drill into the changes it will make to their life!
Use icons, steps and text to take the buyer through the journey of buying the product.
adding to cart > Getting the product delivered > Experiencing the benefit of the product
INTEREST
In the interest section we continue to drill down into the benefits of our product. You may be aware of the old copywriting adage of selling your features as benefits?
Well this is exactly where you would do that. We split this section into two:
1. Benefits
2. Features
First we further reinforce the benefits and transformational effect our product or service will have on our prospect. Before we talk about the mechanism by which our product or service achieves this. People don't buy our products, they buy what the product does for them!
At the start of the page we lead with our Unique Selling Proposition now we continue to build on this persuasive argument and get our prospects interest levels rising.
This can be a great section to introduce more 'User Generated Content' showcasing the product in use and the benefits they are about to experience. Lean into your copywriting and visual storytelling!
DESIRE
Humans are funny creatures. We are evolutionarily programmed to be lazy and conserve energy. When it comes to decision making it can be quite taxing on the brain and there's a limit to the amount of important decisions we can make in a day.
When you're making a buying decision there's a thousand tiny thoughts running through your head!
What if it doesn't do what it says it will? What if it doesn't work? What if it breaks? What if something goes wrong…
We haven't even mentioned what our partner or spouse may think of the purchase!!!
You have to assess the situation. Gather all necessary information. Then you have to process all these thoughts before you can even make a decision.
But remember when I said we were programmed to be lazy? Well our brains employ various decision making heuristics to ease this mental load. What's a heuristic, just think of it as a decision making shortcut. Our brains often look to other people to make our decisions for us and will instinctively follow the herd.
It's time to employ the most powerful of all sales tactics when creating our custom landing page social proof!
In this section use:
1. Reviews
2. Testimonials
3. Case studies
4. UGC
Tap into that social proof bias and get your customers ready to experience the same benefits!
FAQ (NEW)
Alright we've worked hard up to this point. We've gone in deep on our Shopify landing page builder. Now it's time to show grandpa who's boss and do away with AIDA once and for all!
So by this point in our page we've presented a pretty compelling argument as to why the product is perfect for our prospect! It's time to make a little shift and deal with any hesitations the customer may have and remove friction preventing them from making their purchase.
Provide a straightforward FAQ to address any objections about ordering, returning, or delivery of your item and other product-related inquiries.
ACTION
Alright we made it!
The end of the line or page in this case.
This is where you place your final call to action button.
Don't distract them here nothing else should be at the bottom of this page!
No outbound links. No share on social media, nothing. Only the call to action!
Restate your offer. Press on some final scarcity and tell your customer to "BUY NOW ➡️"!
If you enjoyed this guide and you're looking to create more landing pages that convert. I'd highly recommend you checkout the Conversion Rate Academy from ConversionWise!
They've been in the game for 11 years and in that time have produced over 3274+ landing pages and generated MILLIONS in revenue for some of the biggest brands in the world. We're talking Unilever, Lotus Biscoff, Vitacup, Slimfast, Bodybuilding.com and hundreds more popular D2C brands.
They've recently taken everything they've learned over the last 11 years and put it inside their new academy giving you access to all the training, advice and support you need to transform YOU into a landing page machine!
Oh I almost forgot!
I reached out to the founders and got an exclusive discount code to get you 50% OFF your first month!
Use code - CONVERSION
Happy Building
Paul