This post is by Michael Pollock, the original owner of Small Business Branding. Yaro Starak now owns and produces the latest content for this blog.
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It’s pretty well established that you have a very short period of time to get someone’s attention. I’m not sure what the scientific estimate is, but I’d say at best it’s about 10 seconds. Blink author, Malcolm Gladwell, suggests it’s even less.
"When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are
thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your
mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions."
When you put together a website or blog, you need to keep that in mind. Look at the two screen shots below. One is for Blinksale, a cool new web app that was launched recently by Josh Williams of Firewheel design. Within just a few seconds of landing on the page, you know exactly what Blinksale is about and how it can help you. It gets your attention. Immediately. Unless, of course, you have no need to send invoices to anyone.
The second screen shot is for Chalk. Let me say before hand, in fairness to the folks at Chalk, they haven’t actually launched yet, so this may be an unfair cautionary example of what not to do with your webpage. That being said, does the page get your attention, and do you immediately understand what Chalk is about? I know I didn’t until I read further into the copy.
Despite everything that’s been said recently about the death of traditional marketing, some things will never change. AIDA is probably one of those things that will never change because the human mind and heart doesn’t change.
- A – Attention. It’s the most valuable commodity you can have today. Without it, you can’t move forward in business.
- I – Interest. Without stimulating and maintaining someone’s interest, the conversation fizzles. No conversation = No relationship = No business.
- D – Desire. Desire is synonymous with some form of perceived value. No desire in the heart of your reader/listener = no perceived value in your product/service.
- A – Action. Get the first three right and this part is nearly guaranteed.