Revisiting the AIDA model in Social Media

AIDA model is very popular in Optometry because we interact with patients on a one-to-one basis, and AIDA helps explain how personal sales work. It reveals in four steps how the patient interaction with the product evolves from cluelessness to purchase and adoption. The model was developed by St Elmo Lewis in 1898, but its simplicity made it last and populate through all these years. The widespread use of AIDA among sales and marketing theorists during the pre-internet era may lead many to think that it is less employed in digital sales. In fact, with the advancement of online businesses AIDA’s relevance becomes more important especially now with social media adoption by healthcare in general and the eye care industry in particular.
AIDA model comprises of a sequence that illustrates the process a salesperson must move the potential customer through to make and close a deal. The stages are Attention or Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. A deal can be achieved if you succeed in attracting the patient’s attention to the product or service you are offering, convince him of the benefits of the product, have a desire to benefit from the offer, and act by purchasing the product.
Lewis assumed that the last stage -the action stage- would show up as a voluntary consequence of the first three stages. This stage later became the primary goal of marketing. In today’s social channels AIDA is used to convey a message to patients and lead them to act. The action is not limited to purchasing or taking an appointment, it consists of engaging through liking, commenting, sharing, forwarding, or other ways of creating content.
To get the patient to act we need to come up with the message that attracts the patient’s attention, it needs to be short and relevant. The message should convey the patient’s benefit, it should be differentiated from the competition offerings to awake their desire to choose your offering.