As a business growth specialist, I’ve seen it time and time again, small business owners chasing after likes, shares, and comments, only to end up frustrated with flat sales numbers. Don’t get me wrong, visibility and engagement are important, but they count for nothing if they don’t lead to actual sales. Vanity metrics may look good on the surface, but the real question is, ‘Are these engagements moving customers through your sales pipeline?’

Marketing should have a clear purpose beyond just generating attention. Your content, ads, and campaigns need to do more than gain views; they need to drive conversions and sales. Every interaction should lead to an action. This is where the AIDA model (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) comes in. Although first introduced in 1898,  AIDA is as useful today as it’s ever been providing a simple yet powerful framework to guide your marketing efforts towards tangible results.

The AIDA model is structured in such a way that each stage feeds into the next, helping you structure your activities and move your target customers through your sales funnel. When done correctly, building awareness creates the foundation for interest; interest fuels desire, and desire motivates action. If a customer stalls at any stage, it’s often because the strategy or messaging for the previous stage wasn’t strong enough. For example, if potential customers aren’t acting, it could be due to a lack of urgency or clarity in the desired stage.

Likes, views, and shares make for great validation but rarely tell the full story. They are easy to track, and they may give you a warm feeling and make you feel loved, but they often give a false sense of success. What you should be focusing on are metrics that drive growth such as:

Engagement with Calls to Action (CTAs): Are people clicking on your links, subscribing to your offers, or filling out forms?

Conversions from One Stage to the Next: Are potential customers moving through your pipeline? From awareness to interest, desire to action, each stage should have clear metrics to track progress.

Sales and Resales: Ultimately, the goal is to make sales and keep customers coming back. The percentage of leads converting to sales and the rate of repeat purchases are critical indicators of your marketing success.

While it may seem old-fashioned the AIDA model offers a structured way to think about how your marketing efforts translate into results. Let’s dive into each stage and the technologies that can help move potential customers forward.

Awareness: Getting Noticed by the Right Audience.

Awareness is about capturing attention, but it must go beyond mere visibility. Your efforts should target the right audience and have a clear objective in mind, moving people towards a call to action.

Key Metrics: Click-through rates, reach within the target audience, increase in website visits.

Technologies: Social media ads (Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads), SEO tools (SEMrush, Moz), and content research platforms (ContentPace, BuzzSumo) can help you create targeted awareness.

When creating awareness campaigns, always have a specific goal, whether it’s directing users to a landing page, encouraging sign-ups, or downloading a resource. For example, one of my clients, a local estate agent, shifted from generic posts to targeted ads with strong CTAs and saw a 30% increase in visits to their service page.

Interest: Engaging and Educating Prospects

The Interest stage is about providing value and educating potential customers on why they should care. Here, the key is to lead prospects towards specific actions that signal genuine interest.

Key Metrics: Email open rates, engagement with webchat or chatbot interactions, video watch times, clicks on email links.

Technologies: Email automation platforms (Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign), chatbots (Intercom, Drift), and video marketing tools (Vidyard, Loom) can create personalised touchpoints that build interest.

Automated email sequences are ideal for moving prospects deeper into the funnel. For a manufacturing client, we set up an email series that provided valuable product insights, leading to higher engagement rates and more qualified leads. This shift from generic to targeted communication made all the difference.

Desire: Creating a Need for Your Product or Service

Desire is about creating an emotional connection and urgency that drives potential customers to want your product. This is where many businesses falter by focusing too much on features instead of benefits.

Key Metrics: Conversion rates from remarketing campaigns, the effectiveness of social proof (reviews, testimonials), personalised follow up interactions.

Technologies: CRM systems (HubSpot CRM, Salesforce), remarketing tools (Google Ads, Facebook Retargeting), and review management platforms (Yotpo, Trustpilot) can foster trust and credibility.

I worked with a boutique retailer that was hesitant to collect online reviews, fearing negative feedback. After adopting Trustpilot to showcase positive reviews, they saw a notable boost in conversions. Creating desire is often about showing prospects that others have had great experiences with you.

Action: Closing the Deal and Encouraging Repeat Business

This is the good bit – landing the sale! The Action stage is all about making it easy for your leads to become customers. Think about it, how many times have you been ready to buy something but haven’t because making the purchase was to complicated? This is a frustrating place to be, you’ve done all the hard work, and moved potential customers from awareness to interest, from interest to desire only to throw it away at the last hurdle! Simplicity and ease of purchase are key, expectations have changed, and people no longer have the patience to mess about.  It’s also not just about the first sale, it’s about creating a seamless experience that encourages repeat business.

Key Metrics: Conversion rates on landing pages, ease of the purchase experience, repeat purchase rates.

Technologies: E-commerce and payment solutions (Shopify, Stripe, PayPal), conversion rate optimisation (CRO) tools (Optimizely, Unbounce), and live chat support (Zendesk, Freshdesk) can reduce friction and increase conversions.

For an IT service provider, switching from traditional invoicing to Stripe transformed their sales process. The frictionless checkout experience led to faster payments and repeat business from satisfied customers.

Marketing should never be aimless. If people are seeing your content, it should be for a desired purpose. This is why every piece of marketing content needs to be connected to a strong call to action (CTA). Whether it’s clicking on a link, signing up for a webinar, requesting a demo, or making a purchase, each interaction should guide the customer toward taking a specific action.

In an era where there’s so much noise, the ability to direct attention towards meaningful actions is what sets successful businesses apart. So, stop chasing vanity metrics and start focusing on what matters, guiding prospects through a clear pipeline, measuring what moves them forward, and ultimately converting them into paying customers.

If you’re ready to stop chasing likes and start focusing on increasing your customer base, our team of over 100+ scaleup, innovation, and supply chain consultants at RTC North are here to help. We can provide the guidance and support you need to implement a strategic approach that drives real results. Contact us and let’s get started on your path to growth.