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What the Fourth of July Can Teach You About Web Marketing

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Fourth-of-July

Independence Day, or as it is more commonly called, the Fourth of July is one of the most widely celebrated holidays in the United States and that is no accident. Great marketing, fireworks packed events and AIDA all help to make it so.

The Fourth of July celebrates the historic date in 1776 on which the Declaration of Independence was signed and the United States was legally separated from the British. While this may sounds like the type of momentous occasion that would result in annual celebrations regardless of if any marketing existed the Fourth of July revelries of today are a tribute to effective marketing and can teach all of us marketers a lesson or two.

Marketing SaaS / web companies is very different from the traditional marketing used to sell beer and cereal. The type of marketing that covers billboards, newspapers and TV has almost nothing in common with the way we market web companies. However, there is one similarity between the two types of marketing that the Fourth of July does exceptional well at.

 

You need to get the attention of your target customer before you can do anything and if the Fourth of July can do anything, it’s capture the attention of America.

So what is this all about?

In marketing classrooms students are taught the concept of AIDA. It’s an acronym that helps you lay out your marketing campaigns in order to drive the highest conversion rates possible. Almost every successful marketing campaign you have ever seen can be broken down into AIDA. Even the great Mad Man Ogilvy used AIDA to create high-powered marketing campaigns of the past.

AIDA lays out the order in which each element of your marketing campaign should be placed and stands for:

  • Attention,
  • Interest,
  • Desire,
  • Action.

AIDA actually works for almost anything you’re creating where you need people to complete an action after viewing your campaign. You can use this methodology for writing up a compelling conference session overview to creating an international product launch campaign.

Those marketers who know how to use AIDA will consistently:

  • See better results,
  • Create effective campaigns quickly,
  • And have more time to work on the big picture tasks.

Back to the Fourth of July!

One of the reasons that the Fourth of July can drive such big crows and epics nights is because it absolutely nails the A in AIDA. It’s hard to drive more attention than with BBQs, Fairs and Fireworks all in one day. It’s as if the Fourth of July was born to capture the countries attention.

A – Attention

Most marketers will tell you that the hardest and most important part of any campaign is actually having your target audience see your marketing message. In a world of increasing marketing noise, people are getting better at blocking out your messages and it’s your job as a marketer to over come this.

Now, most of us in web marketing don’t have access to BBQs, Fairs and Fireworks when trying break through the noise and capture our target audiences’ attention. However, even without Fireworks there are many great techniques available to you including:

  • Shocking / Controversial Headlines,
  • Eye catching imagery,
  • Timely content,
  • Intriguing copy,
  • And extremely personal content.

The list of ways to capture your audience’s attention is only limited by your imagination. The key to creating attention grabbing content is to first understand who your audience is. You need to know:

  • What they like,
  • What they don’t like,
  • Who they relate with
  • And what they think about key issues..

It’s worth spending the time to really think through this part of your next marketing campaign. If your audience doesn’t pay attention to you, no matter how good your campaign is, it will not produce the results you deserve.

I – Interest

Once you the attention of your target customers you need to strike quickly and hook them.

Now that people are paying attention to you there is a chance that you can get them genuinely interested in what you are offering. If you don’t do this quickly people will move on and be distracted by something else.

In order to peak your audiences’ interest you want to focus on the advantages and benefits of your offering instead of features.

An example of this is instead of saying…

“This truck has 350HP”

You would want to say …

“Pull any boat, anywhere in the country.”

Fourth of July celebrations increase our interest through benefits like see friends and family and take a day and relax. While this is much less about sales than the Truck example it is still true.

D – Desire

Now that your audience is interested, you are in a position to apply to their desires.

Someone interested in your offering is more likely to stay interested than become a customer. However, someone that “NEEDS” your offering, or to say, desires your offering is more likely to become a customer than not. You want to craft your marketing copy to explain how your offering satisfy a need of your target audience and fill them with the desire to acquire your offering.

Any great Fourth of July event will speak to the human desire to have fun and enjoy ourselves. While seemingly simply, it is often the simplest things that people desire the most.

A – Action

At this point your target audience needs your product and all you need to do is tell them what they have to do next.

Sadly, many great marketing campaigns actually miss this last step and leave customers to attempt to figure out what action needs to be taken. Unfortunately this leads to a drastic increase in lost leads and missed revenue.

Suggest to your target audience that they:

  • Buy now,
  • Signup for a free trial,
  • Request a demo,
  • Take a test drive,
  • Or view more marketing material that does this all again.

The specific action being completed is irrelevant as long as you are helping your target audience along you sales funnel. The obvious call to action for Fourth of July celebrations is to come on out and enjoy the festivities at a specific time and location.

With that said, we hope you enjoy this Fourth of July, Canada Day, Mexican Independence Day or whatever you celebrate and make sure you apply AIDA to you next marketing campaign.