Here’s a quick lesson on what I think is the most effective copywriting method you can learn.

It’s called AIDA, a copywriting technique that will help you sell more stuff and get more people to read your writing.

Literally, the first time I ever tried this, my post on Reddit went semi-viral, and 1,500 people visited this blog in a single day. And that was back when we’d be lucky to get 100 visitors a week.

So A.I.D.A is an acronym for:

Attention: Get the reader’s attention with something catchy

Interest: Tell them something interesting, like a random related fact.

Desire: Make them desire whatever you are selling

Action: Tell them what they need to do to get that

The formula is designed to grab people’s attention, make them interested in what you’re talking about using logic (fact), then desire what you’re talking about (with emotion) and lead them to take action.

You can use it to sell products. Convince people of an idea. Or get them to read your blog posts.

It’s easy to use. I suck at copywriting, so if I can do it, you can too. And it works more often than not. And way more than other formulas, I’ve tried to make my copywriting more effective.

So now that I have your attention let’s look at each section in more detail.

Attention

This is your headline. And as you know, without a good headline, no one will read what you’re writing about. You’ve got to grab people’s attention with something catchy and relatable.

If you’re trying to get the attention of dog owners, there’s no point in writing a headline about running shoes.

Ex 1: “Do you have veterinary insurance?”

Ex 2: “This is the most intelligent dog in the world.”

Ex 3: “Are you feeding your dog the right food?”

Interest

Now that you’ve hooked them. You want to keep them interested with facts, figures or perhaps a quote.

Ex 1: “32% of dogs will need surgery in their lifetimes”

Ex 2: “Border Collies can recall 250 commands and read human body language.”

Ex 3: “We’ve found that 80% of dogs are affected by food allergies.”
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Desire

Then make them desire what you’re selling by showing them how your product will improve their lives.

Ex 1: “Our emergency insurance package saves the average dog owner $500.”

Ex 2: “You can teach your dog tricks that will astound your mates with our new training course.”

Ex 3: “Our organic dog roll is proven to extend your best friend’s life by 3 years.”

Action

Finally, make them take action by telling them what to do next.

Ex 1: “Book a call to find out if we can save your dog and your wallet.”

Ex 2: “Join on a free trial and get unlimited access to our course.”

Ex 3: “Signup here to claim $20 off your first order.”

You can use this formula in emails, Facebook ads, blogs post or even text messages to get a certain someone to go on a date with you.

The structure should stay the same no matter your medium, but the length and how much you flesh out each piece will vary. So here are a few AIDA examples for different mediums.

AIDA Email Example

This is an example of the type of email we’d write to a newsletter reader who has stopped opening or reading our newsletter. The purpose here is to re-engage them and get them to read our newsletter again.

• Green -> Attention
• Yellow -> Interested
• Orange -> Desire
• Red > Action

John,

I noticed that you haven’t read our newsletter. I know Covid has been challenging, and you’ve probably got bigger fish to fry than worrying about our newsletter. But that is exactly why we think you should be reading. We’re writing about a ton of stuff that will help you win in these tough times.

There’s a reason why we’ve had 2,500 small business owners join our reading list in just the past 3 weeks. Here’s what they’re telling us:

• All our newsletters take less than 5 minutes to read
• All our methods are easy to understand
• What we talk about actually works

And it probably doesn’t hurt that some of our readers are getting epic results.

Just last week, we heard back from Susan of Pawfood. She’s only been reading our newsletter for two months. She has already used our dream 100 approach and AIDA. copywriting methods to increase her dogfood ecom store revenue by 150%.

Anyway, John, I won’t keep you any longer. The last thing we want to do is spam your inbox, so please reply and let us know if you want to keep receiving our newsletter. Otherwise, we will remove your name from our list at the end of the week.

Rhys.

P.S. I see you’ve just launched a new RTD – I have a contact at premium liquors – let me know if you’d like an introduction

AIDA Blog Post Example

I know some of the methods and frameworks I write about on this blog are boring.

So I use AIDA at the start of my blog posts, in line with that old business maxim – sell them what they want, give them what they need to convince people to read the article.

Say I’m writing a blog about ‘capital allocation’, a super dry subject. Here’s how I’d write the intro to the article (now that I know about AIDA) to get people to read it.

• Green -> Attention
• Yellow -> Interested
• Orange -> Desire
• Red > Action

Before you landed on this blog post, had you even heard of capital allocation?

I know it sounds boring as shit, but I’m amazed how little business owners know or care about it. It’s probably one of the most important jobs you have as the C.E.O. of your company.

The book The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional C.E.O.s and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success highlights how the likes of Berkshire Hathaway and the Washingpost outperformed the S&P 500 by 20 fold. And was #1 on Warren Buffets’ recommended reading list in 2012.

Capital Allocation mastery was the defining difference between the C.E.O.s who ran those companies and everyone else. Their radically rational blueprint was simply good capital allocation.

And you might say, well, they’re fortune 500 companies; that doesn’t apply to me. But it does. In a government business survey last year, capital constraints were listed as the top issue business owners face.

My background is in finance, so I’ve always cared about and focused on capital allocation. Doing this well has helped me generate a 56% R.O.I. on all money I’ve invested into my gym.

It helped me generate a 26% R.O.I. on all money I reinvested into my salon.

Where else can you get a return on your investment like that? The stock market? Crypto? Gold? Property? Not a chance, the long-run expected returns of those assets classes are less than 10%.

Good capital allocation will increase your R.O.I. it’s going to help you build a thriving business and live a considerably higher standard of life.

So read on to get a step by step breakdown with real-life case studies of how I put this into practice.

AIDA LinkedIn Post Example

Sometimes I’m just trying to bring attention to a good story on an entrepreneur I’ve written about. So I need to get on social platforms and convince people to read the article. This time the topic is interesting; all I need to do is make them aware of the article.

• Green -> Attention
• Yellow -> Interested
• Orange -> Desire
• Red > Action

Not many startups can say they’re backed by the United Nations.

Bead and Proceed can.

Their workshops have educated 6,000 people about the U.N.’s 17 U.N. Sustainable Development Goals in just three years.

The driving force behind this social enterprise is Bridget Williams. A master at engaging people on stage and driving social change while staying sane.

Here’s how she’s doing it.

Using AIDA makes copywriting way easier and takes far less effort.

So whenever I can’t think of anything interesting to say, I default to AIDA and let it do the work for me.