Social media is a powerful way to get new customers online. In fact, as of January 2022, there were about 3.96 billion total social media users across all platforms and it’s still growing.
That means, even if you cut just a tiny piece out of that 3.96 billion people and you get their attention and convert it into sales, you’re likely going to change your business forever. To do that, you’ll need the right content.
Content that attracts people, is engaging, and converts all of the attention into sales. In this article, I’m going to reveal to you how to do just that.
So, let’s dive into this thing…
Create All Content Using The AIDA Formula
AIDA formula is one of the best marketing formulas in the world invented by American businessman Elias St. Elmo Lewis in 1898 and it has changed marketing of every kind forever including social media marketing.
And when applied correctly, it’s going to glue your reader’s attention to your posts and make them take virtually any action you want them to take.
So, what does AIDA stand for? AIDA formula means:
- Attention – This is where you hook your dream customer’s attention and make them consume the content that you share. This can be done using anything from an attention-grabbing image to using controversial titles, etc.
- Interest – This is where you’re going to dive more in-depth into WHY it is so important for them to consume the post or watch the video. You’ll dive into their emotions.
- Desire – This is where you are going to present the main value point of your content or present the offer if the post is solely promotional.
- Action – This is where you’re going to ask the dream customer to take a certain kind of action. It can be anything from becoming a lead or buying something to easier actions like following you. You’ll ask for this regardless of the post type.
Every time you create a piece of social media content, you must follow all of these parts in this order to get the results you’d want.
For example, if you’d be sharing a 2-minute video about how to do plumbing for your house or how to buy real estate…
In the first few seconds of the video, you’d grab their Attention in the first 5 seconds of it by doing something unusual or just by saying the title. Then you’d spend 15 seconds talking about a few reasons why they need to know what you’ll share and mentioning the benefits so that you create Interest…
Then you’d share the tips as a part of the Desire part so that they get what they were promised, and at the end of the video, you’re going to ask them for some Action like tapping the link in your bio and finding out more about your product or service.
AIDA formula is simple to use but it works every single time. When you’re going to use it every time you create your social media content, it is going to get you way more customers.
Follow The 3 Main Pillars Of Content Creation
Regardless of the industry that you’re in, the performance of your social media content is going to be determined by 3 things only…
- VALUE
- PRESENTATION
- RELEVANCY
The only exception is your promotional content where value is going to be replaced by an irresistible offer that on its own will be valuable to your current audience and therefore it will make the post convert.
Now, let’s have a closer look at how these 3 main pillars of social media content creation look like:
Value
This is the main reason why anybody should go through the post or watch the video that you are going to share. Value is the thing that they get in exchange for their time, and if your social media content is not valuable, then you’re going to fail to reach your dream customers and convert them.
There are 3 main value pillars on any social media platform:
- Education
- Inspiration
- Entertainment
Your social media content has to do at least one of these things in order to generate results. You can pick a value pillar that is the most relevant to what you’re doing and focus on it or you can combine more of them.
However, always pick a value pillar that YOUR dream customer cares the most about. For example, in B2B entrepreneurs won’t care as much if you can dance on camera and entertain people. What they care about is if you are a true authority in your field and you know how to get results.
In this case, education would be the value pillar the B2B company wants to focus on the most (even though it can and should share something entertaining from time to time.)
Pick wisely, as this is going to have a giant impact on how all of your content is going to sell…
Presentation
Presentation is the part of your content that makes the message that you try to share desirable to consume. To help you understand, for example, there are two posts sharing the same 5 tips (educational value) about how to bake a cake.
However, though, one post is a beautifully designed Instagram carousel that keeps the message simple, shares examples, and makes the post easy to consume as there is enough space to share all that’s needed…
And the other post is a fake Twitter thread carousel sharing a huge chunk of academic text with tips in it.
What post would likely perform better? Of course the first one. That’s because the value has been presented well while the second post had a terrible presentation.
Remember this: Value that is not consumed or isn’t understood is not valuable.
And that’s why presentation matters so much. Do your best to keep the message simple, and understandable. Design your content well, make the message easy to consume, and cut off all the fluff.
Same with video content. Try to have high-resolution video content with subtitles and other edits done in a way that helps people understand the message and holds their attention.
Social media content with a bad presentation is never going to perform well…nor it’s going to convert attention to sales.
Relevancy
Just like a value that doesn’t get consumed isn’t valuable, irrelevant value or offer is not great as well. Regardless of what you’re doing your content has to be relevant to your dream customer avatar.
That’s because, as I always state…
“You can’t sell a steak to a vegan.”
This sentence says it all. Nor vegans are going to consume content about steaks no matter the presentation. So, ensure everything you are sharing in your posts is always relevant to your dream customer avatar. If it’s not, your content is going to fail to get your business any new customers.
Create all of your social media content based on these 3 pillars and also remember to…
Avoid Overpromoting
Don’t misunderstand. Promotion is good. You need to do it even on social media to make sure your audience knows your offers and that they can buy. But overpromotion is dangerous.
That’s because it is going to kill your reach and when people get used to you sharing nothing but promotional content, they are also going to get used to skipping it.
That’s why you must follow the 80/20 promotion rule for your social media marketing. This rule stands for 80% of social media content being nothing but valuable and 20% of your social media content being promotional.
In other words, if you share 10 posts a week, 8 of those posts are going to be valuable and 2 can be promotional.
That way, you’re going to effectively reach new dream customers and make grow your audience while the promotional posts are going to convert that attention into sales.
However, it is fine to promote in the ‘value’ posts as well if it is done in a way that doesn’t interrupt the flow of the message. That means you’ll usually share a quick pitch or call to action at the end of the post, video, tweet, or anything else.
You must create your content strategy based on this rule. If you don’t, you’ll begin to struggle to get attention, grow your audience, and make your promotional posts convert as nobody is going to even bother to go through your content.
Filip Konecny 