Advertising is a part of marketing sometimes avoided by small business as it can be perceived as costly, ineffective and only appropriate for large corporations. However an understanding of advertising models such as AIDA and DAGMAR can help any small business plan more effective advertising.
AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action and can be used in small business marketing to improve campaigns, including those based on email autoresponders.
DAGMAR (Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results) is much more than a model for designing an advert, it is used to monitor and evaluate promotion campaigns. There are three parts to the DAGMAR advertising model.
- The first part is to define advertising goals so that results and therefore campaign effectiveness can be measured.
- The second part of the model comprises four stages that customers pass through before they buy a product or service. The four steps in the DAGMAR advertising model are: awareness, comprehension, conviction and action.
- The final part is to measure advertising results.
DAGMAR Step One: Defining Advertising Goals
It is important to understand that DAGMAR is aimed at setting advertising goals and not more general marketing goals. Elements of a good advertising goal include being a written, measurable task involving a starting point, a defined audience, and a time limit.
To measure the effectiveness of advertising a business must know the current state before advertising starts and then the new state after the campaign has finished. This means surveying the target audience to measure current awareness, comprehension and conviction. This helps to establish realistic goals for the campaign. For example, to increase product awareness from 10% to 35%.
DAGMAR Step Two: Awareness Comprehension Conviction and Action
The second part of the DAGMAR model attempts to explain the process customers go through before they buy a product. The process is as follows:
- The first step in advertising is to raise awareness of the product. If customers do not know the product exists then they will not buy it. To ensure that an advertising campaign is effective, it is vital to identify the target audience for the campaign – not everyone will be interested in every product.
- Comprehension is the next step and the aim is that customers understand what the product will do for them. Advertising that helps a customer understand the benefits and features of the particular product offered will increase comprehension about the product.
- Once a customer is aware of and understands a product, then building conviction and a positive attitude to the product is the next phase. According to David Mercer in the book Marketing this stage is about persuading the customer to adopt a positive attitude to the product. It is about much more than understanding the benefits. Why should a customer buy this particular product from this particular outlet?
- Action. The whole point of marketing and advertising for small business is to generate increased revenue. That means the customer must buy – or, take any action which is a step towards buying. For example, making a phone call, purchasing in a shop, sending off for more information, etc.
An understanding of marketing touches will help to define realistic action steps for advertising campaigns.
DAGMAR Step Three: Measure Advertising Effectiveness
In step one of the DAGMAR advertising model, goals were established for the campaign. The final step is measure the results and effectiveness of the campaign by evaluating whether the goals were met or not. This may require another survey to measure awareness comprehension and conviction levels.
Advertising can be an important part of marketing for small business and understanding advertising models such as AIDA and DAGMAR can help improve marketing effectiveness.
Dawn Brewer - I have a portfolio career - as a writer, management consultant, instructor and coach - after twenty years in the corporate world. My ...
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