I got an email from a subscriber whe, like me, is a lover of magic. He wanted to know if and how he could make use of his hobby in his marketing.

The answer was “maybe” and I'll explain in a second.

I'm a big fan of one of marketing's oldest formulae: AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action).

But as it's often taught, there's a missing link.

Because the important point about AIDA is that you're not just looking to get anyone's attention. You're not just looking to get them interested in anything or to desire anything or take any action.

It's all got to be aligned.

You want the attention of the people you specifically want to take your action. So whatever you use to get attention must target those people.

You need to get their interest. But not just in anything. It needs to be in something related to the action you want them to take.

You need the desire you build to be about the action you want them to take.

Often, you see AIDA applied without that alignment. Especially the attention part.

People will try stunts and tricks to get your attention – like the Facebook ads you used to see with red boxes around them or attractive faces (and other body parts) that had nothing to do with the product they were promoting.

They got attention all right. But the attention of the wrong people with no real interest in the product.

In the case of my subscriber wanting to use his magic hobby in his marketing, the key is to make it relevant and aligned with what he wants to sell.

You can get someone's attention with a magic trick. But if that attention isn't related – even tangentially – to what you're promoting, then it's wasted.

For example, if you did a magic trick where you burned a $100 bill, then magically restored it – that would get attention. But it would need to be linked to some sort of product that helped you avoid “burning money”. 

That would make sense and would flow nicely on to building interest and desire in the product and to people taking action to find out more.

But if the product was completely unrelated it would fall flat. It would be like shouting “fire” to get attention then saying “now that I have your attention, I'd like to talk about our new range of kitchens”.

That kind of attention-grabbing just annoys people.

So in all your marketing, make sure there's a link between how you grab their attention and what you then do to build interest and desire and the action you'd like them to take.