If you do not capture my attention, I will not read, view or listen to (if you are producing a broadcast message) your words.

If you capture my attention but do not maintain my interest, I will stop reading (viewing/listening to) you.

If you hold my interest but do not influence my attitude, what have you accomplished? I will be the same person I was before I encountered your message.

And if you influence my attitude but do not motivate me to act, by asking me to do something specific, I will do nothing.

As you might imagine, the “AIAA” model is followed by advertisers; however, I suggest it is a model that anyone who is trying to communicate with anybody should followed.

“But I'm not in sales,” you protest.
You may not be in sales, but if your purpose is to make me act (send you some information, meet with you, approve your request, actively support your cause, for example), you are in sales and your message must AIAA — capture my attention, maintain my interest, change or influence my attitude and motivate action.

How do you capture attention?
There are several ways you can do so. You can let me know your reason for writing; you can outline a problem and let me know you have the solution; or you can tell me that there is something for me in your message. In other words, you have to hook me with an issue that I can relate to.

How do you hold my interest?
To hold my interest, you have to build your case with facts and data related to whatever you used to capture my attention. In other words, your writing must be focused on, and build on, the issue that captured my attention. Meander all over the place, and watch my interest meander too.

How do you change or influence attitude?
To change or influence my attitude, you need to sell me on the benefits of your proposition, point out any consequences of inaction and/or overcome any objections that I might have. In other words, answer this question for me: What's in it for me (the reader)?

Here are a few examples of attitude-influencing statements:

• If we implement this proposal, we will boost sales by 15%, while only increasing costs by 5%.
• If we don't improve customer service through the suggested training program, poor word of mouth will continue to spread and will slowly erode sales.
• I know we're all stretched for time, but if you attend this meeting you will learn seven shortcuts that will improve your productivity by at least 10% in the first week.

How do you motivate action?
Finally, to motivate people to act, you need to be specific: Tell me who should do what, when, where and, if required, how. In addition, provide an incentive to act, if appropriate. The incentive could be as simple as “Lunch will be served at the meeting” or as sales-oriented as “Buy before May 21 and receive an additional 10% off the low sale price.” In short, it should be appropriate to the action you are trying to motivate.

Follow the steps in order, for the most part
Ideally, you should follow the above steps in order; however, there can be some overlap. For instance, in direct mail, you want a headline that will capture my attention. At the same time, you may want to allude to an incentive that will motivate me to act. Ironically, while your ultimate goal is to motivate me to buy something, make a donation to a cause or take a specific action, the allusion to the incentive on the cover of your brochure or on the direct mail envelope (or even in an email subject line) is really meant to motivate me to open the darn thing and read. So it is actually part of the attention-grabbing device.

Try to write effective messages or promotional copy without AIAA. I suspect you will find it difficult — even impossible — to do.