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The second stage in the AIDA buying cycle model, Interest, indicates a prospect looking to learn more about a general category of product or service. The prospect has not settled on a brand (much less a model) - they are not ready to think about making a Decision.

Continuing the scenario from our last Blog post, a student researching eco-tourism for an MBA paper found her Attention drawn by a PPC ad for eco-tents. She clicked, and the idea "clicked" with her. She made a mental note, and went back to her research.

Interest

In the Interest phase, our graduate student is no longer working on a research paper - she's planning for a future vacation. Like most folks, she will look left at the organic search results rather than at right for sponsored links, because she seeks general, comprehensive information about eco-tenting rather than possible campgrounds (Decision stage) or vacation deals (Action stage).

Imagine you are the Maho Bay campground in St. John (http://www.maho.org), trying to attract her interest. You already come up on top for an organic search on "eco-tent St. John" because that's not a competitive term. But our student doesn't know that there are eco-tents on St. John yet. What to do?

You could try to rank on page one for "eco-tents". However, top ranks for organic search for general terms can be expensive and difficult to maintain, particularly if you have strong competition. For example, the current top position for "eco-tents" on the organic side is held by http://eideindustries.com, and as of this writing, there are 1,900 backlinks to that site, and their SEO profile is likewise formidable. But there are many other options, such as affiliate advertising on Eide's site (if you use their products), listings on other sites (no entry on Wikipedia for Eco-Tent yet!), or "longer tail" search terms (like "eco-tents" instead of "eco-tent").

Is there a Sponsored Link solution? If Maho Bay were to publish a PDF brochure about its eco-tents, the PPC ad might look like this:

Eco-Tent Camping Guide
Free download! Types of eco-tents, parks
to choose from, and much more!
www.eco-tents.com