You can try to sell yourself and your product or service all you like, however, if you don’t second position your subscriber and answer the fundamental question of ‘what’s in it for me’ (WIIFM), you are simply focusing on yourself and not on your subscribers.
Your product/service should be built around the people you are trying to help. Stay humble, and prioritise your subscribers’ thoughts, needs, feelings, and emotions. Before you think about your business needs, your customers have to come first.
The ‘What’s in it for me’ checklist
What follows is a checklist of the possible reasons why our potential readers should or could consider our emails as interesting and useful. Could at least one of these be their spontaneous reaction?
- You make me laugh
- You move me
- You make me feel a better person
- You make me dream of escaping from everyday life
- You give me the excuse to forgive one of my flaws/faults/weaknesses
- You make me (really) earn/save
- You make me play/measure up/compete with others
- You show me how to solve a practical problem (but it must be mine and I have to feel the pressure)
- You teach me something original and make me look good with others
- You save me time by offering me tips/methods/solutions
- You make me discover something new, you give me new ideas (about style, cooking, travelling, design)
- You make me feel included (in a community, in a cause)