Every go-to-market strategy depends on understanding what your customer actually wants. WIIFM, short for “what’s in it for me”, is the shorthand for keeping that in view.
It means looking at your product from the customer’s side and answering one question: why should they care? Marketing that answers it directly works. Marketing that describes the product and hopes the reader does the translation does not.
This post covers why WIIFM matters, how to work out what your audience cares about, and how to write messages that answer the question.
What WIIFM means
WIIFM is the question every reader is silently asking. Answer it and your message lands. Ignore it and you have written a description of yourself.
Why it matters
People apply this test automatically, whether they are opening a piece of direct mail, reading a landing page or sitting through a training session. They are deciding within seconds whether the thing in front of them is relevant to them specifically.
Writing with that in mind is what makes communication persuasive rather than merely accurate.
The attention problem
Harvard Business Review has reported that employees have roughly five minutes a day available for learning and development. That is the reality any internal message is competing against.
With that little attention available, being explicit about what someone gains is not a stylistic choice. It is the difference between being read and being skipped.
Working out what your audience wants
You cannot answer WIIFM without knowing who is asking.
Understanding needs and motivations
This takes real research into what your audience values, not assumptions about it. Once you know what they care about, the messaging mostly writes itself.
Finding the benefits that land
Look for benefits that connect to fundamental human needs: security, belonging, status. Research the pain points directly, through conversations and where appropriate focus groups, covering both what an individual needs and what their organisation needs.
Maslow’s hierarchy is a useful frame here. People are motivated by different needs depending on their circumstances, and knowing roughly where your audience sits tells you which benefits will register.
Roles matter too. Different jobs value different outcomes, so tailor the benefit by role and responsibility. For some people the strongest motivator is money or advancement. For others it is simply that a change will make their working day less irritating.
Getting this right is what makes a message feel personal rather than broadcast.
Writing the message
Two things do most of the work here: addressing the reader directly, and making the message specific to them.
Say “you”, not “we”
The simplest improvement available. Switching from “we” to “you” reframes the sentence around the reader.
“We provide the fastest service” becomes “You can get the fastest service available if you switch today.” Same claim, and the second one is about the reader.
Personalisation
Personalised material performs better because it signals you know something about the recipient.
Variable data printing lets you customise each piece of direct mail with details specific to the recipient, and response rates roughly double as a result. The same principle applies in training, where connecting the material to the skills someone actually wants turns a passive audience into participants.
Both come back to the same thing: the more precisely a message fits the person reading it, the harder it is to ignore.
WIIFM in marketing
Used properly, WIIFM aims your messaging at what your audience is actually concerned about, which is usually not what your product page leads with. It is the fastest way to improve marketing without spending anything.
Writing direct mail that gets read
Assume every recipient is asking what is in it for them. Write as though that question has already been put to you.
Set out what the offer gives them and how it solves their problem. Being explicit about the value is what earns the attention.
Benefits, not features
A feature is what the product does. A benefit is what changes for the person using it. Readers care about the second one.
“Our software has advanced analytics features” tells them nothing. “Our software cuts the time you spend on reporting, so you spend less of the week on manual work” tells them what their Tuesday looks like afterwards.
That is the whole translation, and most marketing copy never makes it.
Answering the question
Two things make the answer convincing: being specific about the benefit, and backing it with recognition that feels genuine.
Be specific about the benefit
Explain how your product helps someone reach their goal. The WIIFM test asks what they actually need, which is not always what they say they want.
Rather than the technical detail, give the practical result. “Our software reduces time spent on data analysis by 50%, so you can make decisions faster” speaks to a real need. A feature list does not.
Recognition and loyalty
Rewards and recognition communicate value, whether you are talking to customers or to employees adapting to a new process.
A loyalty programme or acknowledging customer milestones does real work here. In the employee context, over 91% of HR professionals say recognition reduces turnover, and the same principle applies to customers: people stay where they feel noticed.
WIIFM also defuses resistance during organisational change, because most resistance comes from people not knowing how a change affects them. If a company rolls out new software, being honest about the trade-offs and about what people will lose builds more trust than only listing the improvements.
Where it goes wrong
Two common problems.
Only using extrinsic motivators
WIIFM has a slightly transactional reputation, earned by decades of use in advertising. The fix is to balance both kinds of motivation.
Extrinsic motivators are external: discounts, promotions, rewards. Intrinsic motivators are internal: satisfaction, competence, a sense of having done something well. Leaning entirely on the first is what makes WIIFM feel cynical.
Covering both reaches more people and produces a more durable connection.
Losing focus
Messages need to be clear and direct. People also need to understand what is wrong with the current situation before a new proposition means anything to them.
Use language your customers use. Avoid jargon. Plain and honest beats polished, and it is much harder to mistake for lip service.
Putting it into practice
Two practical steps: segment the audience, and involve them.
Segmenting
Different groups want different things, so a single message answering WIIFM for everyone answers it for nobody. Divide the audience and write for each group.
Address each group’s actual concerns. This is more work and it is the reason segmented messaging outperforms general messaging so consistently.
Involving people
Bring your audience into the conversation. Ask for feedback, and use direct conversation to learn what matters to individuals. Inside an organisation, teams, frontline staff and managers all value different outcomes.
People also weigh a change against what they might lose, so ask about that specifically. What someone fears giving up is usually the real objection.
Then refine the messaging based on what you hear. Research, interviews and focus groups are how you find the pain points and tailor the message by role.
Two-way communication builds trust, and people who were consulted about a change tend to support it rather than endure it.
The StoryBrand framework is a useful structure for this, positioning the customer as the hero and your brand as the guide, which forces the message to be about them rather than about you.
Conclusion
WIIFM is a discipline rather than a technique. It means checking every message against one question: what does the reader get out of this?
Most marketing fails that test, describing the product rather than what changes for the person buying it. Answering it properly is unglamorous work, and it is the difference between a message that gets acted on and one that gets skimmed.
FAQs
WIIFM stands for what's in it for me. It means looking at your product from the customer's side and answering one question: why should they care? Every reader is silently asking it. Marketing that answers it directly works. Marketing that describes the product and hopes the reader does the translation does not.
A feature is what the product does; a benefit is what changes for the person using it. Readers care about the second one. "Our software has advanced analytics features" tells a reader nothing. "Our software cuts the time you spend on reporting, so you spend less of the week on manual work" tells them what their Tuesday looks like afterwards.
Switching from we to you reframes the sentence around the reader, and it is the simplest improvement available. "We provide the fastest service" becomes "You can get the fastest service available if you switch today." Same claim, and the second version is about the reader instead of the company.
Yes. Variable data printing lets you customise each piece of direct mail with details specific to the recipient, and response rates roughly double as a result. Personalised material performs better because it signals you know something about the recipient. The same principle applies in training, where connecting the material to the skills someone actually wants turns a passive audience into participants.
Extrinsic motivators are external: discounts, promotions, rewards. Intrinsic motivators are internal: satisfaction, competence, a sense of having done something well. Leaning entirely on the external ones is what makes WIIFM feel cynical. Covering both reaches more people and produces a more durable connection.
