The first time I heard of the WIIFM principle was in an interview with permission marketing guru Seth Godin.
“Everybody’s favorite radio station is WIIFM: What’s in it for me,” he said.
I’ve since learned it’s a very old concept. It’s also a concept a lot of PR folks and their clients/employers should learn.
I am forever receiving pitches that fail to take into account why anyone would be interested in them.
Case in point: recently I received a pitch that began with the following:
“I’ve got a story idea for you about a unique way that one digital ad agency is celebrating its growth this holiday season. Even though many traditional agencies have been struggling in the down economy of 2008-2009, this is a success story about having survived and thrived despite the economic chill.”
Yep. That’s just what my readers want to hear. They’re doing what used to be the jobs of three people, wondering if their company is solvent or not, and the first thing they want to learn when they take a break to read this newsletter is what a grand old time someone else has been having.
I get a lot of these “look-how-much-we’ve-grown” pitches. No doubt, the driving force behind most of these misguided pitches is the client … or more to the point, probably the OPS guy. OPS folks are always coming up with wacky sales-and-marketing ideas, because they think anyone can do it.
In any case, one of the more annoying aspects of look-how-much-we’ve-grown pitches is they always use meaningless percentages. As I read them, I always think: “Oh, you’ve grown 100%. You had one client, now you have two?”
Moreover, no one gives a rat’s patootie about a company’s growth except for those inside the organization, the CEO’s mom and possibly direct competitors. And, no, these pitches are not meant as potential learning experiences for others. They all say something along the lines of: “Look how great we’re doing; don’t you want to write about us?”
These pitches are not PR, they’re Me-R.
And please save the “thanks-to-blogs-no-one-has-to-go-through-you-jerk-reporters-anymore” comments.
True, companies and individuals can easily publish their own stuff. But having someone else—who is supposedly a somewhat non-biased expert—publishing a piece about a company still lends the story more credibility than self-published PR on a company blog. And the idea that readers will spend time consuming only what offers them value stands no matter where the content appears.
The day I became a somewhat-successful professional writer was the day I realized what I do isn’t about me; it’s about readers and what they want.
Judging by my inbox, a lot of PR professionals and their clients/employers would do well to relearn the concept that everyone’s favorite radio station is WIIFM.
