WIIFM Customer Research Drives Marketing From Real Desires
Your customers and prospects are tuned to exactly one channel: WIIFM — What's In It For Me. They don't care about your brilliant ideas or your expertise. They only want to know how it benefits them specifically. Most marketers get this wrong because they base their messaging on what they think is important rather than what their customers have actually told them. The only way to know what your market truly wants is to go ask them — directly through interviews and surveys, drilling deep into their primal fears and desires, not just surface-level preferences. Marketing done right is actually more valuable and interesting than entertainment because it addresses real needs that people are already urgently feeling. And remember: marketing is just selling done in mass format through print, audio, or video. They're the same thing at different scales.
Relevant Clips4
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Interview and Survey Customers to Uncover Primal Motivations
Start by interacting with prospective customers directly through interviews and surveys to discover their real fears and desires. Drill deep into their primal motivations rather than assuming you know what drives them.
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No Junk Food as a Higher-Order Life Decision
WIIFM stands for 'What's In It For Me' - the only channel that customers and prospects are tuned to. People don't care about your brilliant ideas or expertise; they only want to know how it benefits them specifically.
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Research-Based Marketing That Feels More Useful Than Entertainment
Base your marketing on customer needs discovered through research rather than what you think is important. Great marketing becomes more valuable and interesting than entertainment because it addresses real needs.
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Marketing Is Just Selling Scaled to a Mass Format
According to Eben Pagan, marketing is actually selling done in a mass format through print, audio, or video. They're essentially the same thing, just delivered to different audience sizes.