Posts RSSBy Ann Wylie, president, Wylie Communications Inc.
(Image: Schani, Creative Commons)
Look for the ‘That means you will …’
What do readers get if they save more for retirement?
“Nobody wants to buy our products; they want to buy the products of our products. They don’t want to buy vitamins; they want to buy health.” — Nido Qubein, CSP, CPAE, motivational speaker and business consultant
When J.P. Morgan asked clients to envision retirement, nobody talked about retirement savings.
“Nobody gave us a dollar figure,” Donn Hess, an executive at J.P. Morgan Retirement Plan Services LLC, told The Kansas City Star. “Nobody gave us a wage replacement figure.”
Why, then, do retirement savings campaigns focus so much on those numbers?
As J.P. Morgan discovered, people were more interested in what they could do with those savings:
- Play golf every day.
- Spend summers at the Oregon coast.
- Eat dinner in every Michelin-starred restaurant in France.
That caused the firm to ponder …
“What if we stopped talking to our employees about money and started talking to them about the life they want to lead?” Hess asks.
Bingo.
That’s the secret to focusing on the reader’s needs. Look beyond the most obvious WIIFM, or “What’s in it for me?” Instead, focus on the “That means you will … ,” or what the reader will get from the WIIFM.
Not: “You’ll have an extra $500,000 for retirement.” But, “That means you’ll be able to cruise Greece every winter during your 60s.”
Morgan used this approach recently when it asked clients’ employees about their interests and visions of retirement. Then the company sent its next mailing wrapped with a cover sheet targeted to employees’ interests.
- Those who liked outdoor activities got images of climbing, kayaking and scuba diving.
- Golfers saw pictures of beautiful courses.
- Investors who wanted to spend more time with their families got photo essays of children.
The targeted mailings got a much stronger response than those that focused on retirement savings.
What’s the “That means you will …” element for your readers?
___
Source: Mark Davis, “Retirement plans tailor pitches to workers’ lives: By structuring their literature according to themes, companies hope to improve employee participation,” The Kansas City Star, Jan. 8, 2006
Learn more ways to Think Like a Reader
Would you like more tips for thinking like a reader, or positioning your information in the reader’s best interest? If so, please join Ann when she’ll present a custom-designed writing workshop on June 30 to do just this. Hosted by IABC/DC Metro, this event is sponsored by Johns Hopkins University and Marketwire.
About Ann Wylie
Ann Wylie is president of Wylie Communications Inc., a training, writing and consulting firm. She works with communicators who want to reach more readers and with organizations that want to get the word out. Wylie is the author of RevUpReadership.com, a toolbox for writers, and Wylie’s Writing Tips, a free e-zine. She has earned more than 60 awards, including two IABC Gold Quills, for her work.
Registration fees range from $119 for students to $149 for members (IABC/DC Metro, WWPR and SMC-DC) and $199 for non-members. Walk-ins will be accepted the day of the workshop if space permits. Register now!
