Are You Continually Reminding Yourself To Tune In To WII-FM Every Day?

What's WII-FM, you may ask? And what does it have to do with your success in business, in your career and in life in general? I'll tell you in a moment. But first, let me show you a website I had the chance to critique recently. Mind you, I asked for permission from my client before even starting to write this article. So, having said that, let's move right ahead.

Rahyan runs a website at www.appslodge.com, a multi-media design and development firm which specializes in IT services such as logo creation and branding, graphic design, web design , motion graphics, film production, print design, IOS/Android apps, games and website creation.

If you visit Rahyan's website, you'll notice that the layout is neat. It has a professional look that invites the visitors to peruse it. (Go check it out right now.)

But if you talk to Rahyan, he'll probably tell you he's struggling to make ends meet because he doesn't have enough clients plus he's not getting enough prospects to call him in the first place. That causes Rahyan to have to continually be generating new clients for his business when it should be the business marketing platform in place which should be doing that in a sort of automatic way.

That made me ponder over the question, Why is this happening to Rahyan?

There is no easy answer to that question. In reality, many things might be causing appslodge.com to be stagnant in growth at best; going through a downward spiral at worst: A poor marketing strategy; the inability to distinguish itself from its competitors; an ineffective marketing message; use of the wrong advertising media, so on and so forth.

However, other things are very simple indeed. And they might be impacting Rahyan's business in a negative way. Since my work is to make things really easy for you, my friend reader, I will tell you what it is step by step and then we'll extrapolate the lessons.

First, let me bring up the title of today's article: Are You Reminding Yourself Continually To Tune In To WII-FM Every Day?

WII-FM stands for What's In It For Me? 

In other words, your website visitors, yes, even Rahyan's visitors, are always looking for what benefit you can give them. What's in it for them, is all they want to know. And, if they can't find it RIGHT AWAY, they'll turn away and probably never return.

If you tell them about what you do (aka features), as Rahyan does, and really as most entrepreneurs do, they'll simply shrug their shoulders and say: "SO WHAT?" and go away.

You and I have to understand this little nugget of knowledge if we want to be successful in our business ventures.

The client is always, always, always asking themselves this question: What's In It For Me? 

Need I say it again? Yes, ALWAYS!

Now I want you to understand why I think Rahyan's website―although looking nice and professional―might be failing to address that important issue.

Please imagine for a moment that you're a visitor to Rahyan's website. What are you doing here? Why did you come? Obviously you came here because you wanted something related to the IT services appslodge.com provides, right? Maybe you want to have your website created, or an app for your business, or a game that you want to market. Evidently, you either want something now or think you may need something from appslodge.com portfolio in the near future.

If you were Rahyan, what could you do to motivate the visitor to call you or leave your contact info? You might want to create an irresistible offer, or a freebie, that you can give me as an incentive to take the next step AND OFFER IT TO ME RIGHT AWAY, right?

Why would you do that, offer it RIGHT AWAY?

The reason is Rahyan's visitors' attention span (yours too), is just a few seconds long before they turn you off. This is what happens in the visitors mind: They get a feel for your business and make decisions about it in NANOSECONDS, figuratively speaking. Snap your fingers. It's THAT FAST!

Now I want you to take a look at appslodge.com screenshot when you enter:

It tells me what they do, right? The banner moves after a few seconds, and you see this:

Again, another feature. The banner slides again after a few seconds, and then you see this:

Finally here, on the third banner, is for the VERY FIRST TIME something that might entice you to take the next step. A special offer to motivate you to either call Rahyan right away or leave your personal information on the website.

Since the banners cycle every so many seconds, chances are you won't see this offer again for a while, IF YOU EVER GOT A CHANCE TO EVEN SEE IT. I've gotta be honest: I personally didn't see it the first time I visited Rahyan's website. My eyes completely missed it.

The "Special Offer" is again mentioned midway through the website. I have boxed it in blue. Let me show it to you:

Here's the banner in case you missed it:

Now, I would argue this is really an IRRESISTIBLE OFFER. But that is in and of itself another topic and is something I need to discuss with Rahyan personally.

But I hope this is enough to make my point clear in your mind.

The only offer that might entice the reader to take the next step is not conspicuous enough so it's almost really like it's not there. Chances are you're gonna miss it altogether. Rahyan has to re-position his special offer so that it comes to the forefront AS SOON AS THE VISITOR OPENS THE PAGE. This is one key reason people are not showing up for the next phase. And it won't change until the website changes.

What's the lesson for you and I?

Lesson is clear: Create an irresistible offer and tie it up to what your prospective client wants to get when they come to your business and then place it in front of them right away as soon as they enter your website or physical location.

You do that and I guarantee you, you'll be singing the song your audience wants to hear.

You'll be tuning in to WII-FM.

BTW, this nugget applies to everything in life, from marriage to career advancement to negotiations. Everything. Find what it is the other party wants and give it to them right away. That's one of the secrets to success.

Happy Marketing!

Fred Recinos, Ph.D. is a prominent solution strategist and marketing consultant. He’s been a trusted advisor and business growth strategist to businesses from the SMB level all the way up to the INC 500 as well as Fortune 500 companies for the last 16 years.