What's in it for me? The question all emails should answer
Students are some of the busiest people, yet they have enough time to do everything. On any given day you’ll find them managing heavy study loads, working a job, contributing to a household, caring for others, and socialising on short notice. I graduated a few years ago and since then, my time between the office and home seems to vanish quickly. How did I fit it all in when I was a student?
When we consider what students are thinking and doing, we gain an appreciation for how we can tweak our emails and communications to better serve their needs (and ours!).
Why won’t students do the thing I asked?
It might just be that assignments, exams or a study break are looming. Students are likely prioritising what they give attention to during these periods. When this happens, we can use the What’s in it for me? (WIIFM) technique to help frame our writing. I first heard about WIIFM from an army sergeant when I asked to interview him.
‘What’s the WIIFM?’ he replied.
From that conversation I quickly realised that success in interacting with other humans is about give and take.
Let’s look at an example of how we can use WIIFM to promote studying overseas.
There’s little doubt that studying overseas is a life-changing experience for our students and it should be encouraged and appreciated. However, how do we get students to think curiously and connect with the value of this experience?
When we think about the lives of students, many of them are juggling work and study — so money is tight, but they still want to have fun, go on adventures, and contribute to their studies via experiential learning. They are also focused on the future and an overseas study experience will look good on their resume.
To address these values, we could write something like this in the first few sentences …
Eligible students will receive academic credit and significant financial assistance to reduce travel costs. Students will have the opportunity to interact with locals and undertake fieldwork with experienced vulcanologists.
In the above example, the benefits for students is direct and upfront. We achieved this by reflecting on how to tailor the opportunity to students’ needs and priorities.
What is the action I want students to take?
In the world of marketing one of the go-to phrases is “call to action” (CTA). This means that information alone is often not enough to get people to do the thing we want them to do — we need to tell them how to do it (we are being helpful).
Once you have stated WIIFM, the next step is to be clear about how you want students to respond. The secret sauce for CTAs is using action verbs to make your writing energising and motivating. Active CTAs include:
- Get your study plan
- Apply for the Volcano Tour
- Sign up for our virtual volcano tour
What about all the other information students might need to know?
Often students will need more context about the information you have provided like deadlines, the names of speakers, or application instructions.
Help students feel more inclined to read the details by including essential information in a list or short paragraphs with 2-3 sentences. To decide what is essential, think about what information would help a student succeed if all they read was the email. Any other information is “nice to know” and can be linked to a website. Using headings is another way to structure the importance and flow of information.
White space in an email or on paper is a beautiful thing! By breaking down our writing into short and precise paragraphs that are to the point, and persuasive, we make our pieces more inviting to read.
Remember the time when you opened that email that took you ages to scroll through? Nope, neither do I.