Worldbuilding vs. typical marketing tactics - Build a business they seek out
A few years back I was getting into a lot of triathlons. I had no idea, so I appointed myself as a ‘mentee’ under my new friend Pete.
I like to think it wasn’t all self-serving (Pete happened to be a local pro and future world champ). That I created some value for Pete and his friends... But either way, he taught me a lot.
One day we were out on a ride and he was giving me some advice.
Apparently, I was training too hard. Trying to fit in too many sessions each week. I said that I thought that was the point. I was trying to keep up with him.
“No, you want to train ‘easy’. Everyone is training too hard, and going too hard. They get injured, and never reach their potential. You want to go easy.”
I was half way through arguing this, and a few people passed us going up a hill.
I couldn’t help surging a bit to try and catch up with them.
“That’s exactly what I mean!” he laughed at me.
“The goal is to train easy, and get better over time. Your capacity goes up. Your technique gets better. So if you want to rest, you rest. Train the next day.”
In that one conversation, I had gone from someone who knew Pete, to someone who was in his world. I understood how it worked.
Pete created a ‘paradigm shift’ - “Everyone else is training hard, but it ain’t working. Over here we train easy.”
Pete’s world was different.
His mentors were different.
His food was different.
His schedule was different (with a lot of sleeping)
His whole world was different to any other triathlete.
It was exclusive to him, and the only way you could interact with him and go deeper was to enter his world. In the small biz world, Pete would have been what we call a ‘worldbuilder’.
When we think about marketing, it’s easy to start start with what we’ve got for our service, then ‘add’ marketing tactics.
Photoshoots
Better video
A better website with more SEO
In that traditional process, we also look at our 'positioning,’ or how we sit in the market relative to others.
“They do the service that way. We do the service this way.”
It’s a ‘relative’ way of looking at your business, which compares you to others in your field.
I’m a big coffee drinker.
And, I’m in the ‘selective’ coffee snob sub-category. So sometimes, if I’m out I’ll even grab one from the service station. One day I saw one of their signs: “All Arabica Beans”. This is because a lot of the cheap places use Robusta, which is even cheaper (albeit stronger).
They also have a big “$1 COFFEE” sign.
‘Relative’ positioning. The beans are a different type. Convenient, and cheaper. That’s the drawcard.
Then they clarify that positioning through the signage.
You might be familiar with the gym space, this same thing happens all the time:
When you go through a mall, you’ll see a 24/7 gym with some kind of sign: “$0 Joining fee, Flexible contract”. So this is more attractive than the gym down the road with the joining fee.
Then if you look at their socials, it reflects this. An effort to clarify that positioning, and make it clear they are the best choice on price. This can happen a lot when a market gets crowded.
But, this is the old way…
Enter the Worldbuilders…
Now we live in the modern economy, people are looking for more.
As buyers, we need to trust businesses at a much deeper level. The alternative to this - a completely different paradigm, is a story-driven approach, where you build a world. Much like my friend Pete did with his ‘world’ of triathlon (a game, that ended up with him winning the title), you create a way for people to enter your world, and go deeper, or ‘advance’ over time.
And get to where they want to go through your service…
Let’s go back to the coffee shops.
LORDS is a local coffee shop in Newcastle. They have great coffee, but nowhere does it say what kind of beans they have. Nowhere do they advertise their low prices (they aren’t low). Instead, they focus on the customer experience. Which, is totally unique. Their content becomes an extension of that experience, with wild, interesting videos that get a lot of attention.
LORDS has a slew of different characters that they bring out.
They have a clear backstory.
They have different products, or ‘magic’, that help you to move forward in the LORDS world and LORDS lifestyle.
[note: Andy Raskin calls new features your ‘magic’ in his narrative building work. This seems very close, but realise that this stuff stems from storytelling, gaming, and fantasy. We have used the term ‘magic’ slightly differently in worldbuilding, typically linked to a character in the service business. So I might have the ‘magic’ of writing. But I can teach you that ‘magic’ through a profitable promise - which is a writing workshop.]
Great coffee is a pre-requisite to thrive as a coffee shop.
But LORDS doesn’t focus on the transaction. They focus on the experience you get when you have the coffee.
In fact, three new coffee shops have opened up right next to them.
But it’s only strengthened their world. As people go to the new shops, they see LORDS, and a percentage of them are intrigued. Once they are hooked on the experience and the relationships they form, they never leave.
And so it is with worldbuilding.
Let’s look at a brief contrast of the typical way of looking at marketing, versus a worldbuilding approach:
Traditional marketing or ‘positioning’:
“We are here, competition is over there.”
“Our pricing is X, that’s great value.”
“We do it this way, they do it that way.”
Seek more attention through more noise, faster edits et cetera
“Come to us because it’s worth it, and here’s a discount”
Here’s a standard testimonial
This is transactional
Now for something entirely different…
Worldbuilding:
They are doing this thing, but we think the culture has changed…
You can tell, and we can tell (supporting facts if needed)
That’s why we are building this new way of doing things, in a totally new world
Hello, I’m John, I started this thing - This is who I am, this is my experience and personality. (A character in the world.)
This is my profitable promise - how we help you, it’s the ‘magic’ in our world.
Here are some details of our world. Some will surprise you. They exist because they’re cool, and part of our culture.
And this is what the future looks like that we want to build. It’s different.
We are selling the vision and the ability to play in this world, the lifestyle it creates, and the type of person you become, not just our offer that helps you solve a problem.
But if you’d like to join, here’s how you can buy
This offer can solve your problem and help you advance in the world.
When you get a win, we will help you celebrate. In fact, that’s a big chunk of our content.
Yes, the world solves a problem. You need your expertise...
But, we are building around the experience, not just the transaction.
And there’s a lot more attention to detail.
This is not unlike the online gaming culture.
In his book Explore/Create, Richard Garriott talks about how in his early online version of Ultima, he was surprised how many people became online friends, and even got married, after having a shared experience of the gameplay. In one situation, there was a group of twelve people that played together. Suddenly one of them didn’t log in for a few days. They didn’t know where this guy lived in real life. But they eventually found out that he died. They were distraught. This is the power of a strong ‘world’, and similar mission. The mission, the world, and the characters have as much value as the actual point of the game.
Let’s look at a couple of business examples.
The first one is Gene Simmons, and his KISS world.
I know, this ain’t a service business. Or, is it? In Simmon’s empire, he has all kinds of businesses, including financial services. And all of them are tied in to his character, that he created on purpose.
Let’s take a look at what he did (I highly recommend his books)
He decided he wanted to be ‘big’
He looked around, and saw that the American culture had changed, and was craving something exciting
He built his new way of doing things - changed his name, came up with the costumes, and the flames, and the performances
They became the band ‘KISS’ and trademarked the faces
Their shows were consistently over the top. If you come, you will be blown away.
The merchandise became ways to affiliate with the band (and world)
They started selling different ways to play in the KISS world
People even went over the top and got tattoos et cetera
KISS and Gene Simmons related products are like any others, and you can buy into the magic in 158 different ways…
To be honest, Simmons built a universe, not just a ‘world’. And it was so unique that people started to copy him, hence the trademarking of the face paint…
But a ‘world’ doesn’t have to be so big.
Maybe you’re a solopreneur. Let’s look at one woman we work with, Amy, who is building Warrior School, a training approach for women.
Women are trying to exercise to get a result all kinds of ways
But the culture has changed. We are more stressed now, plus, we have more information now (new information)
You can tell, and I can tell (in fact, Amy shares how she ‘used’ to train the other way)
More: here are supporting facts about women and training…
That’s why I am building this new way of training to get better results. It is based on more fluid training style, and health. I’m an evangelist for this style of training!
Hello, I’m Amy, I started this - this is who I am, here’s a whole bunch of my personality
This is my profitable promise - I’ll teach you the magic you need to get strong, feel good and have a body you love
Here are some details (‘world building’ across podcast episodes)
This is what the future looks like when we train this way
I’m passionate about this training, not just my offer. I want more people to have this lifestyle.
But if you want help, here’s how you can go deeper in my world.
This offer is part of my magic
We all will celebrate your wins (here are some wins of the other women doing it this way).
Once your world is clear, and you are playing your own game, you get to choose the marketing tactics…
Whether you do instagram reels, or tiktok, is not as important as the underlying story, and where you are taking your customers.
This is what the world is build on, this is what we seek out, and where trust is built.
More:
Now your pricing can be independent. As a customer I’m not paying for a similar service that I can get somewhere else, I’m paying to be immersed in this world and go deeper (advance in the world).
How this can go wrong…
Let’s wrap up with some traps we see come up:
If the world doesn’t stand for anything. This is a common flaw, and no amount of social media tactics can save this. The world has to be ‘about’ something, because that’s why it exists. This means in one sense, it’s exclusive (and we can’t get anything like this elsewhere).
When the world is too available, or too open to feedback. Imagine reading The Lord of The Rings books, then half way along, there was a poll, where Tolkien asked the readers what “should” happen… It would completely destroy the story. Sure we want to be listening to customers, but our job as a world builder is to surprise them, and create new and deeper experiences
When characters in the world have a different idea on what it’s about. This is big if you have a team. The characters must be aligned on why the world exists, or else the world will cease to exist. The stakes are high here.
If you don’t have a way to go ‘deeper’. Let’s say you just use social media for marketing. Well… that’s not your world technically. That’s Zuckerberg’s world. So what you need is a place for people to go deeper with your marketing, ideally before they buy. We recommend an email list. And you can ‘reward’ readers on your list by taking them deeper into new things.
When the world ain’t ‘rich’ enough. In your world, you can develop language, tools, magic, and ‘inside’ ways to talk about what you do. This should be totally different to anyone else’s world.
Because you’re still ‘chasing’. Sending DM’s to prospects, running around doing things for free. Discounting. With world building, your goal is to clarify your message, and then amplify exposure to that message and world. Then at each exposure point, create opportunities for people to go deeper (join my email list).
With a lot of lazy, or more tactical marketing or positioning, you would see how your service fits in ‘relative’ to your industry.
They do this / We do this, at this better price.
Well, the bet is there is no longer a safe ‘positioning’ practice like this. The game has changed and we now seek a much deeper level of trust. You can no longer enter a market, with a slightly cheaper service.
Or a slightly faster service…
Or be a bit more convenient, or helpful, and survive…
People want to immerse themselves in your world, understand your culture, and go deep, before they buy. And then, they often want to buy more from you, to go deeper over time.