A righteous business World-Building case study in an email

Email Players subscriber Neil Pritchard asks: === I run a bricks and mortar games store that sells wargames and RPG’s. So D&D & games like Warhammer 40K. I already sell at a slight discount off recommended retail. But I’m a great believer in Dan Kennedys premium pricing. So I sell at less of a discount than my competitors. But I don’t just want to run a x amount off sale as an offer. That’ll dilute my positioning and margins on this stuff are tight as it is. Do you have any suggestions on how I could create offers that don’t just rely on price? Feel free to use this in your emails if you wish. Thanks Neil === My answer is two fold. First: Something to think about is, creating a paid community in your store. I imagine there’s an income ceiling doing what you’re doing to a large extent. But if you could create some kind of club, monthly dues… I have no idea what that price would be or what it would entail, that could be huge. So lots of incentives, perks, etc. Game nights, after hours access, with food and beverages. Even bigger discounts for members, early access, demos of new stuff, a monthly newsletter, really your imagination is the limit. A private lounge just for them, maybe even a private entrance, I’m just spit balling here… make deals with nearby restaurants they like to eat to get discounts just for them, etc. Basically an exclusive club - like a mini country club - for your best customers that is monthly but that comes out to more value than what they pay, maybe even saves them money overall for those who buy a lot of stuff from you. A physical location can be a huge asset for something like that. I know this isn’t what you asked about. But it’s what came to mind when I read your question. Only so much money in selling games, having discounts, etc. If I were you I’d think bigger than that - make yourself recession proof, the place to be, with core customers not even thinking of not being around there, hanging around there, wanting to be a part of your culture and world. In other words: Instead of being in the game selling business, be in the game community business. Or, even better, World-Building business. Which is the second part of my answer: World-Building. The key is to start out one square at a time. By square I mean, when I used to play RPGs we used graph paper to create our own countries, cities, towns, keeps, hidden passages, etc. And you’d start one square at a time which is not any different than how to go about World-Building in business: One square at a time. And simply make it so fun, interesting, useful, valuable people don’t want to leave. Take Narnia for example. Most have either read the books or watched the movies. C.S. Lewis didn’t have that world figured out — he literally just had an image in his head of a faun in the forest with a bunch of presents and he built from there. He didn’t have anything figured out beyond that to start. Tolkien didn’t have jack figured out either. People think he had this whole thing figured out. It took him 20 years to figure it out. You should see some of the ideas he came up with first for LOTR. All he wanted to do was write about hobbits eating. That was all he had and I’m not even exaggerating. The Hobbit, he said when they got out of the Misty Mountains, he wasn’t even sure where they were going to go next. He just let it unfold. And I think that’s part of the fun of doing it with business as well. Think of it as a world you create within your own pocket dimension, your own alternate reality, your own little corner of the internet/town/market/niche/product or service category. You have unlimited powers to a certain degree to create it how you want. You’re a kid playing with toys. Playing with toys is going to create little worlds. But it starts with that first toy. Then that toy interacting with another toy. Then it starts a chain reaction with other toys until you have a whole world going on of toys. That’s how you look at it. And it just starts with one thing, one wrong you want to right or just one thing you’re trying to recapture, one thing that you wish was out there that’s not that you wish was there in social media or anywhere else and start with that. That’s enough to get anyone started. If you want more of my thoughts on business World-Building see my new BizWorld book. It’s an introduction (101 level) to the topic. And the launch is almost at an end. Plus, unlike most of my books this one is not expensive, and is quite affordable to most anyone in business. Plus, I am giving away a valuable bonus in my mobile app (so you’ll need a smart phone — no exceptions) analyzing one of my favorite business World-Builders to those who: 1. Buy the book in print or Kindle by tonight, Sunday August 6th at midnight EDT 2. Send me the Amazon receipt by that deadline (not just buy it, but send me the receipt by the deadline too — send a screenshot of your receipt if you have to, that is fine) You can read more about the bonus in the P.S. below. Otherwise, here is the link: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com/bizworld]( Ben Settle P.S. Regarding the bonus training in my mobile app I will give if you buy AND send me your receipt by the 8/6 at midnight EDT deadline. I call it: “Death Touch Marketing Secrets” It’s about a particularly insane & brutal biz World-Builder from the 60’s & 70’s. Someone I’ve learned a lot from studying, as have certain other very high-level 7 & 8-figure marketers I am aware of “in the know” who have spent many hours talking about, discussing, and learning from this guy about how he approached his marketing which, believe it or not, literally got him killed. But that’s neither here nor there. If you buy (print or Kindle) & send me your receipt by the deadline it shows my take. Including: * The little-known psychology behind how old comicbook ads were able to crawl right into the psychology of their readers to create literal mail-order millionaires even though they mostly were completely BS offers. (Not suggesting you sell crap — but what works to sell crap works even better to sell gold…) * How to make your cold ads (Facebook, Google, banner, space, classifieds… whatever it is) stand out like a MAGA hat at an AOC eat-the-rich fundraiser dinner. * A tasteful way to shamelessly milk money from fear & pain in your marketing. * Best “sleeper” place in long form sales copy to create lots of prestige and trust in you, your business, and your offer. (Believe it or not, this alone can potentially make the sale for even very high priced offers.) * An admittedly sneaky (but totally ethical) way to sell “between the lines” in your ads, sales, letters, and emails. (You won’t always be able to do this, but when/if you can — it can potentially pull all kinds of new sales your business might not get otherwise.) * The blatantly politically incorrect “fat chicks” secret for finding out exactly what your market’s worst pains & insecurities are to sell them more of your offers. * Absolutely one of the most cunning ways ever invented for using your competition’s own offers to help sell more of YOUR offers. * How to structure a near-perfect sidebar for your long form sales pages, ads, and sales letters. (If you do it right, a sidebar can do much of the heavy lifting — or possibly even make the sale on its own — to move more of your offers.) * Examples of how to make ordinary and “plain vanilla” offers sound exotic and sexy in your marketing without lying, deception, or exaggeration. * Stan Lee’s secret for writing product & offer titles people can’t resist wanting to buy. (Grown ass men & women still look for his fictitious countries like Wakanda & Latveria on maps 60+ years later, if that tells you something…) * How to write your name in ads to give your brand an almost Biblical-like epic feeling & power to it. * Real life example of how World-Building can sell your business’ offers with or without any formal advertising or marketing whatsoever. * The “U-Word” that can help add thick layers of proof & credibility to nearly any kind of offer or claim. * Example of how a literal $10,000 guarantee can be done without putting your business on the hook for any risk. * A quickie power lesson on how to add Showmanship to your marketing. * The blue check secret that gets people believing your offers and claims even if they hate you. * Hands down the single best spot in your ads to place your proof & credibility for maximum impact, belief, and response. (I learned this while writing an ad for a client who would add more zaniness and drama to my copy even after I thought I’d taken things too far!) * A shrewd way businesses still trying to grow a brand can use to help create proof and credibility almost out of thin air. * A secret method discovered years ago by a cunning weight loss author you can use TODAY (right after you learn it) to help combine showmanship, credibility, and intrigue for your business. * How to foil businesses in your market who give away everything free on YouTube. (A lot of marketers worry about this — but when you know what you’re doing, these give-away artists in your niche might be all but sending your business free customers.) * A completely “unorthodox” copywriting technique (used by a notorious comicbook writer/artist to prevent Batman from being cancelled back in the 80’s) that can help make your sales copy compulsively readable and engaging. * A hair-raising example (you should definitely use with caution) of how to turn your best customers & followers into soldiers — sally forth’ing into the internet, and picking fights with your competitors. (A lot of business people cannot handle this sort of thing, and it can get crazy… but it can also potentially make your business a lot of new sales, too.) * A bizarre (but ingenious) way to use an ordinary Bible to help make your sales copy, emails, & other writings more dramatic and engaging. * An old school Hollywood screenwriting trick (used by everyone from Walt Disney to Peter Jackson — in fact, a great example is in the first Hobbit movie) that can help make even the “plain vanilla” ordinary and mundane exotic and irresistible. * How introverts can grow rock-solid relationships with people on their email lists without engaging in mindless small talk and chit-chat. * How swiping John Caples can potentially get you thrown in jail! (Copywriters fight me on this, but what I say about this makes it no less true. If you’re going to swipe John Caples, tread very carefully.) * And a ho’ bunch more. All right, one more time: To get this bonus (which is ONLY in my mobile app, and not available anywhere else) you must (1) buy BizWorld in print or Kindle format before the Sunday 8/6 at midnight EDT deadline AND (2) send me your receipt by that deadline. If you send me your receipt after that? You will be ignored. And I don’t give a shyt what your excuse is, the answer is NO after that. Here is the link to the buy the book: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com/bizworld]( This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2023 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this email may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Settle, LLC. Click here to [unsubscribe]( Settle, LLC PO Box 1056 Gold Beach Oregon 97444 USA