7 things Texas Hold’em taught me about digital marketing

As you may guess from the title, I’m a poker player. Got hooked on Texas Hold’em back in 2005 and have been playing regularly ever since. While I occasionally venture out to a casino I actually play in an amateur league — no money, just points and glory. While playing recently I got to thinking about what you can learn about marketing from poker. While I may not make it to the World Series of Poker anytime soon, I’m sure this information will help you understand internet marketing a bit better and maybe give you an idea of what you can do to make your program stronger.

In Hold’em everyone has two cards and plays those with the 5 community cards on the table. You won’t ever know what someone has in their hand unless they choose to show you. You can try to read them, look at their faces or mannerisms and watch for trends but unless you see the cards, you’ll never know.

The same is true when you are trying to set up your site to generate traffic in search engines. We can guess what terms people might use to find a website. We can look at trending terms, frequent words used and etc. But unless we review the analytics or ask the visitors out right it’s always going to be a mysterious guessing game.

No one has insights beyond the tools that are available online to everyone – don’t let anyone tell you differently.

Whether or not card players choose to be in a hand (to ante up or bet) is totally up to the player holding the cards. What may motivate them to play the cards can be anything from superstitious belief to statistical odds that the hand will win.

Online we don’t know exactly what will motivate visitors to take an action on our websites. We too are playing the belief systems and statistical odds. The great thing is that intuition and statistical info are correct a good deal of the time so setting a website up to meet those expectations goes a long way toward getting interaction.

Patience is a rare commodity and it gets harder to be patient the more the game goes on and the fewer chips you have. When patience wears thin it’s easy to get desperate and chase hands that may not transpire or hold on too tight without taking any chances at all.

Many people don’t have patience when it comes to marketing their websites online either, especially if you’re starting from the bottom up. It takes time to get high rankings for a website, there’s no shortcut to the top. It takes time to build a social audience of qualified prospective clients and fans. It takes time to build an email marketing list.

The important thing is not to spend money out of desperation on a “too good to be true” offer of instant success or quit marketing altogether. But if you are patient and continue to follow best practices your marketing program will succeed.

Closely related to item number 3, the tendency (or practice) of playing every hand in an attempt to win chips can backfire and leave you short.

If your marketing program involves “throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks” you’ll find that you spend a lot of money on programs that don’t pay off in the long run. It’s also tempting to enlist the aid of companies that promise big, quick payoffs in terms of links, #1 search rankings, and instant email lists. The problem is that while that may sound great, it often backfires and leads to penalties in terms of those very search rankings you’re seeking or being blacklisted for spamming email subscribers among other things.

Repeat: No one has insights beyond the tools that are available online to everyone.
Even if you have more chips than everyone else during the game it doesn’t mean you’re going to win the game in the end. People who have the chip lead often become overconfident thinking that they have enough to sustain them. They begin to play more hands and take bigger risks. This can lead to a sudden, crippling hit to the chip stack when your opponent has the better hand.

Companies that have high-ranking websites or very successful marketing programs also get overconfident. Then, when changes like Panda or Penguin are made by the search engines these same companies scratch their head in wonder as their search rankings fall and traffic nose dives. Any marketing program that has done well can take a turn when there are significant changes in the media.

About 2 years ago social media wasn’t a big deal but now it’s a major part of any online marketing plan. Yet there are many large businesses that were confident they could survive without the social aspect. They are all playing catch-up now.

Anyone can get lucky and win a hand, even the game. But for long-term players luck will only get you so far. The players that are able to sustain a career as professional poker players have not just luck but skill that comes from studying the game and other players.

Business owners should do the same. Knowing what your competitors are doing, whether it’s working for them is important. You should also know so that you can look for other avenues your competitors may not be doing. The web is constantly evolving so you have to keep informed about what is new, what is changing, and what is “dying” as a marketing strategy.
Don’t be afraid of a losing streak. Every poker player goes through them but they don’t last.

You may have dips in traffic, search rankings, email marketing performance, leads, or sales. It’s not necessarily the marketing that’s failing, there are so many other variables that are outside your control like the changes to search algorithms, the desires of your customers, and favored social websites. It’s all changing and keeping up with the dynamics of the market can prove to be a challenge but you have to hang in there. Ask for advice from outside sources to see if they are having the same issues, if so how did they get by? Ask professionals to see what new marketing strategies might be employed to help you come out on top. Don’t get discouraged and quit marketing.
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Remember, a solid marketing program takes time and often the help of professionals who can guide you through how to use the different channels to your advantage. If you need help with your marketing strategy feel free to contact us.