How Digital Marketing Is Like Poker
November 23, 2010
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As a lover of anything involving strategy, I’m naturally a poker fan. I previously wrote how internet marketing is like chess and today I got to thinking how it’s also like poker.
Consider that in both digital marketing and poker:
Comprehension of data is essential
Understanding the odds of hitting your cards for a winning hand (and even understanding the quality of your hand pre-flop) is an essential skill in poker. While on TV they portray poker as constantly fast-paced and emotion-driven – that’s not what is really happening. They edit out the hours of the players sitting there playing rather mechanically-driven cards.
Similarly, in digital marketing understanding not just how to report data and analytics, but ability to analyze and apply them is critical. In both cases, data-driven decisions are going to yield the best results long term. The odds will always run their course.
Intersection of data and emotion/creativity
Yet it’s not just data that makes up a good card player. Nor is it just data that defines a quality digital marketer. Data alone is just half the picture – infusing data with emotion and creativity is where numbers turn into results.
Poker players need to get creative with their game play and switch things up so opponents can’t get a read on them. Further, they must artfully disguise their emotions and movements. This involves a good degree of creativity and must happen while also remaining conscious of numbers.
Digital marketing is similar in a sense because you always need to sit at the intersection of data and creativity. It is creativity that sets web metrics on fire and helps establish increasing returns. And it’s data that helps refine, guide and even inspire new ideas.
Understanding competition
Poker players are able to comprehend their opponents through body language, learning their style and figuring out any tells. Similarly, digital marketers should be tracking competitive metrics and paying attention to the strategies and tactics their opponents implement to stay one step ahead of them.
Patience and focus
Solid poker playing requires heroic amounts of patience. You may wish to splash around with your chips, but in tournament play especially patience can be the element which separates the winners from the losers. It takes time to get good hands and win big pots, incrementally steal blinds with bad hands and move up in ranking.
In digital marketing, patience and focus are equally vital. I noted this in a previous post – as your content expands, things get easier. But to reach the point where things are tipping in the right direction patience and focus is required.
Have a strategy, and be able evolve it quickly
At any poker table, having a strategy is essential. As is shifting the strategy to suit the changing actions and emotional mindsets of opponents. It can’t remain static and must evolve with the game.
In digital marketing this is exactly the same. If there is one constant of the web, it is change which benefits those who are able to adapt to it fast.
Are you a digital marketer who also plays poker? See any other parallels?
image credit: Shutterstock
Mitch replied | Nov 24, 2010 (13 comments)
How wild! I’m a big poker player myself, and a lousy internet marketer. But I’m a pretty good blogger and I wrote a post in January relating poker and blogging, a newsletter relating poker to managing others, and another one the previous January relating life to gambling. We have some similar points, but we probably differ on the point about competition, which I never addressed because, in a weird way, I don’t see blogging or internet marketing as competition, but as a lifestyle of sorts.
I love the post; now I’m going to have to see what else I can pull out of the hat.
Adam Singer replied | Nov 25, 2010 (552 comments)
Thanks Mitch, glad you enjoyed this. Unfortunately there is always competition because attention is a finite resource :)
Nick Stamoulis replied | Nov 24, 2010 (15 comments)
Great analogy, I especially agree, in the game of poker having a strategy is essential, but being able to adapt to the ever changing game is even of more importance. You never know what the next hand will bring, and this is so true in our industry as well.
Adam Singer replied | Nov 25, 2010 (552 comments)
Love the comment about “you never know what the next hand will bring.” How true – being prepared for change is essential.
Tony Faustino replied | Nov 24, 2010 (23 comments)
Your viewpont about focus and patience really rings true. Focus and patience are especially true for small to medium size businesses who can become easily disenchanted when executing a digital or social media strategy for the first time. Succesful social media or digital marketing is neither free nor easy. It takes significant time and commitment. I hope more small and medium sized company owners will heed your advice because they get caught up in the hype instead of the execution reality. Many thanks for another great post, congratulations on the new job, and Happy Thanksgiving.
Adam Singer replied | Nov 25, 2010 (552 comments)
Thanks for the comment Tony – happy Thanksgiving to you as well.
Catherine Lockey replied | Nov 24, 2010 (61 comments)
I love your focus on the creative and your statement that it is the creative which sets web metrics on FIRE and helps establish increasing returns. Like you said, the data itself is a springboard for new ideas. Digital marketing is a complex and fascinating art!!
Adam Singer replied | Nov 25, 2010 (552 comments)
Half art, half science – I love the mix of right and left brain thinking required.
Patrick @ Make Money Buzz replied | Nov 25, 2010 (3 comments)
As a “professional poker player” myself, I think you hit the nail right on the head. It is weird though because a lot of these concepts, poker can teach you, but it takes a lot of time and hard work. I’m sure to write a lot about poker on my blog because I believe that poker can put you on the fast track to learning a lot of life lessons since you have to make hundreds of small to big decisions an hour. It makes you a solid person
Adam Singer replied | Nov 25, 2010 (552 comments)
Glad you enjoyed the analogy Patrick. Interesting comment about how poker puts you on the fast track to learning a lot of life lessons…
Ron Zeligzon replied | Dec 6, 2010 (3 comments)
I am a part time Poker Player and I must say that your analogy is spot on. As a poker player and an internet marketer, I have to constantly shift gears, creating a different game plan/strategy.
Anne – InteliWISE replied | Dec 22, 2010 (8 comments)
Another nice share Adam, using poker as comparison for digital marketing can explain things simpler and creative too. Strategy in what we do may help us prepare for what outcome can happen and knowing when to “fold” if we face a failure.