Promoting Is Like Playing Poker Small Business

By: John Reed


Advertising your business is like playing poker. You have to wager your advertising budget that your current promotion technique is the proper one, being used at the right time, in the right place.

Just like poker, there are other players at the table that have the same ambition and intentions as you. However, they have may have different promotion tactics and angles that they intend to use to reap the benefits that this dance on the advertising wild side can afford them.

The customer pot is colossal but due to the game rules, you must out play others in order to obtain it.

You glance around the table and observe that most of the players at your table are high rollers. As indicated by the fact that they have many more chips than you do and a mistake on their part would have no where near the effect on them as it would on you. Your personal stash of marketing budget chips seems tiny in comparison with the players you must compete with. Recognize the game?

And to your total disgust, you find that every time you look up, some one at your table is raising the anti. You have three choices. -Meet the price they are willing to risk to stay in the game -Fold and let the others have the customers -Are be innovative and pull the cards out of your sleeve and present your Royal Flush.

While some would mention that only 2 of those are honorable. In business, you cannot afford to hand over business to the other guy simply because he/she has more chips than you and is willing to buy the pot. That is a common technique used by larger businesses to take the larger share of business. They know that their products may not be the superior one, but they are willing to out last the smaller business by bluffing their way to the top and throwing money at the problem.

In order to compete in the game of advertising, you must first realize that it is indeed a game. Games have rules that have been set in place to allow for competition. Competition is fun to have if you are playing a game of hungry hungry hippos. But when it comes to the advertising game that you rely on to put food on your table or to put your children through college, insurmountable competition can be a real pain in the rear.

The way to win the advertising poker game is to be prepared to change the rules. Its not called cheating in the game of advertising and marketing. It is called game change. Who says you have to do what everyone else does? Making what you have work for you is the key to successful marketing and advertising.

Keeping ahead of the advertising poker game by searching for areas of the internet to advertise before they become too popular and the anti to get in gets too high, is smart to say the least. If you cant initially afford to play at the big table, look for small tables to build your funds before taking on those with deep pockets.

Sites like TypoBounty dot com allow for smaller antis but large customer pots to win.

The reason that your advertising campaigns have generated mediocre results can totally be because you are applying your efforts at the wrong table.

Using techniques to out maneuver big business allows you to determine what banners and tactics work for you, before you commit larger portions of your budget to the higher priced marketing venues.

Remember, change the rules and you can change the results of your advertising.


The author, John Reed, has 15 years business marketing experience and has had the opportunity to use and review multiple advertising strategies. You can read more about avoiding the money trap of marketing at www.cheap-online-advertising.com