3 Marketing Lessons from a Blackjack Gambler

Use these simple strategies learned from Black Jack to turbo charge your marketing results.

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Whenever I am in Vegas I always spend a considerable amount of time at the Blackjack tables. Also known as 21, it is a simple card game wherein the players and the dealers try to beat one another's hands without exceeding the number 21. One thing you need to realize about Vegas, the odds are always in the house's favor. Sure some people will tell you they can "count cards" and flip the odds in their favor, books will sell you systems to beat the house, but at the end of the day one immutable truth remains: the odds are always in the favor of the house. The longer they can get you to stay at the tables, the more the odds favor the house.

Don't believe me? How do you think they build billion dollar casinos in the desert? Because everyone wins when they go to Vegas? Sure. Remember, the odds are always in the favor of the house. "But I've heard that's because most people don't know what they are doing and I read a book..." Listen to me, the odds are always in favor of the house. "But I have a system that lets me know..." The odds are always in favor of the house!

But even though the odds are always in favor of the house in Vegas there are still lessons that can be learned from gambling in Vegas that can be applied to your business. So use these lessons from Blackjack to turbo charge your marketing efforts.

1. Figure out what works

In Blackjack, depending upon the card the dealer is showing, most Blackjack players know the number they need to hit to in order to beat the dealer, or to give them decent odds to do so. They know what works. In marketing, if you spend any time tracking your marketing efforts, as you should, after a while you know what works and what does not. As such, figure out which marketing campaigns work for your business and which do not.

2. Walk away from marketing that doesn't work

Every gambler knows that the secret to survival is knowing when to walk away. Well, like a gambler every marketer must know that the secret to increasing their returns is knowing when to walk away from an ineffective marketing campaign to conserve those resources so they can be used for other, more effective efforts. So when you figure out what works, and what does not, walk away from the campaigns that do not.

3. Double down on what works

Finally, in Blackjack there are certain hands upon which a gambler is allowed to double down on their bet. In short, the gambler is permitted to double their bet effectively betting that the house is going to bust or reach a number that exceeds 21 thus allowing the gambler to win the hand. Like doubling down in Blackjack, marketers should also double down on marketing strategies that have proven to be effective. In short, once you have determined what marketing strategies work, double down on those strategies to reap even greater rewards from marketing that has proven itself to work.

Matthew Swyers is the founder of The Trademark Company, a Web-based law firm specializing in protecting the trademark rights of small to medium-size businesses. The company is ranked No. 138 on the 2011 Inc. 500. @TrademarkCo