While spending the last four days moving from one apartment to another, I had a lot of time to quitely think to myself. In doing so, I came up with a question that I challenged myself to answer:

How is marketing different from gambling?

Think about it. When you gamble, you spend money on a chance that you’ll get a desired outcome; one that pays you more than what you’ve spent. Let’s say you decide to buy a scratch ticket. The cost: $5. But, if you’re lucky, you could win $10, $20, $100, even one million dollars!

Marketing is very similar. You spend money on your web site, your brochure, advertisements, etc. hoping that you will attract enough new work to offset the expense.

What’s the difference?

Offhand, the first difference I see is that when you buy a scratch ticket, you know that you have a chance. There is a finite number of prizes, and all you have to do is get lucky. In marketing, you’re not assured of any prize whatsoever.

So is gambling better than marketing? No. That’s not it at all.

Here’s the other difference, and it is absolutely crucial to understand: You can change the variables.

Using our scratch ticket example, think about what a player is able to do to improve the chance of winning. The answer: not much. You can buy more tickets, but that’s about it. But in marketing, you can change the entire game. If your ad isn’t attracting any new clients, you can always change ads. Or, you can advertise in a different place. Maybe you’d do better by spending more on online PPC advertising, allowing you to specifically target your potential clients.

Sometimes marketing feels like gambling. But if you dedicate the time and resources to understand the game, marketing becomes a game of skill; not just a game of luck.

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