In this opinion piece, Lee Davy writes about the importance of creating trust with a customer through the art of story and how online poker rooms are failing miserably to get it right.
This morning I received an email from Full Tilt which is funny because I thought they were dead. It had nothing to do with poker. Instead, it was an email designed to get me to play Blackjack.
The ad didn’t work.
I didn’t buy into the story Full Tilt were trying to sell.
I have been thinking about ‘story’ a lot these past few months. I have overcome my fear of looking like a mug (a story in itself) to finally start working on a training course designed to help people figure out how to fill the time left when they quit drinking alcohol.
I have read some fantastic books on story, including:
• On Writing by Stephen King
• Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t Why That is And What You Can do About it by Steven Pressfield
• The Authentic Swing by Steven Pressfield
• The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler
• Into The Woods by John Yorke
I highly recommend them all, but the one that has had the biggest impact on my fat head is Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t Why That is And What You Can do About it.
Steven Pressfield is a genius.
Full Tilt – Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t Why That is And What You Can do About it.
The email I received – and I get them all the time from online poker rooms, not just Full Tilt – asked me to complete a Lucky 21 Challenge.
What?
Why?
It then directs me to a hyperlink for further information.
Why would I want to press it? I’m lazy. I don’t want you to add another step into my process. I have things to do.
I click it, out of curiosity, and it transports me to a page containing instructions on how to win a casino bonus.
I remember watching Alessio Isaia beating Szabolcs Mayer to win the Season IX World Poker Tour Venice Main Event after a heads-up bore fest that lasted eight hours. My recap at the end of that game contained more effort that the ads that fly into my email inbox, Lucky 21 Challenge included.
Steven Pressfield used to work in the ad business. His advice?
‘Don’t think in ads, think in campaigns.’
My first paid writing gig was for BLUFF Europe. They paid £250 per article for around 1,500 words. I was new to the writing game, but I knew, when asked to provide a pitch, I needed a campaign. I needed something with legs so BLUFF would keep asking me for more.
Why aren’t online poker rooms thinking like this?
Why are they blasting me with shotgun pellet like lazy assed ads, when they could be luring me into a compelling campaign built on the fundamentals of a story that hooks me and leaves me desperate for more emails?
It’s because they aren’t thinking ‘story’, they are thinking ‘profit,’ and here’s the irony, the ‘profit’ is the ‘story’.
Three Act Structure
Pressfield is a big supporter of Three Act Structure.
There is a beginning – a middle – and an end.
You are born – you live – you die.
You start the poker tournament – you lose some chips and win some chips – you win the tournament.
Beginning
Here is where Full Tilt and co can focus on the customer backstory. Why are they interested in our product? What do they value? What are their needs? What do they dream? What is their worldview?
Middle
Online poker players will face a lot of obstacles during their journey towards the climax. What are they? Surely, one of them is the psychological and physical problems one encounters when they lose money. Why is this critical part of the story never mentioned? How can online poker rooms help people come to terms with losses without closing their accounts and buggering off? Other issues would be getting money on and off the site. Account issues. Confusion over game choices. Think, what are these people’s obstacles and how can we help them overcome them?
End
We have helped the customer overcome the obstacles. They love the site and promote it to other people. They have changed. They now have a new set of beliefs about what is possible in this beautiful world of gambling.
Back to Campaigns
The leaders of the email marketing departments at all the leading online poker rooms should go out and buy all of their staff a copy of Pressfield’s book. They need to learn about ‘story’.
I wouldn’t send a random email asking a customer to sign up to a bonus that looks like all the other casino bonuses in the world. I would create a coordinated storyline that hooks the reader and leaves them desperate for more.
I would use Three Act Structure.
I would ensure my campaign takes my customer through a story arc that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. I would make sure the customer understands they are the hero, I would help them identify their goals, and then help plot a course towards that goal and call it the heroes journey.
The hero will face many obstacles along the way such as losing all their money, but the campaign would be designed to help them prepare for this eventuality and manage it accordingly. I would create mentors and allies to help them feel like part of a community and offer them support, education and empathy.
Every story needs a villain.
Who or what is that bad guy?
Let’s help the hero identify the villain and then provide the tools and allies to overcome it and eventually receive their treasure at the end of the road.
Online poker rooms need to understand that the customer is the hero, not the brand. It always makes me sick when I listen to a poker company go on and on about the importance of branding while completely ignoring the customer.
The key reason we tell stories is to create trust.
Companies need their customers to trust. Otherwise, they are never going to click on the links that litter email boxes like bear traps. It’s why PokerStars, Full Tilt, 888Poker, et al., need to invest in storytelling principles. It builds trust with the customers they should be trying to protect, delight and keep.
Storytelling is one of the most important investments an online poker room can make. But let’s get real, nobody is going to read your sh*t. Fortunately, Steven Pressfield is on hand to tell you why and what you can do about it.
