I'm a husband, father, movement therapist and baseball dork. My work and passion is exploring the potential of the human body. Practice Makes Improvement :)

Apr 28, 2016

What I Have Learned About Marketing From Clash Royale

Hello All,

For the last week I have been on vacation in the great state of Tennessee with my wife. We are having a blast!

We have done some touristy things but we also have done some amazing hiking.

My wife loves to sleep in & I’m an early riser, so I fill the time with catching up on social, watching Jiu Jitsu videos on YouTube & my latest addiction playing Clash Royale (CR)

For those of you who are not familiar with CR here is Wikipedias description here a 4 min video explaining how it works & how to play it.

In the game you pick 8 cards to play (think like the card game war), each card has points assigned to it & you have a max point load of 10 elixir points that refills. Each card has certain stats associated with it & you attack your opponent with them. Here is the current deck I’m playing.

As I was playing this morning it hit me that playing CR is a lot like the way Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary V) talks about marketing in his book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.

I know you are probably thinking “Shawn, WTH does any of this have to do with marketing?” Let me explain.

In the beginning of the game new players want to load their deck with the sexy big cards & play them, it works for a little while until you reach more seasoned players. Then this strategy is countered pretty easily just by playing off of their aggression & using that aggression against them in a counter attack.

I can always tell the new people to marketing by their sales tactics. New marketers believe their big card (the product) is all they need to throw out to entice people to buy & sometimes it is true. Often you will find clients who usually are not great long term clients who come back for the repeat sale.

In Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook Gary V explains how you have to create value repeatedly over time for people before you ask for the sale. In CR the better players attack in combinations & are constantly probing to see how their opponent counters. In marketing much like CR you have to test the market consistently & change your tactics. What closes the deal on one person my not close the deal with another.

In CR you need a couple of big powerful cards in your deck to make your opponent take notice this helps to counter & attack. If the product/service is weak & crappy you are going to have a very tough time getting people to buy & come back. A strong product you believe in helps you to dig in & counter your potential clients objections.

I think one of the biggest stratgies I have seen that applies to both is doing research on a deck/product & using it over & over again until you can play it under the toughest situations. Learn why you are being countered, how the counter is being formed & how you can create momentum with your own counter.

Another interesting analogy I thought of is people using low value cards/marketing pieces poorly. In CR if you continuously play low value cards you will waste your elixir points & get nowhere. People do this all the time in business too, they buy a fancy website, business cards & brochures & then they assault anyone within a 50 mile radius of them with it. They believe the marketing material is stronger than the product.

You can use these low value pieces but they have to be in combination & deployed at the right time. Throwing business cards & brochures all over the place in your community is a waste of time & energy.

Early in my massage career I would set up my massage table at the local farmers market to get my face out there & also get new clients. Early on I set up business cards, brochures & post cards for anyone & everyone to take.

After a couple of years & 1000 pieces of promotional material I realized I didn’t want to have everything available to the mass public, I wanted it available for people who were genuinely interested in working with me. I wouldn’t give out promo material unless I had a pretty good idea we were going to schedule an appointment.

Now I don’t have any promotional material, if we meet on the street, you are intestered in my service & I’m interested in working with you we do one of two things. We either book an appointment right there or we connect on social so I can follow up with you immediately. I won’t waste my time or energy trying to close someone who isn’t interested in my work & I don’t feel would be a great long term client. I’m that confident in my product that I can lead & stand buy it.

With that being said I’m still testing my deck with the market. I’m constantly playing the game & seeing how I can tweak my strategy to get a higher percentage of gaining clients who love my work & I love to work with. I will try the new sexy things social/marketing things to see if they will make the marketing of my product more powerful than it is right now.

If you are struggling to generate business in with your product/service ask yourself these five questions.

Do you have one or two strong cards in your deck? Is your belief in your product/service so strong you can boldly lead & stand behind it?
Have you been sold the marketing B.S. of you have to spend $$$ on your promotional material & throw it out to anyone who will take it? If so you may want to reevaluate.
Do you use your “low value” promotional material in combination to help edify your product? Is the content consistent with your message?
Are you playing your marketing strategy like you would play CR? Are you testing & responding? Or are you throwing out cards & wasting elixir/your own time?
Do you play the game to win? Or are you creating stratgies to have fun & find your niche market? If you find your niche market you will will win & have fun a lot more.

To wrap this up I want to point out to get good at marketing it takes time & perseverance. Just like in CR it takes take the time to level up your skills & be patient with the process. Test, test, test & reevaluate your strategies based on why you are not having success. When you understand your own style & strategy the game becomes really fun!

If you made it to the end of this post, thanks for taking your time to read it!

If you found this post to be entertaining & helpful could you please click on the little heart & share this post with a friend? It will help to expand my reach & could help your friend win a little more & maybe introduce them to my new addiction CR 😜.

Practice Makes Improvement :)

Shawn Kitzman has been practicing Movement Therapies since 1992. He began his Massage Practice in 2000 and is currently working on a book focused on helping Massage Therapists get out of their rut and put the Passion back into their practice. When he is not spending time with his family, getting thrown in Jiu Jitsu, providing solutions for injured athletes in his practice he can be reached at shawnsynergymt@gmail.com.