When Judy Edwards, a lifelong sufferer of constipation, got immediate relief when she took her son’s advice and stacked some books underneath her feet while doing the #2, her son Robert had an idea:
Why not make a stool that simulates a squat so everyone can have a better time on the loo?
So off he went, investing an initial $35,000 to get 2000 “Squatty Potties”.
Without having a paid advertising strategy, he decided to send a chunk of them to doctors and health/wellness influencers who would likely love it, and share it.
This ended up being a great idea because he eventually moved all 2000 units at $50 a plop (I mean pop), giving him enough margin to increase the scale of his production.
His success, some might say, was solid.
In the months that followed, his business would continue to do well.
The garage was no longer big enough to store his stock.
Eventually, someone got wind of this, and he got told he’d be getting a run on Shark Tank.
He was convinced it would explode his growth.
And to some degree, he was right — he sold $2M worth of squatty potties in 24 hours.
But his good karma didn’t end there.
Something even bigger would happen as a result of getting on Shark Tank.
He would finally take the advice he needed all along — he had a great product; he just needed to advertise.
After working alongside a marketing agency, they devised the idea to destigmatize poopin’ by creating an ad about a cartoon unicorn who, after using the Squatty Potty, would poop out delicious rainbow ice cream.
LOL.
I’m not kidding.
It’s deadset hilarious.
I’m going to link it to you at the end.
Anyway…
In the 24 hours after the video was released, it went viral.
Nowadays, it stands with an impressive log of 500+ million views across all platforms.
And Robert, from humble beginnings sitting on the dunny, has since made over 200 million dollars selling poop stools, which I just realised is hilarious… poop stools.
But putting on my serious pants for a second, what can we learn from Robert?
First, just the one big idea to run a great advertorial did more for his business than getting on god damn SHARK TANK.
Secondly, it teaches us that just because a product is simple doesn’t mean it won’t be an absolute hit.
And thirdly, well…
It’s that stories sell.
We all love stories.
This email is a story.
The unicorn poopin’ ice cream is a story.
And the most favourite content on earth is still stories.
This is precisely why I’m teaching you how to harness the power of story in this month’s edition of the Alley-oop, which will dive deep into email marketing to generate more customers and build stronger relationships with your prospects.
If you want the A-Z on email marketing so you know exactly how to harness its potential, which will work even if you don’t like writing your own stories (notice this one had nothing to do with me), then you’ll want to subscribe before it goes to the printers on the 1st of Feb.
Safe to say, I’ll be dropping all the nuggets of gold I have on the topic and leaving nothing left in the tank.
I almost forgot to link you the video. Here it is:
– Karl Goodman
