SEO Chatter - You’re an idiot

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That’s what the company birddogs, which sells pants, shorts, and polos, said to its 175,000 followers on Instagram.

Here’s the exact quote as it read under a picture of a birddogs polo shirt:

“Anyone who buys this is an idiot. You can find a slim fit 80/20 poly spandex polo on Amazon for $20 if you use the right keywords.”

Now, most people would call that idiotic marketing—insulting your customer base like that.

However, I think it’s kinda brilliant.

Here’s why:

Some guy on Twitter saw that Instagram post and immediately took a screenshot of it and tweeted it out asking, “Is this @birddogs ad a mistake or am I missing something?”

And the replies started rolling in.

Which boosted the engagement and virality of that tweet.

Most people who replied said it was an epic fail on birddogs’ part and the company was self-sabotaging itself by posting ugly comments like that about its fan base.

But I think some 4D chess might have been going on here.

Up until I saw that tweet, I had no idea who birddogs was.

Never heard of ‘em and wasn’t even in the market for a new polo shirt.

Now, all of a sudden, birddogs’ Instagram post was being screenshotted and shared on other social media platforms by confused and irate individuals.

And numerous people began engaging with those posts, which, in turn, drove more attention to the birddogs brand WITHOUT them having to pay a cent in advertising for that FREE exposure.

Without realizing it, I bet hundreds (if not thousands) of people were being used as pawns in a digital marketing game where birddogs was the head Chessmaster.

Thousands of people quickly became obsessed (myself include) with finding out who this birddogs brand was, why they were being so idiotic, and how much their polo shirts cost. This insatiable curiosity led everyone like a herd of cattle to the website, which revealed that the shirts cost $98 smackaroos.

But that’s not all.

There were endless amounts of happy customers who left 5-star reviews for birddogs’ polos.

And they had several great colors to choose between.

And gave you free shipping.

And offered a 90-day return policy.

After a few minutes of browsing the site myself, I had totally forgotten about that idiot comment and was even considering picking up a navy-colored polo shirt to see if it really was as great as the reviewers said.

With free shipping and a long return window, what was there to lose?

Moving on…

There’s a great lesson to be learned here about digital marketing here.

And it’s this:

Boring content doesn’t get noticed.

Boring content doesn’t generate sales.

Boring content doesn’t move the need for your business.

However, exciting—dare I say shocking—content can pay off in spades when you're risky enough not to play it safe all the time.

If you can hit an emotional hot button with people using your content, then you can generate a flood of free publicity and attention that leads to more clicks, traffic, backlinks, and most importantly, sales.

(Just think about the way you felt when you read the subject line for this email: "You’re an idiot." Didn’t you just HAVE to open it to find out why I being so insulting?)

As humans, we can’t help but respond to outrageous comments, controversial ideas, and things that defy norms, because it elicits an uncontrollable response deep down inside all of us.

Use that to your advantage my friend.

Alright, down to business:

The SEO Chatter Mentorship has a Consulting Board where you and I can discuss this type of out-of-the-box thinking to draw more attention to your own website or business.

Here’s the link:

​SEO Chatter Mentorship Program​

Stephen Hockman
SEO Chatter Founder