OK, ok, ok, I’ve seen this hack listed online on many other growth hacking sites like this one that refers to this hack, but I am blogging about it because I’ve used it and can absolutely vouch for it.
This growth hack is really one of my most favorite techniques of all time, and it’s especially effective with cold outreach emails in Hong Kong.
Simply type “Sent from my iPhone” just above your signature while submitting a bulk email or, better still, in your follow-up (automated) second and third emails.
What Makes This So Effective?
Consider this psychology for a moment.
It gives the impression of more personalization
It gives the impression that you submitted the email when on the move; it gives the impression that you were sitting on a train or standing at a bus stop when you sent it.
It’s a minor point, but as the saying goes, God – or the Devil as I’ve heard it being said – is in the detail!
It’s worth noting that Hotmail, Microsoft’s now-owned email service, owes some of its success to the same hack, but with different messaging.
When Hotmail first released in 1995, the growth and SEO team introduced the phrases: “This email was sent via Hotmail, Join Hotmail now” and “Get your free email at Hotmail” to each email signature sent by a Hotmail customer.
Every email recipient saw these posts, and Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, the two company’s owners, were able to massively scale their service’s onboarding.
Since then, Hotmail has expanded to over 395 million people!
Another interesting thing regarding the story behind Hotmail is that the letters “HTML” occur in the term (or email brand), which the creators thought was pretty cool – thus the branding and trademarking of the word “Hotmail.”
Interesting stuff!