APPLE: SENT FROM MY IPHONE

Morning - it's Niall!

Full transparency here, it's been a busy week in the Ratcliffe camp. So, I spent this morning at the beach relaxing. My skin is somewhat crispy, my body is rather tired, and my brain is absolutely frazzled - so bare with me! Nonetheless, I've got an absolute cracker of a strategy for you today.

What you're in for:- Why Apple are great marketers- How they use your email signature to get in front of trillions- How you can do the same

Est Read Time: 4 minutes

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Company Overview

Valuation: $2.75 Trillion (Source)

Revenue: $365 Billion (Source)

We all know Apple. The chances are you're currently reading this on an Apple product. I'm currently writing this on one. They dominate the technology space and their products are amazing. But one thing they don't get enough credit for is their marketing.

Ever caught yourself judging someone for having an Android? Who do you think made that happen? Apple. Ever find yourself completely disregarding any other brand? Who do you think made that happen? Apple.

They aren't just a great tech company. They're amazing marketers too.This strategy is the perfect showcase of this in action...

Breaking Down The Strategy

About 4 months ago, I had just handed in my notice at my job and had committed to going all in on the business. That week I was on the plane from Chicago to Charleston and I had this sinking thought... "How the f*ck was I actually going to market this?" I'd spent the last 3-4 years of my life working in marketing and writing about marketing, but I'd never been in such a high-pressure marketing situation before. I had to make this a success or I couldn't afford to live.

In somewhat of a panic I whipped out my Kindle and bought 3 marketing books. One of which was 'Growth Hacker Marketing' by Ryan Holiday. Game changer. The book introduced me to what I would call REAL marketing. No shelling out thousands for PPC or Paid Social. We're talking marketing that costs nothing but leads to exponential growth for the business.

That's exactly what Apple's "Sent from my iPhone" is all about. It's a perfect example of effective marketing, that leads to exponential growth that comes at 0 cost.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm referring to the default email signature on the 900 million iPhones around the world.

Some of you reading this have probably had it on for years without even noticing, others (including myself) passionately remove it with every new iPhone I get. Either way, this small line added to the bottom of your emails is one of the best marketing tactics you'll ever come across.

If you still don't get it, essentially, when you get a new iPhone, the default setting within the mail app is to have "Sent from my iPhone" at the bottom of the emails.

To Apple, it cost absolutely nothing and what they get in return is millions of people seeing the iPhone name.

Just think about the stats behind it. The average working professional sends around 40 emails per day. That's 14,600 per year. Let's say, I don't know, 5% of those are sent from a phone. That means, by my guesstimation...

Thirteen trillion, one hundred and forty billion emails will go out each year with "Sent from my iPhone".

That's 13 trillion eyes on the word iPhone. The cost? £0.

It can't get much more effective than that. It's a minor edition that most would overlook, but for Apple, it's become an awesome way to get the iPhone name in front of people whilst also positioning the iPhone as a "flex" to have.

You have to realise though, that this isn't as simple as it looks. There are some key aspects that make this tactic so successful.

1. Low effort to keep, high effort to removeVery few people actually care that it's added to the bottom of their emails. For those people it's much easier to just keep it there than to go through the effort of Googling how to remove it > watching a YouTube video > going to settings and removing it > sending a test email to see if it's worked.

If you're going through all that effort, you have to be VERY passionate about removing it. There's a lesson here for all your marketing campaigns - remove as much friction as possible.

2. The authority aspect

Having an iPhone has always been a "flex". More so in 2007 than in 2022. Back when the signature was first introduced, having an iPhone made you instantly cool. So, Apple literally gave people a perfect opportunity to showcase that they use the latest luxury tech gadget. Of course, most people were more than happy to take them up on that opportunity.

3. It doesn't stand out

If the line said "Shop an iPhone now at Apple.com" everyone would go out of their way to remove it. Instead, it's a smooth line that makes sense in the context. It was seen, but it didn't stand out.

As I say, it might seem like a simple tactic, but everything about it is perfect.

My favourite thing about this is that it isn't original. The "email signature hack" was done before with both Gmail and Hotmail. Apple simply saw the exponential growth that the tactic led to and utilised it to propel their brand too.

Way too many brands put so much effort into "original" marketing campaigns when there are so many winning campaigns already out there. When Plan A works, just use Plan A. That's exactly what Apple did here and it just showed again...

Apple aren't just one of the best tech companies in the world, they are one of the best marketing companies in the world too.

How To Implement It

As always, it's great me talking about how Apple do it, but what you really care about is how you can do it.

For this one, you have to zoom out. Yes, Apple put "Sent from my iPhone" but what they were essentially doing is putting their stamp on it.

There are 2 key things you need to make this work though:1. PositioningYou have to make your product or service a "flex" to work with. The reason most people are happy to not delete "Sent from my iPhone" is because they quite like the fact people can see they have an iPhone. So before you even think about putting your stamp on things, build your brand's authority so it becomes a flex to have that stamp.2. Add the stamp

This is honestly much harder than you may think. There's so much that goes into it. With the main issue being that it can't stand out, but it needs to be seen. Nonetheless, I've pulled as many creative examples from this very frazzled brain of mine:

PR firm? Add "Made with [INSERT NAME]" to your creatives and when news outlets pick up your client's campaigns make sure they mention they worked with you for the campaign.Email agency? Add "Produced by [INSERT NAME]" to the bottom of your emails. Of course, these would have to be approved by the clients. Which is why it's so important to build that authority prior. If they still don't buy in, why not offer a percentage off the package to add your stamp to the campaign?

Oh and if you want to see a perfect example of another company using this tactic, just scroll to the bottom of this email, you'll see BeeHiiv (my email software) cleverly adding their little stamp on my newsletters!Right, that's all you're getting for today. Now, I'm off to load my body with water, and aloe vera my back.Have a smashing Sunday,— Niall

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This has been a breakdown of Apple's marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

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