When I read out my onboarding emails aloud, everything changed.

I sat down and wrote a five-email welcome sequence and felt pretty good about them. But then a friend said she would read them aloud to me over the phone.

I got about two sentences into the first one before I stopped myself. "We're delighted to have you here" is a sentence no one would ever say out loud. "Let's dig into why this is amazing," too.

I rewrote all five to imagine explaining the product to someone at my dining room table. The open rates increased by about four points, which is right in the noise range, but replies increased from near zero to about one in twelve. Those replies give me the best feedback I have on the product.

It cost me nothing and I never would've found it, because when you read your own writing, you're not reading words, you're reading intentions.

What is your equivalent inexpensive test?