– Update – see below
Forward to a Friend is nice feature to include in your email. It usually doesn’t provide a wealth of clicks - often times from 0.1%-2% based on your audience, but for those looking to expand their target audience base with similarly profiled individuals, it’s nice to include it. We recently made an update to Bronto’s forward to a friend functionality, allowing you to customize the introduction message that is included at the top of the message.
This change allows you to easily include some text specific to your mailing, and more importantly, you can place a link to a sign up form right there above the fold, in the perfect place to get a new contact to click it.
Including a signup link in your forwarded emails is definitely a good idea, but this only helps if your original recipients can find the forward to a friend link within the message. In order to get your current contacts to start forwarding messages you should consider placing a forward to a friend link at the top of your email as well. This can fit in well with a top navigational bar, or even placed in the top corner of your email.If your forwarding link is just text it may work alright in a menu of other links, but it could blend in with your legal disclaimer or link to a privacy policy, especially at the bottom of your message. Making the link an eye catching graphic can help as well. Nothing too catchy, but not just plain text. Here are some examples of forward to a friend links (borrowed from some major name email newsletters & promos) that stand out from the rest of the email.
Of course, at the end of the day, it’s not how pretty your link is, or where you place it, but how compelling your content is. If you provide quality relevant content, then your recipients will be more likely to invite their friends to sign up. So while you should put some thought into how and where you place your forward to a friend link, never forget that relevant content is of paramount importance.
Update 10.12: As I sit here and munch on Candy Corns myself, Chad White’s
Retail Email Blog (over at the
Email Experience Council, of which Bronto is a proud member) points out a really fun way to bring the holidays into your Forward to a Friend link. eBags, who always does a great job with their email campaigns, put a great spin on the image.
Adam Covati
Product Manager at Bronto
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