Does anyone ever really forward to a friend?

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If you know anything about email marketing best practices, one of the key practices is to give your subscribers the option to pass along your email in hopes of gaining another subscriber to add to your lists. This is popularly known as the Forward-to-a-Friend (FAF) feature. It is the marketers hope that this will lengthen their lists as well as establish a new relationship that hopefully, turns this prospective customer into a buying customer. This new relationship will help your company's bottom line, contribute to your brand, and open the door for more

customers.

....or will it?

How effective is the FAF feature in an email message? Upon opening an email, does your customer deem it necessary to pass this message along using your debated and developed mechanism, or does a simple click of "forward and send" in their email client suffice? Moreover, in today's marketplace, would it be more effective to use other methods (i.e. social networks) to pass on relevant information? We weigh in on whether FAF is worth it's weight in gold.
With the click of a button, an email can be sent to a colleague about an article you've read on how the economy's on the rebound or how profitable an iphone application will be. With the click of the send button, your email takes the nano-second long journey into cyberland and reaches your selected receiver's inbox. However, email service providers(ESP) have argued that this is not the ideal way to forward information, as you lose much of the design and some of the copy; and other ESPs argue that you may not see any of the message at all. In addition, ESPs entice you more with the Forward to a Friend feature, touting that you're able to track who your subscribers send your messages to, and with their permission, you could ultimately be able to market your services to them personally.

The experts weigh in

Elie Ashery, President at Gold Lasso, says that the FAF feature is "a failed attempt by e-mail service providers to incorporate viral marketing tools into their applications. Because 100% of the most commonly used e-mail clients have a forward e-mail feature, people use that instead. The only thing we e-mail service providers can do to save face is to hope that the feature reminds people to use their forward button." He recommends a referral program. In his opinion, "a good program is automated, timely and usually starts where the original opt-in process ends. Once a Web site user has gone through the motions of opting in, it is a perfect opportunity to ask for a referral. Ask the referrer not only for an e-mail address, but also a full name. When soliciting the referee to opt-in, always personalize the message and, most importantly, reference the referrer - this gives you instant credibility and will produce a much higher conversion rate."

However, you have the flip side of the argument--Kevin Mabley, the SVP of strategic services from Epsilon. He states our initial point--it's primary use is to grow your subscriber base. He says that "a remarkable 65% of consumers forward coupons from CPG company e-mails to friends, and 55% forward retail e-mail offers, according to a recent Epsilon survey."

Speaking more to the numbers, he says that only a mere 0.5% of recipients use the feature, meaning that "one of every 200 delivered e-mails reaches an advocate for your brand."

Blame it on the technology

With the onset of powerful Web 2.0 tools, experts say that it's easier to send your messages to a friend or two or forty within a matter of seconds. Since most consumers tend to flock to convenience, using tools like Facebook and Digg have become the norm to spread news fast. This allows them to also forward your information,and before you know it, your information has reached the masses--all because you thought the information would be useful to one person, when, in fact, it was useful to many.

And we sound off...

Using the FAF is a "nice to have"–meaning that you don't really need it, but it's a good idea to have it as an option to your email subscribers. If they choose to use the feature, fine. If not, look into adding other ways for subscribers to share your information, such as setting up a blog, becoming a friend on Facebook, or allowing them to follow you on Twitter. This way, your information reaches the masses and depending on how big you dream, the millions.

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About Marketing Mechanisms
Marketing Mechanisms is a full-service e-marketing agency that produces the ultimate vision for your HTML email campaigns, web marketing, digital imaging, and electronic communications. We use our expertise and creativity to improve your operational efficiency and increase your revenue. Learn more about the services we offer at www.marketingmechanisms.com.