When I read this article promoting the death of Forward to a Friend (FTAF) written by Ed Henrich over on ClickZ, I admit I was disappointed. While the stats say Share With Your Network (SWYN) usage is steadily increasing and FTAF usage is steadily decreasing, I have to ask everyone to take a step back and ask "Why?".

Let's get real for a minute: today, neither SWYN nor FTAF produce gang-buster numbers for your email marketing campaigns. The reality is that very few of your subscribers will choose to share your content to their friends, family or network.  But when they do -- oh, when they do! -- my belief is that you'll want them to do it through an email forward versus social sharing.

Because it's my belief that emails that are forwarded to friends, whether through the FTAF mechanism or not, have more traction and a higher conversion rate over SWYN all day, every day.

Hear me out:

The metric that we can actually report on -- those that click the forward link, fill in their friends' email addresses and hit submit -- vastly under-reports the true number of forwards. I don't know about you, but when I want to share an exciting deal from LivingSocial or sale at Old Navy, 99 times out of 100 I use my email client to forward versus the FTAF link.

The same could be said about SWYN, so I'll move on to my next point: views. Ask yourself this question: "If you were to receive an email forwarded from a colleague or friend, how likely are you to open it and check it out?"  Most probably, your response is "very likely."  How likely are you to, first, see a tweet/Facebook post/Digg/Tumblr post... that a friend posts and then click the link to read more? I would imagine the likelihood here is much smaller.

The stats for social sharing and views are highly debated with only anecdotal numbers to date, but the latest study reports that it produces an 1% lift in views and a 24.3% increase in reach when shared on social networks.  Please note that views and opens do not equate to sales, which I imagine is an exponentially smaller number.

So let's get to the bottom line: people aren't just going to magically share your emails; you have to ask them to take action and give them clear reasons to do so.  I encourage clients to include a FTAF link due to, to borrow a Dela Quist term, "the nudge effect" of including a request in the email. If you don't ask, it's not likely to happen.

Having folks share your content is a big win regardless of the medium, but in my opinion FTAF wins in the epic battle of FTAF vs. SWYN (if there should even be one or the other) every time.

For or against FTAF or SWYN? Weigh in with your opinion in the comments section.

- Kelly Lorenz
Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto
@KNLorenz

For years senders have been warned away from utilizing “spammy” words that could cause their emails to end up in the spam folder or outright rejected at ISPs. These words (and punctuation) include:

• “Free”
• “Percentage off”
• “Buy now”
• “Urgent”
• ALL CAPS
• Special characters (!, %, $, @, *….)
• “Click here”
• And on and on…

But, here’s the thing: They’re not hurting you and haven’t been for a while now. How do I know? Three reasons:

1. Experience with client emails that go out with so-called spammy words in both the subject line and email body and hit the inbox just fine;
2. ISPs have evolved to much more advanced tools to track and reject legitimate spam; and
3. We see delightful, engaging emails that toe the line of “spamminess” make it into the inbox everyday. Overstock is another great example of a marketer that consistently uses all caps in their subject line to great success.

These “naughty words” used to be the buzzwords of every spammer, but now many marketers are utilizing them to help spur action to push subscribers down the funnel to purchase because they work. Copy that pushes subscribers to take action immediately has a propensity to increase actions and conversions and you shouldn’t have to worm around the above words to include in messages.

ISPs have incorporated a massive toolbox of ways to monitor, track and ding senders through reputation and subscriber engagement. Complaints are your biggest enemy, not email copy. If you have a bad reputation at ISPs, regardless of how “clean” your content is, you’re likely not going to get through to the inbox and vice versa.

Worry about improving your list health and how to engage your subscribers with your content instead of laser focusing on what words are or are not kosher. Because ultimately end users, not ISPs these days, determine whether your content is deemed spammy.

One caveat is that individual and company filters are likely to be tighter on what content is and isn’t acceptable, so be aware of this, set up accounts at the major ISPs, partner with companies like Pivotal Veracity for reputation and deliverability monitoring, and test.

And there are a few content pieces you should still focus on when attempting to reach the inbox: incorporating a balanced image to text ratio, avoiding blacklisted urls/domains within the body of your email and ensuring you’re sending valuable, timely content to those subscribers that have opted-in.

Thoughts? Share them in the comments below.

- Kelly Lorenz
Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto Software
@KNLorenz

First a disclosure: I love Target with a passion. I will drive past the local Super Walmart and go 10 miles out of my way to go to Target. As a result, I signed up for Target's email program approximately four years ago. At the time, I filled out a profile with demographic data and provided my zip code when I signed up. I began to receive specials and personalized content based on my location for my local Target.

Fast-forward four years: I no longer live in that city or near the local Target. However, I am still receiving special email offers for my (old) local Target (see below):

 

While I applaud Target for sending geo-targeted content to subscribers to increase relevancy, they have never once, in four years, asked me if my profile data is still accurate. Boat, missed. As I'm still committed to my long-term relationship with Target, I decided to scroll to the very bottom of the email.

If I were the average subscriber, would I know that behind the "My Account" link I could also update my profile data? Tip for marketers: Have a loved one or friend not affiliated with your brand "secret shop" your emails and site to ensure the average user understands your terminology.

I clicked through and was taken to a page to sign in.

Another opportunity missed to reduce the barriers for subscribers to update their profiles. Listen: Your subscribers are constantly evolving and making lifestyle changes (more on that in a moment), so you have to be sure you are still providing targeted, relevant, valuable content that hits them at the right time. For now, I'm either going to continue to receive no longer relevant content based on profile data from four years ago, or I'm going to unsubscribe.

On a side note, in addition to localized emails, Target has begun sending me messages targeted to new parents.

 

Now, when I signed up, I believe I provided my birth date and maybe Target decided now is the time in my life when I should/would be having a baby. However, this is not the case. Granted, I am going in with the assumption that they only send targeted and segmented emails. An email entirely focused on babies, again with no option to tell Target that these emails are not relevant, may cause many subscribers to hit the "spam" button (because remember, spam could also mean "not relevant"), unsubscribe or disengage from their emails. Don't miss the boat on ensuring you're hitting the right audience with the right, most valuable and relevant message, at the right time.

Target, I love you, but let's take this baby thing one step at a time, okay? Give your preferences center a little TLC and your subscribers will love you that much more.

Kelly Lorenz
Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto Software
@KNLorenz