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Dave Cormier Director of Product Marketing

January 3, 2008

Alternative to Forward to a Friend

Previously, I wrote about how you could implement Forward to a Friend (FTAF) capabilities utilizing the StrongMail Transactional Server in concert with Message Studio or StrongMail Server. This option is great for emailers that want flexibility and control over their offers, branding and messaging. But not everyone has the option to roll out such a powerful tool.

For those of you who who are looking for a lightweight tool to help with list growth, you can use the dynamic content capabilities of StrongMail Server or Message Studio to automatically include a link (and some supporting text/HTML, if you like) that drives non-subscribers to your subscription page. The text might read something like this--

Did you receive this email from a friend, family member or co-worker? Would you like to get your own version, specifically tailored to your preferences? Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter and other emails at our subscription page.

With something like this in your email template, even if recipients forward the email around to their friends using just the forward feature of their email application, there is already an opportunity in the email for the friend to sign up and get their own version. It doesn't provide the same customizable experience that you would get with FTAF, but at least there is an easy and clear call to action for anyone who isn't already a subscriber.

So, now you are asking, "How can I easily add this to every mailing I send out? Good question! I have provided the steps and a sample below. These are for Message Studio v4, but the process is similar in StrongMail Server

  1. create a text file with the following format

    TokenName {
    content
    }

    Here's a sample of what it might look like:

    new_subscriber {

    Did you receive this email from a friend, family member of co-worker? Would you like to get your own version, specifically tailored to your preferences? Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter and other emails at our <a href="http://www.yourdomain/your_subscription_page.htm">subscription page.

    }

  2. Upload or copy/paste the file into Message Studio in CONTENT LIBRARY>>CONTENT BLOCKS>>CREATE CONTENT BLOCK
  3. Add the content block to your email template (this can also be done when assigning the template to a mailing, but adding it to the template ensures that it is available any time the template is used).
  4. In the template, add the token (##new_subscriber##) in the location that you want the content block inserted into the template.
  5. When the mailing is launched, the message will be assembled with the section with the new subscriber link in it.
You could also do the same thing by adding the static content to each template, but the content block makes it easy and portable to a variety of templates.

Posted by: Ivan Chalif at 11:59 AM
Categories: Application , Content

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