Optimizing the “E-Mail This” Marketing Opportunity

Published by Ben | Filed under Amplify-Interactive

A recent article in ClickZ struck my fancy.

Optimizing the “E-mail This” Marketing Opportunity” - Ten ways to supercharge the viral marketing possibilities of “e-mail this to a friend” functionality.

I like this. It’s such simple, low hanging fruit for so many sites – and they don’t use it. We incorporate this item into our site audit scorecard for clients, and we always recommend that clients add the functionality, but I’m going to make sure we push clients harder on adding this functionality to their site.

Some key takeaways:

• Make it prominent - this is a call to action after all
• Include privacy statement / link
• Have an option to offer to send a copy to the sender (I use this all the time)
•  Add ‘opt-in’ & ‘request more information’ functionality (lead gen sites) or advertising (content sites)
• The email’s look & feel must represent your brand

The article also offers some thoughts and recommendations for pre-built vs in-house solutions