Currently if a email recipient forwards that email to a peer, their lead information goes with it. I'd like to see this fixed - lead information should not go along with the email.
Unfortunately, the way all of the world's email works is that once an email is sent, the sender no longer has no control over the content. If the email is forwarded, the decoration of the links would be sent as they were originally. These link decorations contain the lead detail and munchkin cookies them appropriately.
So the options are:
Remove all functionality that affixes lead information to the sender. This removes a good thing and takes away a bad thing. I think this may be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Add in links in the email to share the content with others
We have taken the second approach with some designs we are planning in the coming months. In addition to emailing to a new person, we will enable other social sharing capabilities.
This is a tough problem that unfortunately has limited potential based on how the international email system is set up.
Is anyone aware of a smart campaign workflow that supports referrals such as "forward to a friend" functionality? For example, I'd like to include a link in my webinar invites for "Refer a Colleague" that allows the recipient to enter a colleague's name and email address. Then I'd like to see this trigger an email to the colleague that includes a reference to the referrer.
We don't send out so many e-mails that it's overwhelming, so my work around has been to create a unique landing page for each one that triggers the follow up e-mail. It's not the most elegant solution, but it works AND we capture the new lead information are able to track that lead.
For those of you interested in Forward to a Friend functionality, we are currently working on it! Would you be interested in the ability to share emails socially (e.g. with Twitter, Linked In, Facebook), by adding the share buttons to an email?
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