Is it possible to make an email blast non-forwardable?

[Anonymous]

Our company sends out emails through Marketo to our sales force so that we can analyze the open/click-through data. Our regulatory group is asking whether I can somehow make these emails un-forwardable outside of our organization. Is there a setting that allows for this within Marketo?

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Hey Jennifer Merk, unfortunately I don't think this is possible anywhere in the wide, wide world of email. While it would be nice under certain conditions, it just isn't something that exists. Maybe within the body or subject of your email you could add "DO NOT FORWARD EXTERNALLY" or something along those lines?

[Josh_Hill13]

Correct, there is no way to prevent this.

Just do not use the forward to friend feature.

[Anonymous]

I figured not, as I haven't seen such a feature before. We mark "internal use only" at this point, but our regulatory group is very diligent. Thanks for the feedback!

[Joe_Reitz]

Follow-up question... What if you DID use the forward to a friend feature. Does Marketo capture any new activity on the forwarded emails?

[Elliott_Lowe1]

Marketo creates a new lead record after someone uses Forward to a Friend.  If the forwarded email recipient clicks the email and visits your site, it is tracked.  However, by default the new leads created via Forward to Friend are unsubscribed, so unless they submit a form and you have a smart campaign that changes their Unsubscribed field value to 'True' when they 'opt-in', you won't be able to email them.

[Joe_Reitz]

Thanks for the clarification, Elliott Lowe​!

[SanfordWhiteman]

Actually, some business messaging systems can do exactly this (though they are not, as Dory Viscogliosi​ put it, part of the "wide, wide world" of public SMTP).

For example, Outlook 2010 has a feature specifically called "Do Not Forward."  It's a form of DRM applied to email messages.  As long as your server only accepts connections from Outlook, you can make a pretty strong move toward enforcing this for your company.

I also think this was possible with Lotus Notes back in the day.