For businesses, one of the most difficult things is building their subscribers lists by adding people who willingly accept to receive emails. Fortunately, while people might not be willing to allow you into their inboxes, they will not have the same restrictions for their friends. So, if you can get your few subscribers to forward your emails to others, you are definitely going to have a growing email subscription list in a much shorter time and be able to realize the goals of your campaign.
As good as that sounds, it is not always that easy to convince your audience to forward your
emails. If you really want to get your emails forwarded, you need to understand what motivates people to do so. Regardless of the type of audience you have in your subscribers list, their reasons for sharing your content can be different. Even if you forgo traditional forward options and choose to include social buttons to promote social sharing, you still need to understand what would make the people click on these buttons.
What Makes People Share
In most cases, people share information with others through emails or any other medium for the purpose of establishing and maintaining relationships. For others, sharing information provides them with a chance to understand it more thoroughly. However, that is not the only reason people share content with others. Take a look at the following data to understand email readers’ behaviors.
- 94% people share information with others after considering whether it would be useful for them or not in an effort to make valuable content available to their friends.
49% people were found to share content so that they can inform others about some products or services. They either want to encourage their friends to take some action or are aiming to change opinions. - 68% people share content because it helps them determine what type of things the care about the most, giving them a chance to define themselves among their social gatherings.
- 85% people share information with others so that they can get their response. According to them, others’ response and discussions help them understand the information in a much better way.
- For 69% of people, information sharing is important because it gives them a chance to get more involved with the people around them.
- 84% people share information about a cause that they care for in order to keep the support for the cause strong.
Depending on what makes your targeted readers share information, you can use these factors accordingly in the email you send to your audience and ensure that your messages
get forwarded. You can make them click on the share button by appealing to their desire to share information with others. However, if you want to know how effective your content turned out, which you should to ensure your campaign’s success, there are ways to track whether your mail got forwarded or not.
Tracking Forwarded Emails
If your email gets forwarded through the social sharing button included within your message, you can actually track how many times it was forwarded. Your analytics platform will have all the stats related to your query and may be able to tell you how many of your subscribers clicked in the share buttons included in your email. However, tracking cannot be as easy if the traditional forward button is used. For tracking these natural mail forwards, you can use email analytics tools. By observing which type of content included your emails get shared the most, you can create more effective emails that would have a higher chance of being shared.
So, if you want to see a boost in your email subscription list, convincing your subscribers to forward your emails to their friends is definitely an idea you should consider. Just make sure to carry out the process without being too overbearing on your customers. This way, you will be able to reach more inboxes in a more personalized way.
For more information or for a complete list of Ballantine’s services, call us at 973-305-1500.
I'm the Director of Digital Services and Partner at Ballantine, a family-owned and operated direct mail & digital marketing company based in New Jersey. and started in 1966 by my great uncle!
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