add the forward to a friend feature

[Caitlin_M]

Hey all,

I wanted to chime in on this thread regarding the lack of Forward to a Friend in the third-generation editor. The simplest answer is that due to lack of usage in our previous editor (both our users inserting this link, and recipients using this link) we decided not to implement the feature. We also wanted to solve for cases where this feature was used as a workaround (such as getting around possible display issues), with other features or improvements to the editor. With our current editor being under active development, we want to focus on the latest and greatest features that will bring as much value as possible to our users. While I can understand that some users found this feature valuable, our plan is not to rebuild the second-generation editor, but rather to learn from its mistakes/successes to create a new, best-in-class editor.

To address some of the concerns around the lack of this feature:

1. Display concerns: some folks like the peace of mind knowing that users can see a “clean-copy” of their email. As a work-around for this I would recommend including the recently released feature, “View as Webpage”. This will link to the web version of your email without any potential display issues, and it will not have any personal information of the original recipient.
2. Referrals and new signups: we recommend including a link to a signup form within emails that you’re hoping will be referred along.
3. Roadmap: we are currently developing a feature called “Social Share Bar” which will enable the ability for emails to be shared on social sites like Facebook and Twitter. This is on par with a feature in our second-generation editor; however we’ll be taking a slightly different approach to how this works and is placed within emails. The hope is that this feature will be another way to get emails shared on more channels and therefore attract more subscribers.

I love all the feedback I’ve been reading on the third-generation editor and the team is looking forward to continuing to deliver awesome new features into 2018. Stay tuned for some great new features coming out first thing in January!

[Caitlin_M]

Hi @dorism11. You noted earlier that you had concerns about contacts being unsubscribed when forwarding an email to a friend. It's a very valid point and I did want to mention that. Although we do not have a workaround to prevent the unsubscribe from happening, there is a message that appears when someone clicks the Unsubscribe link that states "If this isn't your email address you haven't been added to any mailing lists and there is no need to unsubscribe." The original contact's email address appears above the message as well so it is clear that the receiving contact has not been added to any mailing lists. This was put in place to alleviate any confusion when an email is forwarded. 

---

[dorism11]

In reality, someone who receives an email from an unknown source and possibly considering it to be spam, isn't going to bother to stop and look at that. They're just going to hit Unsubscribe. It's a nice thought but it's not a viable workaround.

[Zoe_H]

Hello @dorism11,

We do completely understand where you are coming from, and even though someone might skip past that message and click unsubscribe anyways, we did put it there to try and prevent that as much as possible. We do apologize for the inconvenience this is causing, and we are submitting your feedback over to our engineers for review. Thank you and have a wonderful Sunday! 

[SarahL8780]

I think one reason CC thinks the feature was underutilized is that... people don’t utilize it enough. They just go ahead and forward. But that’s something to deal with through better UI design, not be dropping it.

By not including the forward to friend feature, and by not providing a different tracking method, CC totally underestimated the power of word-of-mouth and direct recommendation, which are the most valuable marketing available to any company or service.

[JulieL34]

I think this is probably true, and you can see why a person might be reluctant to forward when they have to bring in the address(es) of people they want to forward it to individually, enter them in separate fields that may or may not be the way they can easily copy/paste from their email client, etc.

On the other hand, at least one of the other ESPs (and I suspect more than one) who continue to offer this feature, only send a LINK to the online version of the email rather than forwarding the ACTUAL email. This is why the way Constant Contact was doing it in the 2nd gen editor was better than some of the others. I sincerely hope that if they DO bring this feature back they do it the way it was before, where the ACTUAL email is forwarded.

[AndrewW9498]

I am on a trial CC right now coming from  and JUST tried to find the forward to a friend option as we used that with MC.   Add me to the frustrated list

[TimW373]

I never used it in the past but suddenly found a great need for it.  Very disappointing to find it no longer there.  One more vote to put it back.  Can't be that hard.

[JCGA]

This is such an important feature. Why they would remove it on newer versions is beyond me! Please bring it back!!

[RhondaH443]

It would be helpful to have this feature, which appears to be available under legacy accounts but not newer ones.

[Alex_S]

Hi @RhondaH443 

Thank you for reaching out to the community! That's a great question. Though the forward to a friend feature is only available in the legacy editor, you can still use the forward to a friend feature to send your emails to friends whether they use the newer editor or not. 

Please let us know if you have any further questions!