ability to add a forward to friend in emails

[MelanieM34]

I created an email using card/announcement and when I tried to add "forward to a friend", "join my mailing list" and permission reminder" I was not able. I would like to have the ability to use these functions in future emails that I create.

[MelanieM34]

Hi everyone! I am following up to the forward to friend feature request. Thank you for your patience as we looked into this! The good news is we have received word from our engineers that feature is now available in our cross device templates under the social share block. If anyone has any additional questions on this, please don’t hesitate to respond to this post as we would be happy to assist you further.

[Caitlin_M]

Hello @CarolynD05. Thank you so much for the feedback about the forward to a friend feature! I'll be sure to note this feedback in your account and send it over to our Product teams. 

[SuzanneH47]

We gave the 3ed Gen editor a shot from it's launch, but found that since it didn't have a "forward" feature, it was worth sticking with the tried and true template we originally created. I'm often tempted to change our template or use once of yours for a special campaign, but without the forward feature, I think it would be losing it's punch.  Also, in the "Forward" landing page, perhaps it could let us choose which kind of person to send to....mostly I forward to collegues or associates, rarely a "friend"....

[JennyM3268]

When you click on "Edit Footer Info" under the Footer Options, why not add "forward email to friend" here? I can't figure out how to add this to the footer otherwise.

[JennyM3268]

I also need this feature. I just spent over an hour going through the instructions on how to "Customize Forward Email to a Friend Options" from the knowledge base but got stumped over how to add it to the email footer. I see other emails which include this feature and can't see how I'm unable to also have it. Now, I learn that the newer editor does not include this feature. Not only have you removed the ability to add hyperlinks to a table of contents in the newsletter (which I learned only by calling up the help line), but I also can't add a simple forward email link to the footer. Very disappointing. Shouldn't the new editor be an improvement over the older one? 

[Caitlin_M]

Hello @JennyM3268. Thank you for the feedback about the Forward to a Friend customization options being available in your account. While the feature is not currently on the roadmap to be brought back in our third-generation editor, our Product team is looking into different ways to have your emails be forwarded with fewer disruptions. One thing I can suggest is to insert a View As Webpage link which we have just introduced into the editor. This way, if someone receives a forwarded email, they will have the option to view the email as a webpage version.

In regards to your question about the Table of Contents, most mobile devices and mail apps do not support these types of links and they would not work if a contact was to click on them. This is why this feature was not included in our newest editor. If you are creating a longer email, I suggest using the Read More block so contacts can click to read a longer article or blog post that you would like to share. 

[dorism11]

Having to give our recipients on how to Forward an email is simply ridiculous. Also, there are still at least 50% who read emails on a desktop. I simply fail to understand Constant Contact digging in on this issue instead of simply providing what so of their customers are asking for. It might be a good time to remind CC and everyone that there are many other services - the majority if not all of which do provide the Forward to a Friend.

[Caitlin_M]

Hello @dorism11. Although the Forward to a Friend feature is not currently on the roadmap to be brought back in our third-generation editor, our Product team is still collecting feedback. May we ask why you would like to have this feature back? If this feature is used because of display issues when an email is forwarded, I can suggest inserting a View As Webpage link which we have just introduced into the third-generation editor. This way, if someone receives a forwarded email, they will have the option to view the email as a webpage version.

[Yayoe]

Wow, I'm astonished that this venerable feature is gone (also the hyperlinked TOC!). I'm just testing CC for the first time in several years -- but this is probably the deal-breaker, because we expect the list to grow by word of mouth, not online publicity. Oh, well.

[Caitlin_M]

Hello @Yayoe. I can certainly understand how this feature would be useful for growing your list. I would suggest including a link to your sign-up form in your campaign so if a contact does forward your email, a receiving contact would have the ability to join your mailing list! In the meantime, I will submit your feedback over to the appropriate team.

[Matt_B.]

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. 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 a “View as Webpage” link. 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 lead generation landing page within emails that you’re hoping will be referred along. If you wish to have your contacts share your email on their social media pages, you can include a Social Share bar in your email that allows your contacts to easily make this happen.