Andy Sernovitz

Andy’s Answers: Elements of a great tell-a-friend form

By Andy Sernovitz on February 19, 2009 | 5 Comments

Leads from your tell-a-friend forms are just as good as any other lead, but they’re often overlooked and underused. Focus on creating awesome tell-a-friend forms to help your fans spread the word about you, for free.

What to do:

  • Put it on every page. A tell-a-friend form is no good if it’s buried on one page. Instead, put forms all over your site so people can recommend specific portions of your content.

  • Write a great message. A great tell-a-friend message is fun and encourages the recipient to actually go and check out whatever their friend just pointed them to.

  • Track and measure. Watch what content is getting recommended the most to learn what your best topics are and how you could improve other areas of your site.

Related Posts:

Tags: , , ,
Categories: Andy's Answers, Word of Mouth
Permalink

Responses

  • Posted by Gay Lazarus on February 19th, 2009 at 1:35 pm

    Dear Andy,
    I guess you can tell by my email address I am a travel agent. I do not have my own web site but I have a large email list of customers. I send many emails with special travel offers on a weekly basis. I would love to include a “tell a friend” area. Do you have a sample of one that I can look at for possible use?
    Thanks,
    -Gay-

  • Posted by Joey on February 19th, 2009 at 7:49 pm

    Nice article, but lack of examples is disappointing.

    Also, as I google “tell-a-friend forms”, I find that this process is easily hi-jacked and also used to spam. I would have hoped for some possible “con” related issues to help me understand.

  • Posted by Rob Birgfeld on February 20th, 2009 at 7:55 am

    Joey,
    While it’s always a work in progress, take a look at the “email this story” option within any SmartBrief– including SmartBrief on Social Media. We like to highlight the comment from the sender, and give people the opportunity to either forward the entire newsletter as a resource or individual stories– both have proved valuable. Also, I recently saw a MarketingProfs tell-a-friend that really struck me as smart. Upon signing up for an event, it immediately thanked me and gave me the opportunity to pass the opportunity along to my friends. It’s for a free event– and as aside, looks great– so check it out here.

  • Posted by Jeff Hainline on February 25th, 2009 at 3:17 pm

    Great questions, I was looking for an example too. Thanks Rob, I did go to the site and it looks like a very worthwhile event as long as one isn’t buried in the subsequent promotional advertising. That April 1rst date does make one wonder…

  • Posted by budz on November 25th, 2009 at 8:38 am

    a
    s
    a
    http://www.mysite.com