how to make your emails go viral

@chadswhite @meladorri #ViralEmail

We tend to associate ‘going viral’ with social media—in part because it’s relatively easy to see and measure the noise of

social sharing.

However, the much quieter email forward is

often a much more powerful influencer.

The 1-to-1 or 1-to-few nature of email forwards makes them much more

personal and much more trusted—and therefore

more likely to drive action.@chadswhite @meladorri #ViralEmail

Chad White @chadswhite• Research Director at Litmus• Author of Email Marketing Rules• Written thousands of posts and

articles on email marketing• Quoted in over 100 publications,

including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today

Justine Jordan @meladorri• Email critic and popular

industry speaker• Directs all things

marketing at Litmus• Recipient of 2015 EEC

Email Marketing Thought Leader of the Year award

• Organizer of The Email Design Conference

To better understand the quiet, often invisible influence of email forwards, we used Litmus’ Email Analytics to analyze the forwards generated by more than 400,000 email sends with at least 500 opens between Jan. 2013 and March 2015.

To reduce the impact of list size, we normalized forward activity by calculating the forward-to-open rate—that is, what percentage of opens generated a forward.

And to understand the drivers of email forwarding, we analyzed more than 200 emails from among the top 1% of viral emails and another 200-plus emails from around the 50th percentile—looking at tactics, topics, and other email elements.

You’ll receive a copy of The Viral Email Report, slides, and a recording following the webinar.

Benchmarks for Forward-to-Open Rates

The median email (50th percentile) produced a 0.27% forward-to-open rate. Put another way, the middle-of-the-pack email generates 1 forward for every 370 opens.

The 99th percentile of viral emails was 17.6 times more viral than the median, generating 1 forward for every 21 opens.

Tactics that Af -fect

Forward-to-Open Rates

Tactics we’ll explore…• Audience Size• Segmentation & Triggered Emails• Personalization• “Share with Your Network” Calls-to-

Action

Audience SizeDoes an email sent to a small audience or a large audience have more viral potential?

Small audience! The median email among those with 500 to 50,000 opens was forwarded 90% more than the median email among those with more than 50,000 opens.

And it’s even more stark among the most viral emails Small Audience

Forward-to-Open Rate

Large AudienceForward-to-Open

RateSmall vs. Large

99th Percentile 5.04% 1.91% 2.6

95th Percentile 2.29% 0.89% 2.6

90th Percentile 1.49% 0.60% 2.5

75th Percentile 0.71% 0.32% 2.2

50th Percentile 0.30% 0.16% 1.9

Segmentation & TriggersAre segmented emails and triggered emails more or less likely to be forwarded?

More likely! The emails in the 99th percentile were 4.3 times more likely to be segmented and 2.9 times more likely to be triggered than emails in the 50th percentile.

San Diego Magazine segmented these

event promo emails to attendees of last year’s event and to

attendees of another event they

held. Both were among the top 1%

of viral emails.

PersonalizationAre personalized emails more or less likely to be forwarded? Note: We ignored first-name merges and other superficial forms of personalization.

More likely! Emails in the 99th percentile were 4.5 times more likely than emails in the 50th percentile to include personalization.

‘Share with Your Network’ CTAs

Are emails that include SWYN calls-to-action more or less likely to be forwarded?

More likely! Emails in the 99th percentile were 13 times more likely to include a “share with your network” call-to-action than emails in the 50th percentile.

This highly viral email from Chevy

Safe & Fun included a photo

taken at an event, as well as prominent “share

with your network” links.

Recipients of this segmented email from JustGiving

were very happy to spread the

word that they were among the

top 1% of fundraisers during

Topics that AffectForward-to-Open

Email topics we’ll explore…• Promotions/Deals/Discounts• News/Helpful Content• Events/Webinars• Transactional/Account Change/ Action

Required@chadswhite @meladorri #ViralEmail

Promotions/Deals/DiscountsAre emails about promotions, deals, and discounts more or less likely to be forwarded?

Less likely! Promotions were the most common topic among emails in the 50th percentile and were 67% less likely to be the topic of the most viral 1% of emails.

News/Helpful ContentAre emails about news and helpful content more or less likely to be forwarded?

Less likely! Although very common in the 99th percentile of viral emails, news and helpful content was slightly more prevalent among emails in the 50th percentile.

Promotions and helpful content are staples of

email marketing, so subscribers are only driven

to forward those that are truly great. @chadswhite @meladorri #ViralEmail

Plan your email content calendar so that you’re occasionally sending an

awesome deal, exclusive news, or similarly

impactful content.@chadswhite @meladorri #ViralEmail

A really good deal—combined

with the announcement of store closings—made this email

from Home Decorators

Collection highly viral.

Presented as an infographic, news that

GameChanger’s app had tracked

800 million pitches for

amateur teams went viral.

Events/WebinarsAre emails about events and webinars that require registration or an RSVP more or less likely to be forwarded?

More likely! Emails in the 99th percentile were 3.2 times more likely to be about an event or webinar than emails in the 50th percentile.

An exciting, controversial topic and a compelling

speaker propelled this

event email into the top 1% of

most-forwarded emails.

Transactional/Account ChangeAre emails about transactions, account changes, and required actions more or less likely to be forwarded?

More likely! These emails were 4.6 times more likely to be among the 99th percentile of viral emails than among the 50th percentile.

Two Types of Email Forwards…• Social forwards build awareness

and start others down their own funnels toward conversions.

• Advice-seeking forwards help the forwarder decide whether to convert.

Whereas most forwards raise

awareness and help convince others to

convert, the forwards of this

triggered transactional email from Glo primarily

helped the forwarder convert.

Final Thoughts

When your subscribers forward your emails, they expand your

reach, increase conversions, and boost your email engagement

metrics—which is good for branding, revenue, and

deliverability.@chadswhite @meladorri #ViralEmail

Forwards are a powerful indicator of the overall health of your email

program; they’re a sign that you are fulfilling your

subscribers’ needs at the highest level.

If your monthly forward-to-open rate is in the bottom

quartile (less than 0.11%), then your email program is probably not

delivering experiences that are deeply relevant.

How to track forwards• Litmus Email Analytics detects

‘natural’ forwards—those made by clicking the ‘forward’ button in your email client.

• More insight than using ‘forward to a friend’

litmus.com/giftcard + coupon code VIRALEMAIL

Track forwards, prints, and geolocation.

Litmus Email Analytics

See how long each subscriber spent reading your message.

Who read, skimmed, or just glanced at your email?

Engagement

See who opens in mobile, tablet,

desktop, or web-based inboxes.

Device Usage

Works with any ESP

3litmus.com/giftcardcoupon code VIRALEMAIL

Questions?The slides, a recording, and copy of the full report will

be sent via email to everyone who registered.

Submit questions via the Q&A panel

litmus.com/giftcardCoupon code: VIRALEMAIL

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