Insert a Link to Forward an Email Message

Goal

Add a link to an email that lets contacts forward the message through Mapp Engage. Mapp Engage tracks these forwards and shows them in the message statistics.

Background Information

When contacts forward an email with the forward button of their email client (such as Gmail or Yahoo), Mapp Engage cannot track the forwarded message.

With the Forward Message link, contacts enter the recipient addresses on a Mapp Engage landing page. Mapp Engage sends the message to these addresses and counts the forwards in the message statistics.

Each contact can forward a message a maximum of 10 times within 24 hours, either to 10 different recipients or 10 times to the same recipient.

Messages forwarded through Mapp Engage can show different content than the original message. For details, see Show Different Content in Forwarded Messages below.

Procedure

Create an email message.
Click Mapp Engage Variables.
From the Category drop-down list, select System Links.
Select the variable that matches your email format: Forward Message (HTML) or Forward Message (Text).
Drag and drop the variable into the message. You do not need to change the placeholder.
⇒ During sendout, the placeholder is replaced with the link to the forwarding page.

Note
To customize the forwarding landing page, contact your customer representative.

Show Different Content in Forwarded Messages

You can change the content that the recipients of a forwarded message receive. Typical uses:

Remove customer-specific information, such as a customer number or the last purchase.
Remove coupons and special offers.
Add offers for new customers.

Mark the content with InsertIf rules based on the sendout type:

<%InsertIf expression="${sendouttype == 'FORWARD'}"%>Content only in the forwarded message<%/InsertIf%>

<%InsertIf expression="${sendouttype != 'FORWARD'}"%>Content only in the original message<%/InsertIf%>

Which content each version contains:

Content	Original message to the group	Forwarded message
Not marked	Yes	Yes
Marked with `sendouttype != 'FORWARD'`	Yes	No
Marked with `sendouttype == 'FORWARD'`	No	Yes

Note
For more information on InsertIf rules, see Personalization Rules.

Coupons in Forwarded Messages

If the email contains a coupon, the result depends on how the contact forwards it:

With the Forward Message link, the new recipient receives a new code from the same coupon list, as long as codes are available. Each forward uses a code from the list.
With the forward button of the email client, the new recipient sees the original code. This code may already have been redeemed, and Mapp Engage cannot track the forward.

If you want contacts to share the offer, place the forward link close to the coupon. To keep the offer exclusive to the original recipients, show the coupon only in the original message:

<%InsertIf expression="${sendouttype != 'FORWARD'}"%>Your personal code: <%coupon.welcomecoupon%><%/InsertIf%>