Why use Forward to a Friend?

When recipients use the standard forward option in Outlook or Gmail, you cannot accurately capture the additional opens, clicks, and interactions generated by forwarded copies of your marketing email. Forward to a Friend provides a better way to share your email while giving you additional insight into how recipients interact with your content. You can see which existing recipients forwarded your email and track interactions with forwarded messages. Forward to a Friend also helps provide a more consistent experience for the new recipient. Standard forwarding can affect the layout and spacing of HTML and CSS-based emails. It can also preserve personalized content intended for the original recipient. With Forward to a Friend, the email's layout and spacing are retained, and dynamic content such as a recipient's name can use information entered for the new recipient instead of continuing to display the original recipient's information.

Create a Forward to a Friend form

Start by creating a form specifically for Forward to a Friend.

1. Create a new marketing form.
2. Set the Form type to Forward to a Friend.
3. The form will populate with a standardized template for collecting the recipient's name and email address.
4. Configure the available properties as needed.

The designer also includes Forward to a Friend Tools, indicating that the applicable fields are configured specifically for this form type. When you're finished, check the form for errors and set it to Go Live. If this is the first Forward to a Friend form you've created, you may also need to accept cookie tracking and consent terms before the form can go live.

Host the form

Once the form is created, it needs to be available online. One option is to create a form hosting page that provides a code snippet you can embed on an external website. Alternatively, you can create a marketing page hosted within Dynamics 365 Marketing and direct recipients to it with a custom URL. To use a marketing page:

1. Navigate to Marketing Pages.
2. Create or open the page in the designer.
3. Set the page type to Forward to a Friend.
4. Configure the partial URL.
5. Add a form element to the page.
6. Select the Forward to a Friend form you created.
7. Save the page and set it to Go Live.

Connect the page to Content Settings

Next, connect your Forward to a Friend page to your Content Settings. Content Settings stores standardized values used by your marketing content, including links such as subscription centers, social media pages, your organization's address, and Forward to a Friend. Navigate to Content Settings under Marketing Templates and open your default Content Settings. The recommended method is to use dynamic content. In the Forward to a Friend field, select the personalization option and configure:

• Dynamic content
• Content settings
• No relationship
• Forward to a Friend field
• Insert

You can also go to the form page's Summary tab, copy its URL, and use that as a standard URL in your Content Settings. Connecting the page through Content Settings ensures your Forward to a Friend links route recipients to the intended page.

Add Forward to a Friend to your marketing email

Once the form, page, and Content Settings are ready, you can add the Forward to a Friend link to an email. A simple approach is to add a text link in your email footer, such as Send this email to a friend!

1. Add a text box where you want the link to appear.
2. Enter and select your link text.
3. Choose the hyperlink option.
4. In the URL field, select the option to add dynamic content.
5. Configure

The text will now link to your Forward to a Friend page. Because it functions as a clickable email link, interactions with it can be tracked.

Track forwarded emails

In outbound marketing, Forward to a Friend generates new links and redirects for forwarded messages. This allows interactions with forwarded emails to be captured separately from interactions with your standard campaign emails. Dynamic content can also use the new recipient's name, helping prevent the forwarded recipient from seeing personalization originally intended for someone else. The Insights dashboard includes the number of forwards received by an email, while the activity timeline can show which of your contacts forwarded it. These insights are email-specific and can include activity across customer journeys in which that email is used.

Keep the 30-day data limit in mind

Data entered into Forward to a Friend forms is deleted after 30 days. Forward to a Friend forms therefore do not create new lead or contact records on their own. If a new recipient later completes another form or landing page, however, that interaction can create a new record.