Skip to main content
UploadLanguage (EN)Support
BusinessMobileSocial MediaMarketingTechnologyArt & PhotosCareerDesignEducationPresentations & Public SpeakingGovernment & NonprofitHealthcareInternetLawLeadership & ManagementAutomotiveEngineeringSoftwareRecruiting & HRRetailSalesServicesScienceSmall Business & EntrepreneurshipFoodEnvironmentEconomy & FinanceData & AnalyticsInvestor RelationsSportsSpiritualNews & PoliticsTravelSelf ImprovementReal EstateEntertainment & HumorHealth & MedicineDevices & HardwareLifestyle
Litmus, profile picture
Uploaded byLitmus
2,799 views

How to Make Your Emails Go Viral

This document summarizes research on how to make emails go viral through forwarding. Some key findings include: - Smaller audience sizes, segmented/triggered emails, personalization, and "share" calls-to-action increased forwarding rates. - Event-related and transactional emails had higher forwarding rates than promotional content or newsletters. - The most viral 1% of emails had forwarding rates 17.6 times higher than median emails, demonstrating exponential growth in virality. - Forwarding is a sign that emails are meeting subscribers' needs and expanding reach, engagement, and conversions. Consistently low forwarding rates may mean content is not deeply relevant.

Marketing◦
Related topics:
Email Marketing Insights•
How to Make Your Emails Go Viral Chad White, Research Director, Litmus @chadswhite Justine Jordan, Marketing Director, Litmus @meladorri
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. @chadswhite @meladorri
However, the much quieter email forward is often a much more powerful influencer. @chadswhite @meladorri
Major viral influencers
For industries including, Consumer Products, Financial Services, Membership Organizations, Retail, E-Commerce, Pharmaceutical, and Others 18Months 3.2MillionConsumers 119Social Referral Marketing Campaigns We trackedand measured consumer actions to see how they connected and shared informationwith others, as they acted on behalf of brands.
How consumers referred others, across industries, according to SocialTwist.
Although more consumers are reached through Facebook, email results in a greater response. Distribution of new visitors, by method of outreach of their friends, according to SocialTwist.
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
Nielsen research found that “recommendations from people I know” are the most trusted form of advertising.
Nielsen research also found that more trusted forms of advertising drive more action in response.
Learn how to increase your forward rate. GET YOUR EMAIL SHARED  Check out our free post.
Understanding the influence of email forwards
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. @chadswhite @meladorri
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. @chadswhite @meladorri
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. @chadswhite @meladorri
The findings from Litmus’ “The Viral Email” report Benchmarks for Forward-to- Open Rates Tactics that Affect Forward- to-Open Rates Email Topics that Affect Forward-to- Open Rates 1 2 3
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. @chadswhite @meladorri
The 99th percentile of viral emails was 17.6 times more viral than the median, generating 1 forward for every 21 opens. @chadswhite @meladorri
Email Forwards per Open Benchmark
Email Virality Grows Exponentially Vs. Median
Get more benchmarks and research findings. DOWNLOAD THE FREE REPORT 
Tactics that affect forward-to-open rates
Tactics we’ll explore… @chadswhite @meladorri • Audience Size • Segmentation & Triggered Emails • Personalization • “Share with Your Network” Calls-to-Action
Audience size @chadswhite @meladorri Does 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. @chadswhite @meladorri
Small Audience Forward-to-Open Rate Large Audience Forward-to-Open Rate Small vs. Large And it’s even more stark among the most viral emails @chadswhite @meladorriSource: Litmus 75th Percentile 0.71% 0.32% 2.2 50th Percentile 0.30% 0.16% 1.9 99th Percentile 5.04% 1.91% 2.6 95th Percentile 2.29% 0.89% 2.6 90th Percentile 1.49% 0.60% 2.5
Segmentation + triggers @chadswhite @meladorri Are 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. @chadswhite @meladorri
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.
Personalization Are 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 2014.
See what other email tactics can improve your emails CHECK OUT EMAIL BEST PRACTICES  From inbox to the landing page..
Email topics that affect forward-to-open rates
Email topics we’ll explore… @chadswhite @meladorri • Promotions/Deals/Discounts • News/Helpful Content • Events/Webinars • Transactional/Account Change/Action Required
Promotions, deals, & discounts @chadswhite @meladorri Are 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. @chadswhite @meladorri
News + helpful content @chadswhite @meladorri Are 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. @chadswhite @meladorri
Promotions and helpful content are staples of email marketing, so subscribers are only driven to forward those that are truly great. @chadswhite @meladorri
Plan your email content calendar so that you’re occasionally sending an awesome deal, exclusive news, or similarly impactful content. @chadswhite @meladorri
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 + webinars @chadswhite @meladorri Are emails about events and webinars 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 than emails in the 50th percentile. @chadswhite @meladorri
An exciting, controversial topic and a compelling speaker propelled this event email into the top 1% of most- forwarded emails.
Transactional + account changes Are 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.
Collect data surrounding your forward rate to track improvement. START TRACKING NOW  Free 14-day trial of Litmus. No credit card required.
Subscribers’ needs and your forward rate
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
Forwards are a powerful indicator of the overall health of your email program, because they are a sign that you’re fulfilling your subscribers’ needs at the highest level. @chadswhite @meladorri
Hierarchy of Subscriber Needs
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. @chadswhite @meladorri
The Viral Email To explore all of our findings, check out our full report: @chadswhite @meladorri DOWNLOAD FREE