Writing emails members forward to friends

When a member forwards your email to a friend, something valuable happens. A person who trusts you hands your words to a person who trusts them, with an implied recommendation attached. The friend reads it with more attention than they would give an advert, and if it is useful, they may start following you too. Some of the best new members a membership ever gets arrive this way.

Most emails are never forwarded, and that is fine. But some kinds of email travel far more easily than others, and a few small decisions make the difference between an email a member could forward and one they actually do. Those decisions also protect the member when their email ends up in someone else's inbox.

Why people forward an email

People rarely forward an email to promote you. They forward it because it does something for them or for the person they send it to:

• It helps someone they know with a problem that person is facing right now.
• It makes them look good: informed, thoughtful, one step ahead.
• It starts a conversation they want to have anyway.
• It is funny or moving enough to share.

So the question when writing a shareable email is not “how do I get forwards?” but “who would a member want to send this to, and would it help that person?”

In practice, the emails that travel best tend to be one of these:

• A practical tool: a checklist, template, script or worksheet that solves a common problem.
• A clear explainer of something confusing in your field.
• A strong, well-argued opinion that people will want to discuss.
• A story with a point that applies beyond your membership.
• An open invitation, such as a free event that non-members may attend.

Routine announcements, account emails and anything that only makes sense to members rarely travel, and they do not need to.

Make it work for a stranger

A forwarded email lands with someone who has never heard of you, does not know your in-jokes and cannot log in to your site. Before you send an email you hope will travel, read it as that person:

1. Is it self-contained? The core value should be in the email itself, not behind a members-only link.
2. Is it clear who you are? One line such as “I run a community for parents of teenagers” is enough.
3. Does it rely on member knowledge? Replace references to “the pinned thread” or “Module 4” with plain descriptions.
4. Do the links work for non-members? Point them to public pages where you can, so the stranger does not hit a login screen.

Invite the new reader in, gently

Give the forwarded reader one easy next step. A short line at the bottom of shareable emails does it:

Did someone forward this to you? I send one practical email a week for parents navigating the teenage years. You can get them free here: [Get the weekly email]

Point it to your free list, not straight to a paid sign-up. A stranger who liked one email is ready for the next email, not yet for a membership. Tag that link so you can see how many people join this way; tracking campaigns with tagged links explains how.

Protect the member when their email travels

Forwarding copies everything in the email, including links that are personal to the original member. That can cause real problems:

• One-click login links can let the friend into the member's account. Never put automatic login links in emails meant to be shared.
• Unsubscribe and preference links belong to the original member. If the friend clicks them, they may change the member's settings. Asking for confirmation before a change, and keeping those pages free of personal details, limits the damage; preference centers covers this.
• Personal details in the body, such as membership level, progress or renewal date, go wherever the email goes. Keep them out of shareable emails.

Worked example: a family phone agreement

Imagine a hypothetical community for parents of teenagers run by Imogen. Her original email announced a new members-only template: “Module 3's phone agreement template is now in the Resources area. Log in to download it. Your progress: 4 of 9 lessons.” Nobody could forward it usefully.

Her revised version is built to travel:

• It opens with the situation: arguments about phones at bedtime, and why a written agreement calms them.
• It includes five sample clauses in the email itself, so the value survives forwarding.
• It links to a public page with a free, shorter version of the agreement, and mentions that members get the full editable template.
• The progress line is gone, and there is no login link.
• It ends with: “Know a parent in the middle of this? Forward it to them.”
• The footer includes the “forwarded this?” line pointing to her free list.

Members still get the full template. Friends get something genuinely useful and a clear way to hear more.

Ask for the forward, occasionally

An explicit request works when it names a specific person: “Know a new manager who would find this useful? Forward it.” It works poorly as a line pasted into every email, where it becomes wallpaper. Save it for the emails most likely to help someone outside your membership, perhaps one in every several sends.

Make your next email shareable

1. Pick one upcoming email with standalone value: a tool, explainer, story or opinion.
2. Put the core value in the email, not behind a login.
3. Remove member-only references, personal details and login links.
4. Add a “forwarded this?” line with a tagged link to your free list.
5. Ask for the forward by naming who would benefit.
6. Check your tagged link after a few weeks to see who arrived.