Andy Sernovitz, the guru on word of mouth marketing, has a serious issue with Vonage. And I can see why. Turns out so do tons of other people. What happened? Andy referred friends to Vonage years ago, and now Vonage is using Andy's name to endorse their service to his friends in multiple emails. Yikes.
If you're using Forward to a Friend on your site or in your emails, make sure that you don't do anything with those addresses until the forwarded recipients opt-in to your list.
Perfect example? VerticalResponse offers Forward to a Friend links you can include in your email. BUT unless someone who receives a forwarded email from one of your recipients fills out an opt-in form to opt in to your list, we don't allow you to get that email address. This is good practice and you avoid getting into trouble like Vonage is in.
Did this happen to you? Let's hear your story!
Comments