Cover Story: Top Dog

There are several ways to encourage sharing in email. Retailers, for example, can include SWYN links in the footers or headers of emails. They also can integrate SWYN into the messages themselves. PETCO has had success by incentivizing SWYN usage. Last August, for example, it sent a viral email campaign to its subscribers that offered them the chance to win 10 PETCO.com dollars if they shared a promotional code with their friends on online social networks. If a code, which offered free shipping on orders more than $40, was used the most during the time of the contest, that subscriber could win 500 PETCO.com dollars. Second- and third-place winners could walk away with 300 and 200 PETCO.com dollars, respectively. "The campaign was very successful," Lazarchic says.