The “Forwardable Bomb” Play

Turn subscribers into viral ambassadors

This week’s hack is what the savviest marketers are using to turn every subscriber into a secret marketer. Forget referral programs that flop or share buttons nobody clicks. Instead, drop a forward-worthy nugget into your campaign—and engineer virality from your inbox.

The Nugget: Add a “Forward Bomb” section to your next email

Most brands hope their content spreads. But the top 2% engineer it—by dropping a “made to forward” section that gives subscribers something dead-simple to share with a friend or teammate.

These brands are using this to:

• Multiply signups for launches and webinars
• Spark viral loops for lead magnets
• Jumpstart their pipeline of clients by getting inside community threads and group chats

Example #1

Function of Beauty uses a silly cat meme to promote seasonal hair goals.

Example #2

Mejuri gives early access to their subscribers and makes it feel private and special so people pass it along.

Example #3

Olive Garden uses creative imagery (easily created now with AI) to draw attention to a special offer and make it feel exciting to forward.

Why Does This Work?

• Frictionless sharing: People want to share, but don’t know what to say. You make it easy for them.
• Social proof by proxy: A forward feels like a personal endorsement, not an ad or paid referral.
• Inbox virality: Unlike shares or retweets (which get lost or ignored), forwards land right in the primary inbox—instantly more visible.
• Hidden tracking: Use UTM links or ask for a reply (“Did a friend send this? Let us know for a bonus!”) to see your true reach.

How to Steal This

You can add these forward bombs to any email, be it an automated series that goes out to your audience, or your weekly newsletters.

1. Find your "forward bombs" - To avoid manually coming up with these, the easiest way to do this is to add your industry's most inspiring blogs, twitter feeds, reddit threads, and more inspiration to your Brand Memory. This will be used to curate the most sharable content weekly (be it quotes, news, or memes, resources and more).
2. Setup an Idea Feed in Hoppy Copy to curate the best, most forwardable content weekly from the blogs.
3. Insert a "forward bomb" block into your next campaign, webinar invite, or launch email. Or, make the forward bomb the entire email itself. Make sure to credit the source when necessary.
4. Send, and enjoy the extra traffic :)

You can add this to any campaign today. And the more you use it, the bigger your list gets (organically).