March 17, 2008

Product Review: Tell-A-Friend Pro

Remember that old shampoo commercial where you tell three friends, and they tell three friends and so on and so on? Well you can imagine that once this process starts, it spreads like a virus.

A few weeks ago, I reviewed Viral Friend Generator by Mike Filsaime. A few comments on my blog caused me to take another look at Tell-A-Friend Pro by Paul Galloway. I’m glad I did! Let’s take a look at the program.

Ease of Installation

I installed the program on two different servers for testing purposes. I had used the program about three years ago and had run into some difficulty installing the program. Turns out, the problem was related to being on a GoDaddy server. But we’ll deal with that in a moment.

Installing the program on both servers took less than five minutes. If you’re not familiar with changing the mode in which your FTP transfers data to your web server, then the installation might not move as smoothly. The installation requires that files be transferred to your server in a specific format. If you follow the instructions, you will have no problems with the installation, unless you’re on a GoDaddy server.

If you host your site with GoDaddy, be sure to contact Paul Galloway and ask him to convert the files into Unix format. He’ll be able to do it for you likety split and you can continue with the installation.

Creating Your First Campaign

I found it really easy to create a tell-a-friend campaign with Galloway’s program but I’ll admit I’m very well versed in setting up these types of campaigns. It took me another five minutes to setup my campaign and integrate the script into my web page. If you’re not familiar with the terms that are typically used with tell-a-friend scripts then I recommend that you have the guide open as you work through each of the different options. What’s unique about Tell-A-Friend Pro is that it allows you to store your custom emails in a central location and call them into your campaign by selecting the name of the email. Most other programs require you to create those emails on the fly as you’re setting up your campaign. No more searching for which campaign had a certain email script - just select the correct email from the drop down and you’re good to go.

You also have the ability to upload custom HTML pages. You can develop a unique look for your tell-a-friend campaigns and simply upload the HTML code for use with the program. While other programs allow for look & feel customizations, Tell-A-Friend Pro is the only script I’ve seen that allows you to incorporate your generated campaign into your own template before you finalize your campaign.

The all important autoresponder subscription feature is managed by your autoresponder’s “subscribe by” email address. Again, you have the ability to set up custom email templates for your different autoresponder services.

And finally, there is no restriction on the number of campaigns you run or the servers on which you run them. If you’re an online business owner with several different web addresses, you only need install Tell-A-Friend Pro on one server and manage your different campaigns on different sites from within that server. Fantastic!

Contest Feature

I’m really excited about the contest feature though I’ll admit that I have not tried it out. This feature is unique to Tell-A-Friend Pro. The program facilitates managing a contest on your website. Picking a winner is as easy as setting the contest date range and selecting the contest filters for that campaign. The winner is generated automatically based on your selections. I’m hoping to get to test the feature in a campaign soon but the module is a great addition and seems intuitive to use.

Campaign Statistics

If you’re a stats junkie like I am, then you’re going to appreciate the information that’s provided in Tell-A-Friend Pro. They are by far more comprehensive than Viral Friend Generator and calculate several conversion ratios.

All in all Tell-A-Friend Pro passed my tests for ease of use and even surprised me with a few features that I have not seen used in other viral friend programs.

Check out Tell-A-Friend Pro today!