Personalize your welcome email with a survey

Give each new subscriber a welcome email that speaks to what they need. You'll ask a question on your confirmation page, recommend a useful page straight away, and save the answer so your email can offer matching advice.

The survey runs in RightMessage. Your email platform still controls when the welcome email sends, so you'll check that timing before you turn it on.

1. Pick what you'll recommend

Start with real pages on your website that would help a new subscriber. Then work backward to a question that tells you which page to recommend. Ask a follow-up only if an answer still leaves more than one page to choose from.

Our example business, WorkForge (opens in a new tab), could ask "What would you like help with first?" and use the same recommendation on the website and in its welcome email:

Use your own pages and approved wording. Keep the promised download on the confirmation page and in the welcome email whether or not someone answers.

You'll need RightMessage installed on the confirmation page, permission to edit that page and the project, and access to a test contact in your email platform. Agree with whoever manages the welcome email on its timing and sending.

The personalized email editor requires Scale or Pro. Your connected email provider must also be included in the project's plan. Sending remains the provider's job.

2. Connect your email platform

This connection lets you save each subscriber's answer to their contact record. Your welcome email can then use that preference instead of giving everyone the same advice.

1. Open Integrations in the sidebar.
2. Under Email platforms & CRMs, choose your platform and follow its connection guide.
3. Find an existing single-value field for this preference, or get approval from the field's owner to create one.

Creating a field changes your email platform separately from website publishing. Use the actual field name and its permitted values when you map the question.

3. Build the survey

A flow decides what a subscriber sees next. Its widget decides where the survey appears. Use an inline widget here so it sits beside the confirmation content.

1. Open Flows, choose New flow, then Blank flow.
2. If Where should this flow show? appears, choose A new widget. Under What kind of widget?, select Inline.
3. Enter WorkForge welcome survey in Flow name and choose Create flow.
4. Open the attached widget and turn Enabled off while you build.
5. In Build, add a Question and choose Multiple choice.
6. Enter your question and answers. For WorkForge, that's What would you like help with first?, with Plan my work, Coordinate my team, and I'm exploring.
7. Leave Allow multiple answers off and choose Add to flow.
8. Add an Offer to each answer's path. Choose Create a new offer / promo, then use Content to write the Headline, Description, Button text, and Link URL.

For example, the planning offer could say "Make your next client project easier to plan", with a button to your page about solo client work. Give I'm exploring a useful general recommendation too.

If the question isn't branching, open its node menu and choose Route off this question. If Default is visible, give it the general offer so a skip or unknown answer still leads somewhere useful.

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WorkForge recommendation asking what visitors want help with, with planning, team, and exploring answersOriginalOriginal

4. Save the answer and recognize the subscriber

1. Open the question's full settings and choose Sync.
2. Under Destination, select your contact field in Save answers to…. If your provider offers Sync mode, choose its custom-field option for this single current preference.
3. Set each Answer → value mapping to a value the field accepts.

WorkForge could use planning, team_work, and exploring in a field named learning_priority. Those are examples, not built-in fields. Keep stored values stable when you reword the visible answers, so your email conditions still match.

Now check how your opt-in identifies the browser on the confirmation page. A contact existing in your email platform, or a connected integration, doesn't identify that visitor on its own.

Set up a supported identification method for your actual form, such as the optional Email Watcher, or use your provider's identifying email link. Installing the snippet alone doesn't watch every third-party form. A Popup with After a form is submitted starts the form observer, but this inline widget doesn't. Keep raw contact details out of public or shared preview URLs.

If your opt-in can't hand over the identity, add an Email question before the preference question for unidentified visitors. Enable Identify the visitor, set its Contact action and required destination, and use your approved Consent wording. Turn Required off if people should be able to skip email and still get a recommendation.

If someone leaves the email consent checkbox unticked, RightMessage keeps the answer in Responses without identifying them or writing to the provider. They can still get an on-site recommendation, but their preference won't be saved to a particular contact through that question.

5. Add the survey to your confirmation page

1. Open the widget's Display tab.
2. Under Where it appears, choose Paste embed code.
3. Enter a unique Shortname, then choose Copy.
4. Paste the generated code beside your confirmation content, not in place of the promised download, and publish the website page.
5. Under Question handling, choose Ask questions we don't know the answer to.

That setting reuses answers you already know, rather than asking every visitor to update their preference. Widget display settings covers the other question-handling choices.

6. Write the matching welcome email

1. Open Emails, choose New, and name it WorkForge welcome resource.
2. In Personalize, enter your welcome introduction and promised download link. Add a complete general paragraph with a link for subscribers whose preference isn't known.
3. Select that paragraph and choose Conditional, then Question mapping, and select your mapped question.
4. Keep the general paragraph in Default content (shown if no conditions match). Use Equals (exact match) for this single-value field.
5. Write a complete paragraph and link for each answer, then choose Add Conditional Content.
6. Use Test Variables to check every answer, plus blank and unexpected values.
7. Choose Copy and paste the content into your sending platform's email draft. Leave it unsent for now.

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WorkForge welcome email editor with a first-name Liquid variable and its rendered previewOriginalOriginal

Your email platform needs to support the template syntax you paste. Email conditions and provider syntax covers that check. For Kit, its custom-field Liquid guide (opens in a new tab) and conditional-content guide (opens in a new tab) explain subscriber previews and ordered matching. Don't use another provider's field token.

7. Preview it on your site

1. Turn the widget's Enabled setting on in the draft, without publishing yet.
2. Choose Preview on your site in the bar at the bottom of the dashboard. Use Choose preview URL to open your confirmation page.
3. Answer the question and follow each recommendation. Check desktop and mobile layouts, a visitor with a known answer, and a visitor who isn't identified.

The page opens with your unpublished changes and the debugger docked at the bottom. It shows what RightMessage knows about the visitor and which path they're taking. Testing your changes explains how to try each path as a fresh visitor.

The debugger simulates provider writes. You'll check the actual saved field on a test contact after publishing.

8. Publish and check the welcome email

1. Choose Publish and review your changes. Check the whole pending project draft, including other work, and confirm that the widget is enabled.
2. Leave the debugger and use a test subscriber you control to follow the real opt-in path.
3. Answer the survey. Open that exact contact in your email platform and check the destination field and value.
4. Change the answer through an approved test path and check that the old current value is replaced.
5. Preview the email in your provider using the test contact. Check every answer, plus blank and unexpected values.

In Kit, use Preview, then Preview as subscriber. A generic preview email can show placeholders instead of that contact's field values.

Before sending, have the email owner check the automation's timing. An email sent before the answer arrives uses the data available at send time. Keep the useful fallback, or have the owner approve a separate automation change. Answering the survey doesn't resend an earlier email.

The email owner should approve the recipients and send or enable the email in the provider. RightMessage's Copy and website Publish actions don't send it. If you can't inspect the provider, treat writeback and provider rendering as unverified.

When a subscriber gets a useful recommendation, their contact record holds the right preference, and the provider renders the matching welcome paragraph, it's working. Next, explore the email editing options.