Contacts & People

Identifying visitors with email query parameters

You can identify visitors in RightMessage by passing their email address as a query parameter in the URL. This is particularly useful when using third-party form tools like OptinMonster or custom forms that redirect to a thank you page.

How Email Parameter Lookup Works

When someone visits a page on your website with the ?email= query parameter, RightMessage will:

  1. Check for the presence of the ?email= query parameter in the URL

  2. Attempt to look up the visitor's contact ID in your email platform using this email address

  3. If successful, store the contact ID in the browser for future visits

Why This Matters

With the contact ID stored, RightMessage can now personalize content for this specific visitor and ensure that surveys or Flows are properly associated with their record in your email platform.

Setting Up Email Parameter Lookup

To use this feature, configure your form tool to redirect new subscribers to a URL with their email address as a parameter:

https://yoursite.com/thank-you/[email protected]

When the visitor lands on this page, RightMessage will automatically match them to their contact record if they exist in your email platform.

Timing Issues with Third-Party Tools

If you're using tools like Zapier or Make to connect your forms with your email platform, there's a good chance the contact record won't exist yet in your email platform when the visitor is redirected to the thank you page. These tools often operate asynchronously, meaning there's a delay between form submission and contact creation.

In these cases, RightMessage's email lookup will fail, and the visitor won't be identified until their contact record is created and they visit another page.

Benefits of Using Email Parameters

This approach is especially helpful for:

  • Third-party form tools (this is unnecessary if you're using RightMessage for your forms)

  • Custom forms on your website

  • Email campaigns with links to your website that don't include native integration IDs

For email campaigns, some email platforms automatically add integration-specific parameters (like ?ck_subscriber_id for Kit) to outbound links, which is more reliable than email-based lookup. This feature with the ?email= parameter is designed as a fallback for third-party forms.

Limitations

There are some important limitations to keep in mind:

  • Timing synchronization: As mentioned above, third-party tools like Zapier often have delays

  • Visitor impersonation: Any visitor could manually add an email address to a URL to impersonate that contact

  • Email validation: RightMessage doesn't check if the email address is valid beyond the lookup process

Verifying the Setup

To confirm that visitor identification is working:

  1. Submit a test form with a real email address that exists in your email platform

  2. Check that you're redirected to a URL with the ?email= parameter

  3. Use Debug Mode in RightMessage to verify that we've successfully identified the contact you're testing

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