Survey new and existing subscribers

Find out what your subscribers need and give them something useful right away. You'll build a short survey on your website, save each person's answer to their contact record, and use it to make future emails more relevant.

Existing subscribers will reach the survey from an email link. New subscribers can answer on your thank-you page. The survey itself runs on your website, not inside the email.

1. Pick the pages you'll recommend

Go through your website and choose the real pages you'd like subscribers to find. Then work backward to a question that helps you choose between them. Ask a follow-up only when an answer still leaves more than one useful recommendation.

For example, WorkForge (opens in a new tab) could ask "What would you like help with first?" and recommend these pages:

Use your own pages and wording. Pick an existing page where email subscribers can answer the survey, plus your new-subscriber thank-you page. Keep the promised download or subscription confirmation available whether or not someone answers.

You'll need RightMessage installed, permission to edit the project and those pages, and access to test contacts in your email platform. If you don't need to save answers to contacts, use the guide without an email list instead.

2. Connect your email platform

Connecting your platform lets you save answers to each subscriber's record, so you can use what they tell you in your next email.

1. Open Integrations in the sidebar.
2. Under Email platforms & CRMs, choose your platform and follow its connection guide.
3. Check that you can see the field where you'd like to save the answer and any values it accepts.

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Integration settings catalog with ActiveCampaign, Beehiiv, Bento, Braze, Customer.io, Drip, Encharge, HighLevel and HubSpot connectorsOriginalOriginal

A connection lets RightMessage talk to your email platform. You'll also set up how it recognizes the subscriber visiting your survey in step 6.

3. Build your question and flow

A flow decides what people see next. Its widget decides where that conversation appears. Here you'll use an inline widget, so the survey sits beside your existing page content.

1. Open Questions, choose New question, then Multiple choice.
2. 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.
3. Leave Allow multiple answers off. Set Internal name to Learning priority and choose Create question.
4. Open Flows, choose New flow, then Blank flow.
5. If Where should this flow show? appears, choose A new widget. Under What kind of widget?, select Inline.
6. Enter WorkForge starting guide in Flow name and choose Create flow.
7. Open the attached widget and turn Enabled off while you build.
8. Add Question to the flow. Under Use an existing question, find Learning priority through Browse all if needed, then choose Use in this flow.
9. Add an Offer inside each answer's path, with a button to the page you chose for that answer.

The question gets an answer path automatically. If it isn't branching, use Route off this question. Put your general recommendation on the I'm exploring path. The canvas hides Default while the widget asks the question.

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

The app walkthrough shows the flow and offer controls in detail. You don't need another opt-in form for a subscriber you already recognize.

4. Save the answer to a contact field

1. Open your saved question's Sync tab.
2. Under Destination, select the field that should hold the preference.
3. Under Answer → value, map every answer, including I'm exploring, to a value your platform accepts.

For a text field called learning_priority, WorkForge could use these values. They aren't built-in RightMessage fields.

Reuse an existing field if it already holds this preference. If the provider restricts its values, choose from those values. Creating a provider field changes that platform immediately, rather than waiting in your website draft.

Keep the stored values stable if you reword the visible answers. Contact synchronization covers the mapping options, including provider-specific tag and replacement behavior.

5. Put the survey on your pages

1. Open the widget's Display tab.
2. Under Where it appears, choose Paste embed code.
3. Enter a unique Shortname and copy the generated code.
4. Paste it into your survey page and thank-you page, beside the existing content.
5. Publish those website pages and check that each contains the embed.

An embedded widget appears wherever you've placed its code. It doesn't have the popup's Targeting rules controls. Keep it disabled in RightMessage until you're ready to preview it. If the placements need different styling or display rules, use separate widgets attached to the same flow.

6. Help RightMessage recognize each subscriber

RightMessage needs to identify the visitor before it can save an answer to the right contact. Test both ways someone will reach your survey.

For subscribers arriving from an email

Use your integration's identifying-link format. Some providers add the identifier automatically. Others need a merge field or query parameter. Follow returning-contact identification and your provider's guide rather than copying another provider's format.

Send a test email to a test contact you control. Follow the link in the delivered email. That checks the actual link after the provider has replaced its placeholders.

For subscribers arriving after an opt-in

Check what happens when someone submits your form and reaches the thank-you page. Creating a contact in a third-party form doesn't necessarily identify that browser in RightMessage.

Set up a supported identification method for your form. The optional Email Watcher is one choice. Installing the snippet alone doesn't watch every form. A Popup with After a form is submitted starts the form observer, but this inline survey doesn't.

An Email question can also identify someone when the flow needs to collect their address. It needs the correct provider action and consent settings. Check the existing handoff first rather than asking for an address again to work around a broken setup.

7. Preview it on your site

1. Turn Enabled 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 the page with your embed.
3. Answer the question and open each recommendation, including I'm exploring. Check the mobile layout too.

Your draft loads on your real website, with the debugger docked at the bottom. Use it to inspect the visitor's identity and follow the survey's path. Testing your changes explains how to try fresh and returning visitors.

The authorized debugger and the development snippet's draft debugger simulate provider writes. You'll check the actual contact records after publishing. A private window doesn't prevent real provider writes outside the debugger.

8. Publish and check your test contacts

Keep the embed on a test placement you've approved until the contact checks pass. Don't invite your list yet.

1. Choose Publish and review the whole project draft, including any other pending work.
2. Leave the debugger. Follow the delivered email's identifying link as your existing-subscriber test contact.
3. Confirm that RightMessage recognizes the correct contact, then choose Plan my work and open its recommendation.
4. Inspect that contact in your email platform. Check that the intended field contains planning, or your chosen equivalent.
5. Repeat the opt-in and thank-you-page path with a different test contact.
6. Try changing an answer, returning in the same browser, and answering without an identity. An anonymous visitor should still get a useful recommendation.

Until those checks pass, treat the sync as configured but unverified. If you can't inspect the provider's contacts, don't send the survey to your whole list yet.

9. Invite your subscribers

Once both entry paths work, confirm that the enabled widget's embed is on your intended survey and thank-you pages. Publish any website placement changes. If you've corrected the RightMessage setup, review and publish that draft too. Repeat the real entry and contact-field checks on those pages without preview overrides.

In your email platform, write an invitation that explains what the subscriber gets, such as help finding the right WorkForge page. Check the identifying link in a delivered test email, then send to your intended audience through your usual approval process.

RightMessage doesn't send the invitation. Sending emails, delivering subscriptions, and running automations stay in your email platform.

When both entry paths save the answer to the correct contact and send the visitor to a useful page, it's working. Next, use that answer in your welcome email, with a general version for subscribers whose preference isn't known.