Is there a way to collect an email address from a link click within an email?

Question

I'm trying to create a survey email with two follow-ups reminding the recipient to complete the survey. The survey link is anonymous and meant to be shared among the recipient's peers. The survey is on Qualtrics.

My issue is this - I don't want the follow-ups to go to anyone who has already completed the survey. But, I want them to feel like they're maintaining a sense of anonymity.

So, the goal is to create a link that, once clicked, collects the email address of the person who completed the survey so they can be unsubscribed from any follow-ups. What's the best way to do this?

why not ask them once they've clicked the link? – Martin Feb 23 '21 at 15:27 — Martin, Feb 23 '21 at 15:27

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 15 '21 at 08:52

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If an audience is already known by their email address or id. You can use hidden variables in the URL. This data can be captured on submission. By this, you can follow up to the non completed users.

answered Feb 15 '21 at 08:52

Wilson Bright

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The OP noted that the ability for recipients to share with their peers is a goal. If someone forwards the invite email they've received, and the links are personalized, it might look like they've taken the survey, when only one of their peers have taken it. – Kevin Troy Feb 23 '21 at 15:18

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 23 '21 at 15:23

The requirements you state in your question are contradictory. You can have either:

An anonymous link that recipients can share with their peers, which contains at most group-level information about the respondents, or
Personalized links that are private to an individual respondent, which contain individual-level information about the respondents (including their email address).

(The way you can embed group-level information into an anonymous link is to append a URL parameter to the end. For example, if you have two mailing lists that you're using for the survey distribution, you might have one version of your link that ends with "?MailingList=1" and another where "MailingList=2".)

If you want the survey to be truly anonymous and shareable with peers, you should simply include language to the effect of "if you have not already taken the survey..." in any reminder communications.

If "fewer annoying reminders" is a more important goal than anonymity and the ability for respondents to share via email forwarding, then personalized links are the way to go.

Is there a way to collect an email address from a link click within an email?

2 Answers2