How to capture an email address through a link

[tiffyk1980]

I am designing a site for a direct marketing company. They sell products, and have a list of email address they send to. My question is, how do I track the email address they came from?

Here are the steps they go through:

1) the 'buyer' gets the email.
- this email has a link that was generated by a database. we are tracking the click through rate and the buy rate. Abviously if they are buying we are going to get their email address. If they are not though, we need to be able to get the email address from when they click on the link from the email. (remember, these are people who are expecting the email. NO spam going on here!!)

2) the email takes them to a specific product. Lets say they don't buy for some reason, I need that email address for future use. Say this person just didn't have the money this time, or would be interested in a similar product.

3) If they buy I get the address, they must put in to buy.

Can anyone help me out?

Thank you,
Tiffany

[ronniethedodger]

If I am not mistaken...that information should show up in your server logs in the referrer area. But not all email agents will send that information.

The only other way I know of tracking that information is to append and ID number to the link that they are clicking on inside of the email itself.

It stands to reason that if the letter is customized with their name in the text, you can also identify that person with an ID number. The link in the mail will point to a page that will capture that ID number and keep track of them.

I am sure you have seen these links before. They look something like this http://mysite.com/promo/landingpage.php?id=194567

Now how they go about tracking and the programming involved, I cannot tell you. I don't know. But I am sure someone around here does and can point you in the right direction. There might be some info out there if you look for it ... at least you have a little more info to go on now.

[datahound]

When the potential customer clicks to go to the sell page the first thing the sell page must do is plant a cookie on their PC. That way if they do not buy now the sell pages can check for the cookie on future purchases.

If you need help with this in a commercial vain I am sure I will be able to help you.

Regards

[tiffyk1980]

Thank you both very much. I will try them. I will keep you posted as to how i am doing.

Thank you for your time,
Tiffany