How SalesIQ identifies website visitors

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Introduction

Understanding and recognizing your website visitors is key to delivering personalized experiences and improving engagement. Zoho SalesIQ uses multiple methods to identify visitors, track their behavior, and link their activities to known contacts. Here’s a detailed look at how SalesIQ identifies visitors on your website.

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. Identification Through Past Chats & Visits

SalesIQ leverages information provided by visitors during previous interactions—such as registered names and emails—to recognize returning visitors. When a visitor returns to your site using the same browser, SalesIQ uses a unique key stored in the browser cookie to identify them. Additionally, if you use the SalesIQ JavaScript API to assign identities, SalesIQ will remember these details for future visits, creating a seamless tracking experience.

  1. Using JavaScript APIs to Pass Visitor Details

If your website collects visitor details via forms (e.g., name, email, contact info), you can pass this information to SalesIQ through its JavaScript APIs. This enables SalesIQ to remember visitors and monitor their website activity during subsequent visits.

 

Commonly used JavaScript APIs:

 

$zoho.salesiq.visitor.name()

$zoho.salesiq.visitor.email()

 

Example Use Case:

 

On an e-commerce site, when a visitor logs in through your authentication system, their identity can be passed to SalesIQ using these APIs, enabling personalized tracking and support.

 

  1. Identification via Campaign Links

When visitors arrive on your website through marketing campaigns, SalesIQ can track them using unique contact IDs embedded in campaign URLs. By appending the recipient’s contact ID to the URL as a parameter, SalesIQ fetches the visitor’s information automatically.

 

Example URL Format:

 

www.example.com/?zc_cid=$[CONTACTID]$

Here, $[CONTACTID]$ is dynamically replaced with the recipient’s unique contact ID in your campaign. When the visitor clicks this link, SalesIQ uses the identifier to pull up all associated contact details—helping you measure campaign effectiveness and tailor follow-ups.

  1. Visitor Identification Using Web Forms

SalesIQ tracks visitors who submit their details through web forms on your site by indexing the submitted data (name, email, etc.).

  • Zoho CRM Webforms:
    Ensure the Visitor Tracking option is enabled when creating CRM webforms. If it wasn’t initially enabled, you can update your form settings and republish the code to enable tracking.
  • Regular Webforms:SalesIQ uses an auto-pick mechanism to identify visitor details. To enable this, add specific attributes to your form fields, for example:

<input siqatrib=”name”>

<input siqatrib=”email”>

<input siqatrib=”phone”>

<input siqatrib=”company”>

<input siqatrib=”firstname”>

<input siqatrib=”lastname”>

This allows SalesIQ to capture and remember visitor information submitted through any standard web form.

  1. Smart Identifiers in Email Campaigns

Smart Identifiers are tiny 1×1 pixel images embedded in emails that track when recipients open your emails and visit your website. When the image loads, a cookie is set in the visitor’s browser, allowing SalesIQ to identify them by name and email on future visits.

 

How to Use Smart Identifiers:

  • Integrate SalesIQ with your Email Marketing Service (EMS) like Zoho Campaigns, MailChimp, Constant Contact, and more.
  • Get the campaign-specific smart identifier code from SalesIQ under Settings > Developers > Integration.
  • Insert the provided HTML snippet into your emails using the “insert HTML” option.

Example Smart Identifier Code:

 

<img src=”https://salesiq.zoho.com/{screen_name}/identify.ls?name=%customerName%&email=%customerEmail%” />

You can also use encrypted identifiers for enhanced security by encrypting the name and email using SalesIQ’s Encryption REST API.

 

Important Notes:

  • Smart Identifiers won’t work if the recipient disables image loading in their email client.
  • They may not function correctly with Gmail and some other email services, which cache images on their servers.
  1. CRM Identifiers for Email Links

When sending emails from Zoho CRM to Leads or Contacts, you can embed CRM Identifiers in your URLs to track visitors coming from CRM campaigns.

 

URL Patterns:

  • Leads:
  • https://www.example.com/?siq_name=${Leads.Lead Name}&siq_email=${Leads.Email}
  • Contacts:
  • https://www.example.com/?siq_name=${Contacts.Contact Name}&siq_email=${Contacts.Email}

When a visitor clicks these links, SalesIQ captures their name and email from the parameters, updating CRM with their website activity and interests.

  1. Visitor ID for Anonymous Visitors

For first-time or unidentified visitors, SalesIQ assigns a random Visitor ID. If the visitor later provides details such as during a chat session the system updates their profile with their registered information.

 

If the visitor leaves without sharing details, they remain identified by the Visitor ID for future visits. A small asterisk (*) marks returning visitors tracked by this ID. Operators can also manually update visitor details during interactions.

For Administrators - Previous Advanced visitor identification settings Next - For Administrators Whisper Chat in SalesIQ

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