Are you trying to send confirmation emails on your WordPress site? We'll teach you how to send automatic emails for free - your clients will love you for it!
Picture this: you visit a website, fill out a form, and wait for a confirmation email...
and you wait... and wait... but you receive nothing!
Maybe it's in the junk mail folder... Nope! You really didn't get a response.
How would you feel? Glad to receive one less email? Hardly. The fact is transactional emails are the ones that matter most to consumers. Still not sure? These email statistics compiled by SendGrid can help with that.
If you're convinced that your WordPress website needs to send automatic emails, that's great! In this article, we'll give you more info on confirmation emails. Here's what we'll cover:
- What is a confirmation email?
- How to set up a confirmation email
- Protect your confirmation email from spam filters
- How to set up an SMTP email plugin on WordPress
What is a confirmation email?
A confirmation email is a type of transactional email sent automatically after an event is triggered. This type of email has a few different names:
- Triggered email
- Autoresponder email
- Automatic email
Now that you are up-to-date on the jargon, ask yourself this: why would you want to send email autoresponders? The possibilities are endless!
Normally, your website would send autoresponder emails after a certain trigger occurs. Here are a few of the common types of confirmation emails:
- Contact form confirmation
- Order confirmation email
- Booking confirmation email
- Newsletter subscription confirmation
- Registration confirmation email
- Thank you email
A confirmation email can do much more than just confirm. They can also:
- Provide additional links: Maybe a new subscriber could benefit from your most popular articles or other content?
- Upsell customers: An order confirmation email can be a great place to upsell customers on additional or related products.
- Email validity: If an email can't be delivered, or it bounces, you'll know that the email address is bad or the user made a mistake
- Improve your sending reputation: Since transactional messages are anticipated by customers, they have high open rates. The more your emails are opened, the better your sender reputation.
- Track email performance: You can see how many people open your confirmation emails and make improvements.
The confirmation email is an important part of email automation. So, now that you're convinced, we're going to show you how to set one up!
For this example to work, you'll need:
- A WordPress website
- The Formidable Forms plugin
- An SMTP plugin (optional)
Once you've made sure on the above items, you're just 2 steps away from setting up a form and confirmation email on your WordPress website!
How to send a confirmation email
Step 1 - build your WordPress form
Build your Formidable form like you normally would. Include an email address field and confirmation field if you'd like.
Your form can be multi-page and full of conditional logic. It can have lots of other form actions like payment collection or addition to a mailing list. Custom confirmation emails can be included no matter the size of your form!
Step 2 - set up the confirmation email
On your form settings page, click on the Actions & Notifications tab. Here you can build the message to suit your unique needs.
- Set your TO address to go to your visitor: Click into the TO box, then click on your email field in the sidebar. This will insert a shortcode like [25] to reference your email field.
- Add your CC or BCC addresses: You can also add a REPLY-TO address if you wish.
- Write your subject line: Don't forget to make it as relevant as possible to improve open-rates.
- Add your message: Email actions come pre-configured with the [default-message] shortcode. This will insert all of the form fields into the email message. Configure it with the shortcode parameters and add a message to your client before it.
Bonus Tip: How to customize your autoresponder message
To completely customize your confirmation email, remove the [default-message] shortcode. Now add your custom message. If you don't want to include any HTML in your message, check the box to "Send emails in plain text."
Read more information about custom email messages in our knowledge base.
In the "Customization" panel to the right, you will see a list of all the fields in your form. Simply click on a field to insert it into your email message.
Protect your confirmation emails from spam filters
Do you get drastically fewer spam emails today than you did a few years ago? I know I do!
A worldwide crackdown on spam has lightened the load on your inbox. Spam detection rules are often introduced by the biggest providers, like Gmail and Hotmail. Then, these standards are quickly adopted by the rest of the internet.
The default PHP method used by WordPress to send emails often leads to falsely detected spam. These false positives are then deleted before delivery. To prevent this, set up your email in a way that shows spam filters that it's a legitimate message.
Six simple steps to make sure your Formidable emails are properly configured
- Your FROM address MUST match the domain of your website. It is often best to set up a dedicated email for this, like noreply@mydomain.com.
- Your TO address should never match your FROM address. This looks unusual and can trigger spam deletion.
- If you specify a REPLY-TO address, it should never match your TO address.
- While you can include multiple addresses in your TO field, it is best to use the CC and BCC fields for additional recipients.
- Many spam filters can be triggered by too many recipients in one email. For large lists (50 or more recipients), consider a service like Sendgrid or SendInBlue.
- Minimize the links you include. Email messages with lots of links may trigger spam filters.
How to set up an SMTP plugin on WordPress
Even with all this configured properly, some users on shared hosting still have issues. Luckily, there is another step you can take. When you send your email messages via SMTP it adds an extra layer of authenticity. This helps messages pass spam filters.
Plugins like WP Mail SMTP (and many other similar ones) replace the default WordPress mail function. Instead, these plugins connect with the SMTP server in your email server and send emails via an official mail server.
Read more: WordPress not sending emails? SMTP to the rescue!
Many of these plugins will also connect with transactional email services like SendGrid, MailJet, or SendInBlue. These services can further improve delivery rates.
Build your confirmation emails today and discover the power of Formidable forms!
The post How to Send Confirmation Emails with WordPress (for Free)! appeared first on Formidable Forms.