Want to Send Confirmation Emails After WordPress Form Submission? Here‘s How

Sending automated confirmation emails is crucial for any WordPress site with forms. It confirms receipt of submissions, opens communication, and improves user experience.

But 61% of businesses don‘t send confirmation messages, according to OptinMonster.

This detailed guide will teach you step-by-step how to easily send confirmation emails when users submit WordPress forms. Let‘s get into it!

Why You Need Confirmation Emails

Here are 5 key reasons why confirmation emails are so important:

1. Builds trust by confirming receipt and details to users
2. Opens a communication channel for further correspondence
3. Reduce spam by verifying valid working email addresses
4. Send follow up information like special discounts, login links, etc.
5. Initiate post-submission sequences through your email provider

According to OptinMonster, transactional emails have 98% open rates compared to 20-30% for promotional email.

So beyond just good user experience, confirmation emails have lots of marketing benefits as well.

When to Send Confirmation Emails

Common scenarios where sending confirmation emails from WordPress is very useful:

✅ User signs up for account/membership

✅ Contact form submissions

✅ Ebook/resource opt-in

✅ Purchase receipt and order details

✅ Event/webinar registrations

Plus many more use cases – the key is sending confirmation every time users provide their personal information or complete a key site action.

WordPress Form Plugins Comparison

There are a few WordPress plugins that allow you to build forms. Here is how the most popular options stack up when it comes to confirmation emails:

WPForms is the most beginner-friendly while also being the most powerful. It also has the easiest setup for confirmation emails.

So we recommend WPForms as the best option, which we‘ll cover next…

How to Set Up Confirmation Emails in WPForms

The steps below show exactly how to configure confirmation emails when users submit entries:

Step 1: Install and Activate WPForms

If you don‘t already have the plugin, download WPForms here and install it on your WordPress site.

Next, activate the plugin from your WordPress dashboard. Watch video below if you need a walkthrough:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARI3CQGw2VA

Pro Tip: We recommend the WPForms Pro version for added email marketing features and templates.

Step 2: Create a New Form

From the left-side WPForms menu, click Add New to start a new form:

Then select a template like Contact Form, Quote Form, Email Subscriptions, and so on:

Drag and drop any form fields you need into the form editor.

Step 3: Go to Email Notifications

Once your form is designed, click to open the form Settings tab → Notifications:

Make sure Email notifications are enabled:

Step 4: Set Recipients

In Send To, add admin + user smart tags separated by a comma:

{admin_email}, {email}

So both you and the user receive the confirmation message.

Step 5: Set From Details

For the Subject Line, enter something like "Form Submitted Successfully".

In From Name put your site/company name.

Pro Tip: To prevent emails ending up in spam folders, make sure From Email matches your actual site domain name.

Step 6: Customize Email Message

Scroll down to customize the auto-message text users receive after submitting the form:

Pro Tip: Personalize using smart tags for user‘s name, submission details, etc.

Step 7: Save and Embed Form

Finally, click Save and close out of the form editor.

Embed the completed form on any post, page, widget or template using the WPForms block.

Once embedded, this form will now automatically send a confirmation email after user submissions.

Simple as that – you just learned how to add email confirmations in WordPress forms!

Having WordPress Email Sending Issues?

A common problem users run into – WordPress emails don‘t send reliably on their own.

The solution is using an SMTP provider to properly relay all outgoing emails.

We recommend WP Mail SMTP as the best WordPress SMTP solution:

With WP Mail SMTP:

✅ Emails consistently reach recipient inboxes

✅ Built-in tracking, analytics and debugging features

✅ Easy integration with all major email providers

For step-by-step setup directions, see our WP Mail SMTP guide here.

Let‘s Recap…

We covered the importance of sending confirmation emails from WordPress forms, top use cases, step-by-step configuration in WPForms, and a bonus tip for fixing email delivery problems.

The key takeaways are:

✅ Critical for building trust and communicating with customers

✅ 98% open rates makes them very effective

✅ WPForms enables easy built-in confirmations

✅ Use SMTP like WP Mail SMTP to ensure emails send

Now over to you – will you be adding confirmation messages to your WordPress forms? Let me know if you have any other questions!