Two actions decide which mails go out after a form is sent: "E-mail to you" informs you or your team about every new entry, "Confirmation to the visitor" sends the sender a confirmation. You write both mails in the editor at the contact step, with placeholders for the answers. Both are part of Funnelforms Free and Pro.
Requirements
- The form has a contact step. The mails go out when visitors send it.
- You have the right to see entries. Administrators always have it. Without this right you can prepare actions; someone with the right publishes them.
- For the confirmation to the visitor, a contact step needs an e-mail field.
- Your WordPress website has to be able to send mails. Funnelforms sends through WordPress (
wp_mail), so also through a mail plugin you installed. - In Funnelforms Free, each contact step has one mail to you and one confirmation. Several mails of the same kind, the PDF of the entry and mails after the payment are only in Funnelforms Pro.
Where to find it
Open a form under Funnelforms → Forms. In the Structure workspace, click the contact step and then the After sending tab in the properties on the right. Or click the After sending area inside the contact step on the canvas. Under Actions, choose E-mail to you or Confirmation to the visitor in Add an action.
Features at a glance
- E-mail to you: several recipients, separated by commas.
- Confirmation to the visitor: goes to the address in an e-mail field of a contact step.
- Subject and message with an editor (bold, italic, underline, heading, lists, links, images) or as HTML.
- Placeholders for all answers, single fields, entry and visitor data, in Pro also for calculations, appointments and payments.
- Under Sender and copies: sender name, sender address, reply to, CC, BCC and line breaks.
- Attach the entry as PDF (Pro only) in both mails.
- Duplicate (Pro only) for a second mail of the same kind.
- When (Pro only): right away or only after the payment.
- For entries from: with several contact steps, the step the mail applies to.
Step by step
- Open the form in the editor and click the contact step on the canvas.
- Click the After sending tab on the right.
- Under Add an action, choose E-mail to you. The action opens.
- Enter your address in To. Separate several addresses with commas.
- Adjust Subject. The default is "New entry".
- Write your text in Message. The default "You have a new entry:" with all answers is already there.
- Under Placeholders, choose an item, for example All answers. Funnelforms inserts it at the cursor.
- Choose Add an action again and then Confirmation to the visitor.
- Check under Send to the address in that the right e-mail field is chosen.
- Adjust Subject and Message.
- Open Sender and copies and enter Sender name and Sender address. Use an address of your own domain.
- Publish the form with Publish.
- Send a test entry and check the Sent to section of the entry under Funnelforms → Entries.
How it works
When do the mails go out?
After the entry is stored, Funnelforms puts each action in a queue and sends it in the background through Action Scheduler or WP-Cron. The visitor does not wait for the mail server. With few visitors or WP-Cron turned off, sending can be delayed.
What happens when a mail does not go out?
The entry stays stored. Funnelforms tries three times in total, again after one and after four minutes. It does not retry an invalid address. If the e-mail field of a "Confirmation to the visitor" is empty, the action counts as "Skipped". In the entry you see the status under Sent to. Under Send again… (Pro only) you choose an action and send it once more with Send. Deliveries that fail after all attempts are reported by the test "Funnelforms deliveries" under Tools → Site Health. The latest deliveries are under Funnelforms → Settings → E-mail in the section Mails and deliveries.
Which placeholders are there?
The Placeholders list offers:
{{answers}}: all answers.{{entry:id}},{{entry:date}},{{entry:time}}: number, date and time of the entry.{{form:title}}and{{page:url}}: name of the form and the page it was on.{{visit:device}},{{visit:browser}},{{visit:duration}},{{visit:referrer}}: device, browser, time to fill in and where the visitor came from.{{utm}}and{{utm:source}}to{{utm:content}}: UTM values.{{field:...}}: a single field, using the variable name of the field.{{calc:...}}(Pro only): the result of a calculation.{{booking:date}},{{booking:time}},{{booking:name}},{{booking:duration}}(Pro only): only if the form has an appointment booking.{{payment:status}}and{{payment:amount}}(Pro only): only if the form has a payment.{{payment:reference}}inserts the reference of the payment. All three are in the Placeholders list.
What visitors typed is treated as text in mails; HTML they enter is not executed.
Which attachments are there?
- Attach the entry as PDF (Pro only) creates a PDF with the form name, answers, contact details and calculation results. The PDF of the mail to you uses the language of the website, the PDF of the confirmation the language of the visitor. In Funnelforms Free the switch only appears on a mail that already has it on, so you can turn it off.
- Uploaded files (Pro only, because file upload is a Pro field) are attached to the mail to you as long as they are no more than 10 MB together. If they are larger, the mail gets a note that the files were not attached because of their size.
- For the confirmation, Sender and copies also has Attachment (address of a file in the media library). Only files from the uploads folder of your website are attached.
What do the options under "Sender and copies" mean?
- Sender name and Sender address: left empty, the address of the website is used.
- Reply to: for new mails to you, the address from the first e-mail field of the form is filled in, so you can answer the sender directly.
- Copy to (CC) and Blind copy to (BCC).
- Keep line breaks: on (default), line breaks in the text become line breaks in the mail. Turn it off if you set your own paragraphs in HTML mode.
- Send through: only appears if there is an SMTP connection from Funnelforms 3. Otherwise everything goes through "WordPress (or your mail plugin)".
What applies in Funnelforms Free?
Free sends one E-mail to you and one Confirmation to the visitor per contact step. Once both exist, Add an action offers no further mail. Below it, a note with the Pro badge says that webhooks, CRM and newsletter tools, Slack and Teams, text messages, WhatsApp, conversion tracking and more than one mail of each kind come with Funnelforms Pro. The Duplicate icon is greyed out in Free. The number of recipients in To, CC and BCC is not limited in Free.
What about several languages?
You maintain subject, message and the other text fields per language (forms in several languages are Pro only). In the editor you switch the language; in the fields of the other languages, the text of the default language is shown as a hint.
Best Practices
- Use a sender address of your own domain. Otherwise mails land in spam more easily.
- Let the reply address of the mail to you point to the e-mail field of the form, so you answer with one click.
- Test every mail with an entry of your own and check the spam folder.
- A mail plugin with the SMTP access of your mail provider is more reliable than sending through the mail function of the server.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Action shows "Incomplete" and "Add a recipient." | The To field is empty. | Enter an address. |
| "Add an e-mail field to a contact step to send a confirmation." | The form has no e-mail field in the contact step. | Add an e-mail field to the contact step. |
| Mail arrives in spam | The sender address does not belong to the domain of the server. | Use an address of your domain under Sender and copies. |
| Status "Skipped" | The mail has no valid recipient, for example because the visitor left the e-mail field empty. | Make the field required or check the placeholder in To. |
| Free: Add an action offers no more mails | The contact step already has one mail to you and one confirmation. | Extend the existing mail, for example with more recipients in To or CC. Several mails of one kind come with Pro. |
| Mail does not arrive at all | Mail sending of the website, or the address. | See Mails do not arrive. |
Tips
- With Duplicate (Pro only, icon next to the action) you copy a finished mail, for example for a second team.
- For a form with payment (Pro only), choose "Once the payment went through" under When, so the mail only goes out after a successful payment.
- With several contact steps, set under For entries from which contact step the mail applies to. "Every contact step" means it runs for all of them.
FAQ
Can I send the mail to several people? Yes, in Free too. Enter several addresses separated by commas in To, or use CC and BCC.
Can I use my own HTML in the mail? Yes. The HTML button in the editor switches to the source view. The editor removes scripts, frames and form elements.
Can I send a mail for an existing entry again? In Pro, yes: open the entry, choose the action under Send again… in Sent to and click Send. Funnelforms Free doesn't offer Send again….
Is the confirmation also sent right away with double opt-in? No. With double opt-in (Pro only) only the mails to you go out right away; the confirmation to the visitor follows once the address is confirmed.