At the beginning of 2024, many major email clients and service providers, including but not limited to Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook, and various ISPs, established standards for email validation and verification for bulk senders.
So what does that mean for you, a Ninja Forms form user?
Is Ninja Forms a “bulk sender”?
Bulk email refers to sending emails to many recipients at once. If you’re using an email CRM like Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, or Constant Contact, you’re likely sending emails to a large list of recipients.
While WordPress form-building plugins like Ninja Forms aren’t necessarily “bulk-senders,” they do send email notifications, such as contact form submissions or registration confirmations. They can still affect your emails, just on a smaller scale.
Even though notification emails aren’t ‘bulk’ by nature, you’ll want to make sure they don’t get mistaken for spam. Here’s how you can ensure smooth sailing for your notification emails:
Steps to Ensure Your Server Isn’t Blacklisted
- Check Blocklist Status with MXToolbox:
- Visit MXToolbox enter your domain name, and select the “DMARC Lookup” option. Click on “Get Blacklist Status” to promptly see if there are any issues.
- Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
- These methods verify that your domain legitimately sends your emails and not spoofed, reducing the likelihood of them being marked as spam.
Notification email best practices
Many of the most common email issues including validation errors occur because the email action wasn’t configured correctly. Here are some steps to take to make sure your email notification works every time.
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- [To] – By default, the “To” field uses the `{wp-admin_email}` merge tag, which pulls the email address from WordPress’s Administration Email Settings. You can replace this with any other merge tag for the email field or use a properly formatted email address. Using an incorrect format will cause the email delivery to fail.
- [Reply to] – If your inbox is not using the email you’ve set here then there is likely an issue with how the email has been packaged and sent by your host. Otherwise any properly formatted email address will do.
- [From Name & From Address] – Many deliverability issues stem from this setting. If you suspect this is causing problems, remove the data from the field. Some email providers reject manually defined email addresses.
✨ Add the “from address” if the “reply-to” is set to the person who filled out the form. Otherwise the “from address” should be the same domain the form is on.
- [CC/BCC] – Sometimes, your hosting service may remove the CC or BCC fields, or your email provider may not support them. If these features are not working as expected, then it may be time to look into an SMTP ( Simple Mail Transfer Protocol ).
SMTP Best Practices
Setting up proper SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) settings is crucial. If you’re unsure how to get started with SMTP setup, don’t worry! Don’t worry! Check out this article to help you out: Improving WordPress Email Deliverability.
Consider a Transactional Email Service (TES)
If you answer ‘yes’ to any of the following questions, a transactional email service like SendWP might be a good fit:
- Is it crucial that every email sent by your organization is delivered?
- Is maintaining a top-notch sending reputation for your domain crucial to your business?
- Are you currently sending, or do you plan to send, a large volume of emails each month?
- Would you prefer an automated setup and guided support over handling setup and maintenance manually?
TES handles automated, system-triggered emails based on user interactions with websites, applications, or services like Ninja Forms, ensuring timely communication.
Troubleshooting Ninja Form Submission Notification Emails
If you’re not receiving emails when someone submits a form, here’s a guide to help. Your emails might end up in spam by mistake, or you might have entered the email address incorrectly.
Mastering Email Delivery with Ninja Forms
Now that you understand how to ensure your WordPress form meets email validation and verification standards, you’re well on your way to mastering email delivery. Facing other email issues? Check out our blog for a wide range of troubleshooting resources:
- Why Does My WordPress Email Get Sent to Spam?
- Ninja Forms Email Not Working? Check This Out!
- Send Email with WordPress Forms Like a Pro, Fast!
- Troubleshooting Ninja Forms Email: A Comprehensive How-To Part 1
Our form builder stands out with customizable email notifications, robust spam protection tools like Akismet and Google reCaptcha, and unlimited form submissions. Haven’t tried Ninja Forms yet? Dive in today and discover our easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface that makes us your go-to WordPress form builder!
