Contact forms and email: how it works

Where the form is

Your site's home page has a contact form in its top section. The Contact page has one too. The form asks for first name, last name, phone, email and a message.

A visitor must give a name and at least an email address or a phone number. An email address, when given, must look like one. If it does not, the form shows "That email address doesn't look right."

The button reads Get a callback until you change it with the Submit button text field in the Website Editor.

What happens when someone sends it

1. The lead is saved in your site's WordPress admin, under Leads. The list shows Name, Phone, Email and Date.
2. WordPress sends a "New lead" email. Its Reply-To is the visitor's email address, so replying answers the visitor.
3. If you set a webhook, the lead is sent to it as JSON.
4. If lead alerts are set up on your site page in the dashboard, the lead is sent there too, and the alert goes out.

The lead is saved before anything is sent. If an email, the webhook or an alert fails, the lead is still in Leads.

By default the form is replaced with "Message sent!" and "Your message has been sent."

Who gets the WordPress email

1. On your site page in the dashboard, click Open WP Admin. Sign in with the username and password on the WordPress Access card.
2. In the left menu, open Website Editor.
3. Open the Global Values panel.
4. Fill in Lead notification email. To send to more than one address, separate them with commas.
5. Click Save.

An address that is not a valid email is refused when you save.

If Lead notification email is empty, the email goes to the business Email in Global Values. If that is empty too, it goes to the WordPress admin email.

Lead alerts from your dashboard

Your site page has a Where leads go card. It sends new leads from the contact form and the price tool to the business owner, under your agency's name. The owner does not need an account.

• Email new leads to: up to 5 addresses, separated by commas.
• Send me a copy too: also sends each alert to you.
• Text new leads and Owner’s mobile: sends a text to that number. Enter it with a country code, like +15551234567.
• The business owner agreed to receive lead texts at this number: must be ticked before texts can be switched on.

Click Save. Saving also tells your site's WordPress to forward each new lead to your dashboard. A site whose card has never been saved does not forward leads, and only the WordPress email goes out.

Send a test email and Send a test text send a test alert using the saved settings, not what is typed but unsaved. If the send fails, the card shows the error.

The name, logo and colour on alerts come from Your brand on the Settings page. Texts come from our messaging number and say how to stop. A number that replied STOP is not texted again.

Send leads to another app (webhook)

1. Open the Website Editor's Global Values panel, as above.
2. Paste the full address into Webhook URL.
3. Click Save.

A value that is not a valid web address is refused when you save. Leave the field empty to turn the webhook off.

Each lead is sent once, as a JSON POST, after it is saved. If the address does not answer within 5 seconds, the lead stays saved and the webhook is skipped.

Some keys can be empty or missing, depending on which form was used.

What the visitor sees after sending

The After submit field in Global Values has three choices:

• Show an inline message: the default.
• Go to the thank-you page: its text comes from Thank-you page heading and Thank-you page message.
• Redirect to a URL: goes to the Redirect URL. The address can include {submission_name}, {submission_first_name}, {submission_last_name}, {submission_email}, {submission_phone} and {submission_message}. If the Redirect URL is empty, the inline message shows.

If an email does not arrive

1. Open Leads in WP Admin. If the lead is there, the form worked and the problem is the email.
2. Check the spam folder.
3. Check Lead notification email and Email in Global Values.
4. For dashboard alerts, click Send a test email on the Where leads go card and read any error it shows.
5. For a webhook, check the address in Webhook URL and the receiving app's own log.