Imagine the drama: only 1 chance in 10 that your requests will reach you!
Contact forms are essential for acquiring customers. Yet a number of these forms are poorly configured and fail to forward prospect requests...
What's more, forms are supposed to be designed to save you time... And a few tricks can help you do just that... For example, by not receiving spam or by being able to reply more quickly.
Today, LRob saves you time and leads!
1. Do not set the customer's email address as From
The most frequent error when configuring contact forms is to consider the customer as the sender of the e-mail.
It may seem logical to put your email address in the "From" field, but this causes a major problem: mail spoofingor identity theft.
In this way, your website pretends to be your customer's email address (for example : john.doe@microsoft.com). If your customer's domain is secure (which is often the case), it will refuse to let your server send an e-mail on its behalf. The message will then be silently blocked by your email provider, or considered spam... 9 chances out of 10 that you'll be considered a spammer.
The solution is very simple: the e-mail sender must always be an address linked to your own domain. For example, use an address such as : site@votredomaine.fr. This ensures that emails sent from your form will not be rejected or classified as spam.
2. Protect your forms with a Captcha
Don't forget to add a Captcha to avoid spam.
Captcha isn't there just to annoy people: it's a simple, effective solution for filtering robots and preserving the quality of messages received.
Without this protection, you'll receive dozens or even hundreds of unsolicited messages a day, wasting time sorting through them and missing out on genuine requests.
To respect the privacy of your users, I recommend hCaptcha.
3. Configure SMTP on your site
Your website should have a dedicated e-mail address with a real SMTP login for your mailings. As a reminder, SMTP is the standard protocol for sending e-mail.
If your mail is with Gmail or Microsoft, this will be more complicated to apply because you pay for each mailbox and SMTP is disabled by default... But if it's with your preferred host so don't worry!
For WordPress, I recommend the plugin Easy WP SMTP or WPMasterToolkit.
But why bother using SMTP?
- Default mailings via the php mail() function are sometimes disabled to prevent involuntary mailings and preserve server reputation (blocked by default at LRob, authorized on a case-by-case basis).
- This ensures that the mail is sent from a real email server, rather than from the website server that some hosting providers neglect (not the case with LRob, as the web server and mail server are one and the same)...
- SMTP will improve email deliverability thanks to email headers (meta-information) that are generally cleaner than php mail().
- In the event of problems with the form (e.g. massive spam mailings), SMTP can be used to limit mailings to an hourly quota.
- In the event of deliverability problems of any kind, if your host provides support for this (as is the case with LRob), SMTP dispatches are much easier to trace in the logs, which simplifies diagnosis.
In short, using SMTP is bound to improve your deliverability and avoid problems. So use it!
4. Check the deliverability of your form emails
Make sure your messages are well received by testing them with tools such as mail-tester.com.
Mail-Tester lets you measure the quality of your mailings.
Enter the e-mail address that appears when you visit mail-tester.com as the recipient of the form, take the test, then check the score.
A score of 9/10 or higher is recommended to ensure that requests are received correctly. This score should also be achieved for your regular email dispatches. If this is not the case, contact your email host for more information (or come and see us!). host at LRob !).
5. Run your tests in private browsing mode
When you test your contact forms, do so by private browsing.
If you're logged into your site, certain features such as Captcha can be disabled, to name but a few. This could distort your tests and give you the wrong impression of the quality of your form.
6. Use a recipient address linked to your domain
Make sure the receiving address (form recipient) belongs to your domain (vous@votredomaine.fr) and is not redirected to another address.
In the event of a problem with your form, for example if you receive spam via the form and the recipient is a major e-mail provider (Gmail, Orange, Yahoo, etc.), you could be considered a spammer.
Using your own domain as a form recipient means you can protect your e-reputation and reduce the risk of emails being blocked or mishandled by email providers.
7. Avoid confirmation emails
Sending a confirmation email may seem like a good idea, but beware.
If this message contains the text submitted by the user, then your form can be exploited by malicious people to send spam to any e-mail address via your site. Even if the text is not included, this can still generate unsolicited mail to third parties, which is never good.
This can tarnish your domain's reputation and expose you to penalties. It's best to avoid this practice.
8. Use the "Reply-To" field to facilitate your answers
Even if you don't have to put the customer's email address in the "From" field, you can still add it in the "From" field. "Reply-To.
In this way, you can reply directly to the e-mail form: your prospect's e-mail address will automatically be the recipient of your e-mail.
A simple, time-saving solution!
9. Save requests on the
Consider saving form requests in the site database.
WordPress plugins like " Contact Form 7 Database Addon "These services are available free of charge. You can then check from time to time that you haven't missed a request.
To find out more...
If you have any doubts about the configuration of your forms, or would like a personalized audit, please don't hesitate to contact me. contact.
So the advice on email deliverability is included in LRob support for all customers.
I just have to wish you every success with your new top forms! 💪
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