Honey Butter

Posted by Honey Butter on January 9, 2025

WordPress Form Submission Notifications: Why They Can’t Keep It Up (And How to Fix It)

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Here’s the dealio: you’ve worked hard to build a beautiful website. You’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s, carefully crafting every detail. Launch day arrives, and your fans love it.

They’re inspired to book an appointment, filling out your contact form—but you never receive the notification in your inbox. Sound familiar? This is a common and frustrating issue with WordPress.

WordPress is a versatile platform, perfect for building websites across a wide variety of industries, including those for escorts. But one frustrating shortcoming of WordPress is its unreliable email notification system, particularly when handling form submissions. If you’ve set up a contact or booking form on your escort site, you might expect that every form submission will send a notification to your inbox. Unfortunately, the reality is often different.

In this post, I’ll explain why WordPress struggles with notifications, how form submissions are saved on your server, and why additional services like Mailgun are often necessary. I’ll also share how it took me years of trial and error to find a solution that works consistently. Finally, I’ll walk you through a reliable solution using Gravity Forms, Gravity Forms SMTP, and Mailgun, including how to configure Mailgun’s DNS settings for your domain.

The Problem with WordPress Email Notifications

When someone fills out a form on your website, WordPress attempts to send an email notification to your designated address using your web host’s built-in mail system. This is typically done using something called PHP mail. While this approach works in theory, it falls apart in practice, especially when it comes to reliably delivering emails to your inbox. Here’s why:

  1. PHP Mail Isn’t Designed for Email Authentication: PHP mail is a basic method for sending emails, and it doesn’t include essential security features like authentication. Without proper authentication, email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook are likely to mark the emails as spam or reject them entirely.
  2. No Consistency Across Hosting Providers: Web hosting companies don’t prioritize email delivery as part of their core services. They often have different configurations and limitations for email sending, which means the same setup might work on one host but fail miserably on another.
  3. Spam Filters Are Ruthless: Modern spam filters are designed to protect users from phishing and junk emails. Emails sent via PHP mail often lack the proper credentials to prove they’re legitimate, causing them to be flagged as spam or rejected outright.
  4. Server Limitations: Many hosting providers set strict limits on the number of emails you can send per hour or per day. Once you hit that limit, your emails won’t go through at all.
  5. No Feedback Loop: WordPress doesn’t provide a built-in way to track whether your emails were delivered, opened, or flagged. This means you have no insight into what went wrong when notifications fail to reach you.

Breaking It Down for Non-Tech Folks

Imagine you’re sending a letter through the postal service, but you:

  • Don’t include a return address.
  • Use cheap, flimsy paper that makes your envelope look suspicious.
  • Don’t pay for postage, hoping it just gets there anyway.

The postal service is likely to throw your letter in the junk pile. This is essentially what happens when WordPress uses PHP mail to send notifications—it lacks the critical components needed to look legitimate to email providers.

Why Escort Sites Are Especially Vulnerable

Escort sites often rely on contact forms as a key way for clients to initiate bookings. Missing these notifications can lead to lost business opportunities and dissatisfied customers. Because escort sites may also face additional scrutiny from email providers, their notifications are more likely to end up in the spam folder if not properly configured.

Popular Form Plugins and Their Capabilities

There are several popular WordPress form plugins available, each capable of handling form submissions effectively. However, all of them share the same fundamental limitation: WordPress’s unreliable email system. Here are some of the top plugins:

  • Gravity Forms: A premium plugin with robust features like conditional logic, file uploads, and third-party integrations.
  • WPForms: A beginner-friendly form builder that’s intuitive but lacks some of the advanced capabilities offered by Gravity Forms.
  • Ninja Forms: A drag-and-drop form builder with free and premium add-ons for extended functionality.
  • Contact Form 7: A lightweight and free plugin, but it often requires additional plugins to handle advanced features or improve email reliability.

These plugins excel at saving form submissions to your WordPress database, ensuring that no data is lost. However, where they consistently fall short is in reliably notifying you. Without additional configuration, these plugins cannot guarantee that email notifications will arrive in your inbox.

My Solution: Gravity Forms, SMTP, and Mailgun

After years of trial and error, I’ve found a reliable solution for my clients using Gravity Forms, Gravity Forms SMTP, and Mailgun. Here’s why this combination works:

  1. Gravity Forms: This plugin allows you to capture form submissions and store them securely in WordPress. You can view entries directly in the dashboard, ensuring no submission is lost.
  2. SMTP Plugin: SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) ensures emails are sent through a proper mail server rather than relying on PHP mail. The Gravity Forms SMTP add-on integrates seamlessly with Gravity Forms.
  3. Mailgun: A third-party email-sending service that ensures reliable delivery by authenticating your emails and bypassing spam filters. It’s worth noting that Mailgun’s “Basic” plan is an additional $15 per month, but it’s a small price to pay for consistent and reliable notifications.

Setting Up Mailgun for Reliable Notifications

Here’s how to set up Mailgun to ensure your form submission notifications are delivered reliably:

Step 1: Sign Up for Mailgun

  1. Go to Mailgun’s website and sign up for an account.
  2. Choose a plan that suits your needs. For most escort sites, the free tier will suffice initially, but for consistent results, the “Basic” $15/month plan is recommended.

Step 2: Add Your Domain to Mailgun

  1. In your Mailgun dashboard, click Domains and add your domain.
  2. Choose a subdomain (e.g., mg.yourdomain.com) specifically for sending emails.

Step 3: Update Your DNS Records

Mailgun will provide you with DNS records to add to your domain’s DNS settings. These typically include:

  1. TXT Records: For SPF and DKIM authentication.
  2. MX Records: For routing email traffic through Mailgun.
  3. CNAME Records: For tracking email performance.

Here’s how to add them:

  1. Log in to your domain registrar (e.g., GoDaddy, Namecheap, or Cloudflare).
  2. Navigate to your DNS settings.
  3. Add the records provided by Mailgun.
  4. Wait for DNS propagation (this can take up to 24 hours).

Step 4: Configure Gravity Forms SMTP

  1. Install the Gravity Forms SMTP plugin.
  2. Go to the SMTP settings page in your WordPress dashboard.
  3. Enter your Mailgun SMTP credentials:
    • SMTP Host: smtp.mailgun.org
    • SMTP Port: 587
    • Encryption: TLS
    • Username: Your Mailgun SMTP username.
    • Password: Your Mailgun SMTP password.
  4. Save your settings and send a test email to confirm everything works.

The Result

With this setup, you’ll enjoy:

  • Reliable Notifications: Every form submission will trigger a notification email delivered to your inbox.
  • Spam Filter Bypass: Authenticated emails are far less likely to be flagged as spam.
  • Peace of Mind: Even if an email isn’t delivered, the submission is still saved in Gravity Forms, ensuring you never lose important client information.

Conclusion

WordPress’s default email system leaves much to be desired, especially for escort sites where missed notifications can mean lost business. After years of trial and error, I’ve found that combining Gravity Forms, Gravity Forms SMTP, and Mailgun provides a consistent and reliable solution. While Mailgun’s $15/month cost may seem like an additional expense, it’s a worthwhile investment for the reliability and professionalism it brings to your site.

If you’re tired of missing form submissions and want a professional solution tailored to your needs, feel free to reach out. Let’s ensure your escort site runs as smoothly as possible.