Gravity Forms enable you to manage communication that takes place as a result of a form submission. This allows you to use Confirmations to automatically send an email to the user immediately after he submits a form, as well as to set up Notifications to send an email notification to an administrator with the contents of the form entry .
Set up your Notifications
To get to Notifications for your Gravity Form, go to the left sidebar menu > Forms. Select your form from the list and hover over the Setting tab to click on Notifications OR click on the form title in the list (such as Contact Us) to open the form and select Notifications from the Settings dropdown menu there.
Hover over the Admin Notification and select Edit
To set up your notifications, be sure to enter the following information:
1: Merge Tags
You can use the merge tags, also known as the “Insert Form Field”, to auto-generate content based on how the user filled out the form. Merge tags can be used anywhere you see {..} on the right. Click on the symbol to get a list of field from the form to use.
2: Send To Email
Enter the email address you would like the administrator notification email sent to. You can optionally select Routing which allows you to route the email based on field selections.
Note: This most commonly is set to the email address within your company that you want incoming emails to go to — such as [email protected]
3: From Name
Enter the name you would like the administrator notification email sent from. This is a great place to use the Name Merge Tag to automatically pull in the name the user entered into the submitted form.
4: From Email & Reply To
You must enter noreply@(enter your domain here).com email here to avoid violation of DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) and to help avoid email “phishing” and “spamming” schemes. See Why do you have to use [email protected] to learn more.
5: BCC
Enter a comma separated list of email addresses you would like to receive a Blind Copy of the administrator notification email.
6: Subject
Enter the subject you would like used for the administrator notification email. The Form Title and Name are the most common merge tags used in this field. For example use New {form_title} submission from {Name} so when Jane Doe submits a Contact Form it will appears in Bob’s email with the subject line New Contact Form Submission from Jane Doe.
7: Message
Enter the body message you would like used for the administrator notification email. The merge tag variable All Submitted Fields {all_fields} is the most common tag used to show all fields from the form.
It is best practice to add a disclaimer that the user is unable to respond to the message received. Example: “Please do not reply to this message. Replies to this message are routed to an unmonitored mailbox. If you have questions please go to (your contact page of your website url here) . You may also call us at (your phone # here).”
Why do you have to use [email protected]
The Notification Emails need to be sent from [email protected] to avoid a practice known as “spoofing”. Email spoofing is the false use of an email address causing the message to appear to have come from an address other than the actual source. This tactic is commonly used in email “phishing” and “spamming” schemes because people tend to open an email more often when they think it has been sent by a source they recognize. The goal of email spoofing is to try to get people to open emails that may allow them to respond to solicitation. Falsely sending an email from a known brand or name can give instant legitimacy with users, allowing spoofers to compromise user accounts by asking for personal information such as passwords, bank accounts, credit cards, and other exploiting information.
When using an email address that appears to have come from an address other than the actual source, it is a violation of the DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance). DMARC is an email authentication, policy, and reporting protocol that monitors and protects domains from fraudulent email. DMARC helps make it easier to determine whether a message is legitimately from the sender, and helps to keep spam and phishing messages out of email inboxes.
Learn more about Notifications to Administrators Learn more about Confirmations to Users