How to Get an SMS Notification From WordPress Forms (Easily)

Are you constantly missing important form submissions on your WordPress site?

I get it — keeping up can be tough, especially when you’re a growing business attracting more and more leads every day.

But there’s a simple fix that many businesses tend to ignore: setting up SMS notifications for your WordPress forms.

In this article, I’ll show you how to get SMS notifications when your form is submitted without relying on any custom code.

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How to Get an SMS Notification From Your Contact Form

Our video guide explains how you can set up SMS notifications for your WordPress contact forms:

If you’d prefer written instructions, here are the steps for configuring text notifications for form submissions.

Step 1: Install WPForms

The first thing you need to do is to install and activate the WPForms plugin. WPForms is the best WordPress plugin for building contact forms. What’s more, its versatility makes it a handy WordPress SMS plugin as well.

I recommend getting WPForms Pro because it comes with the Zapier addon. We’ll need Zapier to integrate WPForms with a text messaging service like Twilio. Plus, the Pro license offers a wide range of advanced features at affordable pricing.

If you don’t know how to install a plugin on your WordPress site, check out this step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Also, you’ll need to have a form created. See our tutorial on how to create a simple contact form for an example to get started.

Once your form is created, we’ll need to connect it to your Twilio account to set up send messages from WordPress.

Step 2: Connect Your Contact Form to Zapier

To create an SMS notification from your WordPress contact form, you’ll need to install the WPForms Zapier addon. Go to WPForms » Addons and click on the Install Addon button.

The Zapier addon lets you connect your forms to over 7,000+ web apps, including Drip, Jira, and Twilio, so that you can be alerted when someone submits your form on your site.

In the next step, we’ll show you how to use Zapier to set up SMS notifications for WordPress contact forms.

Step 3: Create Your New Zap

When you’ve installed the WPForms Zapier addon, open a new tab and log in to your Zapier account. Then, begin to make a zap. For a complete step-by-step guide to making a Zap, you can check out our tutorial on how to get started with Zapier.

For the trigger, select WPForms from the available apps.

Then, choose New Form Entry as the event.

After this step, select Continue.  You’ll then need to connect your Zapier account to WPForms. Click Sign In.

This will open a popup window asking for your API key and site URL.

Next, go back to the tab where you installed the WPForms Zapier addon. Go to WPForms » Settings » Integrations and look for the Zapier section. Expand it and copy your API key.

Paste your API key into the Zapier popup window, enter your website’s URL, and click Yes, Continue.

Now select the form you want to receive SMS notifications for from the dropdown.

Finally, you can test your form’s connection to Zapier. Be sure to have at least one test entry for your form before you click Test trigger.

After a moment, you should see a success confirmation message and some entry data from your form.

Click Continue to proceed to setting up your action.

Step 4: Set Up Your Twilio SMS Integration

Now that you’ve connected Zapier to the WPForms plugin, the next step is to create an SMS integration in WordPress using Twilio. This will trigger a WordPress contact form SMS notification every time you get a new submission.

So, for the Action app for your Zap, you’ll need to choose Twilio.

From the Choose an Event dropdown, select Send SMS. Then click Continue.

Next, you’ll need to connect your Twilio account with Zapier. Click Sign In.

In a new browser tab, log in to your Twilio account (or create one for free if you don’t have one yet). Look in the Account Info section of your console for your Account SID and Auth Token.

Then copy and paste these into the popup window from Zapier and click Yes, Continue.

Step 5: Configure SMS Notification Settings in Zapier

Now, fill out the rest of the fields for your Twilio account in Zapier, starting with the From Number. This is the mobile number where Twilio will send SMS on form submit.

If you don’t already have a Twilio phone number, go back to your Twilio console and click the Get a Twilio phone number button to generate one.

Then fill out the following in Zapier:

• Alphanumberic Sender ID: Enter a sender ID that will appear in your SMS notification. This ID must be verified in your Twilio account.
• To Number (required): The number you want to send SMS notifications to. This phone number must be verified in your Twilio account.
• Message (required): The message for your SMS notification. Enter custom text and/or pull content from a form field.
• Media URL: If you’d like to include an image in your SMS notification, you can add the URL for it here. For details on how to use this option, see Twilio’s tutorial on using media resources.
• Send Large Messages? Limit your notification to 160 characters, or allow multiple messages of up to 1,600 characters.

You may leave any of the optional fields blank and click Continue. You’ve almost set up your SMS notifications for your WordPress contact forms!

Now you can test your Twilio connection by clicking Test & continue.

If everything is filled out right, you’ll see a success message.

You’ll also receive an SMS notification at the To Number you entered.

To finish, just click Publish Zap.

And that’s it! You’ve successfully set up SMS messages for WordPress that will send every time a user submits your contact form.

If you’re looking for a way to make your form notifications even smarter, check out our detailed guide on using ChatGPT to send AI-generated notifications.

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More Questions on Setting Up SMS Notifications

Still curious about some aspects of SMS notifications for WordPress form submissions? Here are some questions on this subject our readers frequently ask.

Does WordPress Support SMS Notifications?

By default, WordPress only sends you email notifications, and it lacks built-in SMS functionality.

However, it’s possible to use certain plugins that integrate with SMS gateways like Twilio to receive texts from your WordPress website.

You only need to spend a few minutes to make this integration, and then WordPress will send you SMS alerts every time a new form is submitted by visitors from your site.

Can I receive SMS notifications from multiple forms on my WordPress site?

Yes, you can set up SMS notifications for multiple forms by configuring separate Zaps in Zapier for each form.

How can I troubleshoot if I’m not receiving SMS notifications?

Commonly, problems with SMS notifications stem from a misconfigured Zapier integration. This is why testing is a critical step when you’re syncing your apps using Zapier. Often, problems also arise due to an incorrect API key and credentials. Double check these details carefully and you’ll likely won’t encounter any issues with your SMS notifications.

Can I customize the content of the SMS notifications?

Yes, you can personalize the SMS content using dynamic form field data in Zapier to make the notifications more personalized to each recipient.

Also Read: How to Get Microsoft Teams Alerts from Your WordPress Forms

Next, Set Up More Form Integrations

I hope this guide helped show you how easy it is to get WordPress contact form SMS notifications. You can easily get an email notification for entries too. Now that you’ve integrated a Twilio WordPress plugin, you can easily:

• Send form entries from WPForms to Notion
• Send contact form entries to Zoho CRM
• Send contact form entries to Toggl
• Easily make your contact forms GDPR-compliant
• And more

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I also recommend checking out our comparison of WPForms vs Contact Form 7 to learn about the advanced capabilities of WPForms.

And if you’re wondering if WPForms is worth it, you can see our review of WPForms to get your answer.

What are you waiting for? Get started with the most powerful WordPress forms plugin today!

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