Intro
In this blog post, we’re going to test sending and receiving email messages using our free gmail email address and WP Mail SMTP. This is a continued tutorial after:
- how to create your free Gmail API
- connect your free gmail account to WP Mail SMTP
so if you missed those necessary 2 posts so you can keep up, here are the links to them:
- https://tomswebsitedesign.com/google-gmail-api/
- https://tomswebsitedesign.com/gmail-smtp-configuration/
Long story short, we’re going to successfully test and confirm sent and received emails through our free gmail email account and contact form on our website. Let’s get started, shall we?
Authorize Your Free Gmail Account
Log in to your wordpress dashboard and come to ”WP Mail SMTP – Settings” on the navigation menu to the left. Scroll down until you find ”Authorization” right under ”Authorized redirect URI.” We need to allow WP Mail SMTP access to our free gmail account so we can actually send emails. Click on ”Allow plugin to send emails using your google account.”
1st step – choose your free google account from whom you’ve created your free gmail email address.
2nd step – warning window is going to pop up saying – ”Google hasn’t confirmed that application.” Simply click on the bottom left – ”Advanced.” Afterwards, click on ”Open wpmailsmtp.com (not safe).” Don’t worry, WP Mail SMTP is a safe plugin, this is just a standard safety caution by Google.
3rd step – wpmailsmtp.com is looking for access to your Google account. On the bottom right, click on ”Continue.” And bam! You’ve successfully linked your current site with your Google API project. Now you can start sending emails through Gmail. Scroll all the way down and you’ll find that your free gmail email address is connected under ”Authorization.” For my email example, it says ”Connected as petrac.tomislav0147@gmail.com.” ”Save Settings” so we can continue testing email messages in the next phase.
Test Send To Your Free Gmail Account
Come to ”WP Mail SMTP – Tools” on your navigation menu in your wordpress dashboard. Under ”Email Test”, send a test email to your free gmail email address you just linked to WP Mail SMTP. Decide whether you want to send an email in HTML or in plain text format. I’ll send it in HTML because I want the pictures to be included. It’s going to look nicer. Click on ”Send Email.” And success! Test HTML email was sent successfully! Now you need to check your email inbox to make sure the message was delivered. Log in to your free Google account and open your free gmail. Bam! As you can see, email message was sent successfully! Subject line says: ”WP Mail SMTP: HTML Test email to petrac.tomislav0147@gmail.com.” Open and view the body test email message from Jared Atchison – Co-Founder of WP Mail SMTP. In the final phase, we’re going to test send and auto-reply back using our contact form. If you missed my tutorials on
- how to create your custom professional contact form for free
- how to setup your contact form for receiving and auto-reply back messages
here are the links:
Test Send & Autorespond Through Your Contact Form
Come to your website page where you have imported your contact form. Mine is on the homepage of my website – tomswebsitedesign.com. Find your contact form and type a random test message just to confirm that the messages are working as they should. I’ve put a random ”Name” – John Doe, my 2nd free gmail email address which I will use to test & confirm automatic reply-back message which I’ve set up previously (take inspiration from the template and create your own autorespond message version):
<p>Hello [field id=”firstname”]!
<p>I’ve received your message and will get back to you ASAP.
<p>Appreciate your patience.</p>
which is translated to:
Hello ”First Name”!
I’ve received your message and will get back to you ASAP.
Appreciate your patience.
As for the ”Message”, I’ll type: ”THIS IS JUST A TEST EMAIL USING WP MAIL SMTP AND FREE GMAIL.” Finally, I’ll click on ”Send.” Message was sent – ”Your Submission Was Successful.” Now I will login to both of my free gmail email addresses to confirm that both the sent and auto reply-back were delivered. And success! You can vividly see on the picture that the test email was delivered right in the format I sent it in. All left to do is to check automatic reply-back message. I’m going to now check my 2nd free gmail email address. Bam! As you can see on the pictures, it is working perfectly, just as I’ve set my automatic replies.
Subject line says: ”Reply To Your Query John Doe”
The body email message says:
Hello John Doe!
I’ve received your message and will get back to you ASAP.
Appreciate Your Patience.
Bottom Line
Purpose of this blog post was to successfully test sending and automatically reply-back to your email messages using your free gmail account and contact form on your website. Now you’re able to communicate with anyone who sends you a message through your contact form, plus also reply-back later in the day or the next day if you’re too busy (in a way to set auto reply-back message). WordPress friendly website, WP Mail Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and our free gmail email address allowed us to accomplish just that! Hope this tutorial helped you out and enjoy using your professional contact form for receiving and sending email messages!