A contact form that actually sends e-mails

It's the most ordinary feature of a website, and yet the one that breaks most often: the visitor clicks “Send”, everything seems to work, and the message never arrives. Here is what really happens behind a form, the three usual reasons for a silent failure, and how to make sure every message reaches you.

What happens between the “Send” button and your inbox

A form is nothing more than fields on a page. When the visitor clicks, the browser sends the contents of those fields to the server, and that's where everything is decided: a small program on the server has to compose an e-mail and hand it to a sending server, which delivers it to your mailbox. Three links in the chain, and each one can fail without any error message being shown.

Many “home-made” websites stop at the first link: the form exists, but nothing connects it to a mailbox. The button works visually, and the messages vanish into thin air.

The three classic failures

The server doesn't send	Most hosting providers block or throttle direct e-mail sending to fight spam. The message is “sent” by the program, but never delivered. Solution: go through a dedicated sending service, with authentication.
The message lands in spam	The e-mail arrives, but in the junk folder, because the sender isn't legitimate in the eyes of your mail provider (unauthenticated domain, spoofed sender). Solution: send from an authenticated address, not “on behalf of” the visitor.
Bots flood the inbox	An unprotected form receives dozens of automated messages a day. You end up not reading them, and the real customer goes unnoticed. Solution: a sending cap, an invisible trap for bots, or a discreet test.

The detail that changes everything: who do you reply to?

A well-designed form doesn't pretend the e-mail comes from the visitor — that is exactly how spoofers behave, and mail providers penalise it. It sends from the website's address, and puts the visitor's address in a field made for that purpose, the Reply-To. The result: when you click “Reply”, your answer really goes to the visitor, while staying within the rules.

Check this on any website: send yourself a test message from your own form, then click Reply. If the suggested recipient isn't the address you entered in the form, something is wired up wrong.

Test your form, then test it again

A form should be tested on the day the site goes live, then every time you change e-mail address or mail provider. Send yourself a message with recognisable text, look in the inbox and the junk folder, and reply to it to check the return path. Two minutes that save you from discovering six months later that no quote request ever arrived.

What Leopar does for you

The form on a Leopar website is wired up from the moment it goes live: every message is sent by our authenticated sending service, lands in your inbox with your website's name as the sender, and the visitor's address in the Reply-To — one click on Reply is all it takes. An hourly sending cap protects your inbox from bursts of bots. The number of messages received is included in the updates we send you after launch.

Changing your e-mail address? Tell Léo. Want an extra field, an “I'd like to be called back” checkbox, a separate quote request form? With the full plan, Léo changes the form on request. See what Léo can build.

What we don't provide: an e-mail mailbox on your domain name. Messages from the form arrive at the address you already use (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo…), and that's perfectly fine.

Frequently asked questions

Can I receive messages at several addresses?
The simplest way is a forwarding rule in your mail provider: it redistributes every message received from the website to your colleagues, without changing anything on the form.

Do I need a CAPTCHA (the pictures to click on)?
Not necessarily. A CAPTCHA drives away some genuine visitors. A sending cap and an invisible trap for bots are enough in the vast majority of cases for a brochure website.

Is the form GDPR-compliant?
A contact form relies on legitimate interest: the visitor writes to you of their own accord. You simply need to state, in your privacy policy, what you do with the messages and how long you keep them.

A form, or an e-mail address displayed in plain text?
Both. The form converts better on mobile; the displayed address reassures those who prefer their own mail app. However, an address displayed in plain text attracts spam: better to keep it to the footer.