It’s no secret that there are a lot of form builder plugins available for WordPress. Makes sense, every site needs forms and every site has different needs. We hope you will give Caldera Forms a chance and it will meet your needs, but if not, the good thing about WordPress is that there are so many choices.
There is one thing we know is a common problem all form builders have – lots of sites have trouble sending emails and this problem is especially bad when your contact form is vital to your operations – whether it’s the source of leads, a way to find out about problems in your community, or how you generate sales.
I talk with WordPress users at WordCamps, on Facebook and elsewhere and I keep hearing about problems with emails from contact forms. Often they are using our competitors offerings — we’ve grown, but we’re still the little guy — and sometimes they are using Caldera Forms, which is great, but every time, I have to explain why you shouldn’t ever rely on your site to handle emails, and why, and what to do it about it.
It kind of sucks. This sort of thing should just work. That’s something we’ve been wanting to solve with Caldera Forms. Caldera Forms Pro is that solution, and more.
TL;DR Caldera Forms Pro is a new SaaS platform for improving Caldera Forms. One important feature of Caldera Forms Pro is enhanced email delivery – more reliable emails with delivery, open and click tracking. Learn about the difference between what our free plugin provides vs Caldera Forms Pro vs our add-ons here.
Your Emails Should Work For You
Getting emails from your contact form should make your life easier, not harder. Last week, I wrote about how Caldera Forms Pro was born out of listening to user and potential users. In short, everything we wanted to fix that couldn’t go inside of the plugin became what is now Caldera Forms Pro. It’s a common system outside of WordPress, and now, we’re bringing it inside of WordPress, too.
Your Emails Should Be Delivered
Your emails shouldn’t get lost. Your emails shouldn’t get spam filtered. They should go where they are supposed to go. How much time do you want to spend worrying about if Gmail is going to consider the way you send emails to be indicative of spam or phishing? We’ve spent a lot of time on why this happens and executing a solution.
How much time do you want to spend worrying about phpMailer, the technology WordPress uses to send emails? I’ve been through the whole system, line by line and it made me cry. I love WordPress, I love making WordPress plugins, I love going to WordCamps, I love my WordPress friends, but there are parts of the WordPress code base that I wish I could burn with fire.
So, we just skip all of that and use a modern web app to make sure your emails are delivered properly.
When you sign up for Caldera Forms Pro and enable to “Enhanced Delivery” option, we handle delivering emails. If they can the submission into your database, we can get it to the intended recipient. Don’t worry about how it works and comparing different email providers, or figuring out transactional email pricing, or setting this up for every single site you build.
If you want, we’ll include a PDF with the emails too. Just check the box.
You Should Know If Your Emails Were Opened
We’re going to make sure you emails are sent. But do you know if they were opened? Do you know if the links in the emails were clicked? These are things you don’t normally know with a WordPress form submission, but would be great to know before following up on a lead.
Caldera Forms Pro gives you that and more in one location. We tell you not only if it was opened, but when, and on what type of device. Same for clicks in your email. This is the kind of important information that is one reason that in the past, you’d have to add yet another service to get.
It’s just another way Caldera Forms Pro is the solution for those using WordPress for serious marketing. We’re just getting started. Google Analytics integration for Caldera Forms Pro emails is next up on our roadmap.
Your WordPress Site Should Just Work
When I’m in “Developer of Caldera Forms” mode, I really enjoy the challenge of connecting Caldera Forms and other things I’m working on to all the different services that are needed for our users to accomplish their jobs.
But when I’m in “WordPress user” mode, it’s a little tiresome. And the more I talk to users, the more I see that their annoyed with connecting 16 different products and just want it all better integrated but not in a way that is generic on any level – not something that happens to work with WordPress, not something that happens to work with Caldera Forms, something that is built for Caldera Forms, by the team that built Caldera Forms.
That’s why we built Caldera Forms Pro. Email is just one example of how Caldera Forms Pro brings it all together into one platform that just works. That’s what’s really fun about this for me. I’ve spent the last few years encouraging users to set up SendGrid or Amazon SES for their emails and answering tickets about making emails better.
Now I have a simple answer that just works with Caldera Forms. Your emails delivered, looking great, with email analytics like you never had before, all in one friendly package with a cute Catdera on the front.