How to Get SMS Text Messages from Your WordPress Forms (WPForms + Twilio)
As a WordPress site owner, it‘s important to stay on top of leads, orders, registrations and other important form submissions. While email notifications are great, SMS text messages offer a more immediate and attention-grabbing way to ensure you never miss an important submission.
In this detailed guide, we‘ll walk you through how to set up SMS notifications for your WordPress forms step-by-step. We‘ll be using WPForms, the best form plugin for WordPress, and Twilio, a leading SMS messaging service. To connect the two without any code, we‘ll use Zapier as an integration tool.
By the end, you‘ll be able to get an SMS message sent straight to your phone any time a visitor submits a form on your WordPress site. Let‘s dive in!
Benefits of SMS Notifications for WordPress Forms
Before we get into the tutorial, let‘s look at some of the key benefits of getting SMS notifications for your WordPress form entries:
• Immediacy – SMS messages have a 98% open rate, with 90% of messages read within 3 minutes. This means you can respond to leads and customers faster.
• Accessibility – SMS works on any mobile phone and doesn‘t require an internet connection. You‘ll get notified even if you‘re away from your computer.
• Improved organization – Instead of having to check your email inbox or WordPress dashboard, you can see form submissions come in directly via text.
• Better customer service – Quick responses to inquiries, orders, and booking requests improves the customer experience and increases satisfaction.
• Increased conversions – Following up with leads via SMS after initial contact through your website forms can help nurture them towards a sale.
Now that we understand the advantages, let‘s look at what you need to start receiving WordPress form entries via SMS.
What You Need to Get Started
To follow along with this tutorial, you‘ll need:
A WordPress website with WPForms installed and activated (Pro version required for Zapier integration)
A Twilio account for sending SMS messages (free trial available)
A Zapier account to connect WPForms and Twilio (free plan available)
We‘ll walk through how to set each of these up as we go through the steps. Let‘s start with your WordPress form.
Step 1: Set Up Your WordPress Form with WPForms
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin on your WordPress site. WPForms is the most beginner-friendly form builder and has powerful features like multi-page forms, conditional logic, payment integrations and more.
To use the Zapier addon to connect to Twilio, you‘ll need the WPForms Pro version. You can get started with the Pro plan or higher here.
Once WPForms Pro is installed and activated, go to WPForms » Settings and enter your license key. You‘ll find this under the Downloads tab in your WPForms account.
Next, go to WPForms » Add New to create a new form. Choose from one of the 300+ pre-built templates or start with a blank form. For this example, we‘ll use a simple contact form.
In the WPForms form builder, you can easily customize your form by dragging and dropping fields from the left panel. You can also change field labels, add descriptions, mark fields as required and more.
Once your form is set up how you want it, click Save at the top.
To add your form to a page on your WordPress site, edit the page and click the Add Block (+) button. Search for the WPForms block and add it to your page. Select your form from the dropdown in the block settings.
Publish or update the page to make your form live. Fill out and submit a test entry so there is sample data to set up your Zapier connection. You can view the entry under WPForms » Entries.
Step 2: Configure Your Twilio Account
The next step is to sign up for a Twilio account and configure it for sending SMS messages. Twilio is one of the most popular communication APIs for building SMS, voice, and messaging applications.
Head over to the Twilio website and click the Sign Up button. Enter your details to create a free account. You‘ll need to verify your account via email before you can proceed.
Once logged into your Twilio Console, you‘ll need to set up a phone number to send messages from. Click Get a Trial Number under your project to get a free number for testing.
On the next screen, choose your country and check SMS in the capabilities field. Then click Choose this Number to confirm your selection. You can now use this phone number to send outbound SMS messages.
Before connecting your Twilio account to Zapier, there are a couple pieces of information you‘ll need:
• Account SID – This is like a username for your Twilio account
• Auth Token – This acts as a password to authenticate your Twilio account
You can find both of these under Settings in your Twilio Console. Keep this page open or copy the Account SID and Auth Token somewhere safe. You‘ll need them in a moment when setting up the Zapier integration.
Step 3: Connect WPForms to Twilio Using Zapier
Now that you have WPForms set up to capture form entries and your Twilio account configured to send SMS messages, it‘s time to connect the two services. We‘ll use Zapier for this.
Zapier is an automation tool that lets you connect different apps and services to automate workflows. It will act as the bridge between WPForms and Twilio, telling Twilio to send you an SMS message whenever your WordPress form is submitted.
If you don‘t already have a Zapier account, head to the Zapier website and sign up for a free plan. After verifying your email, log into your dashboard.
Click the Create Zap button in the left sidebar to start a new automation. Give your Zap a name at the top.
In the Trigger step, search for and select WPForms as the app. Then choose New Form Entry as the trigger event. Click Continue.
On the next screen, you‘ll be prompted to sign into your WPForms account. Click the Sign In button to proceed.
A pop-up window will appear asking for your WPForms API key. To find this, go to WPForms » Settings » Integrations in your WordPress dashboard. Copy the API key and paste it into the Zapier pop-up along with your site URL. Then click Yes, Continue.
After connecting your WPForms account, select the form you want to get SMS notifications for under Set Up Form Entry. Then click Continue.
Zapier will load a test entry from your form. Click Test Trigger to make sure the connection is working properly. You should see form fields populated with the sample entry you submitted earlier. Click Continue.
Now it‘s time to set up the Action step to send the SMS message via Twilio. Search for and select Twilio as the app, then choose Send SMS as the action event.
Click the Sign In button to connect your Twilio account. Enter your Account SID and Auth Token from your Twilio console in the pop-up window, then click Yes, Continue.
After your Twilio account is connected, you‘ll customize the SMS message details:
• From Number – Choose your Twilio phone number
• To Number – Enter the phone number where you want to receive the SMS notifications
• Message – Compose your notification message, you can insert form fields using the plus (+) button
An example message might look like this:
New lead from your website:
Name: {{Name}}
Email: {{Email}}
Message: {{Comment:truncate(100)}}
This would include the name, email, and the first 100 characters of the message the user submitted. You can of course customize this to include any form fields you like.
Once you‘re happy with your SMS composition, click Continue. Zapier will show a preview of what the message will look like. If everything looks good, click Test Action to send a test SMS to yourself.
Step 4: Activate Your Zap
After you‘ve tested and confirmed the SMS step is working, click the Publish Zap button to activate your automation.
Congrats! You‘ll now receive an SMS notification whenever someone submits an entry on your WordPress form.
Tips for Making the Most of SMS Notifications
To make your SMS notifications as useful as possible, here are a few tips:
• Customize the "From" number – Instead of using a random number, you can get a dedicated phone number or short code for your business to make the messages more recognizable.
• Use merge tags – Zapier allows you to populate form entry data using "merge tags". Be sure to include key details like the person‘s name, email, order details, etc. to provide context.
• Set up notifications for multiple team members – You can create separate Zaps to notify different team members based on the form or type of entry. For example, sales inquiries could go to your sales team lead.
• Combine with email notifications – While SMS is great for urgent notifications, it‘s a good idea to still have email notifications turned on to maintain a paper trail and backup of all form submissions.
Engaging Users with SMS Marketing
In addition to receiving notifications, SMS messages can also be a powerful tool for engaging your customers and driving more sales. With open rates as high as 98%, SMS marketing is one of the most effective channels for reaching your audience.
Some ways you can use SMS marketing for your WordPress site include:
• Order confirmations and shipping updates for eCommerce stores
• Appointment reminders for booking and reservation systems
• Contests and giveaways to build your SMS subscriber list
• Flash sales and limited-time promotions to drive urgency
• Personalized product recommendations based on past purchases
• Feedback surveys and review requests after a purchase
To get started with SMS marketing, you‘ll need to build an opted-in subscriber list. You can do this by adding a phone number field to your email signup forms or creating a dedicated SMS signup form on your site.
Be sure to let people know what type of messages they‘ll be receiving and how often when asking them to sign up. You should also include clear instructions for how to opt-out of receiving messages in each SMS you send to remain compliant with regulations.
When used strategically, SMS can complement your other marketing channels and help you build stronger relationships with your customers.
Conclusion
We hope this guide has helped you set up SMS notifications for your WordPress forms. Getting started is easier than you might think with the right tools.
With WPForms, Twilio, and Zapier, you can start receiving text messages for new leads and form submissions in just a few simple steps. The increased speed and visibility this provides can help you improve your customer service and convert more leads into customers.
Be sure to also check out our other tutorials on using SMS to grow your WordPress business:
• How to Add SMS Notifications to Your WooCommerce Store
• How to Set Up a Text-to-Join SMS Campaign in WordPress
• 5 SMS Automation Recipes for Your Membership Site
Happy texting!
