When sending input from contact forms on your website to your email address, your site will need to connect to an SMTP mail server to send the data the client submits to you by email. If your email is hosted by us with your site or you are using our professional email service Smarter Mail then of course we will set all this up correctly so that everything runs smoothly.
Third-Party Email And Web Forms
If your email is hosted by a third party like Microsoft 365, Google or some other company then this will take a little more setting up to get your forms to work correctly. You need to remember that these days there are a LOT of strict spam protocols that have to be met to ensure trouble-free use of email. Please do not get irritated with us when we ask you to complete multiple tasks to achieve this, we are not setting these requirements or rules we are just abiding by them to try to make sure your email and forms work as flawlessly as possible. Each email provider will have its own processes and rules we must follow to connect your site to their mail servers.
Microsoft 365
Setting web forms up to work with Microsoft 365 is not easy
Microsoft now requires an API key (special code strings) to send emails from websites via their servers.
Setting this up can be a little complex, but if you have someone who handles your 365 account for you who is experienced using the 365 suite then it should not be hard for them to do.
If you purchased the Microsoft 365 service via a third party like GoDaddy, they should help you get the details we need as they are the ones charging you for this service so they should be supporting it.
To set this up correctly we would need:
1: A Microsoft Application Client ID
2: A Microsoft Application Client Secret
If you want to do it yourself, you can find out how by clicking the links below. This will guide you step by step to set up and get the keys we would require, but it is not straightforward or easy. This is not something we can do for you as we do not have access to your Microsoft account and sadly we cannot support the services of other companies.
How to get the required Microsoft 365 keys. Click here to open in a new tab
Google Mail
Setting web forms up to work with Google is not easy
Google requires an API key (special code strings) to send emails from websites via their servers.
Setting this up can be a little complex, but if you have someone who handles your Google account for you who is experienced using Google Services then it should not be hard for them to do.
If you purchased the Google service via a third party they should help you get the details we need as they are the ones charging you for this service so they should be supporting it.
To set this up correctly we would need:
1: A Google Application Client ID
2: A Google Application Client Secret
If you want to do it yourself, you can find out how by clicking the links below. This will guide you step by step to set up and get the keys we would require, but it is not straightforward or easy. This is not something we can do for you as we do not have access to your Google account and sadly we cannot support the services of other companies.
How to get the required Google keys. Click here to open in a new tab
Alternative Solutions
Just to make sure you have all available options available to you here are two alternative solutions:
1. We can send the mail from your forms VIA the 3001web.com mail server
While not ideal, we can send these emails from the forms via our mail server to your email account. You would just need to make sure you set up white lists for the sending email addresses ( we would provide these for you) and rules in your email accounts so that Microsoft does not sort the emails to spam or reject them.
Downsides
The only downside to this method is that you will not be able to send any thank you emails to your clients directly from your site when they submit the forms, that in itself is not an issue as they can just be redirected to a thank you page.
Obviously, when you get the emails from the forms in your inbox, if you click reply you WILL be able to reply to the clients from your company email addresses as those emails will be sent using whatever program you currently use to send emails.
2. Host your email with your site
There is always the option to host your email accounts with your websites on our servers doing away with the need for 365 altogether (Assuming you are only 365 for email and you are not using their calendars or other programs)
This would involve
1. Duplicating all your email accounts on our server.
2. Migrating all your email over ( We would need a list of all the accounts and their passwords to do this)
3. Changing the DNS for your domain to let the world know who is now dealing with your email.
We could do all that for you. There would be a charge for the time but remember you would save long-term on Microsoft fees.
Downsides
1. Using this method your email accounts would share space allocation with your website. As your email boxes grow they will use up your webspace allocation so it may not be viable if you archive a lot of email.
2. It is not great for redundancy, if we ever had a temporary server outage (this is rare but can happen if hardware fails) email would be down too until the server was fixed.
Upsides
Total control of your email
No need to pay extra to Microsoft
3. Get our superb professional Smartermail suite for your website
Our SmarterMail service is more powerful than 365 and a fraction of the price
This would involve
1. Duplicating all your email accounts on our Smartermail server.
2. Migrating all your email over ( We would need a list of all the accounts and their passwords to do this)
3. Changing the DNS for your domain to let the world know who is now dealing with your email.
We would do all that for you as part of the service.
Get full details on SmarterMail here (link opens in new tab)