How to Send a Test Email From WordPress (The Easy Way)

Looking for a way to send a test email from WordPress?

You can send emails from your WordPress site by default. This includes:

Form submission alerts
Automated eCommerce emails
Automated emails generated by optins

And more. But the default WordPress email service comes with several configuration issues that are difficult to fix manually. So, it’s always best to test your emails from WordPress and check if there are any deliverability issues.

Missing form submissions that are sent to your inbox can lead to losing customers instantly. If your autoresponders don’t get sent on time, it’s also likely that you’ll lose a bunch of customers. The right way to resolve this issue is to configure an SMTP server to send all emails from your WordPress site.

In this article, we’re going to show you step by step how to send a test email from WordPress. And we’ll do it in a way where there’s zero coding involved.

Sounds good? Let’s dive right in.

How to Send Test Email from WordPress Sites

Before you send a test email, it’s a good idea to shift to a WordPress SMTP service instead of using the default WordPress email.

The simplest way to configure WordPress email sending capabilities on your site is to use a WordPress SMTP plugin. An SMTP plugin connects your site to an SMTP service provider. The service provider then takes care of sending your emails.

We recommend using the WP Mail SMTP plugin to configure WordPress SMTP on your site.

The WP Mail SMTP plugin will help you fix your email delivery issues in a few simple steps. And it’s not technical at all. It’s super simple and anyone can do it. The plugin bypasses the default wp_mail() function and forces your site to use SMTP settings instead.

The default method for WordPress sites to send email can get flagged as spam. And that’s if they get delivered in the first place. WP Mail SMTP can also come in handy when:

your hosting doesn’t support the mail() function and WordPress can’t send email
your server isn’t configured properly to deliver mail from your WordPress site
you want to send your business emails via Gmail or Google Apps
enquiry messages from your WordPress forms never get sent to your inbox

And here’s the thing: Nearly ALL WordPress websites suffer from the same problem.

If you’ve been suffering from email deliverability issues from WordPress or WooCommerce already and you know what we’re talking about, you should definitely get started with WP Mail SMTP today. If you’re not 100% sure about why you should buy the plugin, check out our review of WP Mail SMTP for an in-depth look at all its features.

Step #1: Configure the WP Mail SMTP Plugin

Go ahead and install and activate the plugin. If you’re not sure how to do that, this tutorial will show you how to install a WordPress plugin. Go to your WordPress dashboard and click on WP Mail SMTP to configure the plugin:

Enter your license key to activate your plugin. Then, enter your email and name in the Mail section:

IMPORTANT: The From Email should be the same email address as the one you’ll be using for your SMTP service. If you use two different emails, you’ll keep getting errors from the email service provider dashboard.

Don’t worry if you’re using some other email address on other WordPress plugins such as WPForms. WP Mail SMTP forces other plugins to use the email address you use to configure your SMTP service automatically.

Step #2: Select an Email Service Provider

Next, let’s choose an SMTP mailing service for your site. Head over to your WordPress dashboard and go to WP Mail SMTP » Settings. Then, under Mailer, select a service provider.

We recommend using SMTP.com:

You’ll have to create an account with SMTP.com next. It’s a super popular SMTP service that allows you to send bulk emails with high delivery rates. But don’t exit your WordPress dashboard yet. We’ll need to come back and finish configuring the WP Mail SMTP plugin.

Step #3: Create an SMTP Account

Go ahead and create a new account:

SMTP.com will send you multiple emails at this point. One of those emails will ask you to click an activation link. Click on the activation link to activate your account. Then, head over to the WP Mail SMTP plugin to connect your SMTP account to the plugin.

The popup will ask for an API key which you can get from your SMTP.com dashboard. Click on the Get API Key link (click on this link to get there directly):

You should see a table under the API tab. SMTP should have automatically generated an API Key for you. Copy the API Key in the Key column (do NOT use the serial number in the Default Key column):

Then paste your API key into the API Key field in WP Mail SMTP:

Finally, under the Sender Name field, click on the Get Sender Name link:

On the page that opens up, under the Manage Senders tab, you’ll see another table. Copy the name in the Name column:

And paste it into the Sender Name field in WP Mail SMTP. Then, hit Save Settings:

Step #4: Add the SPF Record to Your DNS

Next, you’ll have to add the SPF record to your DNS records. The Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is how SMTP.com authenticates your emails. Implementing this step ensures that any email sent from your site won’t get automatically dumped into the Spam inbox.

Head over to the navigation menu of your SMTP.com account and click on Account » My Settings:

In the General tab, go to General Settings and look at the SPF Record field:

You’ll need to add this SPF record to the DNS settings for your site. Adding a new record to your DNS settings is a different process for every hosting provider. If you don’t know how to do this, check out this article on how to add SPF records.

Pro Tip: You’ll see a field called TTL (Time To Live) in the DNS settings. The default value is usually 1 hour. If you can change this record, we recommend changing it to 1 day or 86400 seconds. This will allow the server to cache this information for a full day.

Step #5: Validating Your SPF Records

If you’ve added the SPF record, then you should validate that the changes were updated. It may take up to 48 hours for the changes to reflect. So, validating the results before moving on to the next step is a good idea.

Click on this link and head to the section that says SMTP.com SPF Record Domain Check. In the Domain field, submit your website’s URL and click on Validate:

If you followed every step, you’ll see this Pass message:

And you’re done!

Step #6: Sending a Test Email

You’re done configuring WP Mail SMTP. But you should always check and verify that everything’s working properly. Head back to WP Mail SMTP in your WordPress dashboard and click on the Email Test tab:

Enter any email address that you have access to and send a test email. If all went well, you should see this success message:

Check and confirm that you received the test email in your Primary inbox. If it was sent successfully, you know that the email is getting delivered. Finally, all you have to do is verify that the email went through your SMTP.com account.

Go to the Deliverability Settings page on SMTP.com. If you see the Pass notification like this one, you did a great job:

If you don’t see ‘Pass’ in the Status field, then you’ve blundered somewhere. Just revisit steps 1-4 and make sure that you didn’t miss anything.

What to do After You Send a Test Email from WordPress

That’s all for this one, folks!

We highly recommend that you install the WP Mail SMTP plugin because it makes configuring WordPress SMTP so much simpler. Having to do all this manually can be time-consuming and costly.

Once your WordPress email deliverability issues are fixed, you can go back to increasing your traffic, engagement, and sales in peace. Speaking of which, have you tried using push notifications yet? Push notifications are a great way to increase traffic, engagement, and sales for any business.

And if you’re starting out with push notifications, we recommend using PushEngage. PushEngage is the #1 push notification software in the market. The plugin is built to empower small businesses to compete with big brands.

So, it’s a good fit at every stage of growth whether you’re looking to start, grow, or scale your business.

If you’re just getting started with push notifications, you should also check out some of these articles:

And if you haven’t already, get started with PushEngage today to get to the next level!