WordPress Form Plugin No More: With Thrive Architect

I have tried out a number of free contact form plugins for WordPress over the past few years, and unfortunately none of which really looked 'in place'. Most of them are pretty basic with preset fonts and buttons that are not customisable. I have helped some of my clients design their websites and one thing they weren't entirely happy with was always the contact form. Not only because of the way it looked but the fact that they'd have to have an extra plugin just to place one contact form in the whole website.

A contact form has recently been added to Thrive Architect, that's a fantastic news - another feature with no extra cost or extra installation required. Ready to use.

Among some useful features that Thrive Architect didn't used to have, a contact form is one that I've requested to the development support to add in the future. So I'm really glad it is now a part of the plugin - obviously there must have been a demand by many other users. In fact Shane Melaugh and his team at Thrive do listen to the users and they take our opinions seriously. It's not an overstatement to say that they do make our wishes come true.

More Engagement!

With all that said, it would have been just a matter of time for Thrive Architect to have this feature, because a contact form is one of the best ways to increase engagement on your blog posts. For example only other ways to hear from your visitors rather than via a contact form would be to;

1. Ask them to leave a comment below the post, or
2. Send you an email ("Please email us at info@yourwebsite.com").

But the option 1 will dissuade visitors who wish to contact you privately and the option 2 will dissuade them to voice their opinion anonymously.

A form from Thrive Architect can be added multiple times throughout your website, easily by drag & drop. It's useful if you wish to hear as many opinions in a specific matter, or just something on an ad hoc basis.

The form does not have to collect the visitor's email address, so it is possible for your visitor to message you privately and anonymously.

Beautiful Templates

Right now (as of August 2018) I can see 31 contact form templates, and Thrive says it will keep adding more in the future, just like it keeps adding any other templates. Variety of modern designs and fully customisable.

Even better, they're in line with Thrive Landing Page templates. So when you choose a landing page template and add a contact form, there'll be a suggested form template with matching colour, font and layout.

All In One Screen

When you place a contact form in your site, there are two things to set up (apart from the design customisation);

1. What kind of information you need from your visitors (i.e. box options - name, email address, etc) and
2. What happens after a visitor submits the form.

Traditionally with a contact form plugin - or any WordPress plugin - you go to the Settings menu to do all the setting up and editing work. Copy a short code, go back to your visual editor and paste it onto wherever in the page you want.

Because Thrive's contact form is not a separate plugin but only a part of Thrive Architect visual editor, all the work can be done without leaving the editor screen. Drag & drop the icon to start with, and all the customisation will be done using the controls in the side bar, as you preview the change real-time.

Box Options

You can insert up to 7 boxes including the message body box, plus reCAPTCHA as an option;

1. First Name
2. Last Name
3. Full Name
4. Phone Number
5. Email Address
6. Website
7. Message Box

Adding reCAPTCHA is very easy - sign up with Google reCAPTCHA, add your website and it will give you an API key and a unique secret key. Come back to the Thrive Dashboard in your WordPress and save these two keys, and all your contact forms will be Captcha enabled. The whole process won't take you a few minutes.

You can add a red asterisk as a "required mark" to any box that's applicable. Below is another template as an example.

Email & After Submit Setup

Messages from users will be sent to your specified email inbox immediately after each submission. They can be sent to multiple email addresses.

After the message submission, you can select one of 3 actions; (1) simply reload the page, (2) redirect to custom URL or (3) show a few seconds of success notification such as "Your message has been sent, thank you!" (customisable).

Confirmation email can also be sent to user optionally (such as "Hello John, thank you for contacting us. We'll get back to you within 24 hours...." etc.) The email will be in text format (i.e. not HTML) but the message including the subject line are fully customisable. 

WordPress Form Plugin No More: With Thrive Architect

Let me know what you think, or if you have any questions - by leaving a comment below.......or sending me a private message using a contact form from HERE!