How To Use WordPress to Send Emails to Multiple Addresses

Are you manually forwarding WordPress form submissions to your team every time someone submits a contact form? Formidable Forms lets you send form notifications to multiple email addresses automatically, with no code required. Here's exactly how to send emails to multiple addresses in WordPress, step by step.

Approximate read time: 8 minutes

Why send emails to multiple addresses in WordPress

Sending one form notification to several people saves time and keeps everyone in the loop without manual forwarding. It's especially useful for freelancers, agencies, and businesses that need to keep clients and teammates informed with minimal busywork.

Here are a few places it makes a real difference:

• Contact forms: Send each inquiry to you and a teammate, or keep a copy for your records with BCC.
• Newsletters and updates: Keep subscribers up to date with news, blog posts, and special offers.
• Event invitations and bookings: Confirm a reservation with every guest on the list, not just the person who filled out the form.
• Customer announcements: Tell customers about new products, services, and updates.
• Automated responses: Welcome new subscribers, confirm orders, or follow up on questions automatically.

There are two ways to set this up: code it yourself or use a WordPress plugin. Coding it means writing custom PHP for every recipient change, and if you're reading this, we're guessing that's not how you want to spend your afternoon. A form plugin handles all of it from a settings screen, which is the route we'll take here.

The best plugin for sending emails to multiple recipients

The best way to send emails to multiple addresses in WordPress is with Formidable Forms.

It's the most advanced WordPress form builder, and its form actions give you full control over where your form data goes. Send it as an email notification, push it to an email service like Mailchimp, or route it to a CRM (customer relationship management) platform through Zapier.

Here's the plan:

1. Install and activate Formidable Forms
2. Create your form
3. Send one notification to multiple recipients
4. Send to a list of addresses with a repeater field
5. Route emails with conditional logic
6. Publish the form

Step 1: Install and activate Formidable Forms

Basic notifications with multiple recipients, CC, and BCC all work in the free version, so you can start by installing Formidable Forms Lite from WordPress.org.

Two of the techniques in this guide need a paid license, though. Repeater fields let your visitors add a group of fields as many times as they want, and conditional routing sends each submission to the right person automatically. Grab a Basic license or higher to unlock both.

If you hit any snags, our Knowledge Base can help you install and activate Formidable Forms in a few minutes.

Step 2: Create your form

With the plugin active, go to Formidable → Forms and click Add New.

Formidable Forms has tons of pre-built form templates to speed things up, including a free contact form template. To follow along from scratch, click Create a blank form instead.

For a standard contact form, add these fields in the drag and drop builder:

• Name field for the sender's name
• Email field for their address
• Paragraph field for the message

Add any other fields you need, then click Update to save.

We'll also build out a booking-style example later for the repeater method, but this simple form is enough for the first technique.

Step 3: Send one notification to multiple recipients

Now for the part you came for. Go to Settings → Actions & Notifications and expand the Send Email action. Formidable Forms creates one for you by default, or you can click the Send Email icon to add another.

The To box holds the recipient list. By default it contains [admin_email], which sends to the site admin. To send the same notification to multiple emails, just add more addresses separated by commas:

• Type any address directly, like a teammate's email.
• Use the field ID for the Email field on your form (something like [125], depending on your form) to include the person who submitted it.

Want some recipients to get a quieter copy? Click the CC or BCC buttons to open those fields, and add addresses to either one.

CC recipients are visible to everyone on the email. BCC (blind carbon copy) sends the same email to people without showing their addresses to anyone else. BCC is handy for keeping a copy for your records.

One more trick: if internal and external recipients need different wording, don't cram it all into one email. Create a separate Send Email action for each version, one with the plain internal details for your team and one with a friendly confirmation for the visitor.

Before you move on, click Update and send yourself a test submission. It's much easier to catch a typo in an email address now than to wonder later why a teammate never saw a lead. If the test lands in spam, jump ahead to the FAQ at the end for a quick fix.

That covers the basics, and everything so far works in the free version. Now let's look at the two advanced setups.

Step 4: Send to a list of addresses with a repeater field

Sometimes you don't know the recipient list ahead of time because your visitor supplies it. Think of a hotel booking form where every guest gets a confirmation, not just the person who booked. That's exactly what repeater fields are for.

Let's build that booking form. Create a new form and add:

• A Section field labeled Booking information
• Two Date fields for arrival and departure
• A Dropdown field for the requested room
• Name, Email, and Phone fields for the primary contact

Next, add a Repeater field and label it Guests. Inside the repeater, add a Text field for the guest's name and an Email field for their address. Now the customer can click Add to include as many guests as they need, and each row collects a name and email.

Then head to Settings → Actions & Notifications and open the Send Email action. The setting that makes this work is the Run this action for dropdown. It's set to Main entry by default, which sends one email using only the primary contact's address.

Instead, click the dropdown and choose your repeater field, Guests. Now the action runs once for every row in the repeater.

In the To box, delete [admin_email] and add the field IDs for the Primary Contact Email and the Guest Email, which are [196] and [200] on our form. Your IDs will be different, so pick them from the field dropdown next to the box.

Finally, customize the Subject line and the Message box with the reservation details, using field IDs so each email fills in the right information automatically.

Now every guest gets their own confirmation email, and you never have to copy addresses by hand. If anything trips you up here, our Knowledge Base docs can help.

Step 5: Route emails with conditional logic

Here's the other advanced setup: letting the visitor decide who the email goes to. Say you have Sales, Marketing, and Human Resources, and you want each inquiry to land with the right team instead of one shared inbox.

First, add a field to your contact form where visitors pick a destination. Radio Buttons, Checkbox, or Dropdown fields all work. Label it Department and add options like Sales, Marketing, and Human Resources.

Back in Settings → Actions & Notifications, add a new Send Email action for each department. In the Human Resources action, enter the HR team's address in the To box and write the message.

Then click Add Conditional Logic and set the rule to "Do this action if Department is equal to Human Resources." You can read more about how this works in our conditional logic tutorial.

Repeat that for Sales and Marketing, each with its own address and rule. Now every inquiry goes straight to the right people, and nobody has to play email traffic cop.

Step 6: Publish the form

Last comes the easy part: putting the form on your site. Open the page or post where you want it and add the Formidable Forms block.

Choose your form from the dropdown, and it appears right in the editor. Click Update or Publish, and your form is live and sending to everyone who needs it.

One form, every inbox that matters

That's every way to send emails to multiple addresses in WordPress: comma-separated recipients, CC and BCC, repeater fields for guest lists, and conditional logic for department routing. Whichever setup you pick, the form does the forwarding so you don't have to.

Notifications are just the start: the same email actions can also send scheduled emails, like reminders and follow-ups, so your form handles the timing too.

If your notifications are landing in spam or not arriving at all, read our guide on fixing WordPress email delivery with SMTP next. And when you're ready to build, grab Formidable Forms and set up your first multi-recipient form today. You can even try it risk-free for 14 days.

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Can I send a WordPress form notification to multiple emails for free?

Yes. In Formidable Forms Lite, open the Send Email action and add as many addresses as you want to the To box, separated by commas. The CC and BCC fields are free too. Repeater fields and conditional routing need a paid license.

What's the difference between CC and BCC?

CC recipients are visible to everyone who gets the email. BCC (blind carbon copy) hides those names, so you can send to several people without the others knowing. BCC is the usual choice for keeping an internal copy of form submissions.

Can visitors choose who their message goes to?

Yes. Add a Dropdown or Radio Buttons field with your departments, then create a separate Send Email action for each one with conditional logic, like "Do this action if Department is equal to Sales." Each message routes to the right inbox automatically.

Why aren't my form emails arriving?

Most delivery problems come from WordPress sending mail through your web server, which spam filters don't trust. Setting up an SMTP plugin sends your notifications through a real mail service and fixes it in most cases. Double-check the addresses in your To box and your spam folder first.