How to blacklist a domain?

IN THIS ARTICLE

How it works
​How to add a domain to the Safety tab?

Exporting domains and emails
​FAQ

Do you wish to automate blacklisting domains via API? Check our documentation here.

Sometimes you would like to avoid sending emails to any person from a given domain. For example, you finalized a sale and there is no need to cold email that particular company again. Despite your best efforts, it might happen that somebody from that company gets included in a future campaign.

To avoid the risk of sending unwanted emails that can make you look unprofessional, we have implemented the possibility of adding a whole company to the blacklist. This way no email from that domain will be contacted even if it is added accidentally to a future campaign.

Below we are explaining how to do this in a few simple steps.

1. First, go to SETTINGS → COMPANY SETTINGS → Safety.

Click on the ADD DOMAIN button to blacklist some domains.

When you are there for the first time, probably no domain has been blacklisted yet.

2. Type in the domain you want to blacklist.

Say that I do not want to send any cold emails to my company. Our domain is woodpecker.co. I also do not want to contact anybody from the woodpecker.com domain, so I type it as well—just hit Enter on your keyboard and write it in a new line.

You can also add ‘%’, which lets you blacklist domains in bulk.

When writing "%domain" it blocks all prefixes like "getdomain," "trydomain," etc.

Writing "domain.%" blocks all suffixes like domain.co, domain.io, etc.

You can even use ‘%’ multiple times, like this: "%domain%.%," which blocks all "getdomainnow.io," "trydomainfree.com," etc.

4. When you're done typing, just hit the ADD button.

5. You will see the updated list of blacklisted domains.

Next to each domain, you will find the number of prospects that have already been included in your campaigns and that will be effectively removed from any further communication via Woodpecker.

You can also block email addresses or whole domains from your Agency level. By doing this, you can make sure that certain domains/prospects won't be contacted via any of the companies created under your Agency.

If you want to download the list of blacklisted domains or emails, head to the relevant tab. Select the domains/emails, then click the "Export to CSV" icon.

An analogous way to download domains and emails is available in the Agency panel. Head to the Agency panel, then into Settings, and under the Safety tab you can view your blacklisted domains and emails for the entire agency. If you want to export them to a file, select the desired domains/emails and click on the "Export to CSV" icon.

Yes, please remember that by deleting this domain from the blacklist you allow Woodpecker to send emails to this company. To remove the domain from the blacklist, click "Delete 1 domain" or the grey X next to it.

After you've chosen the domain, click the DELETE button to confirm your action.

Yes, removing more than one domain from the list at once is also possible. Just checkmark the domains you want to remove from the blacklist, you can use the " Select all domains" link, and then click 'Delete 2 domains' on the right above the table.

Q: Can I add blacklisted domains to the global blacklist in my agency?

Yes, you can do it by selecting the domains in the "Blacklisted domains" tab, and choosing the "Blacklist options" icon. A window will pop-up to confirm you want to blacklist them for an entire agency account.

Q: Can I add domains to the blacklist from the blacklisted emails list?

Yes, you can. Head to the "Blacklisted emails" tab, select the emails, and click on the "Blacklist options" icon. A window will pop-up to confirm you're adding entire domains to the blacklist.

Yes, but not for all of them at once.

Here's how it works:

If you add a domain to the blacklist in Settings, Woodpeckers automatically creates a kind of "gate" that will prevent messages to those addresses from being sent.

So the addresses on this domain will not be instantaneously marked as BLACKLISTED the moment you blacklist their domain in Settings. But if you accidentally try to use them in one of your future campaigns, Woodpecker will automatically set their status to BLACKLISTED upon the attempt to send them an email.

No. The status BLACKLISTED never changes automatically in Woodpecker. If you deliberately want to change it to another status, you need to do it manually on the main list of Prospects.

Here's how it works:

No statuses will be changed when you remove a domain from the blacklist in Settings. Removing a domain from the blacklist simply means removing the "gate" preventing the emails on this domain from being sent.

If some of those contacts were marked as ACTIVE, they will get your future emails. If some of those contacts have been marked as BLACKLISTED in the meantime, they still won't get any emails from Woodpecker. If you deliberately want to send them your campaigns, you need to manually change their status to ACTIVE.