IN THIS ARTICLE
Step 1: Connect your email to Woodpecker
Woodpecker sends your campaigns from your own email account, without the use of any additional mail servers. That is why the first thing to do is to connect your email to Woodpecker. Here's how:
1. Click “Connect your email”
Once your campaign is created, open it (click “Campaigns” in the black bar at the top, then click your campaign), and click “Connect your email” right below the campaign's name.
Alternatively, you can go to Settings (expand the menu in the upper right and click “Settings”), then click the green “Add Email Account” button.
2. Choose your email provider
Woodpecker has native, one-click integration with Google's Gmail, and Microsoft's Outlook. For any other email service provider, you can click on the "Other email provider" button. The setup will not be long either way!
Note that when you select one of the available options, you will be informed about the sending limits for this provider. The default limit in Woodpecker will be set according to your choice. You can change it later in Settings.
If you are using a third-party app for sending (such as Mailgun or Sendgrid), or would simply like to configure your email yourself, select “Other email provider”. Check Email Account: Advanced setup to learn more.
If you wish to add more than one email right away, you can choose the option to "Add in bulk".
Troubleshooting
Woodpecker may connect your email address conditionally. Check what that means and how to fix it here.
In case of any other issues, have a look at our article I can't connect my mailbox.
4. Set your “From name” and “Signature”
This screen allows you to set the sender's name that will be visible to your recipients, and a signature that will be attached to emails in your campaigns. Woodpecker will automatically add a signature template based on the information we have obtained from your account, but you can remove it anytime.
You can skip this step, and set both later by clicking “set it later in Settings”.
5. Click “Save”
… and give Woodpecker a few moments to complete the setup. Afterward, you will be able to select this email as a sender in your campaign.
6. Finalize the setup
Click the “OK” button to continue creating your first campaign.
7. Check your inbox for "Testing your email connection" message
Once you connect your email account to Woodpecker, the App will send you a message confirming the successful connection. You will see it in your primary inbox. Its subject is "Testing your email connection with Woodpecker.co" and should look like the one in the image above.
Don't worry, this is an automatic message sent from our internal email address [email protected].
In case you're connecting a mailbox to a company under the Agency panel, we will send the message from the email account connected to your Agency account. The content of that message can be crafted by you in the Agency panel settings. Have a look at the Agency panel: First Setup guide »
You can't find the test message in your inbox?
You might have been connected conditionally.
Check your SPAM or junk folder.
If the message is there, move it to the primary inbox.
Try connecting your mailbox again. Remember to remove any labels or forwarding options. Learn why »
Your email address should be connected successfully!
Step 2: Compose a personalized email
Each campaign consists of 3 parts:
PATH - this is where you create a sequence of emails for your campaign. By adding a condition, you decide what kind of email and when your prospect receives it.
PROSPECTS - here you import and add your recipients to the campaign.
SUMMARY - preview and send or save the campaign. Here you can also send a test email.
Your message can be created right in the campaign's email editor. You can use both plain text and snippets, for a mixture of good, catchy content and personalized information. Let's see how to make it happen:
1. Start the path
Let's start the Path! You can start your path in a couple of ways - either with one of our Manual Tasks, Snippet-based Condition, or traditionally, with an email. We will show you a campaign with email in the first step below.
You can type in the content of your message right here, in the editor, or paste it from a plain text editor, such as Notepad or TextEdit.
You can use versions to A/B test your emails. Learn how to carry an A/B test » and check out our A/B Testing: FAQ »
Important
Make sure that you're not copying formatted text from editors such as Word, as it might cause your email to not render properly in your prospect's inbox.
For copying and pasting formatted text, paste it into Notepad/TextEdit first (to remove formatting), and copy it again from there, then paste it into Woodpecker's editor.
2. Insert snippets for personalization
Always use the blue personalization buttons - our custom fields in the email editor, right below the Subject line, and styling options. They are called snippets, and their task is to insert information specific to your prospect into your email.
This information can include first name, company, or website, and is used in individual messages, making each of them unique and much more interesting to your prospects.
Wondering how to add them to your CSV, XLS, or XLSX file and then import them to Woodpecker, to begin with? Here is our CSV and Excel guide »
3. Add a follow-up message or add a Condition
You can follow up with the prospects who have not responded to your email. To create a follow-up message, click “ADD EMAIL” right below the editor that contains your first message.
Just like with the first email, you can compose the follow-up message in the editor, and personalize it with snippets. You can send your follow-up in the same thread (as a sequence) or as a separate message »
Here you can read about Stats That Prove The Importance of Follow-up Emails »
Follow-ups
You can create up to 12 steps (16 if you are an Agency or Sales Assistant user) in a sequence within a single campaign. You can play around with your campaign flow and mix emails with Manual, Linkedin, or Call Tasks.
How does it work?
If your prospect responds to your previous message, the next follow-up won't be sent. Learn what happens when a prospect replies to your email »
Add a Condition
Click ADD CONDITION to decide what kind of emails you want your prospect to receive.
By adding a condition, you create 2 paths:
Path YES — for the prospects who have met your condition, your email within a certain time (days/hours)
Path NO — for those recipients who haven't met your condition within a certain time
In Woodpecker, you can find different types of conditions, such as:
• Open-based condition »
• Click-based condition »
• Task-based condition »
• Snippet-based condition »
Step 3: Set up Daily limit and Delivery time
Once you composed your cold email campaign, you can set the Delivery time for all emails. You can also change the default Daily limit for opening emails and add delay time for the follow-ups.
1. Set up a Daily limit for opening emails
Set the maximum opening emails (Email #1) you want to be sent daily. The default is 50 opening emails a day, but you may want to send fewer or more than that.
The limit is capped at the maximum of your currently active Daily Sending Limit Add-on. What is Daily Sending limit? »
Check your Sending limits to measure if you can send all your scheduled emails in one day. Go to Settings → Accounts → Sending.
Remember that you'll be sending these emails from your own mailbox, and there are sending limits established by your email provider. Your campaigns must be set up so that these limits are not exceeded.
2. Set up the delay for your follow-ups
For each of your follow-ups, set the number of days to wait before sending. By default, Woodpecker adds 3 more days after the first email. After the second step it is 6 days, after the third step it is 12, and in further steps, the default number is set to 18. This always relates to the time the previous email was sent (for each prospect).
Click the clock icon to open follow-up settings.
By default, Woodpecker waits 3 days (after the first Step). You can always change this number. Choose between days, hours, and minutes after the previous email.
3. Set up a Delivery time for all emails
For each of your emails, both the opening email and the follow-ups:
set up the days of the week for sending – just check or uncheck any;
set up the hours for sending (you can set them up to different for individual days);
add sending windows if you'd like (maximum 3 per each),
select the timezone that is relevant to your prospects.
check-mark the option Use the prospect's timezones if available to send the campaign accordingly to pre-selected timezones
If you want to send your emails before noon, set the time frame to, for example, 7 AM – 11 AM.
If you don’t want any emails to be sent on weekends, uncheck Sat and Sun.
Read more about how Woodpecker sends emails in our help article and on our blog.
Step 4: Add prospects to your campaign
Scrolling down below the email sequence, you'll see the Prospects section. There are three options for adding prospects to your campaign:
A) Import – if you have a long list of prospects, collected in a spreadsheet (CSV, XLS, or XLSX file).
Prepare your spreadsheet. It should contain at least a column with email addresses. 1. There should also be some columns that will correspond to fields in Woodpecker (such as First Name, Company, or Website); this is not required but recommended – the better the database, the greater your options for personalizing your emails. Next, save your spreadsheet to file in CSV, XLS, or XLSX format (when saving, make sure you have UTF-8 encoding selected).
Here's our CSV and Excel guide, please have a look!
Back in Woodpecker, click “Add prospects” on the right, and select “Import”. In the new screen, click “Browse…”, and select your file, then click “Upload and Import”.
In the next screen, map Woodpecker fields to those in your spreadsheet. Any unmapped fields will not be imported. If the first row contains column headers, check “Ignore the first row when importing”, right below. When this is done, click “Import”.
In this last screen, you are given a summary of your input and choices. Before you click “Add” to confirm and add these prospects to your campaign, you can also:
review the list of all imported prospects (click “see details”) – here you can deselect any that you don't want to add, using the checkboxes in the leftmost column;
check any errors in imported prospects' data (click “download” on the right) – that's a file containing any entries that returned an error;
preview your emails (click “Preview” below) – you'll be shown what the emails will look like once they are sent;
send a test email to your own address (click “Send Test Email”) – the whole sequence of emails from your campaign, containing example data, will be sent to your address.
B) Manually – if you want to add just a few prospects.
Click “Add prospects”, on the right, and select “Manually”.
In the table that appears, in the first column, type in the prospect’s email address (required). Hit [Enter] to add another.
Fill the other fields with the information you want to use (First name, Last name, etc.).
Click “Add” to add these prospects to your campaign.
C) From database – you can select individual prospects from your database in Woodpecker once it is populated.
Click “Add prospects” on the right, and select “From database”.
Select any prospects you previously uploaded, and click “Add” to add them to your campaign.
Please remember that you can filter your prospects by Status, Campaign they are in, Contacted (YES/NO), the file they were Imported from, or by Tags.
Learn more about adding prospects to Woodpecker »
D) From Integrations – you can also add your prospects directly from some of the prospecting tools which are integrated with Woodpecker or directly from your Google Sheets »
Worth noting: when you add a prospect with the same domain as your email address (so a company one), you might see emails not directly connected to your campaign in the Inbox, even if you’ve selected to download only emails connected with a prospect or a campaign in Woodpecker. This has to do with the Woodpecker scanning emails for anything connected to your campaigns' content, prospects, or domain, as it will fetch unnecessary emails rather than miss anything important. Learn more about it here »
Step 5: Preview and send the campaign
Here you can see the summary of your campaign:
how many emails you have in each Path;
how many prospects have been added;
what email you use to send the campaign from. Here you can also change it or add Cc/Bcc;
preview versions of your sending email when A/B testing your campaign;
remove prospects from the campaign;
customize your email in the preview.
Before we send any emails, we usually want to check if everything looks as it should. There are two ways to do that in Woodpecker:
Option “Preview”
Take a look at your emails and check what they will look like once they are sent.
Customize your email, fix the errors, and remove missing snippets. Learn more »
The red color is a sign of a missing snippet. Check what it means here »
Option “Send test campaign”
Click “send test campaign”, and the whole sequence of emails from your campaign, containing example data, will be sent to your own address – you can check them all in your own inbox.
Option “Save as draft”
Click “save as draft” if you just want to save the campaign as a draft, and don't want to start it yet. You will see it on your "Campaigns" list so you can always go back to it.
Click the green “RUN” button to start sending the campaign
If everything looks okay, and you want to start your campaign pronto, click the green “RUN” button at the bottom. Your campaign will now be running and sending emails according to your settings.
Please note:
When you try to run the campaign with only one email copy created, a pop-up will appear regarding the absence of follow-ups. You’ll have the option to choose whether to continue with just one email to your prospects (“Run campaign anyway”), or go back and create another one (“Add follow-up”).
Remember that you can edit your campaign at any later time, to add prospects or change the message content. To do that, open it and click “Edit“ in the upper-right corner.
You can click “Add prospects” to quickly add new prospects to that campaign.
To view or edit the list of all campaigns you created (both the drafts and running campaigns), click the Campaigns tab at the top of the page.