IN THIS ARTICLE:

When you use Woodpecker snippets in your email copy, you have to make sure that your prospects do have the necessary custom fields filled, so the message is actually sent and doesn’t fall to the Snippet Issue tab. Snippet fallbacks are a feature that comes from advanced variables, which gives you more options for editing text and also prevents the situation in which emails are not sent by lack of information.

With snippet fallbacks, you will be able to add default values for custom fields when information is missing for certain prospects. Instead of editing your Prospects list in a CSV or XSLS file and importing it again to Woodpecker, you can set this directly in the campaign editor. Moreover, this value can be set differently for each step in the campaign flow, so you don’t have to worry about remembering which snippet has what default value.

Just like with a regular custom field, you can add a snippet fallback to the Subject line of your email copy.

The easiest way to set fallbacks is to add them automatically with the fallback value editor. It would be best to explain it on the example of the "FIRST NAME" snippet since that is the one used most often.

From the snippet fallbacks tab, choose the “FIRST NAME” tag.

A window will appear with the field to type in the fallback value or to leave it empty by check-marking the option below the field.

Usually, when not knowing the name of your prospect, there needs to be another form of greeting, which in this case can be “Hey there” or just a simple “Hey“, without specifying a substitute word.

Once you’ve decided on your choice, click on the “SAVE” button. The fallback will be added to your email copy in the form you can see in the picture below:

As you can see, the value is written as:

The snippet filler value can also remain empty, which will be written as:

Every character you put inside the quotation marks will be treated as a fallback value.

You can also enter the value manually into the snippet that has been already added to the message. When doing that, remember to use the correct format – note that there is a space between the vertical bar icon and the quotation marks. We realize that mistakes may occur, so you will receive a message about an incorrect entry at the moment of starting the campaign.

If you’ve entered the value into the email copy, be that automatically or manually, and decide to change it, editing it in the email copy won’t be enough for it to work properly. The only way to change it to your desired value is by going through the process of adding the snippet fallback once again.

In a situation where you have an active campaign and no messages have yet been sent due to a missing snippet, the best option would be to set a snippet fallback for such a snippet with an empty value. To do so, edit the campaign in which you encountered the problem with the missing snippet.

Remove the said snippet and add it again in the form of a snippet fallback. When a window for setting value appears, select the "Leave empty" option.

Once you've done it, run the campaign again and head to the "To check" tab to bulk change the status for your prospects. Click on the "Snippet Issue" subtab, select all prospects in there, and choose to bulk change the status to "Active".

Q.: If I enter the value with the snippet fallback editor, and then change it manually in the email copy, will it be updated?

No, once you’ve added the default value with the editor, you’ll have to override this by going through the value setting path in the editor.

Q.: Is there a limit to the number of characters in the fallback value?

No limit here, so you can enter anything that suits your business needs!

Q.: Will the words be capitalized automatically?

No, anything you set as a fallback value will appear just as you’ve written it in the first place. If the words are not capitalized by your choice, Woodpecker will not change them.

Q.: Can I use the quotation marks inside the default value notation, for example, {{SNIPPET1 | “ “example” “}}?

You certainly can, Woodpecker will not prevent quoting in the alternative value for the snippet.

Q.: Can I use snippet fallbacks in a URL added to an email?

Unfortunately, such a solution is not supported by Woodpecker and will not work.