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Manually managing an email outreach campaign, updating contact information, and scheduling…

Doesn’t all this sound like a nightmare?

It certainly does!

Haven't you already decided to find an alternative to all this, stop wasting time and budget, and start increasing productivity?

If yes, then let’s get the ball rolling and discover the perks of this tool.

What is Woodpecker, and Who is it for?

Woodpecker is an automation tool for email marketing. It simplifies outreach and helps companies grow their sales, as well as helps marketing professionals conduct outreach campaigns.

It takes over the daunting repetitive part of the follow-up process and allows businesses to invest their time in more important matters at hand.

Want to send a friendly follow-up after two days if you haven’t heard back? You set the rules with only a few clicks, and Woodpecker does it all for you. Organize your personalized campaigns, always maintain control over each element of the campaign, including personalization, the follow-up frequency, time of day schedule, the total number of emails sent per day, and so on, all from a single platform.

Tracking everything is also possible, from when your emails are opened to who is opening them, replies and click rates, and which proportion of the replies are positive. Despite all of that, you can easily sort and manage your prospect list.

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Woodpecker Pricing and Billing

Woodpecker has 3 pricing plans, both of which are available in monthly and annual payments.

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While the Start-up plan includes automated emails, teamwork features, and analytics, the Team Pro plan offers integration features. Lastly, the Enterprise plan comes with custom solutions. But before you choose, there is a 30-day free trial offered, no matter which subscription plan you end up choosing.

The termination of an agreement between Woodpecker and the customer should be processed in a written format. The request has to be delivered to support@woodpecker.co. To avoid extra charges, you should terminate no later than five working days before the next billing cycle.

Any amount paid during the subscription is non-refundable. The payment can be partially refunded if Woodpecker cancels the account without a cause.

How to Use Woodpecker?

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Step 1: Connect Your Email Account

Once you’ve signed up on the platform, you need to create your email account.

Just go to Campaigns and click “connect your email” and choose the type of email you would like to use. You can select Google or Microsoft integration or connect any other email provider using IMAP or SMTP. To learn how to connect an external SMTP and IMAP to Woodpecker, consult the comprehensive guide here.

Once you are connected, click “allow” to let Woodpecker access your inbox.

Next, set your email and add your signature.

Now, let’s move on to creating our very first Woodpecker email campaign.

Step 2: How to Start a New Campaign

If it’s your first time creating a campaign, the process of adding a campaign will continue right after you connect your email. If it’s not, you can create a new campaign by clicking the button “Add campaign” on the upper right corner of the page.

Next, you’ll have to name your campaign (which won’t be seen by anyone other than you) and you can start your journey and add some content to your opening email.

Step 3: Writing Your Emails

You can start by adding your subject line to your email copy. Make sure not to paste text directly from the rich data editor such as Word document, as it may cause some text format issues.

Start your copy by using the email editor integrated into Woodpecker. You can easily change font type and size by playing with the functions under the “Subject Line.” The tool is easy to use for everyone, however, to change your text color, you need to switch from the text to HTML view.

Another thing you can do with your email is using the blue custom fields called “Snippets” located above the text editor to personalize the content of your emails.  

You can check out some useful email templates here.

Step 4: Select the time zone

The next step is to specify the delivery time windows you want your messages to be sent.

Woodpecker offers three sending intervals. The timing can be monitored through the right column. You are also free to use your prospects’ time zones if they are available.

By default, it sends about thirty-seven emails per hour from one email account, but make sure the sending time is long enough for you to send all scheduled emails. To check it and adjust the sending frequency and limits, you should go to your email account settings.

Step 5: Add conditions

Once you are done editing the Woodpecker email content, you might want to add conditions or move on to the next emails in the follow-up sequence that are sent only if you haven’t received a response to your previous email. It’s your choice whether you want to send them hours, days, or a couple of weeks later.  

If you don’t want to stay on a single path but use “if” conditions, you need to scroll down and click on “Add condition.” “If” conditions help you create two paths, “yes” or “no.” These allow you to send a specific sequence of follow-ups depending on opened/replied emails.

In this case, you’ll have to write email copies personalized for both paths and adjust the delivery time.

When you are finished creating your emails, it’s time to add contacts to your campaign.

Step 6: Add Prospects

You have three ways to add your prospects’ list;

1. Importing a CSV file,
2. Adding contacts manually one by one,
3. Choosing prospects previously uploaded to Woodpecker’s prospect database.

Let’s import the CSV file. Woodpecker never adds the same prospects twice unless you decide to update existing prospects in the campaign. You should match the names of your data columns in your CSV file with the available Woodpecker fields. Next, click “Import” and then “Add” to finalize this step.

If you already have a large database of prospects you can use the filters to find the right contacts from inside the platform. Woodpecker will automatically detect if the person has been contacted before and let you know about it.

Step 7: Final Checks and Sending

Now, you have everything set to start sending your emails. At this point, you can change the time of sending the emails or save your campaign as a draft if you feel you need more time to work on it.

Before running the campaign though, preview it or send a test email to ensure that your prospects aren’t missing any custom fields and that your copy is formatted correctly.

When it’s all done hit the “Send” button to start.

Woodpecker alternatives

While Woodpecker is a powerful tool, there are many other outreach tools to use for your email campaigns. Among the alternatives, you can find Mailshake, Buzzstream, Yesware, Pitchbox, and others. Before choosing cold email software, though, make sure you research each of these options thoroughly to find the best fit for you and finalize your effective email marketing strategy. Good luck on your quest!

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