Lesson 6: Setting up your email account
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In this lesson, you’ll learn how to properly configure your email account settings: from name, signature, and custom tracking domains. We’ll start with the from name and how it directly impacts your open rates.
You’ll learn why using your real first and last name works better than a company name, and how the from name, subject line, and opening sentence work together as preview text in the inbox.
Next, we’ll cover email signatures and why plain text gives you the best chance of landing in the inbox. You’ll see why image-heavy “professional” signatures with logos and social icons can hurt deliverability due to high HTML content.
Finally, we’ll go through custom tracking domains. You’ll learn how tracking pixels work, why using your own tracking subdomain improves domain alignment, and how this builds trust with receiving servers. Getting your from name, signature, and tracking domain right can meaningfully improve your deliverability, and help more of your emails land in the primary inbox instead of spam.
Link to the guide
In this lesson, you’ll learn:
- Why your From name, subject line, and opening sentence need to work together as a single first impression and why using a real name instead of a company name makes prospects far more likely to open your email
- How a “professional” signature with photos and social icons can silently destroy your deliverability by inflating your HTML ratio, and why a few lines of plain text is always the better choice for cold email
- What CAN-SPAM and GDPR require from your emails in practical terms and how a single plain-text opt-out sentence keeps you compliant without cluttering your signature or triggering spam filters
- How pointing your tracking pixel to a custom subdomain rather than Woodpecker’s domain creates domain alignment that signals trust to email providers and why that small DNS change can meaningfully improve inbox placement
Hi, welcome to my lesson on email account settings.
Here I will cover From name, Signature, and Custom tracking domains.
After each part I will show you exactly how to set this up in Woodpecker.
Let’s start with the From name.
It forms the first part of the so-called preview text.
Best practice here is to use your first and last name.
Let’s quickly look at a typical inbox.
The preview text is one whole row in your inbox.
It consists of the From name, the subject, and a few words of the opening sentence.
All three components of the preview text need to work together.
If the subject line is too long, it steals space from that opening sentence.
If the From name is just a company name, it may look too promotional.
If both the subject line and the first sentence have the prospect’s first name…
Well… it will look like a bad cold email.
Think of the preview text as your first impression.
If any of the components are off you won’t get the prospect to open your email.
Now let’s open the app; I will show you where to set the From name.
Click your company name, choose Settings, then Accounts.
Pick an email account, hit the three dots and pick “Settings”.
Find From name in General settings, set it up, and save.
And that’s it, as simple as that.
Okay, that was the From name, now let’s look at the Signature.
Your signature has a direct impact on deliverability.
Plain text will give you the best chance to land in the inbox.
Include name, title, company, plus a one-line opt-out.
Let’s look at two concrete examples.
First a simple, plain text signature. It takes up just a few words.
Now, here you can see a “professional” signature, a photo and many social icons.
It may look great but at the same time it is a deliverability trap.
If we look at the HTML and total word count it is well over 200 words.
That in itself is already longer than the best practice for a whole cold email.
Additionally, you have a lot of HTML in the email
This high HTML ratio may trigger more spam filtering.
Now I mentioned adding a one-line opt-out.
This is important as there are laws that affect cold emailing.
One key law is CAN-SPAM.
If you prefer not to add unsubscribe links, add a plain sentence instead, for example:
“Reply to this email and I will stop all future messages.” – or similar.
Another important law is the GDPR and its local versions.
It applies to the 27 EU countries as well as Iceland, Norway, UK, and Lichtenstein.
To be compliant here you need to say you will stop processing the prospect’s data.
This could be:
“Reply to this email and I will stop all future messages and stop processing your data.”
Quick disclaimer: this lesson is information, not legal advice.
Always check the regulations yourself.
With all the theory out of the way, let’s jump into Woodpecker.
I will now show you how to set up your signature.
Click your company name, choose Settings, then Accounts.
Here pick an email account and click the three dots.
Then Settings and the Signature should be just under the From name.
Create your plain text signature and click save changes.
With the signature out of the way, let’s cover Custom tracking domains.
To keep things simple we will look at open tracking.
Common practice to track open rates is to add an invisible image to each email.
This is called the tracking pixel.
Tracking pixels typically link to a domain of the sequencer.
So for instance Woodpecker’s.
Now we take good care of these domains but here is the kicker.
When you switch to a custom subdomain, the pixel points at your domain.
Now the sending domain and tracking domain match.
That alignment signals trust and boosts deliverability.
Best practice is a subdomain such as track.yourdomain.com.
Okay, but before we jump back into Woodpecker, add one record in your DNS.
Create a CNAME for your tracking subdomain.
Point it to berry.wcheck.org or the current target shown in our help article.
I linked them under the lesson.
We rotate that value from time to time, so always confirm it there.
Now in Woodpecker: Click on your Company name then Settings, and Accounts.
Now the three dots, as usual, go to the Sending section.
Enter your custom tracking domain, for instance: track.yourdomain.com.
If you set up the CNAME correctly there should be no error message.
Keep in mind that the CNAME setting may need a few hours to work.
Alright, before we end the lesson, let’s do a quick recap.
- From name: use real names, rather than your company name.
- Signature: use plain text for better deliverability, and adhere to laws
- Custom tracking domain: gives brand alignment, more trust, and better deliverability.
Apply these three settings today and your cold emails will reach far more inboxes.
Thanks for watching, see you in the next lesson.
Hi, welcome to my lesson on email account settings.
Here I will cover From name, Signature, and Custom tracking domains.
After each part I will show you exactly how to set this up in Woodpecker.
Let’s start with the From name.
It forms the first part of the so-called preview text.
Best practice here is to use your first and last name.
Let’s quickly look at a typical inbox.
The preview text is one whole row in your inbox.
It consists of the From name, the subject, and a few words of the opening sentence.
All three components of the preview text need to work together.
If the subject line is too long, it steals space from that opening sentence.
If the From name is just a company name, it may look too promotional.
If both the subject line and the first sentence have the prospect’s first name…
Well… it will look like a bad cold email.
Think of the preview text as your first impression.
If any of the components are off you won’t get the prospect to open your email.
Now let’s open the app; I will show you where to set the From name.
Click your company name, choose Settings, then Accounts.
Pick an email account, hit the three dots and pick “Settings”.
Find From name in General settings, set it up, and save.
And that’s it, as simple as that.
Okay, that was the From name, now let’s look at the Signature.
Your signature has a direct impact on deliverability.
Plain text will give you the best chance to land in the inbox.
Include name, title, company, plus a one-line opt-out.
Let’s look at two concrete examples.
First a simple, plain text signature. It takes up just a few words.
Now, here you can see a “professional” signature, a photo and many social icons.
It may look great but at the same time it is a deliverability trap.
If we look at the HTML and total word count it is well over 200 words.
That in itself is already longer than the best practice for a whole cold email.
Additionally, you have a lot of HTML in the email
This high HTML ratio may trigger more spam filtering.
Now I mentioned adding a one-line opt-out.
This is important as there are laws that affect cold emailing.
One key law is CAN-SPAM.
If you prefer not to add unsubscribe links, add a plain sentence instead, for example:
“Reply to this email and I will stop all future messages.” – or similar.
Another important law is the GDPR and its local versions.
It applies to the 27 EU countries as well as Iceland, Norway, UK, and Lichtenstein.
To be compliant here you need to say you will stop processing the prospect’s data.
This could be:
“Reply to this email and I will stop all future messages and stop processing your data.”
Quick disclaimer: this lesson is information, not legal advice.
Always check the regulations yourself.
With all the theory out of the way, let’s jump into Woodpecker.
I will now show you how to set up your signature.
Click your company name, choose Settings, then Accounts.
Here pick an email account and click the three dots.
Then Settings and the Signature should be just under the From name.
Create your plain text signature and click save changes.
With the signature out of the way, let’s cover Custom tracking domains.
To keep things simple we will look at open tracking.
Common practice to track open rates is to add an invisible image to each email.
This is called the tracking pixel.
Tracking pixels typically link to a domain of the sequencer.
So for instance Woodpecker’s.
Now we take good care of these domains but here is the kicker.
When you switch to a custom subdomain, the pixel points at your domain.
Now the sending domain and tracking domain match.
That alignment signals trust and boosts deliverability.
Best practice is a subdomain such as track.yourdomain.com.
Okay, but before we jump back into Woodpecker, add one record in your DNS.
Create a CNAME for your tracking subdomain.
Point it to berry.wcheck.org or the current target shown in our help article.
I linked them under the lesson.
We rotate that value from time to time, so always confirm it there.
Now in Woodpecker: Click on your Company name then Settings, and Accounts.
Now the three dots, as usual, go to the Sending section.
Enter your custom tracking domain, for instance: track.yourdomain.com.
If you set up the CNAME correctly there should be no error message.
Keep in mind that the CNAME setting may need a few hours to work.
Alright, before we end the lesson, let’s do a quick recap.
- From name: use real names, rather than your company name.
- Signature: use plain text for better deliverability, and adhere to laws
- Custom tracking domain: gives brand alignment, more trust, and better deliverability.
Apply these three settings today and your cold emails will reach far more inboxes.
Thanks for watching, see you in the next lesson.