Lesson 1: Using Woodpecker’s domain and email account setup

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In Lesson 1, you’ll learn how to set up domains and email accounts for cold email using Woodpecker’s built-in infrastructure. I’ll walk you through every step: choosing a second domain for cold email, creating mailboxes, setting up redirects, and making sure everything’s configured properly for deliverability. You’ll also see how Woodpecker automatically handles email authentication records like SPF and DKIM, saving you hours of manual setup. This is the best place to start if you’re unsure where to buy a domain for cold email or how to get your technical setup right. With minimal effort, you’ll be fully prepared to launch your outreach the right way.

Here is the guide on how to buy domains, email accounts and dedicated servers in Woodpecker.

In this lesson, you’ll learn:

• How Woodpecker’s built-in Domain setup lets you search for, purchase, and configure domains similar to your main business domain – all without leaving the app
• Why redirecting your cold email domains back to your main website matters, so visitors who land on those domains aren’t met with an empty page and potential leads aren’t lost
• What Woodpecker handles automatically on your behalf after purchase – domain forwarding, email account creation, and technical authentication records like SPF and DKIM
• That buying domains and mailboxes outside of Woodpecker is also supported, with the next lesson covering what you need to configure manually in that case

Hi, we will now have a few lessons on how to set up domains and email accounts for cold emailing. 

The majority of cold email senders use either Google or Outlook email accounts. 

But, the market share of so-called custom SMTPs is on the rise

Those custom SMTPs are providers that have their own email sending infrastructure.

You can bring your own domains but create email accounts on their servers.

Woodpecker partners with some of these custom SMTP providers.

I will show you how you can use Woodpecker’s own Domain and Email Account setup.

It’s basically all done for you and can save you a lot of time.

However, you can of course also use major providers.

For that you need to understand all the authentication settings that are required and their role. 

I will cover those technical settings after this lesson.

So let’s start with the setup and getting your infrastructure through Woodpecker. 

Click on your company name in the top right corner and navigate to “Settings”.

Here you have a section called “Domains”. 

Lastly click on “Get Domains & Email accounts”. 

You can either:

• bring your own domain and purchase email accounts with Woodpecker
• or buy a new domain right in our app. 

We will go with buying new domains so I can show you the whole process.

In Woodpecker you can get domains sourced from different providers.

As it is usual for domains you buy them for 1 year.

So let’s go into the app.

Here you can type in your main business domain’s name.

Woodpecker will find you domains that look similar and are available. 

So for instance if I type in Woodpecker and wait a moment I get this.

If you have specific domain names in mind, Woodpecker can check their availability as well.

Click on click here in the “Domains to purchase” section.

Now just type in the exact domains you are looking for and click “Check available domains”.

Woodpecker is now checking for you if those domains are available for purchase. 

And here you go, on the right we now see which ones we can buy.

The last step in this screen is to redirect any web traffic to your business domain.

Meaning any visitors that go to your cold emailing domains land at your main business domain. 

This way you will not lose out on any leads that would otherwise land on an empty web page. 

You can do this here in the “Redirect domain” section.

Now the next step is just a section where you have to enter your information.

We need this information to buy domains on your behalf. 

In the next step you can enter your first and last name to create email accounts.

You can apply the first and last name combination either for one domain or all of the domains.

Add as many of these mailboxes as you need following our planner.

Once you have all the emails you get to our summary screen and confirm the payment.

Now a few things will happen in the background – all done for you. 

We will:

• Buy the domains you chose as well as setup the email accounts
• Put in place the forwarding to the business domain you entered
• Configure all authentication records like SPF and DKIM

So, we are done with the basic setup, and using Woodpecker, you just saved a ton of time! 

The next step with those domains and email accounts is Warm-Up.

I will cover this in the later lessons.

Now, you may want to buy your email accounts and domains outside of Woodpecker, and that’s fine.

Watch my next lesson that will give you a bit more information on how to do that.

By the way, if you need more help buying domains inside Woodpecker you will find a help article under this lesson. Or, feel free to contact our support team.

See you in the next lesson!