{"id":5998,"date":"2019-05-02T13:00:50","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/?p=5998"},"modified":"2025-01-21T10:25:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T09:25:32","slug":"campaign-audit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/campaign-audit\/","title":{"rendered":"5-Minute Campaign Audit for a Cold Email Newbie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are you just one click away from sending your first cold email<\/span><\/a> campaign? Then this post is for you. Hold your horses for a moment, and spare a few minutes to do a quick campaign audit before you click the \u2018send\u2019 button. Here\u2019s what you should check to make sure your campaign is all set and ready to go.<\/p>\n

Let’s start.<\/p>\n

#1. Avoid narrow sending windows<\/h2>\n

You may be wondering now what the sending windows are. Before I go on to explain that, I\u2019d like to shortly describe how Woodpecker email<\/span> sending mechanism works.<\/p>\n

Woodpecker<\/span> sends your emails<\/span> and follow-ups as if you did it manually – one by one with an irregular frequency, rather than in a machine-gun-fire-like manner as the email<\/span> marketing tools do. The reason behind it is to make the sending process as human-like as possible.<\/p>\n

Would you be able to send 200 emails<\/span> in 1 hour by hand? Perhaps only if you copied and pasted the content relentlessly till your computer mouse or touchpad breaks to pieces. Since those who send identical, impersonal emails<\/span> at a similar scale are usually spammers, this kind of sending activity triggers spam filters. Woodpecker email<\/span> sending mechanism is designed to boost your deliverability rate and keep you away from blacklists.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry if you notice that it has already been a couple of hours since you run your campaign, and yet, just a few emails<\/span> have been sent so far. Everything is under control.<\/p>\n

Woodpecker<\/span> randomizes the sending frequency and adjusts the number of emails<\/span> to be sent during a timeframe you set up. Therefore, it\u2019s better to schedule larger sending windows in order to ensure all your emails<\/span> are delivered that day.<\/p>\n

Here’s a\u00a0bonus tip for you: once the campaign is running, you can check the stats and see who from your prospect list already received a\u00a0specific email<\/span>.<\/p>\n

For a further read, here\u2019s one of our articles that describes how your emails and follow-ups will be sent by Woodpecker<\/a>\u00a0or this help article that helps you set it up<\/a> after you sign up for the free trial.<\/p>\n

#2. Give your prospect a way to opt-out<\/h2>\n

According to the CAN-SPAM act, GDPR and similar regulations<\/a>, a cold email<\/span> receiver should be given an option to resign from getting any further emails<\/span> from you. To comply with these regulations, you should add a short disclaimer at the bottom of a message to let a prospect know they can be removed from further correspondence should they want to. It\u2019s also possible to automate this process by replacing a disclaimer with a link.<\/p>\n

In Woodpecker<\/span> there\u2019s a way to add the opt-out link in the form of a snippet. The\u00a0snippet is called \u2018unsubscribe\u2019 by default, but you can change the name, for example, to \u2018click here\u2019 or anything that could be seamlessly inserted into your email<\/span> copy. It’s the last snippet in the campaign editor. You can see\u00a0the unsubscribe snippet on the snippet list\u00a0here:<\/p>\n\"Woodpecker\n

Check out more\u00a0suggestions on including an opt-out\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

#3. Check the spelling before you click ‘send’<\/h2>\n

Do you know the proverb \u201cFirst impression is the last impression\u201d? Spelling mistakes and bad grammar may ruin your professional image in a twinkling of an eye. An email<\/span> full of errors carries a hidden message: the sender is sloppy and disorganized, thus not trustworthy to make business<\/span> with. Your email<\/span> goes straight to trash.<\/p>\n

Is there a way to avoid grammar mistakes? Try free apps, such as Grammarly<\/a> or Hemingway<\/a>, it takes just a minute to check the spelling and grammar before you send out a campaign. Grammarly even checks your text at the very moment of writing so you can correct the mistakes on the go.<\/p>\n

How to spell check your email copy?<\/h4>\n
    \n
  1. Paste your email<\/span> into an online text editor or straight into the spell-checking app.<\/li>\n
  2. Wait for it to\u00a0proofread your email<\/span> copy and correct your mistakes.<\/li>\n
  3. Paste your email<\/span> into Notepad or similar editor that reads .txt files, so there’s no overwritten HTML code.<\/li>\n
  4. Put it back to Woodpecker<\/span>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Make the grammar and spell check a mandatory step in the campaign creation process.<\/p>\n

    #4. Preview the email before sending<\/h2>\n

    Snippets are real game changers in terms of email<\/span> personalization at scale. They allow you to insert unique text fragments, for example, an individual\u2019s name, into the more generic email<\/span> copy, thus making it more personal. Moreover, they boost your email deliverability rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    A snippet can be any information about your prospect you find worth mentioning in the email<\/span>: their recent job promotion, mutual interests you both have or the latest industry conference you both attended. While building your prospect list look for something that could break the ice or be a conversation hook.<\/p>\n

    Here’s a blog post<\/a> that tells you what\u00a0sort of information you can put in a snippet.<\/p>\n

    While drafting your message, sprinkle the content with snippets. Be careful about how you insert them in the email<\/span> copy, though. Don\u2019t confuse the snippets. Otherwise, your message will look like a mess and your prospects will be baffled, to say the least. Such a fail won\u2019t make you look like a serious business partner too, don\u2019t you agree?<\/p>\n

    There\u2019s one rule worth following if you want to save yourself the embarrassment: always double check the email<\/span> before sending. In Woodpecker<\/span>, there\u2019s a preview option that allows you to see the email<\/span> just like a prospect will see it in their inbox<\/span> – with all the snippets visible as real text. We recommend you always use it. It\u2019s better to be safe than sorry.<\/p>\n

    I have this gif for you which shows you how the preview works. As you can observe, the email<\/span> addressed to Jessie Jones have some empty snippets, because the CSV file was incomplete.<\/p>\n

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    How to use our custom fields (snippets)? >><\/a><\/p>\n

    #5. Send a test email<\/h2>\n

    Your next step should be sending a test email<\/span> to your own email address to examine whether all the components of your cold email<\/span> look and work as expected. Check whether:<\/p>\n