How to set up the delay between follow-ups?

1. After adding a new email, click the clock icon to open follow-up settings.

2. Decide on how many hours or days after the previous email Woodpecker should wait before sending a follow-up. By default, Woodpecker always adds 3 more days (after the first Step) unless a prospect replies. For the next steps, the number of days is successively 6, 12, and 18 until the last Step (the 12th). The delay is calculated in 24-hour increments, ensuring the full period has elapsed since the previous email before moving on to the next step.

Once again, remember you can always change the number of minutes/hours/days to suit your needs.

Your follow-ups will be sent according to your settings unless your prospect replies to your campaign or opts out. By default, follow-ups are sent only to prospects who did not reply to the previous email, requiring no additional setup.

The timing of sending follow-ups depends on the settings of the delay itself as well as the days available in the sending windows.

When you set the delay to 3 days, Woodpecker first checks if 3 x 24 hours have passed since the dispatch of the previous email. After that, the system checks whether sending on a given day and time is allowed. Additionally, the system prioritizes sending follow-ups over opening email threads for new prospects, ensuring timely delivery within the set sequence.

For example, with the settings as in the picture below – sending allowed on all days of the week – if the first email goes out on Thursday, the next email can be sent on Sunday.

However, if the settings look as shown below (weekends excluded) and the first email is also sent on Thursday, the follow-up can be sent on Monday at the earliest.

Regarding choosing weekends for sending your follow-ups, if you don't choose them for sending, they are still counted into the follow-up delay by default. However, you can disable that so that only working days are counted.

When enabled, follow-up delays are counted in working days only. Saturdays and Sundays are skipped, while the original sending time is preserved. For example, a follow-up set to 2 days after Friday at 10:00 will be scheduled for Tuesday at 10:00.