What does the STATUS of a prospect mean?

Actually, each prospect has two statuses assigned:

• a general one in Prospects database (let’s call it also a global),

• and the status in the particular campaign (a local one).

This is why when you check the status of some prospect it sometimes has one value on the main prospect list (Prospects), and another in the campaign(s) that they are included in. The status in the main list depends on several things and is difficult to break down if the prospect has been contacted multiple times. The status in a campaign is a simpler story.

Learn how to bulk change the status »

Let’s look at every STATUS which you can find in Woodpecker:

ACTIVE

This is the starting point. Every prospect is given this status right after being added to Woodpecker. In a campaign, this status means that the prospect either hasn’t been contacted yet or hasn’t yet replied.

• What happens next? All the scheduled emails will be sent out.

BLACKLISTED

That’s the opposite of active. This status means that the prospect will not be contacted unless this status is changed manually. It is global, which means that changing the prospect’s status to BLACKLISTED at any place in Woodpecker will change it everywhere (every campaign and main prospect list). Assigning this status means that you do not want this prospect to be contacted in any existing or future campaign.

This status is assigned automatically when Woodpecker registers a response to a campaign from another email address (which doesn’t directly belong to your prospect’s address). This new email is then added to the main prospect list (Prospects) with the #SECONDARYEMAIL tag and status BLACKLISTED. (Not sure what the #SECONDARYEMAIL tag means? You’ll find out here).

• What happens next? No email will be sent to the prospect unless the status is manually changed back to ACTIVE.

Status BLACKLISTED can only be changed back manually.

RESPONDED

When a prospect replies, their status changes to RESPONDED and is counted as such in statistics. You’ll see this status in the campaign as well as in the Prospects database.

• What happens next? The sequence of follow-ups stops within that particular campaign.

INVALID

This is a local status which means that you can find it on the campaign level. Woodpecker validates an email address every time you’re trying to send a message. If something is invalid now, it doesn’t mean it will be invalid forever. This status is then assigned when the prospect’s email address is found to be non-existent. This procedure is not bulletproof, but it will detect most invalid addresses before any emails are sent to them. This is possible thanks to our native integration with Bouncer.

• What happens next? No emails will be sent to this prospect.

BOUNCED

If the email sent to a prospect gets bounced (cannot be delivered), this prospect is automatically assigned the status BOUNCED. If you notice that you receive a lot of bounced messages, you may be experiencing deliverability issues and your messages may be landing in SPAM. Check your Inbox to learn the reason why your emails are being bounced.

• What happens next? The sending is put on hold. Woodpecker will assign the status “BOUNCED” to the related prospect automatically, and will not continue sending emails to that address.

This status is assigned in a campaign and does propagate to the main Prospects database if the primary status of this prospect in the main database was Active or Invalid.

OPT-OUT

This status is automatically given to a prospect who:

• clicked the ‘unsubscribe’ link,

• replied to your message with ‘Unsubscribe’ in the subject line.

Prospects previously marked with the #UNSUBSCRIBED tag now will be also assigned the status OPT-OUT. Use this status when your prospects ask you to remove them from your mailing list to ensure that you won’t contact them again. Status OPT-OUT can be changed back to ACTIVE only manually.

When set in a campaign, this status will automatically change in the main Prospects database and will be transferred to the new campaign if you add a prospect with it set. However, when you change the status from OPT-OUT to another in the main database, it won’t propagate to the prospect in a campaign (the exception to this rule is the BLACKLISTED status).

• What happens next? Scheduled follow-ups won’t be sent.

AUTOREPLIED

We do our best to recognize most autoresponders. When Woodpecker detects an autoresponder (out-of-office reply), the status of the prospect is changed to AUTOREPLIED locally.

When you receive the autoresponder, that prospect will appear in the column To Check in that particular campaign. Click To Check and you’ll be redirected to the category AUTOREPLY. If you wish to continue sending, choose the date to resume. Here, you can also change the prospect’s status by clicking the dropdown.

• What happens next? Sending has been put on hold for this prospect. Set a new date to continue sending.

PAUSED

This is the local status and can be found only in the campaign. It means that sending to a prospect has been paused, obviously. If your prospect is assigned the status PAUSED, you’ll see a little dot next to the tab To Check and corresponding category/categories (Missing Snippet, Autoreply, Other Campaign, Secondary Reply, Manual.)

There are four situations in which a prospect can be marked as PAUSED:

1. PAUSED (SNIPPET ISSUE) – when a prospect in your campaign lacks the needed snippet, for example, {{FIRST NAME}}.

   

   The sending is put on hold until you add the missing snippet, delete that custom field from the email copy or remove the prospect from the campaign. Don’t forget to click the “Send” button!

2. PAUSED (OTHER CAMPAIGN) – when a prospect is added to more than one campaign.

   

   When editing a campaign, the prospect list gets checked every time when a Run or Resume button is clicked. If a prospect is found to be in some other running campaign but has been already contacted in the campaign edited at the moment, we can choose to pause follow-ups to such a prospect. As a result, the prospect is marked as PAUSED (OTHER CAMPAIGN) in the currently edited campaign. You can also choose to pause prospects in another campaign once you upload your CSV, XLS, or XLSX file or add prospects manually.

   If your prospect is active in more than one active campaign and replies to a message in one of them, it will be also marked as PAUSED (OTHER CAMPAIGN).

3. PAUSED (SECONDARY REPLY) – when a prospect replies from another email address.

   

   Sometimes your message gets forwarded to another person who then answers your email. When this happens, Woodpecker marks your prospect as PAUSED (Secondary Reply.)

   This means that we were not able to assign this email to your prospect because the email address is different but we believe that it is related to the particular campaign and it may be a reply from someone else from the same organization. Then, you’ll have a chance to check and review it in the tab “To Check” → Secondary Reply. Click the dropdown to change their status.

   If you got the response from a different email address but with the same domain, it will be visible in the Last Activity window. The prospect to which you’ve sent the original message will be assigned the “PAUSED (Secondary Reply)” status then.

4. PAUSED (MANUAL) – when you manually change the status to PAUSED.

   

   Check the prospects in each category and decide what should be done next.

Sometimes it can happen that your prospect will be put into a couple of categories at once. Make sure you change their statuses in all categories to ACTIVE (and fill in the missing snippet, for example) to continue sending emails.

REMOVED

We assign this status in the campaign to prospects that were deleted from Woodpecker yet you had contacted them before. When you remove your prospect’s address from the Prospects database, you will still find them in the campaigns they were added to with the status REMOVED. We keep these prospects in your campaign to make sure your statistics are correct.

• What happens next? No emails will be sent unless you add your prospect again to the main database.

NONRESPONSIVE

This is a local status which means that it exists only within a campaign. Your prospects are automatically marked as NONRESPONSIVE when they don’t respond to you within the time you set for a particular campaign. Learn more »