> log #06 — Custom GPT to spintax emails for Woodpecker
140% more cold outbound replies. Perfect spintax. Written in seconds with this custom GPT.
If you’ve ever tried writing spintax for Woodpecker by hand, you know the pain:
Endless curly quote cleanup
Remembering exactly where the double braces go
Hoping you didn’t forget the last }}
Doing it all again because you found one more typo
I’ve been there. Too many times. So I finally gave up on doing it manually and built a custom GPT that formats perfect, Woodpecker-ready spintax every single time.
The Problem
Woodpecker has a strict spintax format:
{{SPINTAX | "Option 1" | "Option 2"}}One space after each |, straight quotes only, no missing braces. The moment you paste in curly quotes from Google Docs, Notion or ChatGPT, it’s game over.
Doing this manually takes forever — especially if you’re writing high-personalization outbound emails with multiple spintax variations per message.
The Solution
A Custom GPT that:
Takes plain text or comma-separated lists
Converts them to perfectly formatted Woodpecker spintax
Checks for curly quotes, missing braces, or bad spacing
Always outputs inside a triple backtick code block so it’s copy-paste ready
This means:
No more manually fixing quotes
No syntax errors
No wasted time
How I Built It
Here’s the short version:
OpenAI Custom GPT Builder → Created a new GPT
Dropped in my system prompt with:
Exact formatting rules for Woodpecker spintax
A “failsafe” self-check to fix curly quotes, missing braces, or bad spacing
Examples of correct formatting
Added “Conversation Starters” so anyone using it sees how it works immediately
Tested it with a short, personality-packed cold email (see below)
How to Use It
Write your email like a normal human
Paste it into the GPT
Get back perfect Woodpecker spintax — zero edits needed
Paste into your Woodpecker campaign and watch it rotate variations automatically
Before → After Demo
Before (plain text):
Subject ideas:
Tiny agency, big AI brain
We shrink your to-do list
Your new AI sidekick
⸻
Body:
Hey {first_name},
I run TINY MKTG — the smallest AI marketing agency you’ll ever meet. We work with B2B SaaS teams who know that growth means going harder & faster than everyone else.
We make AI actually useful: smarter messaging, faster deal cycles, and way fewer groan-worthy sales emails.
It’s not rocket science. It’s the alchemy of AI + marketing.
Should we talk?After (formatted by GPT):
{{SPINTAX | "Tiny agency, big AI brain" | "We shrink your to-do list" | "Your new AI sidekick"}}
{{SPINTAX | "Hey {{FIRST_NAME}}," | "Hi {{FIRST_NAME}}," | "Hello {{FIRST_NAME}},"}}
I run TINY MKTG — the smallest AI marketing agency you’ll ever meet. We work with B2B SaaS teams who know that {{SPINTAX | "growth means going harder & faster" | "scaling means moving quicker and smarter"}} than everyone else.
We make AI actually useful: smarter messaging, faster deal cycles, and {{SPINTAX | "way fewer groan-worthy sales emails" | "a lot less cringe in outbound"}}.
It’s not rocket science. It’s the alchemy of AI + marketing.
{{SPINTAX | "Should we talk?" | "Want to chat?" | "Is it worth a quick call?"}}Why This Matters
The spintax problem might sound small, but in outbound sales and marketing, small efficiencies add up.
If you send 200 cold emails a week, shaving even 10 minutes off each setup frees you to:
Test more variations
Write better personalization
Actually… go outside 🌲
For me, it’s one less repetitive task eating brainpower — and a small but meaningful win in automating the boring parts of marketing.
Try the Spintax GPT
This project became a public Woodpecker Spintax Formatter GPT, so you can skip the curly quotes, missing braces, and manual formatting forever.
Just paste in your plain text email and get back perfect, campaign-ready spintax in seconds.
No edits. No guesswork. No “why is this breaking my send?”
→ Try the Woodpecker Spintax Formatter GPT and see how much faster your outbound setup gets.