If you're running a direct mail marketing campaign, your to-do list is probably never-ending. You need an entire ecosystem to manage your marketing. We've put together some integration ideas to help you get from campaign idea to execution, faster.
In this blog post, we’ll walk you through a list of 7 integrations that direct mail marketers are using to save time, scale their campaigns, and make more strategic optimizations.
Before jumping into this list of integration ideas, let’s take a quick breather to make sure we’re aligned, technically. If you have a strong technical foundation already, feel free to skip this section. Here are some foundational concepts that you’ll want to keep in mind before reading further.
If you’re looking for an in-depth refresher on APIs and integrations, check out this guide here. Otherwise, keep reading for a list of ideas to try yourself.
Benefits:
Many marketers want to send direct mail based on customer data that they’re tracking in spreadsheets. From mailing addresses, to first and last names, dates of birth, customer lifetime value forecasts and past purchase patterns, your direct mail marketing system likely needs a quick way to retrieve information.
Lob integrates with Blockspring, which allows you to upload a sheet to Google Drive, then send an API request to Lob through it. As a result, this integration allows you to send direct mail from spreadsheets.
Using Lob and Blockspring, you can scale up your campaigns to tens of thousands of mailings without touching a single line of code.
Benefits:
Customer.io is a tool which allows users to send emails based on what people do (or don’t do) on a web and mobile application.
For example, you could use the Lob and Customer.io integrations to send super-targeted direct mail like a thank you note to premium customers, a postcard with an offer code to people who haven’t logged into your app in 3 weeks, or a hard copy of a payment receipt following up from an email invoice.
Test out the integration yourself, following this tutorial here.
Benefits:
Marketo is a marketing automation solution which handles lead nurturing, email marketing, and a number of other marketing efforts. Lob’s integration with Marketo allows you to use Marketo’s webhooks and trigger functionality to send postcards, letters, or checks through Lob.
For example, you could use the Lob and Marketo integration to send direct mail when a customer completes a certain action. When a customer spends a certain amount of money with your business, you can automatically send them a piece of direct mail offering a promotion.
Test out the integration yourself, following this tutorial here.
Benefits:
Lob also has an integration with WebMerge, which is a tool you can use to populate letters with Lob. You can create a .doc, PDF, or Excel file, and WebMerge will turn it into a letter format and send it out.
With this integration, you can merge data, so if you wanted to merge in a first name tag so that every letter in your template said “Hi Shrav, or Hi Harry,” you would be able to do that with WebMerge.
Try it out yourself, following the guide here.
Benefits:
Zapier is Lob’s most powerful integration because it lets you connect Lob to hundreds of different services. Zapier is a connecter platform-- it connects APIs or different services together and as a result provides a lot of functionality.
Here are some of the ways our customers are integrating Lob using Zapier:
Salesforce
If you’re using Salesforce to support your CRM and prospecting process, you can use Lob to send postcards as part of nurturing campaigns. For example, imagine you added a new lead to Salesforce, you could automatically trigger Zapier so that when you add a new lead to Salesforce you can send them a postcard or a letter.
Or maybe you are using Salesforce as a billing tool you can say once an opportunity is closed it sends out an invoice triggered through Zapier that sends a check through Lob.
Podio
Podio is a CRM used to manage leads and contacts. It’s especially popular in the real estate industry. Using Lob’s integration with Zapier, you can link Podio to Lob while simplifying direct mail campaigns.
With this integration, you can send out postcards based on customer behavior in Podio. Additionally, you can send postcards based on form submission. When someone fills out a form, they’ll automatically receive a postcard in the mail.
Eventbrite
You can integrate with Lob with Eventbrite using Zapier, as well, which is another great way to integrate an online event sign up with a physical mailing.
If you have an attendee who signs up for an event, you can then automatically send them a postcard, or letter that includes their tickets. This has numerous benefits but most of all ensures the attendee gets a great experience-- on and offline.
If you use Lob and Zapier, you can consequently integrate with whatever platforms you already have. Some of the most popular integrations are:
For a complete list of integrations to try with Lob, check out this compilation here.
The process of researching, building, and deploying integrations can be confusing. How do you know which solutions will make the most impact for your team? Most important, how can you make sure that your marketing technology stack continues to grow with your business?
Seems like the key is to work with a trusted partner who can guide you! Lob, for instance, works with over 6,000 customers and supports many integration partners. We receive millions of API calls each month and have dedicated resources to help you with direct mail.
Get in touch with the Lob team to brainstorm potential integration ideas for your team.
