In an era dominated by digital channels, the tangible and personalized nature of direct mail continues to capture consumer attention. 64% of consumers report taking action on a direct mail piece, and 84% of marketers agree it delivers the highest ROI of any channel they use. Incorporating automated direct mail into your marketing strategy is a smart move. Direct mail marketing integrates into your existing campaigns, providing a multi-channel approach seamlessly bridging the offline and online.
Choosing the right partner for automated direct mail marketing services is a critical decision that can make or break the success of your campaigns. A reliable direct mail partner brings expertise, efficiency, and a streamlined process to your direct mail initiatives. Look for a provider who offers an extensive print delivery network and a comprehensive suite of services, including but not limited to address verification, audience targeting, printing, mailing, and robust analytics. A seamless end-to-end solution optimizes your direct mail campaigns for maximum impact. The right partner understands the nuances of direct mail automation, leveraging technology to enhance targeting, personalization, and overall campaign effectiveness, and doing all those things while minimizing the environmental impact of direct mail. Direct mail services should offer direct mail that is carbon neutral through the entire lifecycle, from raw materials to ultimate disposal.
In a competitive market, selecting a trusted ally in automated direct mail is the key to unlocking the full potential of your marketing efforts. Read on to discover why Lob is the best direct mail marketing alternative to PostGrid.
“It would be impossible for us to do our job without Lob.” - Ben Jacobs, Chief Technology Officer, Encamp
By streamlining processes, reducing manual labor, and leveraging technology, Lob ensures you get more value from your marketing budget.
“What would normally be a very tedious process of customizing mailers, reviewing proofs, and going back and forth with a printer has been completely streamlined. There’s no effort on either the provider’s or our client’s part, making it a very effective solution for us and them.” - Abhas Gupta, CEO, Mabel
Additionally, personalized targeting becomes a game-changer. Automated direct mail allows for personalization that was once thought impractical on a large scale. Tailor your messages to specific demographics, interests, and behaviors, creating a more intimate connection with your audience. This personalized touch captures attention and fosters engagement, transcending the limitations of traditional mass-mailing approaches.
Bonus: Get the Modern Marketer's Guide to Personalization and personalize your direct mail campaigns like a pro.
Cost-effectiveness is not just about reducing expenses but optimizing your return on investment. Lob’s streamlined processes and advanced automation technology ensure that every dollar spent translates into tangible, meaningful results. Personalized targeting extends beyond addressing recipients by name; it's about understanding their preferences and tailoring content to resonate with their unique needs. This level of personalization significantly boosts the relevance of your direct mail campaigns, increasing the likelihood of positive responses. 68% of consumers are more likely to engage with a brand’s message if it’s personalized. Improved response rates are the ultimate goal, and with Lob, you're not just sending mail but fostering connections that drive meaningful interactions. Businesses choose Lob over PostGrid to leverage the advantages of direct mail efficiency and effectiveness, leaving traditional, antiquated methods in the past.
The evolving landscape of direct mail automation demands a reliable and efficient partner to navigate its complexities successfully. Considering your options, you must underscore the significance of having a platform that gets the job done and a partner that understands your challenges and helps you succeed. Lob’s direct mail solution isn't just a platform; it's a partnership dedicated to your success. We understand the intricacies of direct mail and are committed to staying at the forefront of technological advancements. Reliability is the cornerstone of our service – from data management to printing and analytics, our end-to-end solution ensures seamless execution at every step. Efficiency is embedded in our DNA, allowing you to focus on your core competencies while we handle the day-to-day execution of automated direct mail.
“This is not merely about automating a task; it's a transformative strategy. Instead of spending hours manually printing and labeling postcards, Pros can streamline the entire process, freeing them to focus on their core business activities.” - Jenn Bergner, SVP of Marketing, Housecall Pro
Address verification can help you enrich and correct your customer data. These solutions allow you to programmatically correct typos, validate an address’s deliverability, and access metadata to enhance customer insight. Using Address Verification enables you to save time, eliminate errors, automate manual tasks, and increase the quality of your data - at scale.
Lob Address Verification enables you to send mail to the right place at the right time— every time. Lob customers can reduce shipping costs by 15% and eliminate customer churn segments. By removing the root cause of common customer-facing problems, Lob Address Verification has saved thousands of hours for fulfillment and support teams. With our flexible API, thorough documentation, and over 30 integration partners, implementing Lob is easy; most customers are up and running in days.
In the 2024 State of Direct Mail Marketing Report, 82% of respondents reported increasing direct mail spending for 2024, a marked increase from 58% in 2023. Marketers and direct mail practitioners invest more in direct mail marketing because it’s a proven, time-tested channel that delivers high conversions, response, and ROI. But for those things to be true, you must ensure you get the most bang for your marketing budget. Choosing a direct mail automation platform that offers customizable pricing plans to help manage your direct mail costs is crucial. A competitive direct mail automation platform should have pricing plans that include print and postage so you’ll never be surprised and can accurately forecast your spend per campaign.
Some direct mail automation companies will give you access to ready-to-use templates for various direct mail formats, including postcards, letters, self-mailers (tri-folds), and more. You can even get inspiration from these Best Direct Mail Campaign examples.
More robust direct mail automation platforms, like Lob, will also provide access to a nationwide Print Delivery Network, ensuring your direct mail pieces will always be printed and mailed on time, whether you are sending one or one million pieces.
To ensure you can track the success of your direct mail campaigns, you’ll want an analytics dashboard to see what’s working and what’s not at a glance or in depth. With Lob, you get an out-of-the-box analytics suite to measure how each campaign performs so you can learn and iterate with each send.
Lastly, deep integrations with marketing automation, customer relationship management, and customer data platforms are essential in using customer data to create direct mail campaigns that get acted on and are integrated into your other marketing activities.
Lob’s industry-leading security is trusted by Fortune 500 companies to reach compliance goals and is built into every aspect of our platform.
As a leader in the direct mail industry, Lob undergoes annual audits conducted by a third party to ensure SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA compliance.
54% of consumers agree they are likelier to purchase from a brand that prioritizes sustainability.
Lob is keenly aware of the impact direct mail marketing has on the environment and works to minimize it by investing in sustainable direct mail.
Lob builds ESG accountability into every direct mail campaign and is committed to setting a new sustainability standard for direct mail and helping our customers and partners meet their sustainability goals.
All mail sent with Lob is carbon neutral through the entire lifecycle, from raw materials to ultimate disposal.
Since 2018, we’ve planted over half a million trees, more than double the amount used to produce our mail pieces, through our partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects. Our customers reduce waste through built-in address verification, error handling, and direct mail best practices.
Over 12,000 companies choose Lob to automate their direct mail, and we’re proud of those partnerships and success.
Let’s look at a few examples:
Branch is a full-stack insurance company that uses data, technology, and automation to make bundling home and auto insurance easier and more affordable.
Branch partnered with Lob to revolutionize its direct mail operations. Lob's robust features and integrations addressed Branch’s challenges and brought many benefits.
Lob’s versatile direct mail capabilities support the company's outreach efforts to insurance regulators and agency partners. It enabled the rapid sending of letters, postcards, and other mailings, enhancing engagement and communication efficiency.
As a Certified B Corp, Branch wanted to minimize traditional mail for environmental reasons, and Lob's carbon-neutral mailings aligned with its sustainability goals. Despite evolving communication channels, the insurance company recognized the continued relevance of direct mail in maintaining customer engagement and reducing fallout.
“Some carriers I've worked at said, ‘Oh, mail's dead. You should just use texting and email.’ But if we didn't have mail campaigns, we would've had a lot more fallout.” - Gabriel Tornberg, Senior Operations Manager, Branch
Branch experienced incredible results from automated direct mail, including impressive engagement and conversion rates. Branch’s direct mail letters included QR codes, which made it seamless for recipients to take action, and 25–30% of recipients actively scanned the QR code. This allowed recipients to access their digital documents and additional details, offering a more engaging and efficient experience than traditional, lengthy letters. When converting members to Branch’s insurance exchange, the QR code in the letter was pivotal. It contributed to an impressive 25% improvement in retention.
Read Branch’s full success story.
North Carolina-based VentureStack provides real estate investors with better deals.
Direct mail for the real estate investing market hasn’t changed much in the last decade, resulting in many firms using similar-looking boilerplate mail. The templates were basic, handwritten letter formats and lacked personalization, customization options, and elements like QR codes for tracking and attribution. Because of the limiting templates, VentureStack struggled to stand out from the competition in acquiring new home-selling clients with its direct mail campaigns.
VentureStack began using Lob in its new customer acquisition campaigns. It found near immediate success with a two-page letter.
“A real differentiator was the ability to customize our mail pieces. And something that stood out immediately was not having the bottleneck of someone fulfilling an order. Having a technology integration to get some of my time back and not focus on placing orders was a big win from the start. I could focus on A/B testing, finding new data, and tweaking different things, so Lob was a big game changer for us.” - Tim McGarvey, Co-Founder, VentureStack
The most critical metric VentureStack uses to measure the efficacy of its direct mail campaigns is the return on ad spend (ROAS), essentially the return on investment. It tracks each campaign with an individual phone number. McGarvey says, “If we're at or above that mark, that's an indicator that we need to put effort into the channel, and we'll break that apart and figure out how to continue to increase the return.” He further explains, “In our industry, companies normally target a 4 to 5 times return to be a viable, sustainable marketing channel. We have an 8.3 return on ad spend from direct mail, so we're blowing that out of the water.”
Read VentureStack’s full success story.
As you’ve learned, Lob is the best direct mail marketing alternative to PostGrid, and having a partner, not just a faceless platform for your direct mail marketing success, is crucial. Lob is here to help you hit the ground running and leverage the unparalleled conversion, response rate, and ROI that direct mail delivers. From our intuitive Campaigns interface to our advanced APIs, nationwide Print Delivery Network, advanced tracking and analytics, and trusted security and compliance to our sustainable, carbon-neutral mail, Lob is the choice for direct mail marketing.
Ready to learn more? Request a demo from our direct mail experts.
Have other questions? Check out our direct mail FAQs.
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