Campaign or triggered sends?
Campaigns
What's a campaign?
A common way to send your direct mail is to send it as one big 'batch' aka mass mail campaigns. At Lob, we define "campaigns" as a one-to-many method of mail distribution to a broad audience using a single set of mailing instructions.
Popular use cases include: sending acquisition or cross-sell mailers, retail promotions, annual policy updates, end-of-life notices for a sunsetting product, referral campaigns, etc.
Traditionally, sending a campaign meant negotiating RFPs for every project, long lead times with lots of back-and-forth with the printer, imperfect audience lists, and use of generic creatives that lacked personalization, if any.
With Lob, when you create a campaign, we provide flexible settings and guidance, various delivery options, and dynamic personalization at granular levels previously unseen in campaigns. This can be easily done in our Campaigns Dashboard, or programmatically via our Campaigns API.
Sending campaigns with Lob
Before you start, make sure you have the following on hand:
Campaign strategy (including send and delivery strategies)
Audience file (.csv format)
Design assets (front & back), as static PDFs or as HTML templates for dynamic creatives
When ready, read the following articles for guidance.
Things to know
Some advanced campaign features or mail formats are only available to Enterprise-tier customers, and may have mail piece minimums to qualify for a campaign send.
Letter add-ons (envelopes, cards, buckslips) must be ordered in advance and be fully stocked in your inventory in order for your campaign to be successfully sent
Target Delivery, cards or buckslips have different campaign send minimums
Some campaign-specific settings may override your account-level settings, such as merge variable strictness or cancellation windows
You can send most domestic mail formats offered by Lob in Campaigns, except checks and extra service mailers (Certified & Registered Mail). No campaigns can be sent abroad.
Triggered sends
What's triggered mail?
Another common way to send direct mail is to individually dispatch mail, usually initiated by some kind of pre-programmed logic or event within an orchestration workflow. "Triggered" sends are mail sent on a one-off basis to a specified recipient when the recipient meets a pre-set condition or takes a defined set of actions within a certain timeline. These can be referred to as event-based or automated campaigns.
Popular triggered use cases include: post-signup onboarding mail, abandoned cart recovery, order notices or monthly statements, product retargeting, and follow-up confirmations.
Using Lob's single endpoint APIs, you can create a custom trigger automation from scratch, or integrate Lob into an existing marketing automation or campaign orchestration tool that you may already use for your digital channels. Reference the link to see a list of common native integrations, see our API quickstart guide here, and check out the API documentation for each endpoint (postcards, self-mailers, letters, and checks).
You can also take advantage of our pre-built integrations within the Lob dashboard via our Campaigns tool.
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