Welcome to Lob! 👋

Lob's mission is to help the world send intelligent mail, one mail piece at a time. By making direct mail sends as easy as email through the use of modern APIs, Lob strives to modernize this often overlooked channel of direct communication.

Lob is a great fit for all users of direct mail from all walks of life:

• Are you brand new to direct mail as a channel, and looking for ideas and best practices on getting started?

• Are you looking to infuse direct mail automation into your existing business workflows and seeking for ways to modernize your enterprise solutions and tools?

• Or are you building a highly sophisticated experimentation program using this rapidly iterative and performative channel?

Start at a pace you're most comfortable with, and Lob can help meet your direct mail needs, one step at a time.

Getting started with Lob

Sending mail in an accurate, reliable, and programmatic way involves the following four steps:

Craft the best path forward

Depending on where you are in your quest for intelligent mail, or given your available budget or resources, there are multiple ways to leverage Lob's platform and accelerate your growth. Read on!

Learn about our platform

We're not your average direct mail experience. Explore Lob and see how we can meet your immediate needs for direct mail automation.

• Dive right in: Send your first campaign via our easy-to-follow dashboard UI to get a feel for intelligent direct mail.

• Explore our APIs! Check out our API quickstart quide to explore our APIs in your preferred programming language, explore our our Postman collection, and go to GitHub to access our supported SDK libraries.

Experiment with your inputs and outputs

Understand other ways in which you can up-level your direct mail program.

• Explore how to operationalize dynamic personalizations to create mail pieces that can truly resonate with your audience

• Experiment with different methods of mail sends and mail delivery strategy to see how to best increase relevance and conversion

• Ingest mail tracking data, set up notification alerts via webhooks, or add QR codes to improve attribution and reporting

• Access advanced features and more mail formats to improve audience responses as needed

• Generate a campaign hypothesis, and build split-test or multivariate test cohorts to see which creative or campaign resonates with your segment

Enrich your data, connections, and processes

Explore our integrations so you can learn how to tap into your existing tech stacks and augment your datasets to expand the possibilities of creating seamless and timely omnichannel experiences with a touch of direct mail.

Even though the USPS loves working with us, they still have to charge for sending mail. Even if you are on the Developer edition of Lob, before you get started we'll ask you to input your payment information, then add Lob Credits, so you are prepared to send mail!

Step 1: How do you plan to execute your mail?

Step 2: Who are you sending to?

Step 3: What creative type are you going to be using?

Step 4: How do you plan to measure the success of your mail?

Overview

Listrak provides best-in-class email, SMS, behavioral marketing, cross-channel orchestration, predictive analytics, and customer insight solutions. Leverage all your channels – Email, SMS/MMS, social – including direct mail with Lob.

For more support related to our SFMC API integration, please contact your Account Manager or [email protected] to discuss your requirements and use case.

(Looking for a no-code integration option? See here.)

As a direct mail automation platform, Lob's focus is to offer set mail formats that can be programmatically sent at scale. These are postcards, self-mailers, snap packs, letters, and checks. However, for customers who need to send greater mail variations beyond these formats, we are open to exploring options with you.

Please reach out to your Account Manager for more information on program eligibility and requirements.

To maximize engagement with your direct mail campaigns, we recommend leveraging dynamic personalization and integrating clear calls to action (CTAs) on each mailpiece. Including a coupon code, phone number, URL, or QR code is a powerful way to bridge the gap between offline and online experiences, driving more interaction with your brand.

Lob also empowers you to enhance your direct mail campaigns by leveraging USPS’s Informed Delivery service to create an additional digital touchpoint, giving your audience another opportunity to engage with your content before they even receive the physical mail.

• Dynamic personalization

• Adding QR codes

• URL shortener

• Informed Delivery

See our API quickstart guide here!

Overview

JotForm is an easy-to-use online tool for creating forms, surveys, and questionnaires without needing any coding skills. With its drag-and-drop interface, you can quickly design forms that look great and fit your needs. It comes with a ton of templates and integrates smoothly with other apps, making it handy for everything from gathering data to handling payments.

Whether you’re an individual or part of a business, JotForm offers flexibility and features that make form-building easy.

Getting Started

• Lob Blog: How Jotform and Lob Can Help You Collect Better Data

• Jotform’s Lob Address Verification widget allows your form respondents to check if they’re entering a correct address in your form’s address field. Check out the widget here.

• Alternatively, using Zapier, set up the Jotform trigger, and make magic happen automatically in Lob.

At Lob, we’re committed to helping you take advantage of every opportunity to save on postage costs. Each year, the USPS offers various promotions that provide discounts on mailing services, and we’re here to support you through the process of applying for and meeting the requirements for these offers. In this section, you’ll find detailed guides that walk you through each USPS promotion, helping you understand how to qualify, how to apply, and how our platform can seamlessly support you in the process. Whether you’re a seasoned mailer or new to USPS promotions, we’ve got you covered with all the information you need to maximize your savings.

Ready to start saving? Explore each promotion's guidebook to get started!

Overview

Marketo is a marketing automation platform that enables businesses to streamline and optimize their marketing processes, including lead management, email marketing, and campaign analytics.

Trigger Lob mailpieces from Marketo with webhooks

Create a Lob webhook within your Marketo instance.

• See Marketo documentation on how to create a webhook.

• Keep in mind:

1) The URL you enter for this webhook is going to be Lob's API endpoint for the resource that you're trying to create (e.g., postcard).

2) Choose JSON as the response type for passing Lob parameters and creative data.

• You can copy and paste the JSON from Lob’s API documentation.

• In the JSON, pass Lob parameters for the recipient name and address, mapped from Marketo.

• Include creative data for the content you want to send.

Incorporate Webhhook into a Campaign:

• Add the webhook to a campaign in Marketo.

• Define trigger conditions for when the webhook should be activated.

• Example Campaign: Create a campaign to send a Lob postcard when a specific attribute (e.g., person score) changes. For instance, if a person's score changes to zero, trigger the Lob postcard webhook.

The first step to any successful direct mail program is the ability to piece together an audience list for effective targeting. This is because reaching customers with direct mail that is relevant and contextual to their needs can maximize your responses and lead to high channel ROI.

The days of sending mail indiscriminately to every household within a given area using the "spray and pray" method are long over. However, good audience segmentation and targeting is heavily dependent on having quality data, which can impact how your mail is planned, produced, mailed, and converted.

Lob provides various ways to improve your address data hygiene and deliverability, offers connections to your , and can augment your first-party data with additional datasets to increase reach.

Viewing a Requested Audience

After an audience is requested, it will live in the Requested tab on the Audience Lists table. All requested lists will be accessible for 14 days, and then they will be permanently deleted if the list is not purchased. When a list has a status of "Processing", this means that we are still working on building the audience for you, and it cannot be purchased yet. Target lists typically take a few hours to process while Lookalike lists can take around 24 hours. When a list has a status of "Ready for Purchase", this means that the the count of records and cost of the list is ready for your review, and it is available for purchase. You will also receive an email when your audience request moves to the "Ready for Purchase" status.

Purchasing an Audience

You can click on any requested audience in the Audience Lists table to go to the detail page for the request. If the list status is "Ready for Purchase", then you'll see a summary of your request on the left and the order summary on your right. If the list status is still "Processing", then the order summary will be hidden.

The order summary will tell you how many records are in the audience list and the cost for the full audience list. You have the option to buy the full audience list or buy a subset of the audience list based on a specific budget. Once you enter your budget, we will automatically calculate how many records you can purchase within that budget. Lookalike Audiences offer one additional capability in the order summary which is the ability to expand or narrow audience reach by changing how related the new audience should be to the original file that was uploaded in the request form. Typically, the more closely related the new audience is, the more narrow the reach will be.

After opting in to Lob's terms and conditions in the Order Summary, you can click "Place Order" to complete the audience list purchase.

Exporting Addresses

After placing your order, your audience list will move to the Purchased tab on the Audience Lists Table. Your payment type and account type will dictate how quickly your audience list will become available for you to export. You will receive an email letting you know that the audience list is available.

• If you used a credit card to purchase the list, the list will be available for export as soon as payment is received (generally within a few minutes)

• If you used ACH to purchase the list, the list will be available for export within 3-5 days of ACH pull when payment clears

• If you used invoice to purchase the list AND you are on an enterprise plan, the list will be available for export within a few minutes

• If you used invoice to purchase the list but are not on an enterprise plan, the list will be available after the invoice payment is received

As soon as the list is ready for export, you can click on the list from the Purchased tab, and you will see an "Export" button in the top right corner. All audience lists will be available for export in the Lob dashboard for 180 days from the purchase date, and then they will be permanently deleted.

Another crucial pillar of building your direct mail program with Lob is to determine your direct mail strategy.

Just like any other digital channel, using direct mail can help in attracting new customers and expanding your reach to your target audience. However, success is predicated on the careful cultivation and analysis of quality data, iterative testing, and creative content.

As an automation technology platform, Lob places the power of direct mail automation strategy directly in the hands of our customers. As a result, you have access to a broader set of tools at your disposal to better calibrate how you execute your direct mail campaigns, which can be optimized over time to create a highly performative channel.

Stop relying on spray-and-pray strategies that spams every mailbox, and start thinking about the most (cost) effective ways to get in front of the audience that matters the most with content that's actually relevant to them. Lob can be your partner in this journey.

Read the articles in this section to see what areas you can optimize in your mail sends.

• One- time campaigns or triggered sends

• ASAP, scheduled mailings, or target delivery

• Managing your mail settings (use type, cancellation window, etc.) Sending

• Sending

• Sending

If you use Adobe InDesign to create PDFs for Lob, you can use this video to do some checks on your creative before it is sent to Lob.

1. All fonts in your PDF should be embedded. If you are having trouble embedding your fonts, this is most likely because of a licensing issue. The preferred resolution would be to find/renew the font license but if that is not possible, you can always use InDesign to create an outline of the text. Remember that this option is to be used sparingly because it dramatically increases the size of the resulting PDF. (By default InDesign will embed fonts when exporting PDFs.)

2. Image resolution should be 300 dpi for the best print quality; the video will walk you through adjusting the resolution.

3. Images must use a CMYK color profile: GRACoL 2006 or GRACoL 2013. This will make sure that colors show up correctly in the final printed product. Setting the correct color profile also goes for any artwork/pictures that you import into InDesign as well.

4. Flattening the transparencies is VERY IMPORTANT. If you fail to do this, certain artwork/pictures won’t show up in the final printed product. Make sure to set the option to “High Resolution” to cover any edge cases that may show up in your PDF.

5. Keep your file size under 5MB. Tips on saving space include using text outline sparingly, not using a giant picture as the background, and making pictures/artwork the same size as will be used in the design.

6. Run a diagnostic on the generated PDF. If you have Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can use the Preflight function under the Edit menu to run a report on your PDF. This will alert you to any issues. Set the profile to the “PDF-X/1a (GRACoL 2006)” and select “Analyze and Fix”.

Import creatives for easy HTML templating

Struggling with HTML templates to leverage Lob's personalization feature? Can't find dedicated designers and engineers to convert your designs to HTML with each iteration? Fear no more!

You can now easily import your creative designs from popular design programs and quickly spin up merge variables. Take advantage of our full breadth of capabilities for hyper-personalization and leverage intelligent mail.

If you've spent long hours preparing an audience list by appending data, you also know that your direct mail campaign can only be successful if your mail actually makes it to the recipient in the first place.

Similar to digital campaigns, physical mail campaigns need postal address verification so that physical mailers can check the accuracy of the addresses on their list, fix mistakes, and avoid undeliverable mail. Lob's Address Verification solution suite can ensure that submitted addresses are accurate and ready to be mailed, and reduce costly mistakes that end up undelivered and returned or thrown away.

Additionally, if your business is operating in a growing web of complex regulatory requirements, maintaining good address hygiene can play a critical role in meeting compliance and reducing friction in your customer experiences.

Here at Lob, our suite of products can help improve your business in the following ways:

• Improve deliverability by ensuring the physical address in question is deliverable

• Mitigate erroneous data inputs or fraudulent transactions through cleansing and verification

• Validate recipient identity by ensuring individuals and businesses reside at their stated address

Read on for further information on our Address Verification suite.

This Help Center is a fantastic resource for learning all things Lob, and we recommend doing your homework. But once you feel ready...get set, and send!

Lob Audience is the ultimate audience targeting tool for direct mail, enabling you to buy customized audience lists through a streamlined self-serve experience.

Navigating to Lob Audience

In the Lob dashboard, click on the “Audience” navigation and then on the “Audience Lists” sub-nav. From here, you can view all your purchased audiences, requested audiences, or create a new audience.

Creating an Audience

To create a new audience, click the “Create Audience” button at the top right of the Audience Lists page. From here, you’ll be asked what type of audience you want to create. We currently offer Target and Lookalike Audiences, and Pixel and Data Append Audiences will be coming soon.

Utilize Lob’s Target Audience product to build audience lists targeted to specific geographic locations and customer traits. A name is the only required field for your audience, but we recommend utilizing our targeting capabilities for the best results.

Targeting by locations and traits

You can search a location by address, city, state, zip, or landmark. The search box will return a list of locations that match your search, and you can click the result that you would like to move forward with. Once a location is selected, it will appear under the location search box, and you can edit the name of the location and radius targeting from there. You can also manually pin a location by clicking the pin icon on the map and then clicking where on the map you want to drop the pin. You can search for or pin as many locations as you need to target, and if no location is added to your audience request, the entire US population will be included. Below locations, you'll find all the traits that we offer. You can target as many as you need for your audience.

Exclusion lists

Exclusion lists are an enterprise-only feature that allow you to avoid purchasing addresses for customers you already have access to. This feature is as simple as uploading a csv of the customers you would like us to exclude from the audience we build for you. The csv can have postal addresses, email addresses, or phone numbers. The more information that is included in the file, the higher likelihood that we can successfully find and exclude the customers.

After your exclusion list is successfully uploaded, we ask you what information is in the file, and then we ask you to tell us which columns in your uploaded file map to our required fields.

Submitting your audience request

After your desired filters are selected, click “Submit Audience Request” to actually submit your request. There is no cost to submitting a Target Audience request. You will be notified by email when your list is ready, and at that point, you can choose to proceed with purchase or not.

is an all-in-one customer relationship management platform that helps businesses streamline their sales, marketing, and service processes.

By integrating direct mail into Agile CRM, you can enhance your multi-channel marketing strategy, reaching customers in a more personalized and impactful way. This combination allows you to engage with your audience both online and offline, driving higher response rates and improving overall campaign effectiveness.

If your team already uses any CDP, CRM, or marketing automation tool, consider adding a direct mail touch to your customer outreach sequences by integrating Lob into the following platforms. Use any of our external API integrations to easily leverage one of the most performative channels in marketing as part of your digital campaigns.

• Adobe Marketo Engage

• ActionIQ

• Braze

• Blueshift

• Citrix Podio

• Customer.io

• Formstack

• Hubspot

• Iterable

• Jotform

• Klayvio

• Listrak

• Make

• Optimove

• Ortto (formally Autopilot)

• Salesforce

• Salesforce Marketing Cloud

• Segment

• SimonData

• Tray.io

• Zapier

Overview

Grow faster with a new kind of Customer Data Platform (CDP). ActionIQ’s unique composable architecture gives marketers easy and secure ways to activate data anywhere in the customer experience.

ActionIQ + Lob = Integrate Offline and Online Customer Experience

The ActionIQ CX Hub empowers everyone to be a CX champion by giving business teams the freedom to explore and action on customer data while helping technical teams extend and enhance existing technology investments to manage data governance, costs and performance. AIQ CX Hub gives all teams direct but controlled self-service access to customer data to discover audiences and orchestrate experiences at scale.

Direct mail from Lob enables you to fully realize the CX potential of the AIQ CX Hub at the mailbox, providing flexible, automated direct mail production, delivery, and analytics, fully integrated with your CX stack.

Eliminate the Last Obstacle to Omnichannel Automation

The AIQ CX Hub orchestrates customer journeys across all channels and touchpoints, automated across hundreds of out-of-the-box integrations. However, due to limitations of legacy direct mail tools and lack of automation offline, omnichannel orchestration fails to reach its full potential, resulting in time-consuming execution, static content disallowing personalization seen in digital channels.

Lob automates direct mail production, enabling AIQ users to send direct mail when they need it, without downstream hassles or delays. That means you can orchestrate campaigns across all channels, with precise timing, personalization, and visibility.

Trigger Direct Mail Customer Experience in Real Time

The ActionIQ CX Hub provides robust trigger creation and activation capabilities, enabling you to deliver real-time outbound experiences across any channel based on any signal you chose, from streaming data like abandoned carts, to historical customer profiles like total spend.

Lob brings this capability to the mailbox, with unlimited customizability, quick processing and delivery, and tracking across the entire customer journey. Giving users the ability to trigger any message, design, or form factor based on any customer signal.

Orchestrate and optimize your campaigns

The AIQ CX Hub is a powerful tool for orchestration and optimization, enabling users to rapidly design, execute, test, and iterate on marketing and sales campaigns across multiple channels. However, legacy workflows and low visibility can cut direct mail out of the loop, forcing users to silo direct mail, and limit your ability to track results, improve campaign performance, and fully integrate mail into your multichannel or omnichannel workflow.

Lob’s API solves this problem, integrating fully with the AIQ CX Hub, enabling users to treat direct mail just like your digital channels. That means you can structure the customer journey, track ROI, test new strategies, and iterate your campaigns across all channels, without the need for a siloed direct mail track.

Keep Branding, Voice and Personalization Consistent, Online and Offline

The AIQ CX Hub provides powerful tools to shape and adapt your brand voice, while personalizing down to the microsegment. This gives you the ability to make the most of each touchpoint, while maintaining a single voice across all channels. Lob is able to then utilize all of the AIQ CX Hub intelligence to programmatically send personalized, timely, and quality mail pieces to your customers.

Is ActionIQ + LOB Right for You?

The AIQ CX Hub is designed for B2B and B2C companies with large customer bases and complex data needs across a wide range of industries, including financial services, retail, consumer packaged goods, grocery, travel & hospitality, healthcare, and B2B tech.

Lob caters to a wide range of both marketing and transactional use cases, from small businesses to multinational enterprises. For Lob users, whether or not you adopt a CX Hub depends on the factors above, as well as your use case.

Use Cases:

Marketing direct mail: If you need the ability to conduct multivariate testing, featuring 1-1 personalization and quick iteration capabilities, you’re more likely to benefit from a CX Hub. Typically, acquisition-focused marketing campaigns in particular can benefit from these capabilities.

Transactional or operational mail: Industries with heavily regulated customer communications will benefit from a CX Hub. For example, if you send financial statements, policy change notices, explanations of benefits, or bills through direct mail, a CX Hub can help ensure you’re meeting the legal requirements of each state, country, and region. Companies operating in multiple industries also tend to have complex regulatory obligations, which can benefit from the AIQ CX Hub.

Overview

Blueshift has built a direct integration to Lob from within their platform. This empowers marketers to automatically send personalized behavior-triggered mail to every user, on demand.

• Read more about the integration in the Lob + Blueshift integration factsheet.

• Instructions on how to connect Blueshift and Lob can be found in Blueshift's documentation here.

Secure Destruction is a free service provided by the United States Postal Service (USPS) that offers a secure method for handling undeliverable First-Class mail. This service is especially beneficial for customers managing sensitive documents, such as those containing Personal Identifiable Information (PII), financial data, or medical information, while also helping reduce costs and environmental impact.

What is Secure Destruction?

Secure Destruction ensures that any undeliverable First-Class mail is securely destroyed at USPS facilities. Rather than being returned to the sender, mail is processed and eliminated under strict security protocols, preventing any potential unauthorized access.

Lob provides this service at no cost to customers who send First-Class mail, and it can be easily integrated into existing workflows for organizations that regularly deal with undeliverable mail.

Why Use Secure Destruction?

1. Enhanced Customer Security Secure Destruction offers a significant value-add for organizations that handle sensitive customer data, such as PII, financial records, or medical information. By ensuring that undeliverable mail is destroyed securely, companies can maintain compliance with data protection regulations, reduce the risk of breaches, and improve customer trust.

2. Cost Savings Secure Destruction helps customers avoid the financial burden of handling undeliverable mail. For example, companies that do not use this service may need to contract with third-party vendors or allocate in-house resources to manage the destruction of returned mail.

3. Reduce Environmental Footprint Secure Destruction also offers environmental benefits by eliminating the reverse logistics of returning mailpieces to senders. By preventing the need for transportation and manual disposal, carbon emissions are reduced. This aligns with Lob's sustainability mission to minimize the environmental impact of mail processing.

How Secure Destruction Works

Secure Destruction is available exclusively for First-Class letters and snap packs. If your organization sends these types of mail, you can easily enable Secure Destruction through your account page. Once activated, any undeliverable First-Class mail will be securely destroyed at USPS facilities, ensuring your sensitive documents are handled with the highest level of security.

Who Benefits from Secure Destruction?

Secure Destruction is ideal for First-Class mailers, particularly those who manage sensitive information or face significant logistical challenges in processing undeliverable mail. This includes:

• Financial institutions

• Health care providers

• Insurance providers

• Public and private education institutions

• Government agencies

• Utility companies

• Mail service providers

• Legal service providers

Once your organization opts into Secure Destruction, Lob will track your undeliverable mailpieces via USPS scanning events. You will be able to confirm that the mail has been destroyed through these tracking events, offering you peace of mind that your sensitive documents have been successfully processed by USPS.

AV integrations

1. AV Elements

2. Shopify app: Address Cleanser

3. Airtable app: Address Cleanser

4. Zapier

5. JotForm (from our blog)

SDKs & libraries

1. Libraries: Ruby, Node.js, PHP, Python

2. Postman collection

Zoho is a versatile CRM platform that helps businesses manage their sales, marketing, and customer support with ease.

By adding direct mail to your customer journey in Zoho, you can enhance your outreach strategy with a personal, tangible touch, making your customer interactions more memorable and impactful. This integration bridges the gap between online and offline communication, driving stronger engagement and deeper customer connections.

Freshsales Suite is an intuitive CRM platform that helps businesses manage their sales, marketing, and customer relationships in one place. By adding direct mail into your customer journeys you can create a more personalized and engaging customer experience, complementing your digital outreach with impactful offline interactions. This integration allows you to reach your audience in multiple ways, driving stronger connections and better results.

Pipedrive is a user-friendly CRM designed to help businesses manage and streamline their sales processes. By integrating direct mail into your customer journey with Pipedrive, you can add a personal touch that complements your digital efforts, making your outreach more engaging and effective. This combination ensures you’re reaching your customers in multiple ways, helping to close deals and strengthen relationships.

Overview

Simon Data is a customer data platform (CDP) that enables businesses to leverage their data to create personalized marketing campaigns and drive customer engagement.

Lob + Simon Data: Drive growth everywhere

Simon Data brings a simple, highly effective workflow to multi-channel marketing. Through its powerful CDP, Simon allows marketers to integrate data from any source, unify customer profiles, segment in real time, and orchestrate customer journeys across all marketing touchpoints. Lob empowers Simon users to coordinate direct mail with their online channels, using consistent and personalized messaging to drive customer loyalty and engagement across email, SMS, push, and other digital channels.

Turn first-time customers into life-long brand advocates

Simon Data’s powerful B2C marketing orchestration capabilities empower your marketing team to provide consistent, relevant messaging throughout the customer lifecycle. Simon combines powerful, predictive modeling with sophisticated testing and experimentation. The result is a system that enables you to maximize engagement, fine-tuning each customer journey with the right messaging, touchpoints, and product recommendations. Lob enables you to fully harness Simon’s capabilities offline, bringing automated direct mail production, personalization, and analytics to your multi-channel stack. That means you can truly engage with customers, build loyalty, and drive CLTV across all channels, all from a single hub.

Do away with silos, disconnects, and workarounds

40% of marketers rate their “inability to link different technologies” as a top technological challenge. Siloed data, disconnected channels, incompatible schemas, and the sheer complexity of your marketing stack can hamstring your marketing team. You can’t engage customers in real-time if you’re forced to wait on manual data pulls, or slog through elaborate workarounds. Legacy direct mail in particular is a major pain point, because it is almost completely siloed. The slow cadence and separate, manual workflow of legacy DM prevent marketers from fully integrating it with digital channels into a coherent customer journey.

Simon’s CDP provides a unified customer view to your marketing workflows, coordinating all your tools and data sources into a seamless whole. Targeted communications are infused with historical and real-time data, supported by robust segmentation and personalization capabilities. Lob integrates fully automated direct mail into Simon, enabling you to plan, execute, and track your omnichannel campaigns with a single workflow. That means you can focus on getting the right content to the right audience across the right touchpoints.

Turn marketing optimization into a science

Traditionally, direct mail optimization is limited compared to digital channels. Most companies using legacy direct mail have little ability to personalize letters or track results, forcing them to rely on less effective techniques like mass mailers. Lob provides 100% personalization for every mailpiece, and enables you to track deliveries and conversions just like you would with email. Combining Lob’s direct mail automation with Simon’s powerful optimization and orchestration capabilities lets you truly optimize your multi-channel campaign.

Simon’s native integration with Lob supports triggered campaigns for a variety of loyalty and retention use cases. and streamlines workflow for both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Marketers can get hands-on with customer data, experiment and execute campaigns, and analyze results all within the same UI. And your team can conduct the same experiments, tests, and analyses on DM campaigns as they would for any digital channel.

Identify and engage customers on their own terms

Consumers are harder to track than ever before. They research products and engage with brands across multiple channels, devices, and accounts, making it difficult to identify individuals and tie together interactions. At the same time, they expect a highly personalized experience from the brands they interact with. Simon Data solves your identity resolution challenges with Simon Identity. This enables you to merge multiple customer interactions into a single profile, without depending on a single identifier like email address. Lob augments this capability with automated address verification, so you can engage with your customers online and offline.

Are Simon Data + Lob right for you?

Simon Data is a powerful CDP designed around the unique needs of B2C marketing. With powerful native tools and extensive integration, it can serve a range of use cases, including:

• A centralized hub to unify and consolidate your customer data sources

• A self-service automation and segmentation tool, enabling marketers to fully utilize their data without depending on the help desk

• A rapid testing and optimization toolset to fine-tune and personalize customer experience

• A sophisticated data integration and governance platform, managing your entire customer data ecosystem

Because Simon Data serves so many roles, Lob users in B2C industries should weigh Simon Data’s capabilities against their current pain points and tech stack functionality to identify use cases.

Certified Mail

Certified Mail is an add-on service offered by USPS for First Class mail that provides proof of mailing to the sender. With electronic USPS tracking, the sender is notified when the mailing was delivered or that a delivery attempt was made. An electronic return receipt showing the recipient's signature is also available for Certified Mail only. Both the Certified Mail and the electronic return receipt add-ons are only available for First Class mail sent domestically within the US.

You send letters as Certified Mail through the Lob API by passing the value certified in the extra_services parameter of the create letter request. You may similarly opt for an electronic return receipt by passing certified_return_receipt in the extra_services parameter in the API.

Tracking events are viewable directly within the Lob dashboard or via the API, similar to how they are for non-Certified letters, and you can also subscribe to webhook events for Certified letters. When you make a request for Certified Mail you will immediately receive a carrier tracking number (retrievable via your Lob dashboard), which can be used to track the mail via the carrier’s website - or you can choose to track the mail via the scan events within your Lob dashboard. The resulting screen should appear in your dashboard:

Visit the Certified Mail envelopes section for more guidance around sending Certified Mail.

Electronic Return Receipts

An Electronic Return Receipt is available to the sender as a USPS add-on to Certified Mail. This receipt will allow you to download a digital copy of the recipient's signature used to sign for the delivery of the letter. You opt for an Electronic Return Receipt by passing certified_return_receipt in the extra_service parameter of creating a letter.

The return receipt will be accessible via the certified tracking number from the USPS homepage. However, if you would like to receive the signature PDF via email, follow these steps:

• Visit www.usps.com

• Enter the Certified tracking number into the Track a Package box

• Click the "Return Receipt Email" dropdown and fill the required fields in the form

• The USPS will send you an email with the signature file like the below example

Registered Mail

Registered Mail is an add-on service offered by USPS that provides extra protection for high-value letters and packages. When you send a letter by Registered Mail, the USPS establishes a chain of custody that tracks and secures your shipment throughout the entire transit process—from the moment it is dropped off at the Post Office until the moment it’s delivered.

You can send letters as Registered Mail through the Lob API by passing the value registered in the extra_services parameter of the create letter request.

Letters sent as registered will receive a different set of scan events compared to regular First or Standard Class mail. Registered Mail will instead receive a carrier tracking number and link, which is an add-on that will be available 3 business days following the mailer’s send_date. This tracking number can be used to track the mailer via the carrier’s website.

CRM/CDP/MAP integrations

Customer data platforms (CDPs) serve as a source of truth for customer data, while customer relationship management systems (CRMs) manage customer relationships for sales. By using data piped from these systems, marketing automation tools can orchestrate multichannel campaigns based on the customer journey, or sequence business workflows, triggered by user actions, events, milestones, or other logic.

Lob integrations enable automated trigger-based campaigns, so you can incorporate direct mail into your omnichannel marketing campaigns and make operational workflows more efficient.

We offer two types of customer data integrations optimized for your direct mail strategy, technology stack, and available resources.

Design tool integrations

We are continually enhancing our capability to convert creative from popular design tools into HTML, to empower more users to benefit from the personalization that HTML provides.

Overview

HubSpot has a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that helps companies manage their contacts, deals, and tasks.

The HubSpot integration with Lob allows you to automate direct mail campaigns within the Lob dashboard, based on any change within your HubSpot instance.

How to connect Lob to HubSpot

1. Within the Lob Dashboard, navigate to the Integrations page and click on the “HubSpot” tile view the HubSpot details page. Click on the “Connect” button to begin.

2. This will open a modal to create a new HubSpot account or sign in to an existing one. If you’re already logged into HubSpot in another window or tab, it may auto-detect. Enter the credentials for the HubSpot account you want to connect.

• The account used must have permission to share Contact information to authenticate.

1. After authentication, Lob will begin the ‘Connect’ phase, reading your HubSpot schema. This async process may take a few minutes, depending on the size of your HubSpot instance. You will receive an email when it’s complete.

2. Once you have successfully connected your Hubspot account to Lob, the label will show “Connected."

• After the initial connection, Lob will update to pull the latest schema from your account. Changes to HubSpot objects or columns will be reflected once complete.

• This can also be completed manually if you need to pull in these changes prior to building a campaign: From the Integrations page, then the HubSpot Integration Details page, click “Refresh Schema."

Once you’ve successfully connected Lob to your Hubspot account, you are ready to begin the Campaigns workflow. See set up an Automated campaign for a general overview, or watch the detailed video tutorial below.

Set up an automated campaign in Hubspot

Additional notes

• After the initial connection, Lob will update to pull the latest schema from your account. Changes to HubSpot objects or columns will be reflected once complete.

• This can also be completed manually if you need to pull in these changes prior to building a campaign: From the Integrations page, then the HubSpot Integration Details page, click “Refresh Schema."

Get started with a platform subscription, paired with unit cost for mail pieces. Features vary depending on the pricing Edition.

Monthly subscription

Mail piece unit pricing

Recent USPS postage rate changes have taken effect as of July 13, 2025. These adjustments are part of USPS’s regularly scheduled pricing updates, designed to account for inflation and rising operational costs. Lob doesn’t add fees when USPS rates go up – only the postage rate increases apply. You can find more details outlined in the .

Postcards

Self-Mailers

Letters

* Extra postage fees for 8.5x11 letters over 6 sheets (6 pages single-sided, or 12 pages double-sided) and 8X14 letters over 3 sheets (3 pages single-sided, or 6 pages double-sided)

Snap Packs

Checks

Making your design mailable

The first pillar of building your direct mail program with Lob is to design your mail creatives.

Creating a well-designed mail piece can elevate your brand amongst other mail pieces in the mail box, communicate your value prop effectively, and actually deliver results. Design applies to imagery as well as text and copy, and a clear, easily identified CTA or promotion can make a material difference in the level of responses you may receive.

When sending programmatic mail through the Lob platform, it is important to make sure that digital designs can effectively translate into physical print with the right set of instructions, whether they are static or dynamic creatives.

Anatomy of a mailpiece

When you send an API request to Lob, you are sending 3 pieces of information:

1. the "To" address,

2. the "From" address, and

3. the content.

This section contains some best practices to follow when designing creative content for Lob. Read on to learn more about each of the design components needed in your mail creatives.

Overview

In heavily data-driven industries, the customer journey is the destination. It’s not enough to be able to nurture leads, win conversions, and retain customers — you need to continuously engineer and optimize your customer relationships to keep customers engaged over many, many touchpoints.

It’s these industries where Optimove really shines. Optimove is more than just a CRM — it’s a Cross-Channel Campaign Management platform built to drive your entire marketing process. Combined with Lob, Optimove can drive strong customer relationships online and offline, integrating direct mail and digital marketing into a seamless whole.

Drive sustained engagement across every channel

Sustaining high customer engagement depends on centralized orchestration, backed by data-driven insights. Optimove provides a hub for all of your relationship marketing channels, orchestrating campaigns across all owned channels. Powerful analytics and a cutting edge decisioning engine enable you to react to customer signals in real time, making the most of every interaction.

Lob adds next generation direct mail automation, with the power, convenience, and speed of a digital channel. You can dynamically personalize and trigger mailpieces to drive conversions, nurture relationships, and capitalize on every customer action and interaction.

Optimize effortlessly

Customer demand is always changing. To keep up, high-frequency businesses need to treat each interaction as a chance to collect data, test strategies, and analyze outcomes.

Optimove uses test and control groups to turn every interaction into a learning opportunity. Built-in AI and machine learning constantly crunch the data, providing an endless flow of data-driven optimization insights.

Lob completes the picture, bringing total visibility to your direct mail campaigns. You can track receipts, conversions, and delivery times for every mailpiece just like with digital channels.

Empower non-technical marketers with data-driven insights

You don’t need to be a mechanic to drive a high-performance car, and you shouldn’t need to be a technical savant to use a high-performance CCCM. Optimove consolidates customer data into a custom data model, built for your business, industry, and priorities, driving deep insights for even non-technical users.

Lob replaces complex legacy direct mail workflows with an automated system, using our nationwide network of print partners. That means you don’t need to build your direct mail strategy around the limits of your print partner, or the peculiarities and cadence of your internal workflow.

Together, Lob and Optimove enable non-technical users to see, interact with, and serve customers like never before — without having to dive under the hood or work around archaic workflows. That means less time working around the limits of your tools (and your help desk), and more time growing your business.

Are Optimove + Lob right for you?

Optimove is ideal for data-driven companies, including:

• High-bandwidth communication: Organizations that need to be able to automate and orchestrate simultaneous messages across many channels, or scale up their communication strategy

• High Frequency interactions: Companies that have many interactions with customers, such as frequent purchases, media streaming, and gaming

• Promotion-heavy brands: Organizations that need help gauging the impact of promotions, and optimizing their promotion strategy

• Replenishable products: Pet food, gaming deposits, subscriptions, and telecommunication services where customers need to frequently replenish the product

Lob is designed for any organization looking to automate direct mail, improve personalization capabilities, or better integrate direct mail with their technology stack. Lob provides unlimited scalability, so you can send as many or as few mailpieces as you need to without having to plan and purchase printing capacity ahead of time. This makes Lob a perfect fit for small startups and nonprofits, massive multinationals, and anything in between.

Additional resources

• Lob & Optimove: blog post

• Lob & Optimove: , we sat down with Pini Yakuel, Founder and CEO of Optimove, to discuss how marketers can embrace AI to create successful marketing campaigns.

When you translate your designs from Figma to Lob, sometimes the fonts you've chosen might not be publicly available. If your brand uses a custom font (ie. fonts not available at ), we need access to the versions of that font you’re using in order to port your dynamic creative to Lob. Don't worry—we've laid out instructions for how to host custom fonts yourself here:

Step 1: Collect Your Font Files

You will need every variation of the custom font used in the file. This means any combination of weight and style.

Let’s say for the purposes of demonstration, we’re using font family Lato with regular, bold, and regular-italic variations.

🍎 On a Mac:

1. Open Finder.

2. Press Cmd + Shift + G.

3. Type or paste the following paths:

   • System Fonts: /System/Library/Fonts

   • User-installed Fonts: ~/Library/Fonts

   • All Users (Shared): /Library/Fonts

Copy your custom font files (.ttf, .woff, .woff2) from these folders.

🪟 On Windows (PC):

1. Open File Explorer.

2. Navigate to:

3. Copy your custom fonts from here.

*OTF files are not supported, translate them to ttf or woff first!

Step 2: Host the Font Files

• Upload each font variation to an external hosting service

• Ensure your files are publicly accessible, meaning anyone can access the file from anywhere.

In our example, we would have URLs for lato-regular.woff2, lato-bold.woff2, and lato-regular-italic.woff2

Step 3: Create a Spreadsheet (CSS file)

You'll create a file named after your font family, like lato.css. This file tells Lob how to use your fonts. Key components include:

• font-family : will always be set to the name of your font

• src: the URL at which your font is hosted

• font-weight: the “boldness” of the font variation

• font-style: either ‘normal’ or ‘italic’

Font weights:

Example content of lato.css:

Step 4: Host Your CSS File

• Upload your CSS file to the same external hosting site

• Again, make sure the link to your CSS file is publicly accessible.

Step 5: Include Your CSS File in Your HTML

Back in Figma to Lob, when you export, you will be given a prompt to map the file to the CSS

The final pillar of building a successful direct mail program is the ability to continuously iterate--to measure your baseline performance, and keep optimizing your direct mail performance with data and results gained from your sends.

Lob offers you ways to gain unprecedented visibility into where every single individual mail piece is moving in the delivery mailstream, and can alert you with notifications at each stage so that you can build sophisticated downstream workflows and processes based on these alerts. You can also define, search, and slice and dice your mailpiece data in any way you see fit, to better understand channel performance and attribution.

Browse our available mail formats and associated design specs:

A snap pack is a pressure-sealed mailer with perforated sides for easy opening. Snap pack mailers are versatile and can be used by a wide range of industries including Financial Services, Education, and Healthcare. The official-looking nature of snap packs demands attention, offers unique tactile engagement, and has one of the highest open rates among mail types.

To get started with snap packs, check out our ,or for inspiration.

Layout dimensions & specs

Layout dimensions

Lob’s snap pack offering has a flat, final trim size of 8.5x11”, a folded (in half) dimension of 8.5x5.5", and three perforated sides. Snaps packs are printed double-sided in black and white or color.

Reference our design templates on where to place your design elements; carefully note the location of the address block and other ink-free zones.

Snap packs DO NOT need additional trim space added to their dimensions because their production journey does not involve trimming (the way a postcard would). Please set your document sizing to the above dimensions when submitting to Lob.

Paper specs

We use a few pre-approved papers across our commercial printer network. In ensuring uniform quality and consistency across all of our mail pieces, each paper source specification must fall within a small range.

The specification/value range pairs are:

• 8.5 x 11" B&W & color snap packs

• Basis Weight: 80# text

• Bi-fold

Ink-free zone dimensions

8.5x11" snap packs:

• ½” around the entire flat piece (for perforation)

Snap pack best practices

Ensure your snap pack self-mailers get to their final destination by following these guidelines:

• The from field is required for all self-mailers, regardless of the destination

• Snap pack should not contain any PII outside of the

• Avoid any to ensure your mail does not get rejected by USPS

• HIPAA-compliant snap packs are offered at this time, so long as all HIPAA related information is on the inside of the snap pack.

• options may differ based on destination and use type (e.g. promotional vs non-promotional)

• We do not recommend placing promotional address information in your creative in the bottom 2.375" of a mailpiece opposite the address panel. This will prevent the USPS from accidentally scanning the wrong side of the mailpiece.

Lob's Address Verification API provides a comprehensive solution for businesses looking to optimize their international customer experiences and make more informed decisions about their international address data.

International verifications

Validate, automatically correct, and standardize non-US international addresses. See our for details.

We follow for sending international mail. Therefore, any addresses submitted in a language other than English will see the address returned in English.

International deliverability insights

Lob's International Deliverability provides greater visibility into an address’s delivery response so customers can make more informed decisions about how they manage international address data. Customers are able to understand when a portion of the address has been corrected and if it has resolved the deliverability issues. To leverage this data, review the complete under Status.

International autocomplete

International address autocompletion for non-US addresses is not currently available. If you believe this feature is integral to your business, please reach out to to see if we can support your needs.

Configurable transliteration

Configurable Transliteration provides Address Verification customers greater flexibility and customization when operating around the world. Lob ensures that addresses are correct and deliverable while providing optionality for the address response to be in the native language. This means a customer is able to provide cart checkout messaging that adapts based on where the end customer is located thus creating a more personalized experience. It also means that when working with foreign languages with non-Latin characters the data is seamlessly transliterated and mapped for normalized data storage.

To customize your language response, review the complete under x-lang-output.

Global AV data coverage

Country Coverage equips Lob customers with the details needed to make an informed decision about a deliverable address and the potential for false positives. The International Address Verification API provides validation to varying degrees of granularity depending on the country the address is in. Country Coverage indicates the level to which an address has been verified. To leverage this information, review the under Coverage.

View our most updated here.

Overview

Salesforce is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that helps businesses manage customer interactions, track sales, and automate various business processes.

The Salesforce integration with Lob allows you to automate direct mail campaigns within the Lob dashboard, based off any event trigger change that occurred within your Salesforce account.

How to connect Lob with Salesforce

1. Within the Lob Dashboard, navigate to the Integrations page and click on “Salesforce” to view the Salesforce connection page. When on the Salesforce page, click the “Connect” button to begin.

2. This will launch a modal to sign into your Salesforce account. Any Salesforce accounts you have previously used may be automatically detected. When prompted, enter the credentials to the Salesforce account you wish to connect.

• Your organization must be on a paid Salesforce plan/tier with API access enabled.

• The user in the account must have Admin level permissions, with access to the tables needed.

1. Once the account is authenticated, Lob will start the ‘Connect’ phase, and will read the schema of your Salesforce instance. (This is so you can use the objects and columns later when setting up a campaign.) Depending on your Salesforce instance’s size, this may take a few minutes but runs asynchronously, requiring no active monitoring.You will receive an email when this is complete.

2. Once you have successfully connected your Salesforce account to Lob, the label will show “Connected”.

Once you’ve successfully connected Lob to your Salesforce account, you can from within the Campaigns flow.

Utilize Lob’s Lookalike Audience product to build an audience that looks similar to your existing high-converting customers. An audience name and a CSV upload of your existing customers are the only required information for this audience type.

File upload

A lookalike audience is an audience that is modeled off of your first party data, so we require that you upload that data in the request form. Please ensure that you read our file requirements, as any datasets that don't adhere to them will likely result in us not being able to build a Lookalike Audience. The file requirements for your first party data are:

• Contains at least 2,000 customers

• Ideally includes name, postal address, phone number, + email. At a minimum includes one of the below combinations:

  • Name + postal address

  • Email

  • Name + phone number

• Includes customers who have shown intent (ex: recently purchased)

• Only includes B2C data

• Data is accurate and complete

After your file is successfully uploaded, we ask you what information is in the file, and then we ask you to tell us which columns in your uploaded file map to our required fields.

Targeting by locations and traits

Location and demographic targeting is optional. The location search box will allow you to search any US state, and you can add as many states as you need. If no state is added, all US states will be included in the Lookalike audience. Below locations, you'll find all the traits that we offer. You can target as many as you need for your audience.

Exclusion lists

Exclusion lists are an enterprise-only feature that allow you to avoid purchasing addresses for customers you already have access to. This feature is as simple as uploading a csv of the customers you would like us to exclude from the audience we build for you. The csv can have postal addresses, email addresses, or phone numbers. The more information that is included in the file, the higher likelihood that we can successfully find and exclude the customers.

After your exclusion list is successfully uploaded, we ask you what information is in the file, and then we ask you to tell us which columns in your uploaded file map to our required fields.

Submitting your audience request

After your file is uploaded and desired filters are selected, click “Submit Audience Request” to actually submit your request. There is no cost to submitting a Lookalike Audience request. You will be notified by email when your list is ready, and at that point, you can choose to proceed with purchase or not.

Marketing attribution is important in measuring performance for any channel, online or offline, because it helps to understand the specific impact of any certain content that is driving lead conversions, and thus driving revenue. In the context of multi-channel campaigns, direct attribution allows you to know for certain whether a direct mail touch was the one that drove a conversion.

Traditional channels are historically challenging to target and measure, with direct mail being an 'Exhibit A' example of this issue. However, as a modern direct mail platform, Lob offers various approaches to measure attribution as best possible and to provide greater visibility in a rather opaque channel.

Embedding customized CTAs

Similar to email, direct mail campaigns can measure direct attribution by creating a customized call-to-action CTA that's unique to the end-recipient of the mail piece. This can be a URL, coupon code, phone number, or QR code. Ideally, each CTA should be as dynamically generated and unique as possible, and can be tracked individually if it is followed. If not down to the individual level, creating unique CTAs for each campaign (or cohorts within it) would allow a better understanding of how specific campaigns or cohorts are driving better conversions.

Triggering downstream workflows with webhooks

Webhooks allow real-time notifications of mail status for individual mail pieces (generated in the form of tracking events) as it progresses through the USPS mailstream. The two most impactful scanned events are the "Processed for Delivery" and "Delivered" events, which means that a USPS courier is about to deliver mail within the next day, or has successfully delivered the mail piece, respectively. If you have a multichannel campaign in progress, you can design for either of these events to trigger an additional sequence of events downstream, such as reinforcement reminders using other digital channels, a limited-time-only action, or some other action or acknowledgment that's unique to your business workflow.

These webhooks and ensuing downstream triggers can indirectly impact your mail piece's broader success or conversion, along with the overall campaign involving the direct mail touch.

Assigning metadata to retrieve data

Metadata can be used to identify, locate, and "tag" mail pieces or particular campaigns. While metadata is not directly responsible for attribution, appropriately tagging mail pieces is a critical step in measuring attribution at a more granular level.

Learn more about metadata and how it can help measure conversion and attribution through various ways of tagging in our Lob systems.

Lob engagement analytics

Engagement metrics provide insights into what content resonates with which audiences; this is essential to optimizing your campaigns (so you can do more of what works!)

Include Lob-generated QR Codes on your mailpieces to view engagement analytics in the following ways:

• In the Lob dashboard: Under the Mail Analytics section, see the Engagement tab for an aggregate view. Or, view campaign-specific analytics on any individual campaign's detail page, under QR Code Engagement.

• Via API: Receive detailed analytics via our QR Analytics endpoint.

Overview

Our Figma plugin enables designers to create dynamic, personalized creative within a familiar design tool environment, and export them to Lob to be used in mail campaigns.

Here’s what you can expect

• Design it. Build branded templates with proper dimensions, address blocks, and bleed lines.

• Personalize it. Add dynamic variables, like first name or variable imagery, to tailor each piece.

• Send it. Your design automatically ports to Lob when you're ready to send.

In order to use the plugin, you can navigate to the Integrations section of your Lob dashboard. The Figma plugin is listed in the Design Tools section of the page. You can also go straight to the Figma to Lob listing to download the plugin.

Enter your Lob login information to the plugin to get started.

Steps to using the plugin

Step 1 - Create a template

Once you have downloaded the plugin, you will want to create a new base file by creating a template.

1. Create and open a blank design template.

2. Open the plugin at the top and select the desired mail format. We currently offer templates for Letters: 8.5x11, Postcards 4x6, 6x9, 6x11 , and Self-Mailers 6x18, 12x9, 11x9

3. Click "Continue"

Step 2 - Design away

Now that you have your template set up, you should go ahead and design as you normally would! To create dynamic personalization in your creative:

1. Mark dynamic text with double brackets. e.g. {{first_name}}

2. Name dynamic images with double brackets on the leftside nav

When you send mail with Lob, dynamic text / imagery is populated when columns in your audience file map to merge variables in your creative.

Best practices to keep in mind while designing:

• Create your design on the template generated and be sure to only use 1 root frame (ensure all design elements, shapes, images, text are all contained within this single frame)

• Rotating the root frame of your design file will result in an error

• Be sure your design fits within the bleedlines, and takes the address block into account. We will automatically hide guide layers (bleedlines, address block) when you export - if you change the names of guide layers you will need to hide them on your own.

• No need to flatten non-variable imagery and text - this will happen automatically on export

• For letter templates, duplicate the second page until you have the needed page count

Step 3 - Port to Lob

Once your design is ready, it's time to export it to your Lob account. The plugin achieves this by converting your Figma design into HTML.

1. Open the plugin and click "Export your mail design"

2. If your design uses Google fonts and static imagery, Lob will auto-host your background imagery. Your creative will appear as an HTML template in your Lob account.

   1. As a default, the plugin sets your template as a Live HTML Template, but you can always choose to set it as a Test Template instead.

   2. Assets will not expire, but we do have a 100 asset cap in place to manage storage per account. Once you hit this cap, reach out to support and we will help you clear room for new images.

3. If you’re using variable imagery, you can still click "continue" to port your creative to your Lob account. While building your campaign, you'll need to host these images and add hosted image URLs to your audience file in order to map images to recipients.

For those using custom fonts (ie. fonts not available at https://fonts.google.com/), we need access to the versions of that font you’re using in order to port your dynamic creative to Lob. Don't worry—we've laid out instructions for how to host custom fonts yourself here.

If you have any questions on the plugin, contact your CSM or reach out to [email protected]. Happy designing!

One-time campaigns

A common approach to sending direct mail is to send a single, large campaign to a target audience.

At Lob, a "one-time" campaign is a one-to-many method of mail distribution to a broad audience using a single set of mailing instructions.

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, you can create campaigns using our flexible settings and guidance, choose from various delivery options, and apply dynamic personalization at unprecedented granular levels.

One-time campaign execution is easy in the Lob Dashboard via Campaigns, or programmatically via our Campaigns API.

Automated campaigns (trigger-based)

Another common way to send direct mail is to individually dispatch mail, usually initiated by pre-programmed logic or event within an orchestration workflow.

"Triggered" mail is an automated process that sends mail to a single recipient when they meet a pre-set condition or take a defined set of actions within a certain timeline.

Lob refers to these event- or trigger-based campaigns as automated campaigns.

Using Lob's single endpoint APIs, you can create a custom trigger automation from scratch, or take advantage of popular pre-built API integrations to connect to a platform you already use for your digital channels. Or for a less technical lift, you can automate your sends directly from the Lob dashboard.

Self-mailers can grab attention with their creative design unfolding to tell your brand's story. They offer more room for your messaging but are folded to a compact size. Their all-in-one format eliminates the need for envelopes, encouraging immediate engagement from recipients and facilitating a quicker response.

Check out the following resources to get started with self-mailers

• API documentation: or

• Lob dashboard: section or for self-mailer campaigns

• for HTML templates

• for ready-to-use creatives and design inspiration

Self-mailer formats

Layout dimensions & specs

Layout dimensions

Lob currently supports the following self-mailers:

• : measures 6x9” when folded in half, no offset of panels, and unfolds horizontally

• : measures 6x9” when folded in half, no offset of panels, and unfolds vertically

• : measures 6x9" when folded in half, has a 1" offset between the top and bottom panels when folded, and only unfolds vertically

• : measures 6”x9" when c-folded inward, has a .25" offset on the bottom panel when folded, and only unfolds vertically.

Follow our design templates carefully to ensure you place your design elements for each permutation, including the location of the adhesive, in the appropriate location. (For example, there are four panels available to customize for all bifolds, wherein one of the outside panels must have an for the address and postage area.)

Paper specs

We use a few pre-approved papers across our commercial printer network. In ensuring uniform quality and consistency across all of our mail pieces, each paper source specification must fall within a small range. The specification/value range pairs are listed below:

• Basis Weight: 80# Cover with Gloss

• GSM: 218

• Full Bleed

• 1 Side UV Gloss

Ink-free zone dimensions

• 6x18" bifold self-mailer

  • W x H: 4 x 2.375"

  • 0.15" from the center fold line

  • 0.25" from the bottom edge (including bleed)

  • Placement: Left panel outside

• 12x9" bifold self-mailer

  • W x H: 4 x 2.375"

  • 0.15" from the center fold line

  • 0.25" from the right edge (including bleed)

  • Placement: Top panel outside

• 11x9" bifold self-mailer

  • W x H: 4 x 2.375"

  • 0.15" from the center fold line

  • 0.25" from the right edge (including bleed)

  • Placement: Top panel outside

• 17.75x9" trifold self-mailer

  • W x H: 4 x 2.375" 0.15" from the center fold line

  • 0.25" from the right edge (including bleed)

  • Placement: Top panel outside

  • Glue zone 9”x.5” (at 12” score)

Self-mailer adhesives

Stain-resistant, low tack, clear fugitive glue is used for adhesives on the folded self-mailers.

Glue is positioned within 0.25" of the opening edges and placed opposite the final fold. Glue is applied by one of the following methods:

• Continuous glue line at least 0.125" wide

• Three or four glue spots at least 0.375" in diameter

• Three or four elongated glue lines

Self-mailer best practices

Ensure your self-mailers get to their final destination by following these guidelines:

• The from field is required for all self-mailers, regardless of the destination

• Self-mailers should not contain any PII outside of the

• Avoid any to ensure your mail does not get rejected by USPS

• HIPAA-compliant self-mailers are not offered at this time, as self-mailers are not placed in envelopes

• options may differ based on destination and use type (e.g. promotional vs non-promotional)

• We do not recommend placing promotional address information in your creative in the bottom 2.375" of a mailpiece opposite the address panel. This will prevent the USPS from accidentally scanning the wrong side of the mailpiece.

Metadata tags

In the Lob ecosystem, metadata is used to “tag” each mail piece or each campaign. You can use metadata to find individual mail pieces more easily and group mail pieces together for reporting and attribution. Example metadata tags could include a campaign name, a customer segment, or an internal ID. Using metadata smartly can help bridge the gap between Lob and your internal systems, allow you track mail at a more granular level, and create data-driven stories to get the most ROI out of the direct mail channel.

See .

Metadata types

There are several kinds of metadata at Lob:

• Mailpiece metadata can be used on our single mailpiece APIs.

• Campaign metadata can be used with our Campaigns feature, and allow you to filter your searches by all mailpieces in a particular campaign.

• Recipient metadata can be used within our Campaign UI feature in the dashboard, and allow you to filter by a specific subset of mailpieces.

Key-value pairs

Both mailpiece and campaign metadata rely on key-value pairs that you create.

• The key, or tag name, is what will remain consistent across all the mailpieces you’d like to create. For example, “state”.

• The value, or tag value, will be unique to each mailpiece, for example “NC” or “CA”.

• When combined, you can easily find mailpieces with “state:NC” or “state:CA”.

Metadata objects can include up to 20 key-value pairs of custom data. Each metadata key must be less than 40 characters long and values must be less than 500 characters. Neither can contain the characters " and \. Metadata does not support nested objects.

Mailpiece metadata

Mailpiece metadata applies to each individual mailpiece sent. Mailpiece metadata is great for tags that are specific to each recipient, like state:NC or first_name:John.

You can create mailpiece metadata on our single mailpiece APIs by including a metadata object with each mailpiece POST request. Here is an example of a mailpiece POST request to our api.lob.com/v1/postcards endpoint, including a metadata object:

Campaign metadata

Metadata at the campaign level is configured on the POST /v1/campaigns or in the dashboard, in the Campaigns screen at the bottom “Add Tags” section.

Each individual mailpiece created through the campaign will inherit Campaign metadata. This is great for tags you’d like to apply to an entire campaign.

Recipient metadata

In addition to Campaign metadata, you can assign metadata on the individual recipient level. This is great for instances in which you'd like to apply context specific to each individual such as a unique identifier, customer id, or email address.

Filtering your metadata

In the dashboard, you can filter metadata at the single mailpiece level. Any mailpiece created in the Campaigns function will also be visible within the single mail piece tabs.

Example: In the section, click on ‘Filters’ and search by Metadata

​

You can also go into any individual mailpiece, and see the key-value pairs tagged in the 'Metadata' section under the 'Details' section.

Postcards stand out in direct marketing for their ability to deliver eye-catching, concise content that engages recipients instantly, making them highly effective for promotional campaigns. For transactional or operational communications, their streamlined, envelope-free design ensures important information is immediately visible, enhancing clarity and response rates for critical updates or calls to action.

Let's get started! First, be sure to check out the following resources:

• API documentation: or

• Lob dashboard: section or for postcard campaigns

• for HTML templates

• for ready-to-use creatives and design inspiration

Layout dimensions & specs

Layout dimensions

The front side of the postcard is fully available for customization.

For the backside of the postcard, follow the guidance provided in the templates below to leave enough room for ink-free areas.

You may also to your postcards to incorporate personalized tracking.

Paper specs

We use a few pre-approved papers across our commercial printer network. In ensuring uniform quality and consistency across all of our mail pieces; each paper source specification must fall within a small range. The specification/value range pairs are listed below:

• Basis Weight: 100# - 120#

• Cover GSM: 255 - 325

• Full Bleed

• 1 Side UV Gloss

Ink-free zone dimensions

4x6" Postcards:

• W x H: 3.2835 x 2.375"

• 0.275" from the right edge (including bleed)

• 0.25" from the bottom edge (including bleed)

All other postcard sizes:

• W x H: 4 x 2.375"

• 0.275" from the right edge (including bleed)

• 0.25" from the bottom edge (including bleed)

Postcard best practices

Ensure your postcards get to their final destination by following these guidelines:

• All US postcards can be sent as either First Class or Marketing Mail (Standard Class Mail)

• The from field is not required for US postcards, but is required for international destinations

• Only 4x6" postcards can be sent to

• Postcards cannot include any PII outside of the

• Avoid any to ensure your mail does not get rejected by USPS

• We do not recommend placing promotional address information in your creative in the bottom 2.375" of a mailpiece opposite the address panel. This will prevent the USPS from accidentally scanning the wrong side of the mailpiece.

Lob's Address Verification API is able to correct and identify over 156 million US domestic addresses (and more globally) to determine whether or not these physical addresses are deliverable. This is because Lob is , meaning the API has been thoroughly tested by the USPS to ensure that it can accurately correct and validate street addresses. When our API confirms that a physical address is deliverable, you can be much more confident that your mail will be delivered.

US Verifications

Validate, automatically correct, and standardize US domestic addresses based on USPS's . See our for more details.

If your addresses are returning as undeliverable, refer to the various fields in the US verification object in our for detailed definitions and explanations.

US Autocomplete

Given partial address information, including optional input of city, state, and zip code, US Autocomplete returns up to 10 full US address suggestions. Not all of them will turn out to be valid addresses; they'll need to be . See our for more details.

Use of the US Autocomplete API is included with every Address Verification subscription. See our pricing page for different for more information.

Reverse Geocode Lookup

Find a list of zip codes associated with a valid US location via latitude and longitude; a live API key is required to use this feature. See our for more details.

Zip Lookups

Lob's Zip Lookup tool can verify US zip codes without having to provide a full address. If the inputted zip code is real, Lob can return information about the zip code including a list of cities, states, and other associated information. If it's not a real zip code, Lob will return an "invalid zip code" error message. See our for more details.

AV Elements

Lob Address Verification Elements verifies an address by intercepting the original form submission and pre-validating the address fields with Lob. Thus our APIs can be leveraged in customers' address entry workflows without any major rewrite required--just a few additional attributes to add to any existing markup, and it'll be running with a few minutes of work.

See our to get started.

Lob Confidence Score

The Lob Confidence Score is an object returned from the US verification endpoint that provides a value between 0-100 of the likelihood of the address being deliverable. Lob leverages its extensive insights, having sent mail to more than 1 in 2 US households, to generate a confidence score and provide more comprehensive address deliverability data.

Score definitions

• 70-100% - This address has received one or more successful deliveries

• 40-68% - This address has both mail returned to sender and successful deliveries

• 0-39% - This address has more mail returned to sender than successful deliveries

• None ("") - Lob does not have data on this address

Note that high scores do not guarantee deliverability. These are estimates based on Lob’s extensive mail tracking data.

See our under the JSON object lob_confidence_score for more details.

Thinking through your mail delivery strategy can be a powerful differentiator in fostering meaningful connections, and should be a strategic pillar in building any direct mail program. Being adaptive in how you send and deliver mail given fast-changing customer preferences and market conditions can have an outsized impact on improving your reach, relevance, and responses.

Lob’s automation technology offers different delivery options to deploy your direct mail campaigns with regards to speed, reach, and timing, so you can get in front of your target audience in a way that engages them the most.

Immediate (or "ASAP") mailings

As a default, Lob mail will be immediately sent and routed to production after the customer submits a mail order, pending any applied at the account or campaign level. This is the primary API setting for Lob mailings that is available to all customers, and optimizes for speed of delivery over delivery timing or reach.

See on how to track individual mail pieces at each step of the production and delivery process, and see on setting up and surfacing mail tracking notifications.

Scheduled mailings for a future date

Mailings can be scheduled up to 180 days in the future. Until that time, mailings can also be canceled. You can use this feature to

• Create automated drip campaigns (e.g. send a postcard at 15, 30, and 60 days)

• Schedule recurring sends

• Plan your mailing schedule ahead of time

Up until the time a mailing is scheduled for, it can also be canceled. If you use this feature in conjunction with a cancellation window, the send_date parameter will always take precedence.

Example: Create request using send_date

Scheduling a future mailing

Scheduling a mailing for the future just requires one additional parameter: send_date. This specifies a date and time up to 180 days in the future to start processing the mailing. For billing purposes, requests will count towards the month of their send_date, and will not be charged if they are canceled before that time. If your account has a set for the resource you are creating, passing a send_date will override that window. For more detailed request information, see our .

Canceling a future mailing

If something changes on your side and you no longer wish to send a mailing that had already been scheduled (such as the customer taking a certain action), you can programmatically as long as the mailing's send_date has not passed. Additionally, you can cancel a mailing from your on the page associated with your mail piece.

Target delivery date

Lob prides itself on speed of execution: our goal is to get mail into the USPS mailstream within 2 business days from submission. However, we’ve heard from customers that more exact timing of delivery is of equal importance. We are currently developing a new feature for timing mail arrival in the end-recipient’s mailbox.

Our goal with Target Delivery will be for 80% of campaign mail pieces to land in the recipient’s mailbox on or within 3 business days before or after the specified in-home target date. With a target release date in 2024, this feature will be available to Enterprise edition customers and prospects who can meet the requirements of volume and saturation.

One of the most prized value propositions of our Address Verification solution is our access to detailed USPS deliverability data which provides a clear, binary value as to whether or not an address is capable of receiving mail. Because Lob sends millions of mailpieces, we also have the data and the intelligence to provide more context that can be useful when considering whether or not to send mail to a specific address.

This useful information is returned to you in the Address Verification API response; .

What you’ll see in the AV API response

Deliverability

The USPS returns empirical data to Lob on whether or not an address is deliverable (returned in the deliverability field), but it’s important to keep in mind the term “deliverable” is literal here— while the address itself may literally be deliverable, it does not guarantee the intended recipient can/will accept mail upon delivery attempt.

This is where it becomes important to make further analysis of the API response.

Address Type

While evaluation on this metric doesn’t really have a bearing on the number of successful deliveries in your campaign, under components, the address_type field contains human-readable definitions for the type of the specified address.

Address type may be very relevant, depending on the goal of your campaign. For example:

• Realtors may only be interested in addresses with an address_type of “residential”

• A startup pitching to companies may only be interested in those noted as “commercial”

• Those who wish to opt-out of sending mail to more rural areas would want to filter out address types returned as “rural route”

A full list of address types can be found

Delivery Point Validation (DPV)

Under deliverability_analysis we provide more information about addresses. provides the highest level of address accuracy-checking: the address is checked against the USPS Address Management System (AMS) data file to ensure that it exists as an active delivery point to where mail can be delivered. DPV is intended to confirm USPS addresses but also identify potential addressing issues that may hinder delivery. Several sub-fields are included in DPV data to provide additional context on the given address; these fields are one of many variables factored into USPS decision-making when determining deliverability.

The dpv_active field corresponds to the USPS field dpv_no_stat. Even if an address is deliverable by definition, it could still be flagged as "N" for inactive. "N" indicates an address is not receiving deliveries for one reason or another:

• the address has been vacated recently

• the address has been unoccupied for 90+ days, thus considered temporarily vacant

• the address does not wish to receive mail for unspecified reasons

Lob Confidence Scores

The (lob_confidence_score) is our prediction of successful delivery based on our historical data for an address. If we sent 10 mailpieces to an address, and all 10 were successfully delivered, the address would have a score of 100. If we sent 10 mailpieces to an address, but 8 were , it would have a much lower score of 20. Our Confidence Scores are updated monthly to reflect new delivery attempts.

You may want to consider using the Confidence Score based on the that you send:

• If you are sending operational mail, you may only need proof that the mailpiece was sent to a valid address on file, and successful delivery may not be as important.

• If you are sending marketing mail, it is strongly suggested that you consider this field before sending, as addresses with Confidence Scores under 100 indicate the address has rejected mail before.

Return to sender (RTS) rates

Without validation, the industry average RTS rate is 5-10%, but through the use of our AV solutions, we see customers with an average RTS rate of 2% or less. Historically, mail campaigns have been prone to imperfection, but through the use of the best practices provided, return-to-sender rates can be driven lower.

Cache if you can!

Lastly, for customers working with full tech stacks, we highly recommend caching responses to our AV endpoint, as prices are made per API call. So, if an end-user has made a request for the validation of an address (ex: “210 King St, San Francisco, CA”), cache this result internally for at least 24 hours. Now, if another customer attempts to validate that same address, you can pull it from the cache instead and are only charged for the original API call.

Overview

Microsoft Dynamics 365 (MD365) is an integrated suite of business applications that combines customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) capabilities. This platform helps organizations streamline their operations, improve customer engagement, and make data-driven decisions.

The integration of MD365 with Lob enables businesses to enhance their operational efficiency by triggering mailpiece creation populated by data within MD365. This ensures a cohesive and effective approach to business process management and customer interaction strategies.

How to connect Lob with Microsoft Dynamics 365

New Registration in Microsoft Azure

1. To begin, you'll need to your associated Azure account as an admin. If you do not have an Azure account, you learn how to create one .

2. Once in the Azure Portal, navigate to the App Registration page (you can use the search bar at the top to find it.)

1. Click New Registration at the Top

2. Set the Redirect URI to

1. Click on Register to create the application.

1. Select Manifest tab, in the manifest editor, set the allowPublicClient property to true and click on Save.

1. Select the API permissions tab and then go ahead and click "Add a permission".

1. Search for and choose Dataverse under the APIs my organization uses tab. If Dataverse is not found, then search for Common Data Service.

1. Click on Delegated permissions, check the options, and click on Add permissions. This will wrap up registering your app in the Azure Active Directory!

Connect to Lob

1. Within the Lob Dashboard, navigate to the Integrations page and click on “Microsoft Dynamics 365.”

2. Click the “Connect” button to begin.

• Client ID is on the overview page

• A Client Secret can be made by navigating to the "Certificates and Secrets" tab on the left

  • Click " + New Client Secret"

  • Give it a description

  • The Value is your Client Secret (NOTE: Save this value somewhere else just in case!)

• The Organization ID and Environment URL can pulled by your admin in the "Power Platform admin center" page under "Environments."

  • Click the environment you want to integrate with.

1. Once you have connected your Salesforce account to Lob, if successful the “Not Connected” label will show “Connected."

Once you’ve successfully connected Lob to your MD365 account, you can from within the Campaigns flow.

Shopify overview

is an e-commerce platform that allows anyone to set up an online store to sell their products. With Lob’s Address Verification integration, you can validate every address submitted within your Shopify store, ensuring that your addresses are deliverable and that shipments arrive at the right place.

Benefits:

• Ensures accuracy by correcting mistakes and misspelled addresses

• Suggested addresses meet USPS address formatting requirements with data standardization

• Flag missing mandatory delivery fields such as unit numbers, streets suffixes, etc.

• Identify P.O. Boxes and residential or commercial buildings

• Reduce non deliverable addresses with delivery verification

Getting started

Step 1: Visit the Shopify store

Visit the “Lob Address Cleanser” page in Shopify and add the app to your store:

Step 2: Install Lob’s Address Cleanser

Once you click “Add app”, Shopify will guide you through the installation process, which will require you to select your store and click their “install app” button.

Step 3: Customize your shopper’s experience

Once installed, you’ll be taken directly to getting started page within Shopify. Address Cleanser will be disabled by default once installed, and here you’ll have the option to customize the experience your customers will see in your store. You can customize the font type as well as color theme to match your branding.

The above popup will show to your customers after they have submitted their order to give them the option to correct and dial in their shipping address for more accurate delivery.

Step 4: Enable Address Cleanser on your store

Payment details are required in order to set Address Cleanser live on your Shopify store. Click the “View Plans” tab within the app, and you’ll see two options for you to submit payment:

1. If you’re an existing Lob customer, you can link your Lob live environment API key to the Shopify account, and you’ll be set! Address Verification will be live and enabled on your Shopify store.

2. If you’re not a Lob customer, you can use the left widget which will allow you to connect payment through Shopify. As a new customer to Lob, enjoy 300 address verifications on us! After 300, you’ll be charged $.02 for a verification in the United States. $.04 for international orders.

You’ll see an option in which you can set a max spend per month, and after setting, you’ll be taken to a final screen to approve the billing through Shopify’s portal. Click “Approve” and you’re set!

Step 5: Sit back, relax, and have confidence around your addresses

Now that is up and running on your store, know that the addresses coming into your Shopify account are deliverable and validated. If any incorrect information is provided by the customer, the customer will have a chance to correct it by selecting the address we automatically corrected for them, or allowing them to go back and edit their address.

Once updated, a customer will then see the updated address on their checkout screen. As a merchant, you will see the updated and latest address in your orders list for that customer.

We hope you enjoy ! If you have any questions, or check our .

Anatomy of a mailpiece

When you send an API request to Lob, you are sending 3 pieces of information:

1. the "To" address,

2. the "From" address, and

3. the content.

Below are some best practices to follow around formatting your address data with Lob.

What's an address?

An address gives the location of a structure or land using identifiers to help with navigation to that location. They also aid in the routing of mail.

The delivery address is the most important information on your mail piece. Use the following format for your delivery addresses:

1. Name (or attention)

2. Company* (if applicable)

3. Delivery address: Line 1, and Line 2* (if applicable)

4. City, State, ZIP Code, Country*

Items marked with a * are optional.

Address book

The Address Book is a collection of a customer’s addresses uploaded and stored in our system, which can be accessed in the Lob dashboard or you can leverage the address_id to retrieve that entry's information programmatically. Rather than passing the full address + mail information in one API call, customers can also pass the address_id (provided upon creating the address in the address book) that will look for the associated address information. This makes requests faster and simpler.

Standardization & verification

We cleanse all newly created addresses in order to optimize for maximum deliverability.

• All US addresses will be automatically standardized, cleansed, and verified through our CASS-Certified Address Verification system before being returned back to you in the API response.

• All international addresses will simply be standardized by being transformed to all uppercase.

Mail requests will be run through CASS and NCOA, as these are requirements for sending with USPS. This may result in the final mailing address being different from the ones you see in your API requests and Dashboard.

Coding Accuracy Support Systems (CASS™)

The Coding Accuracy Support Systems (CASS™) certification process is designed in cooperation with the mailing industry to improve the accuracy of postal codes, i.e., Five-Digit ZIP Code, ZIP+4, delivery point codes (DPCs), and carrier route codes that appear on mail pieces.

Lob is CASS™ certified (Cycle O) to ensure your addresses are standardized before any mail is sent.

National Change of Address (NCOALink®)

National Change of Address (NCOALink) is a service offered by the USPS, which allows individuals or businesses who have recently moved to have any mail forwarded from their previous address to their new address.

Addresses will be corrected to reflect an individual's or business's new address in the case that they have moved (only if they have registered an NCOA with the USPS). The National Change of Address (NCOALink) database check only runs for US-based addresses. It does not run for non-US addresses or for non-deliverable US addresses. For more visibility of address changes, learn more about additional NCOA functionality offered here.

Adding & deleting addresses

You cannot edit any existing addresses via the dashboard or API request. You can however delete the current address and add a new one with the updated information. For more details on adding a new address to your address book, refer to the API documentation.

If you are interested in mass-deleting addresses, you will need to set up a delete address request script. See more details on deleting in our API documentation.

Note that Lob is not permitted to add or delete addresses on behalf of customers.

Autoverify

Autoverify is included in all US Print & Mail subscriptions. Lob verifies the deliverability of all addresses before sending a request to our print partners.

Strictness settings

Depending on what business logic you'd like to take, based on your verification result, you can toggle your US address strictness settings in your Lob dashboard. There are three possible strictness levels: Strict, Normal, and Relaxed.

Learn more about the importance of mail strictness settings and how to adjust them as required by your business.

Using "Current Resident" as the recipient

The purpose of including "Current Resident" as the recipient of your mailpiece is to ensure that your message reaches its intended audience. This serves well in a case in which you're uncertain that the person(s) living at that address are the intended recipients and you do not wish to risk offending the current residents by potentially sending someone else's mail. Using the phrase "Current Resident" can be a good idea if your mailpiece is time-sensitive and the recipient may be variable.

To make an informed decision on whether or not to include the phrase, consider the purpose of your mailpiece and your target audience:

• If your mailpiece is intended to be a personal communication or a marketing message that relies on building a relationship with your audience, then you may want to avoid using the phrase "Current Resident." Learn more about dynamic personalization here.

• On the other hand, if your mailpiece is informational and the message is more important than the recipient, then you may want to include the phrase, as any recipient can still respond.

To indicate your recipient as "Current Resident," simply provide that as the name value where you would normally input a recipient's full name.

What is the USPS First Class Marketing Mail promotion?

The First-Class Marketing Mail promotion offers businesses a unique opportunity to blend the reliability and prestige of First-Class Mail with impactful advertising. Whether it’s standalone advertisements or marketing messages integrated into First-Class Mail pieces, this promotion allows businesses to captivate recipients and drive meaningful engagement. By leveraging First-Class Mail’s superior delivery service and incorporating effective marketing strategies, you can unlock powerful ways to connect with your audience and achieve your marketing goals.

How can I take advantage of the USPS First Class Marketing Mail promotion with Lob?

Eligible mail options

First-Class Mail, including letters, cards, and flats, is eligible for this promotion. Your First-Class mailings must include one of the following:

1. Marketing messages within First-Class mailpieces

2. Standalone advertisements using First-Class mailpieces

Examples of eligible marketing messages

Here are examples of the types of marketing messages you can include (not a comprehensive list):

• Discount offers:

  • “Save 10% on your next purchase with this exclusive coupon!”

  • “Unlock a special 20% discount with your personalized code!”

• Limited-time offers:

  • “Act now! This offer expires in 7 days.”

  • “Last chance to save - this offer ends Friday!”

• New product introductions:

  • “Be the first to try our latest product—now available!”

• Customer loyalty rewards:

  • “Earn double rewards points on all purchases this month.”

• Event Invitations:

  • “Join us for our exclusive VIP event next week!”

  • “You’re invited! Attend our launch party next week!”

• Personalized Offers:

  • “Here’s a gift for you, [Customer Name]! Save 15% on your next order!”

Ineligible marketing messages

The following types of messages will disqualify your mailpieces from the promotion:

• Content that promotes mail diversion (e.g., “Go paperless” or “Switch to e-billing”).

• Non-marketing messages, such as those about paying bills online.

• Purely informational messages without a marketing element (e.g., “Our hours of operation have changed”).

• Marketing messages that only appear on buck slips, stickers, note cards, or similar inserts (they must be on the mailpiece itself).

Getting campaign approval through Lob

After selecting the marketing message you plan to use for your First-Class Marketing Mail campaign, log into the Lob promotions portal to submit your campaign for approval.

Note: In order to participate in this promotion, you will first need to “Opt In” in the Lob Promotions Portal and accept the terms and conditions of participating in the promotion through Lob.

Follow this process for campaign approval:

1. Design and submit your mailpiece:

   1. Incorporate your selected marketing message directly onto your mailpiece.

   2. Ensure your design meets the promotion's requirements.

   3. Use the Lob Promotions Portal to submit your Mailpiece Pre-Approval:

      1. Upload PDF samples of your design.

2. Receive pre-approval

   1. Any changes to the final mailpiece from the submitted prototype may result in disqualification from the discount.

   2. Prototypes must be approved in writing before the mailing date.

3. Register for the promotion

   1. If you haven’t already, sign up for the First-Class Mail Advertising Promotion on the Lob Promotions Portal. This must be completed at least 2 hours before mailing.

4. Finalize and send

   1. Lob will prepare your postage statements and submit them electronically using the CCR code FA to reflect the discount.

   2. Send your mailing and keep a hard copy for your records.

5. Watch your customer engagement rise!

When is this promotion live?

The First-Class Marketing Mail promotion runs from September 1, 2025, to December 31, 2025.

What’s the easiest way to take advantage of this promotion with Lob?

• Add a marketing message: Update your operational or transactional mailpieces to include at least one marketing message directly on the mailpiece.

• Upgrade to First-Class Mail: Ensure your mailpieces are sent using First-Class Mail to qualify for the discount.

Who does Lob recommend for this promotion?

This promotion is ideal for operational and transactional customers currently using Lob’s First-Class Mail product. By adding a compliant marketing message to your mailpieces, you can unlock this discount while enhancing customer engagement. Just remember to avoid any messaging that encourages mail diversion, such as “See our website for your offers!”

Take advantage of this opportunity to elevate your mail campaigns and drive better results with Lob’s seamless workflows and USPS First-Class Marketing Mail discounts!

What is the USPS Tactile, Sensory, and Interactive promotion?

The Tactile, Sensory, and Interactive (TSI) Promotion encourages mailers to excite their customers’ senses by incorporating innovative techniques into their First-Class Mail and USPS Marketing Mail. New developments in papers and paper stocks, substrates, finishing techniques, and inks can be incorporated into mailpieces to create a multi-sensory experience through special visual effects, sound, scent, texture and even taste! Features like pop-ups, infinite folds, and other dimensional treatments encourage interaction and drive customer engagement.

The USPS offers a discount for three types of new experiences:

1. Specialty inks

2. Sensory treatments

3. Interactive elements

How can I take advantage of the USPS TSI Promotion through Lob?

The USPS Tactile, Sensory, and Interactive (TSI) promotion is all about helping you make your mail stand out. By adding unique design elements that engage the senses, you can create a stronger connection with your audience and save money. Here’s everything you need to know to qualify.

Eligible mail types

The TSI promotion is open to these types of mail:

• First-Class Mail: Letters, cards, and flats

• USPS Marketing Mail: Letters and flats

• Nonprofit USPS Marketing Mail: Letters and flats

Keep it on-message

Mailpieces that include mail diversion messaging—such as “Go paperless” or “Switch to e-billing”—are not eligible for the discount. Even if your piece includes the right treatments or technology, these types of messages will disqualify you from the promotion.

Where treatments can go

To qualify, your mailpiece needs to feature one or more eligible treatments. These can appear:

• On the outside of the envelope

• Directly on the mailpiece itself

Important: Treatments like blow-in cards, inserts, order forms, or reply envelopes don’t qualify for this promotion.

Choose Your Treatment

To take advantage of this promotion, select the sensory treatments for your mailpiece. All treatments must be produced using Lob’s Custom Format product, unless noted otherwise.

By adding these creative touches to your mail, you can enhance engagement and qualify for USPS discounts—all while creating a memorable experience for your audience.

Eligible treatments for the USPS TSI promotion

The USPS Tactile, Sensory, and Interactive (TSI) promotion is designed to encourage creative, engaging direct mail that stands out in the mailbox. To qualify for the promotional discount, mailpieces must include one or more of the eligible treatments outlined below.

Specialty inks

Showcase unique ink properties in ways that are visible and distinguishable to recipients:

• Conductive inks: Activate electronic devices or include printed, battery-powered circuits.

• Thermochromic inks: Change colors in response to temperature shifts.

• Photochromic inks: Change colors when exposed to UV light.

• Metallic and optically variable inks: Create reflective effects or metallic sheens.

• Piezochromic inks: Change appearance when pressure is applied.

• Hydrochromic inks: Transform when exposed to water or liquids.

• Scented inks: Add fragrances using scented varnishes or coatings to amplify your message.

Non-eligible ink treatments: If the specialty ink resembles a photo or doesn’t create a distinguishable effect as listed above, it won’t qualify. Treatments must deliver a noticeable and impactful effect to recipients.

Sensory treatments

Engage the senses with innovative designs that appeal to sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch:

• Texture: Use papers that feel soft, leathery, crinkly, or feature embossing for a tactile experience.

  • Pro tip: Lob can swap standard blank #10 envelopes with grooved blank #10 envelopes, which can run through our normal workflow and qualify for the discount. Reach out to your AM to discuss your options.

• Scent marketing: Incorporate unique aromas using scented varnishes, coatings, or labels.

• Visual effects: Add holographic treatments, filters, or lenticular designs to enhance your message.

Interactive Elements

Deliver a dynamic and engaging experience that encourages recipients to interact with your mailpiece:

• Integration: Use three-dimensional elements, pop-ups, zip strips, clean-release cards, and more to surprise and delight.

• Infinite folds: Include layers of hidden information behind folds for customers to uncover.

• Trailing edge die- cut (TED-C) envelopes: Add eye-catching cutouts and shapes that make your piece stand out.

• Pro tip: Lob offers “Tip-on-Card” or “Card Affix” options through our normal workflow, which qualify for the promotion when used in tip-on-card (TOC) campaigns.

By incorporating one or more of these eligible treatments, you can transform your mailpiece into an unforgettable experience and qualify for the USPS TSI promotional discount.

How to Get Campaign Approval for USPS TSI Promotion with Lob

Participating in the USPS TSI promotion through Lob is simple with a step-by-step process designed to help your campaign qualify for discounts while delivering standout mailpieces.

Step 1: Select your sensory treatment

Decide which eligible sensory treatment you’d like to incorporate into your campaign. Options include specialty inks, tactile finishes, or interactive elements.

• For grooved envelopes or Tip-On-Cards: Use Lob’s standard workflow by specifying the inventory item in your API call. In order to participate in this promotion starting on 2/1/2025, customers need to have their inventory order placed for either their grooved envelopes or Tip-On-Cards by 12/31/24.

• For other sensory treatments: Submit your campaign through Lob’s Custom Format workflow.

Step 2: Opt-in to the promotion

To get started, log into the Lob Promotions Portal:

1. Select “Opt-In” for the USPS TSI promotion.

2. Accept the terms and conditions for participating in the promotion through Lob.

Step 3: Design and sample your mailpiece

1. Design: Work with your Lob Account Manager (AM) to create a mailpiece featuring your selected treatment.

2. Sample approval:

   1. Create digital and physical samples of your mailpiece.

   2. Upload the sample via a Service Request in the Lob Promotions Portal.

Step 4: Submit for USPS approval

1. Lob will print the relevant information from your service request and mail it, along with your mailpiece sample, to the USPS Promotions Office.

2. You’ll receive approval via email and in the Promotions Portal.

Step 5: Finalize program enrollment

1. Lob will enroll you in the Tactile, Sensory, Interactive Program on the Business Customer Gateway.

2. Lob will prepare and electronically submit your postage statements, using the CCR code “SS” to reflect the discount.

Step 6: Send your mailing

• Keep a hard copy of your mailpiece for your records.

Step 7: Enjoy the results!

Once your mail is sent, sit back and watch your customer engagement rise—thanks to the powerful impact of sensory, tactile, and interactive direct mail!

For any questions or assistance, your Lob AM is here to help every step of the way.

FAQ: How to Take Advantage of the USPS TSI Promotion with Lob

What’s the easiest way to qualify for the TSI promotion?

• If you’re sending letters in Lob’s standard blank #10 window envelopes, contact your Account Manager (AM) about switching to Grooved Standard #10 envelopes. This upgrade qualifies your mail for the promotion while keeping your workflow simple.

• For customers interested in tip-on cards (TOC), Lob’s standard product supports this option. Work with your AM to source the necessary inventory and set up your campaign.

Who does Lob recommend this promotion for?

Lob recommends all letter customers update their Standard Blank #10 envelopes to Grooved Standard Blank #10 envelopes to take advantage of the TSI promotion. This quick and easy change ensures eligibility while enhancing your mailpiece’s tactile appeal. Ensure you speak with your AM about your Grooved Envelope inventory needs prior to 12/31/2024.

When does the USPS TSI promotion run?

The promotion runs from February 1, 2025, to July 31, 2025. Be sure to plan and execute your campaigns during this period to maximize your savings and engagement.

How do I get started?

Reach out to your Lob AM to discuss your options and ensure your mailpieces meet the requirements for this exciting promotion.

Letters are highly effective for direct marketing due to their personal touch and tangible presence, enhancing recipient engagement. They also serve well for transactional or operational communications, offering a formal and reliable delivery of important information that stands out from digital clutter.

Lob offers two sizes of letters: 8.5x11" and 8.5x14".

To get started with sending letters, check out our Letters API documentation, our GitHub library, or Lob's Template Gallery for inspiration.

Layout dimensions & specs

Layout dimensions

8.5x11" letters

Lob offers 8.5" x 11" letters in both black & white and in color, which can be printed single or double-sided. Letters and checks not exceeding 6 tri-folded sheets of paper in total will be sent in standard #10 double-windowed outer envelopes. Letters and checks over 6 sheets of paper but not exceeding 60 total sheets of paper will be mailed in a flat envelope.

Reference our design templates on where to place your design elements for letters; carefully note the placement of the address block.

• Letter design template (for 6 sheets of paper or less)

• Letter design template (for over 6 sheets of paper but not exceeding 60)

Lob standard letters cannot accommodate letters that bleed or print edge-to-edge. All text and design must be 1/16” from all sides leaving the required 1/16” clear space on all sides.

8.5x14” Letters (“Legal letters”)

Lob offers 8.5x14" letters in both black & white and in color, which can be printed single or double-sided.

Using two parallel folds, a legal-sized letter is folded in half, then folded again with a slight overlap (two edge panels will be slightly larger than the middle panels); this allows it to fit in a standard #10 double-windowed outer envelope. Legal letters cannot exceed 3 sheets of paper at this time.

Reference our design templates on where to place your design elements for letters; carefully note the placement of the address block.

• Legal letter design template (3 sheets of paper or less)

Lob Legal letters cannot accommodate letters that bleed or print edge-to-edge. All text and design must be 1/16” from all sides leaving the required 1/16” clear space on all sides.

Paper specs

We use a few pre-approved papers across our commercial printer network. In ensuring uniform quality and consistency across all of our mail pieces, each paper source specification must fall within a small range. The specification/value range pairs are:

• 8.5" x 11" B&W & color letters

  • Basis Weight: 60# text

  • C-fold letters

• 8.5" x 14" B&W & color letters

  • Basis Weight: 60# text

  • Double parallel fold

Address placement

If you do not follow these address guidelines, your letter will be printed incorrectly.

The address_placement parameter specifies the location of the address information that will show through the double-window envelope. Options are top_first_page and insert_blank_page.

By default, Lob selects address_placement = top_first_page, meaning Lob will print address information at the top of your provided first page. Make sure to leave ample space for the address information to be printed, which will show through our standard double-windowed envelope. To see how this will impact your letter design, view our letter template (6 sheets or less).

If you pass address_placement = insert_blank_page, a blank address page will be inserted at the beginning of your file where we will print the address information to show through our standard double-windowed envelope.

Logo placement

Your logo should be entirely within the blue box of the letter template, with no overlap of the red box, in order to print appropriately.

If you're looking to print a color logo then ensure you're setting the color parameter to 'true' if you would like to print in color otherwise you can set it to false.

Letter best practices

Ensure your letters get to their final destination by following these guidelines:

• The from field is required for all letters, regardless of the destination

• Letters may contain PII as envelopes have an interior security tint for privacy

• Mailing class options may differ based on the destination and use case (e.g. promotional vs transactional)

Lob captures data for each mailpiece created and provides an easy way to export it as a CSV file. Exporting data allows for in-depth performance analysis, auditing, or other purposes, but we strongly recommend customers do this on a regular cadence for record-keeping and maintenance.

Data available for download

Exporting your data from the Lob dashboard

1. Log in to your Lob dashboard.

2. In the left side menu of your dashboard, navigate to the appropriate mail format for which you'd like to download your data (e.g., "Postcards.")

3. Select the environment (Live or Test) from which to download your data. In our example below, "Test" environment is selected.

4. Filter for the date range you want mailing details.

This search is inclusive, i.e., the first date that will have information retrieved will be the Start Date from 00:00 UTC, and the last day of information returned will be the End Date up until 23:59 UTC.

5. Once you have your filters selected, click "Apply" to filter on the range being displayed.

6. From this newly filtered view, select the "Export" button.

• Export Tracking events: If you are exporting Live environment requests, and there are tracking events associated with them, a pop-up will appear to "Select Tracking Events." If you choose Yes, you will receive a second export of tracking events. You will have the option to include all events or a specific subset of events. Click "Submit."

• A pop-up will show your data selections for the Product, Mode, and Date Range parameters. If you have selected to receive an additional CSV of tracking events, this will be noted. Once you are satisfied with your data selections, hit the “Confirm” option on the bottom right. Examples:

7. You will be emailed an export link to the report that you just requested. (This will be emailed to the user who is logged into the Lob dashboard making the request.)

Video walkthrough

If you have any questions regarding exporting your data, reach out to your Customer Success Manager or to [email protected].

Lob occasionally encounters problems with the creative when rendering mailpieces; this can occur with either PDFs or HTML. To avoid sending out erroneous mailpieces, Lob provides visibility of these errors, with proactive notification of rendering errors in place.

PDF

Lob will fail incorrectly formatted PDFs. See our PDF preflight checklist here to ensure your file will process through our rendering engine.

HTML

Lob will fail HTML that includes inaccessible assets (images, fonts, any other URLs):

• the link to an asset is incorrect

• the asset referenced in the file is missing

• Lob has not been given the correct permission to access the asset (ensure that the link is set to public viewing, and not private)

• when a remote asset references a local asset (for example, a remote asset is at www.example.com which then references something local in that directory)

• slow or under-resourced server providing the asset (we recommend using a performant service, such as Amazon S3, to host the content)

HTML Template Preview

If your HTML contains an inaccessible asset, your HTML preview will error. Details of the error will be displayed in a future release.

In the Campaigns UI flow

• When creating your Campaign, you may be notified when you generate a Creative Proof (if the sample mailpiece that is rendered results in an error); if this occurs you should troubleshoot against the above list.

• After placing the order, you will be notified in the dashboard, and the reason for the error will be provided (click to enlarge):

• The Lob support team will proactively reach out.

API users

• API customers will receive an error notification in the API response.

• The Lob support team will proactively reach out.

Webhooks

Webhooks users can subscribe to receive notifications of failed orders. (Learn more about using webhooks here.)

1. Under Webhooks in the dashboard, in the Live environment, click Create.

2. Check [formfactor].failed; click Create.

If subscribed to postcard.failed, letter.failed, and/or check.failed, and Lob fails an order during rendering, the following error messages are possible:

"Rendering failed due to asset issue:

• The requested asset was not found: <asset link>"

• The requested asset is not permitted: <asset link>"

• Authentication is required to access the requested asset: <asset link>"

• An internal server error occurred for: <asset link>"

• The requested asset timed out: <asset link>"

• An unknown server error occurred for: <asset link>"

• The requested service is unavailable for: <asset link>"

• An unknown error occurred for: <asset link>"

If not one of the most common errors above, or a PDF failure, "try re-render” will be returned.

Overview

Identifying your mail use type helps Lob populate the right mail settings and postage options to ensure your mail is produced and delivered in an optimal way. Lob requires that you identify—or tag—your mail with one of the following use type options:

• Marketing mail: Any mailers that are sent for marketing, advertising, and promotional purposes

• Operational mail: All other mail, typically transactional or functional in nature, such as invoices, adverse action notices, statements, and other confidential mail that include sensitive PII/PHI data

How to declare your mail use type

You should declare your mail’s use type at the appropriate level based on your organization's usage (at the account, campaign, or mailpiece level).

1. Setting use type for an account (default)

If the majority of your mailpieces have a singular use type, then it is best to configure a default use type at the account level. This can be changed by an account administrator in the Use Type section in the Accounts Tab in the dashboard settings. An account-level setting will be applied to any mailpiece created without a use_type at the individual mailpiece or campaign level.

To set an account-level default, go to your Dashboard Settings > Accounts tab:

2. Setting use types for each mailpiece

If you or your team sends mailpieces with varying use types (including different teams that utilize the same Lob account for different purposes), then it is best to declare your use types at the single mailpiece level or at the campaign level.

If you have built a native Lob integration to trigger individual mailpieces, you will want to configure a use type at the individual mailpiece level. A mailpiece designation will override your account-level use type, regardless of whether the default selection is made.

In the Dashboard

When sending a single mailpiece through the dashboard, use type will be a required selection for every mailpiece format (letters, postcards, self-mailers, or checks).

Example: Use Type selection when creating a new postcard in the Dashboard

In the API

When sending a POST request to the below endpoints, pass in a use_type value of either marketing or operational. Note that the account default will be overridden by passing in a use_type for each mailpiece. If no account default is set and no single endpoint-level use_type is passed in the request, the mailpiece cannot be created and will fail with a 422 error.

api.lob.com/v1/letters api.lob.com/v1/postcards api.lob.com/v1/self_mailers api.lob.com/v1/checks

Example: POST /v1/postcards request with use_type included

{
    "description": "demo",
    "to": "adr_42bb83a3a643c43f",
    "from": "adr_42bb83a3a643c43d",
    "front": "tmpl_a1234dddg",
    "back": "tmpl_a1234dddg",
    "size": "6x9",
    "mail_type": "usps_first_class",
    "use_type": "operational",
    "send_date": "2022-05-01T00:00:00.000Z"
} 

3. Setting use types for each campaign

The Campaigns product is designed to help send large volumes of mail quickly, either through the dashboard or Campaigns API.

If you have built a native Lob integration to send mail campaigns, you will want to configure a use type at the campaign level. A campaign-level designation will override your account-level mail use type, regardless of whether the default selection is made.

In the Dashboard

When sending a Campaign on the dashboard, selecting a campaign use type is a required step during the “Configure campaign” page in Step 1. You will be able to select one of two options: Marketing or Operational. Any selection will be applied to all mailpieces within the same campaign.

Example:

In the API

When using the Campaigns API, add the use_type field to the POST /v1/campaigns request. If the use_type is not added, the campaign will use the account default use_type. If no account default is set and no campaign-level use_type is passed in the request, the campaign cannot be created and will fail with a 422 error.

Example: POST /v1/campaigns request with use_type included

{
    "name": "Summer Campaign",
    "description": "Acquisition for new customers",
    "schedule_type": "immediate",
    "cancel_window_campaign_minutes": 40,
    "use_type": "marketing"
}

Error reference

If no account default is set and no campaign or mailpiece use_type field is passed in your API requests, your calls will fail with a 422 error.

Read more about error codes under the "Error Codes - Advanced" section of our API Reference.

Every form factor starts with your creative, or the content of your mail piece. Lob’s core technology is built around modern APIs that remove the typical complexities and limitations of the print and mail industry. We can accept static PDFs, but similar to email sends, HTML enables dynamic personalization so each and every mail piece is unique.

Example mail pieces

Artboard or layout templates can be found under each mail format (see ). Or, visit Lob's on our website for pre-designed templates to help you get started; you can download these to use as inspiration and a guide to create your own designs.

File formats for creative

HTML for dynamic creatives

We recommend designing your direct mail in HTML to enable personalized content at scale. HTML allows you to include dynamic merge variables, similar to how you would personalize an email campaign, to maximize engagement and conversions.

PDFs for static creatives

You can submit your creative file in PDF format, but keep in mind that PDFs are static and don’t support personalization.

We ask that you follow our PDF formatting guidelines outlined in our to help ensure successful and accurate printing. Here are some tips to

Font formats

Supported fonts

All fonts in any PDFs you provide should be embedded. Embedding a font in a PDF ensures that the final printed product will look as it was designed. Fonts can vary greatly in size and shape, even within the same family. If the exact font used to design the artwork is not used to print, the look and placement of the text is not guaranteed to be the same.

We make an exception for "standard fonts," a set of fonts that we have identified as being common. Otherwise, the request will be rejected. See our full list of in our API docs.

We support the following web font formats:

• TTF

• SVG

• EOT

• Google web fonts

• Custom fonts within your HTML templates (any links must be to Lob)

Unsupported fonts

• OTF ( into another type we support)

• Type 1 fonts (Exception: standard base14 fonts)

• Type 3 fonts

• (These fonts require white-listing a specific domain, which Lob is unable to do. We recommend hosting the font yourself and using it within your HTML, or finding an appropriate non-Typekit font to replace it with.)

Image formats

PNG: This is a raster image format that can have a transparent background. It is generally of higher quality than other image formats.

JPEG: This is a raster image format that is often used for photographs. It does not allow for a transparent background.

When using PNGs or JPEGs with Lob, we require a minimum of 300 dpi. The dpi is calculated as (width of image in pixels) / (width of product in inches) and (length of image in pixels) / (length of product in inches). For example: 1275px x 1875px image used to create a 4.25" x 6.25" postcard has a dpi of 300. It is also recommended that you don't greatly exceed 300 dpi, as this will result in unnecessary additional file size.

Submitted images must have the same length-to-width ratio as the chosen product. Images will not be cropped or stretched by the API.

Hosting content

When you pass an image or send HTML in your API request, Lob will then render and host the content.

If you are sending at high volumes, we recommend you host the content yourself on a performant file hosting provider, such as Amazon S3, and send Lob a hosting URL to the content in your API request. This will reduce your API request time.

Design tools

We highly recommend using the Adobe Creative Suite (Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign) to design your content. This will give you design flexibility and multiple export options.

Converting from PDF to HTML

If you want to take advantage of the personalization opportunities of HTML, we recommend using a developer to convert your PDF designs to HTML. We'd estimate 15 minutes to 2 hours of development time for the average file. Some applications like Adobe Illustrator come with HTML export options, but note that their exports won't typically produce HTML that conforms to Lob's requirements.

Proofing

To see how your HTML is rendered, create a Test API request either through the API or view a preview in the dashboard (HTML templates). Lob's HTML renderer is based on Webkit. For this reason, using the Safari browser will show previews more accurately.

This works for PDFs as well as long as the submitted PDF follows If a PDF not following guidelines is submitted, the rendered proof may not reflect the final printed product.

If using Campaigns in the dashboard, the Creative Proof will render and present a single mail piece. (It will include merge variables, address block, Lob carbon-neutral logo, and indicia, plus return address and QR codes if included.)

What are mailing classes?

As Lob leverages USPS as our mail delivery carrier, the USPS offers a number of mailing services to suit the needs of the business. Leverage different mailing class options based on your time sensitivity, budget, and need for other adjacent services.

First Class Mail

• Used to send Lob postcards, self-mailers, letters, and checks

  • Intended mostly for personal or business correspondence

  • Invoices, statements, and other confidential mail that include PII/PHI or sensitive data of any kind must be sent via First Class or risk being flagged by USPS and taken out of the mail stream

  • Businesses have the option of adding on additional services, like Certified Mail

• Must weigh 13oz or less; anything over 13oz can be sent as Priority Mail

• First Class delivery is given priority over Standard Class Mail, both locally & nationally

• Includes forwarding and return services with no additional charge

• Domestic mailings typically take 4-6 business days, and international mailings typically take an additional 5-7 business days to be delivered

Standard Class Mail or Marketing Mail

• Broadly known as Marketing Mail, or "bulk mail" in the industry

  • Lob will often refer to it by its previous name, Standard Class Mail, in our product offerings

• Used to send Lob postcards, self-mailers, and letters with marketing-related content

  • Intended more for advertisements and mass communication purposes

  • Must not contain any sort of sensitive personal information or PII outside the address box

• Must weigh 16oz or less, and meet a minimum quantity of 200 pieces or 50lbs of mail

• Processed by USPS on a "time available" basis; no delivery time guarantees provided by USPS

  • Best to avoid with time-sensitive mailings

• Least expensive postage mode available on Lob

• Mailings typically take 7-21 business days (only available in US)

• Standard Class mail cannot be sent internationally

• Standard Class mail is not forwarded or returned if undeliverable unless a special endorsement is used; undeliverable mail will be destroyed by USPS

USPS Marketing Mail eligibility

As marketers are adding greater amounts of "personal information" in their direct mailings that include advertising mailers typically sent as USPS Standard Class or Marketing Mail, around which class of mail can be utilized given the level of "personal information" included in your mailers.

These have been in effect since June 1, 2005, and are enforced at the discretion of the USPS Customer Support Rulings agent. The main conclusion: Standard Class (aka Marketing Mail) should not be utilized for sending mail that includes personal information or sensitive data in any way.

If you are planning any Marketing Mail campaigns that include the personal information of the recipient, make sure to mail it First Class to avoid USPS rejection which will result in delays for your mail.

Lob cannot currently prevent customers from sending personal information or sensitive data as Standard Class Mail. Consult your Customer Support Manager for further guidance on eligibility.

Available mailing class options

Postcards

• 4x6, 6x9 and 6x11 postcards: Mailed via USPS First Class Mail (takes 4-6 business days and international mailings take an additional 5-7 business days).

• 4x6, 6x9 and 6x11 postcards: Mailed via USPS Standard Class Mail (takes 7-21 business days) and only within the US.

Self-mailers

• Mailed via USPS First Class Mail or Standard Class Mail

• USPS Standard Class Mail may only be used for sends within the US