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.
Personalized messaging is a core component of all modern marketing channels and a key driver of user engagement. Lob brings the power of personalization at scale to direct mail, enabling you to improve the performance of this key channel and improve your return on investment.
Lob makes this possible by supporting HTML creatives with merge variables. This empowers you to leverage your customer data to individually cater your messaging to each recipient in a way that will maximize the impact of a mail piece. You can now design your direct mail similar to how you would an email or other digital channels, leveraging dynamic personalization to drive conversions.
Some best practices that leverage dynamic personalization include:
Capture 1-to-1 attribution: Use dynamic landing pages, QR codes, and unique URLs/promo codes to understand audience response at the individual level
Repurpose digital campaign assets: Orchestrate an omnichannel campaign with cohesive messaging and branding through online and offline channels
Experimentation: Easily execute A/B and multivariate tests by combining audience targeting with dynamic creation of multiple creative permutations. Test the efficacy of different images, layouts, CTA copy, promotions, and more.
Integrate into the customer journey: Automatically send mail at any point in the customer journey by creating automated direct mail triggers at key actions and milestones
Below is an overview of how to leverage personalization within Lob.
Lob's HTML Templates support the inclusion of dynamic fields, called merge variables, which can be populated individually for each mail piece. These merge variables can be mapped to attribute values in your customer records or audience segments. For example, the value for your customer attribute "First Name" can be passed into a merge variable field in your creative called {{Name}} to dynamically include each recipient's own name in the content of the mail piece they receive. You can create and name your own merge variables within your template, giving you the flexibility to personalize nearly any aspect of your creative.
While it is optional, we highly recommend adding a description so you can easily identify your template within Lob.
In the dashboard, you must indicate the Mail Format and Size order to save a template.
Both the description and your HTML can be edited after saving.
Templates created in the Test Environment will only be available for mail pieces created in the Test Environment, while templates created in the Live Environment will only be available for mail pieces created in the Live Environment.
While you can move templates from one environment to the other, make sure you are working in the correct environment (don't move a Live template!).
When designing content with HTML, use inline styles or an internal stylesheet. Do not use an external stylesheet.
If you are linking to images, please ensure that they are at least 300 dpi (but there is no need to go higher than 300 dpi). Because the content is only being designed for a single size, we recommend using absolute positioning (code snippet shown below).
Also the this page you can:
See a small preview of the template
View the Template ID (completely unique to this particular template)
View the template's metadata
View the HTML for the template
See previous versions of the template
When you select View Print Preview, a pop-up will display and auto-populate any merge variables we find in your template, which are dictated by {{double_curly_braces}}. After you've filled out these fields (sample data is fine), you'll be able to preview your template as a PDF, which will open in a new tab. You may need to unblock pop-ups in the browser of your choice.
You won't be able to see any specific proofing elements such as address information, barcodes, or cropping which occur when actually creating a mail piece. The best way to test these elements of your template will be to send it to yourself as a live mail piece.
You can edit a template's description as well as its HTML from the Dashboard as well. When you edit a template's HTML, a new published version of that template will be created. Those changes will go into effect immediately. Any subsequent mail piece integration referencing that template ID will reflect the updated changes as soon as they are submitted.
If a template is no longer of use to you, you can delete it from Lob. Once you delete a template, it will no longer be usable for any postcard, self-mailer, letter, or check requests. Before deleting, ensure that the template is not being actively used in any integrations.
The published version of a template will be the first version featured on the page. This is the version that will be used when that template is referenced in a mail piece request. Prior versions of the template can be viewed within the page, along with a unique ID and browser preview for each. This can be helpful for reconciling edits made in the past, or copying a prior template and saving it again in order to revert to it.
Merge variables make it easy to personalize your mail pieces with whatever custom information you'd like to include. Common use cases for merge variables include:
Personalized customer information (name, city, etc)
Date
Invoice line items
Custom copy or images
CTAs (URLs, coupon code, phone numbers)
Merge variables only work if you use HTML to generate your mail piece. To make use of a merge variable, insert {{tag_name}} (with double curly braces) into the HTML template. You can define the merge variable name, and you can enter it into any section of your HTML.
If the HTML above were used with the information below:
Harry
20px
red
Ami
30px
green
Then the final two postcards would be rendered like so:
Use this feature to your advantage to create dynamic creatives for your recipients, without having to generate PDFs on your side.
All URLs must be accessible. For example, broken links, missing files, and incorrect permissions will all cause mail pieces to fail before they are sent to print. See here if you are experiencing rendering errors.
You have the ability to access merge variables at any depth within your JSON. For instance, you can have an object created with multiple attributes:
To access these within your template you can do the following:
This renders the following template:
You can also create a "section" which will change the context of the variables you are accessing. For instance:
This renders the same HTML as above, since you changed the context to the "user" temporarily. This is done by the {{#user}} and {{/user}} syntax. Everything inside that "section" tries to access a property on the "user" object.
Conditionals allow you to conditionally render content in a mail piece. An example use case could be including additional text for any user who has purchased over 1,000 products. To do that would require the following:
Merge variables:
Template:
This renders:
If you want to render content if a condition does not pass, simply use ^: {{^condition}}{{/condition}}.
For example:
Merge variables:
Template:
Loops allow you to display content multiple times for multiple objects. The following is an example of how to use loops:
Merge variables:
Template:
This renders:
While JavaScript can unlock all kinds of new functionality in your Lob templates, it comes with the important caveat that not all client-side JavaScript can be rendered by Lob. You are thus strongly encouraged to test all JavaScript prior to utilizing in live mail templates. Test your entire HTML template containing the JavaScript (rather than just the JavaScript snippet itself) using your Test API key before using the template in any live mail API requests.
For even more flexibility we recommend using the Handlebars templating engine.
Lob offers a merge variable strictness setting that dictates how we treat merge variables in your HTML templates, and whether to send out any mail pieces that are missing their merge variable input values. This is a setting that can be set at the account or campaign-level, and is critical to use when handling dynamic creatives. See Merge variable strictness settings for more information.
You can incorporate any font into your Lob HTML Templates by using one of the options below. Links to fonts must be accessible by Lob or they will not render successfully.
Using Google Web Fonts is a simple way to import and use a wide variety of fonts within your Lob HTML without having to download or upload any assets.
Once you've identified your font within Google, just include a link to the font in the <head></head> tag of your HTML:
Then reference the font in your <style></style> tag or inline:
You are also free to use any custom font that is accessibly hosted. Upload your font files to a performant file hosting platform (such as Amazon S3) and use CSS @font-face declaration to load them into your design.
For example, in the <style></style> tag of your HTML, add the rule like so:
And then reference the font in your <style></style> tag or inline:
When creating HTML letters within Lob, you may find it necessary to create page breaks in order to split up your content by page. This is easy to do using CSS's page-break-after property.
For example, create a page class in your HTML and apply these styles:
And then, divide the pages of content in your HTML by this page class:
Templates can be viewed in the Lob dashboard, where they can be created, managed, and stored.
The total number of templates available is dependent on the Platform Edition; if you need more HTML templates than what is available in your current edition of Lob, we encourage you to upgrade to a higher tier edition. You may also delete any HTML templates you no longer need to make room for new ones.
Although anyone versed in HTML/CSS will find the process of creating templates familiar, we recommend these practices.
If you need a place to start, we highly recommend working off an example from our Template Gallery.
For the closest visual analog to our own rendering technology, we suggest viewing your template in the Safari browser. This also means that usage of CSS stylings unsupported by the Webkit (Safari) engine may not render correctly. We recommend working at a 300dpi resolution, any higher resolution would be lost once the mail piece is printed.
Be sure to make use of the "Print Preview" option with your HTML templates, whether in Live or in Test mode, to get a basic digital proof of your mail piece. (Keep in mind that templates created in the Test Environment will need to be recreated in the Live Environment before they can be used with Live mail pieces.)
In the Campaigns builder, most mail formats will also display a Creative Proof; this will display merge variables, address block, Lob carbon-neutral logo, and indicia, plus return address and QR codes if included.
Where possible, we always recommend sending yourself a printed mailpiece.
RGB vs CMYK
As it stands today, our rendering engine does not support the CMYK color profile in HTML templates, though we are slated to resolve this in the near future. As such, colors provided in HTML templates will need to undergo a transition from RGB to CMYK which may affect the hue and saturation. This is true even when assets are provided in CMYK. We advise our customers keep this in mind when requesting to print brand logos or skin tones. If preferred, we support CMYK for static (PDF) formats.
For a successful template creation experience, abstain from the following:
using the object-set property
images img with opacity properties
images using background-image, border-radius, and border properties in unison
gradients using transparency
background-size: contain
in these cases, also include background-repeat: no-repeat;
JPEG images with EXIF orientations set to non-zero values; workarounds include:
using a JPEG header manipulation utility such as jhead to correct the rotation value
Example: jhead -autorot myfile.jpg
using a PNG instead
In the Campaigns tool, Step 3: Choose creative, you will select an HTML template, and then choose from the drop down options. An HTML template must exist in the Live environment for the Campaigns tool to reference.
To test and use your HTML template, you'll need to create a mail piece. For parameter details, see the respective documentation for each single endpoint in our API documentation.
For this example, we'll create a postcard. Don't forget to add merge variables to your HTML template for any dynamic fields. Also, remember that the published version of the template is the version that will be used for the request.
After sending this request, a successful response will include a signed URL to a digital copy of the created postcard. You will also be able to view this in the Lob dashboard, under Print & Mail then the corresponding mail format (in this case, Postcards).
For any mail piece that use templates, the Template IDs and Version IDs used will be retrievable from the API (see the respective documentation for each endpoint), as well as viewable on the dashboard under HTML Templates listing and each Template Details page.
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In-depth tutorial of how to neatly break apart sets of data into paginated segments
For certain use cases, you may need a table of dynamic length. These tables should not have rows that are divided between pages, and you may need a header for each page. This tutorial breaks down how to create them using the Handlebars engine.
This will allow you to group elements into the subarrays that will make each page of the dynamic table
This allows you to iterate over each "row" in the withGroup subarrays.
In this case, we're using the if statement to evaluate whether or not we're at the absolute final row for the entirety of our table
CSS / HTML
Within our template, let's place a table and use {{withGroup}}to break apart our rows merge variable parameter into 9 groups per page, or {{withGroup rows 9}}. We have chosen 9 because we have already determined that any more rows than this would spill into the following page. This of course, means that going into this, you'll need an idea of how much space each row will take.
Then, we'll use {{each}} to iterate over each of the 9 rows per page and access nested elements within the row.
Lastly, we'll use {{if superlast}} to evaluate if the row we're iterating over is truly the last in the spreadsheet. In our JSON, the last item of rows will have parameter superlast equal to true, which triggers this portion off. This logic enables the ability to append a footer to the last page in our spreadsheet.
You'll notice that within this section, we include {{../../first_name}}, this is because we're referencing the merge variable first_name two scopes up (one out of the each loop, one out of the withGroup loop).
When we're ready to merge_variables , we'll need to include our complete array of rows. Note the last item in "rows" has an extra parameter superlast which is set to true
Once we've implemented the logic for dynamic tables into our own templates, we can post to the /templates endpoint, making sure that the engine parameter is set to handlebars. This will provide back a template reference id. We can then use this in the file parameter for the /letters endpoint. For more information on advanced template creation and request submission see the associated hyperlinks.
Lob’s platform allows you to generate a QR code for each individual mailpiece you send. This feature is available via
our Campaigns tool in the dashboard,
our APIs (Print & Mail and Campaigns API), and
we also support the use of 3rd-party APIs or Javascript to generate QR codes.
Personalized response tracking is a standard feature of digital marketing channels, but has traditionally been difficult to replicate in Direct Mail. However, with Lob’s QR code offering, personalized tracking can now be easily incorporated into your Direct Mail campaigns.
We offer engagement analytics to measure the impact of every mailpiece you send. This gives you the ability to track Direct Mail response data in real-time, long before any conversion event ultimately takes place.
All users can generate a single black and white QR code via the Campaigns tool in the dashboard for postcards, all letters, self-mailers, and snap packs.
This QR code will be static, that is, a single URL will be applied across all recipients in a campaign.
The QR code appears in the same location on each mail piece.
In Step 3 of Campaigns generation, after you’ve uploaded your creative (PDF or HTML), select "Add QR code" and a module will pop up.
In the top left-hand side of the QR code builder, under URL click the “Create QR Code URL” button to open an additional window. Enter the landing page URL; this will be used for all mailpieces (and all recipients) in a campaign. When you have input your URL, Save & Close to continue the QR code build.
Next, select “Generate QR code.” A QR code will appear on your mailpiece and you can adjust the size and the placement of the QR code. We recommend sizing no smaller than one inch for optimal readability, and your code should be placed inside the bleed lines, which you can toggle on and off.
When you are happy with your design, Save & Close.
These features are available for Enterprise users. Upgrade your Print & Mail edition to gain access to this feature, or reach out to our sales team to learn more.
Custom QR code features are available for postcards, (standard) letters, and self-mailers only.
With custom QR codes, you can customize the foreground and background color of the QR code, add a logo into the center of the QR code, and create personalized URLs with dynamic merge tags that are unique to each recipient.
Match your design elements and branding by customizing the color of your QR codes.
In Step 3 of the Campaigns workflow, after you’ve uploaded your creative (PDF or HTML), open the QR code module by clicking the “Add a QR Code” button.
Within the customize section of the QR code builder, you will see an option to customize the Background color and Foreground color. The default color option is set to white and black respectively.
When selecting a color, you can pick from the color gradient selection, or if you have a specific hex color that your brand uses, you can type in or paste the hex value into the color picker to apply your changes. You can choose colors that align with your brand or design for your QR code, but ensure it remains scannable on mobile devices. We recommend using contrasting colors to maintain readability (for example, dark red on light grey has a better contrast than light grey on light blue).
When you are happy with your design, Save & Close.
Further your brand by adding your company logo inside the QR code.
In Step 3 of the Campaigns workflow, after you’ve uploaded your creative (PDF or HTML), open the QR code module by clicking the “Add a QR Code” button.
Within the QR code builder, click the “Upload” button under Brand logo.
Acceptable image types to upload and attach to your QR code are JPG and PNG and file size cannot exceed 1MB.
When uploading a logo to your QR code, Lob will automatically resize the logo to fit the dimensions required for the QR code to properly display.
For transparent images like PNG and SVG, Lob will automatically apply a background color behind the logo so that it’s readable. By default the background color is set to black. If you need a white background to show instead, reverse the colors in the QR code builder so that the background color is white and the foreground color is black as shown below.
When you are happy with your design, Save & Close.
We recommend you verify the QR code looks exactly like you want it to and scans correctly; you can view the Creative Proof to view a sample of a rendered mailpiece.
Build fully customizable and dynamic QR code URLs for a 1-1 recipient matching.
In Step 3 of the Campaigns workflow, after you’ve uploaded your creative (PDF or HTML),open the QR code module by clicking the “Add a QR Code” button.
In the top left-hand side of the QR code builder, under URL click the “Create QR Code URL” button to open an additional window to build out your customized URL. To add personalized merge tags into the URL for each recipient, click “Add merge tag” which displays fields for you to pull variables into your URL.
For One-time campaigns, the merge tags will pull in the columns within the audience file added in Step 2 of the campaign builder.
For Automated campaigns, the merge tags will pull fields from the integration and trigger components you’ve previously set up.
When adding a merge tag into the URL, you can add a dynamic value as a key path in the URL e.g., lob.com/{{state}} if certain recipients will receive a specific landing page for each state they reside in.
If you want to add optional parameters to your URL, add a question mark “?” to the URL followed by the merge tag. Example: lob.com/{{state}}/?{{discount_value}} would output as lob.com/california/?20 to the end recipient.
If you have a use case where you need the entire URL to pull from a row in your audience file that you have already created and included, you can simply add that URL as a merge tag, and only use that merge tag for the QR code URL: {{landing_page_URL}}
Ensure you use unique variable names in both HTML templates and QR codes. If you use the same variable names in both places, the previous mapping will be overridden, and your mailpiece will not generate correctly.
A merge tag can only be used once in a QR code URL. If you have already added a {{state}} merge tag to the URL, you cannot add it again.
What if some recipients have an empty cell/value?
If some recipients have empty merge tags, you can add an optional fallback for each merge tag. This fallback will only be used if the merge tag is empty. Adding a fallback is not required for the QR code to work properly.
For example, if a recipient’s {{state}} merge tag is empty, you can set a fallback to "California," and they will see "California" in the URL and still be directed to the correct page.
When you have input your URL, Save & Close to continue the QR code build.
All users can generate standard QR Codes for postcards, all letters, self-mailers, and snap packs via API.
QR Codes are generated within the API call to create a Lob mailpiece. In addition to passing Lob the name, address, and creative you would like to send the recipient, you will also pass the required parameters to create a QR code: size, positioning, and the URL where you want to send the user upon a scan. Then, when Lob generates the mailpiece, Lob will also dynamically generate the unique QR code and incorporate it into your design.
Lob QR codes can be generated by including the qr_code object in the transactional API request body while creating Letters, Postcards, or Self-mailers. In the Campaigns API (beta), this object can be found in the Creatives (Create) call.
These features are available for Enterprise users. Upgrade your Print & Mail edition to gain access to this feature, or reach out to our sales team to learn more.
Custom QR code features are available for postcards, (standard) letters, and self-mailers only.
To add a logo to the center of the QR code include the logo key.
To customize the colors: An optional style object can be set on the qr_code request to customize the colors for the QR code. This enables users to fully select the colors that will be applied on the QR codes. The style object takes a foreground_color and a background_color option where you can provide the Hex code for the color you wish to apply to the QR codes.
See below section on URL redirects for how to personalize URLs.
Indicate the position of your QR code in your mailpiece by setting the required Position parameter to relative, then set the distance from a reference position of the “Bottom/Top” and “Right/Left” of your design, in inches. There are a total of 4 anchor combinations available for potential use: top-left, top-right, bottom-left, or bottom-right. Lob recommends using 'bottom-right' as your placement anchor.
Use bottom for your vertical parameter: The field takes in a value between 0 to max length of the creative
Use right for your horizontal parameter: The field takes in a value between 0 to max width of a creative
An optional Pages parameter can be used to specify the pages, in a ‘comma separated’ format, where the QR code should appear. If not included, the default is page 1 for letters, or front for postcards.
For Postcards, the values should be either front, back, or front,back.
For Letters, the values can be specific page numbers or page number ranges (ex: 2,5 or 1-3)
For Self-mailers & Snap packs, the values should be inside, outside,or inside,outside.
Currently, you cannot generate QR codes with different locations on different pages.
Via API, users can add more than one QR code to a campaign mail piece (ex: front and back of a postcard, or front and back of a letter) as long as it is placed in the exact location on each side.
Finally, you will set the Destination URL that the QR code resolves to by passing it into the Redirect_URL parameter. Since Lob QR codes are dynamic, you can pass a unique URL for every single mailpiece you create, such as to direct every mail recipient to a unique landing page, or to capture data using unique UTM parameters.
In the sample API request body above ("redirect_url": "https://www.lob.com/?customer_id12345") we are capturing the specific user ID of the intended recipient of the mailpiece in Lob’s website analytics when the QR code is scanned.
Every QR code generated will have a short Redirect URL assigned to it, which will resolve through to the Destination URL passed in the API call. This means you have the flexibility to change the Destination URL after the QR code has been generated, even if the mail has already been sent, as the initial Redirect URL will remain the same. Once a QR code is scanned, the user will see a redirect screen (as shown on the right).
All URLs passed in the Redirect_URL parameter should begin with “http://” or “https://”
To customize the redirect_url for each recipient, you will use merge_variables. In your redirect_url provide a template url, for eg: https://www.google.com?q={{name}}, where the value for the {{name}} variable would come from the merge_variables section of the payload.
Customize Redirect URLs in Campaigns API:
With the Campaigns API (beta), you have the option to set a single redirect for all recipients in your campaign or unique redirect URLs for each recipient.
To set a single URL redirect for the entire campaign, set the `redirect_url` in the details section of the Creatives (Create) request to your desired URL to this field.
Enterprise users can customize redirect URLs for each campaign recipient by providing a URL template and a data mapping from the Audience file, enabling Lob to generate unique QR code destinations for each mailpiece.
An example of a URL template for the redirect_url, is www.google.com?q={{name}}, you can add one or more variables in the template and submit the creative request.
The next step is to let us know where this value comes from, and to do so we allow users to map name to any column from the Audience file. You can provide this mapping by sending a POST or a PATCH request to the /uploads endpoint for the campaigns.
The mergeVariableColumnMapping holds the mapping for the name variable created in the URL template.
Lob API errors contain human-readable explanations in the message parameter.
For example, you may receive a 422 error containing the message “qr_code.position is required”. This indicates that no value was passed to the API in the position parameter.
Remember to test! We recommend you verify the QR code looks exactly like you want it to and scans correctly.
In the Campaigns tool you can view the Creative Proof to view a sample of a rendered mailpiece.
If generating via API, use your Test API Key to preview your creative in Lob and verify that everything looks as intended.
Sizing: All QR codes are square; the minimum width should be at least 1” so that the code can be easily scanned. In the API, set the size of your QR Code by passing through the Width parameter of your QR code in inches.
Mailpiece placement: Lob QR codes will be pasted over your design like how Lob places the ‘Address Block’, so make sure to designate the size and positioning of your QR code away from any critical designs.
Do not place your QR code over the area in which the mailing address will be printed. Reference the Ink-Free areas for each template here.
Make sure to leave 0.25” of space between your QR code position and any content of your mailpiece that you don’t want to be covered.
When positioning your QR code, make sure to take into account the bleed edge added to the artboard dimensions of the mailpiece. For example, the dimensions of a 4x6” Postcard in Lob are 4.25” x 6.25”.
Lob QR Codes do not expire. If your destination URL expires, you may want to update live QR codes to redirect to an active landing page.
You can capture impact and engagement metrics from your mail sends with Lob QR codes in a few ways.
The Mail Analytics tab will display metrics for all mail you have sent with Lob across any number of campaigns within a time period. QR code scan data can be found under the Engagement tab.
From the Campaigns dashboard, when you drill down to the detail/status page for any individual campaign you can view campaign-specific analytics. QR code scan data can be found under the Analytics tab > QR Code Engagement.
Retrieve analytics for Lob-native QR codes from Lob’s qr-code-service.lob.com API endpoint. For detailed data, see the QR Code section in our API documentation.
QR Code scan data is deleted after 90 days.
Whenever a QR code is scanned from a mailpiece, there will be an event generated, such as postcard.viewed or letter.viewed. You can enable notifications on these events by setting up webhooks that will alert you when the scans occur.
This can be incorporated into your omnichannel marketing campaign to subsequently trigger an email, mailpiece, or other action when a mailpiece is viewed.
See the webhooks section in our API documentation, or learn more about using webhooks here in the help center.
UTM parameters are short text codes that you add to URLs (or links) that help track performance. Because QR codes can be generated dynamically at the time of their creation, we can generate QR codes with UTM parameters that correlate to the recipient.
For instance, if we are sending a mailpiece to a recognized user we’ve assigned a Customer ID of “12345”, we can append that ID to their Destination Page URL, so that the user can be recognized by our web analytics once they reach the page: www.lob-example.com/login?customer_id=12345. This enables you to more easily attribute customer activity back to this mailpiece.
UTM parameters can also be used to track Campaign responses, A/B test variants, and other key data points that inform your understanding of the response to your campaign.
Lob’s Short URLs allow you to take a long URL from your website or landing page and create a personalized, shortened, and trackable URL to display on your direct mail creative. For example, if you have a landing page destination URL for your mail campaign like:
using Lob's URL Shortener, you can transform this URL to a custom short URL of your choosing like lob.st/mail. The shortened URL will still point the end user to that full destination URL above, but will make it easier for a user to digest and type in their browser when receiving the direct mail piece.
Lob’s Short URLs can be accessed and created in both the Dashboard and within the campaigns flow directly.
In the dashboard, navigate to the “Creative” navigation item, then click Short URLs. Here you will see all Short URLs you have created with Lob.
To create a new short URL, click the Create button at the top right of the page.
Within the Short URL creation flow, you’ll see:
Title
The title you can give your Short URL to easily find and select in the future. E.g. You’ll see this title to select in the campaign flow if you want to use the short URL in a campaign.
There are no character limits for the title
Destination
This is the full URL that you want to send users to that should be shortened. In the example above, this is where you would put a URL such as https://www.lob.com/product/integrate-target?utm_source=direct-mail&utm_medium=summer-2024&utm_campaign=promo
There are no character limits for the destination URL
Shortened Display URL
Domain
The default domain uses Lob’s built in subdomain “lob.st” which allows you to simplify create a short URL off of as long as that URL is available and not being used by others.
To customize and personalize this subdomain, you can click to Manage Domains from the Short URLs main page above and create a custom domain to then select and use in this URL creation flow.
Back-half
This is the path that you would like users to see on their mail creative, which then would redirect to the full destination URL above. Using the above example again, this is where you would have lob.st/mail. In this case, lob.st/mail would be what you add on your direct mail creative copy to then be printed. When users type lob.st/mail in their web browser, it would then redirect to the full destination URL.
There are no character limits for the back-half URL
Metadata
For future analytics and easier searchability, we allow you to add metadata to your Short URLs. If you want to categorize your Short URLs in any way to then access more easily at a later point in time, metadata allows you to add multiple a tag names and values.
Within the Short URL main page, click the Manage Domains button at the top to enter the Short URL domain details page.
Here you will see all of the custom short URL domains you have created and linked to Lob.
To create a new custom Short URL domain, click the Add a New Domain button at the top.
To link a domain, add your primary or subdomain in the Domain field in this modal. If there’s ever a time when the subdomain, for example, becomes inaccessible or deprecated, you can enter an Error Redirect URL. The Error Redirect URL should point to a domain that will be more stable such as your primary home page, so if a user in the future types the URL in a browser they’ll be redirect to your home page.
When you create your custom domain, the status of the domain will be Inactive by default. To set as active, you’ll need to look your domain provider to Lob by following the steps below. Please note: once a domain is added, it can only be deleted via API request at this point in time.
When you create a new domain in the Lob dashboard with the steps above, you’ll need to configure your DNS settings so that it works with our platform. Follow this simple guide to ensure your domain is set up correctly.
This is for when your domain is not being used for any purpose other than for short links.
1. Sign in to your domain registrar's website (e.g. Cloudflare, GoDaddy, etc.)
2. Locate your DNS settings.
Find the DNS settings or DNS management section within your account. See the documentation below for your registrar if you need help.
3. Create an A Record.
Add a new DNS record with the following details:
Host: @
Type: A
Value: 207.174.61.1
TTL: You can leave this at the default setting. Common defaults are 3600 seconds or automatic.
Note: Some domain registrars do not allow `@` as a value for the host. If so, leave the field blank.
4. Save your changes
Ensure all changes are saved to make your DNS record active.
5. Wait for domain activation.
Domain activation can take a few hours. Once the status changes to “Active,” your domain is ready to use for shortening links.
Note: If your main domain is already in use for hosting a website, directly pointing it to our service could result in unwanted behavior, such as users being redirected unexpectedly from your main site. To avoid this, set up a subdomain dedicated to short links.
If you already own a domain and don’t want to register a new one, you can create a subdomain and use that to shorten links. A subdomain setup allows you to maintain brand consistency and save on registration costs. Here’s how to configure a subdomain:
Sign in to your domain registrar's website.
Use the same steps as above to locate the DNS settings for your domain.
Create a CNAME record for your subdomain.
Add a new CNAME record with the following details:
Host: Your desired subdomain. For example, if you want your short links to use `links.example.com`, enter `links` as the host.
Type: CNAME
Data/Points to: cname.short.io
TTL: You can leave this at the default setting. Common defaults are 3600 seconds or automatic.
Save your changes.
Ensure all changes are saved to make your DNS record active.
Wait for activation.
Just like a regular domain, your subdomain will be ready to use after a few hours.
If you need detailed steps on how to edit or add DNS records with your domain registrar, here are links to their official documentation for DNS management:
Domain propagation (the process of DNS records updating across global servers) can take up to 24 hours, though it typically happens within a few hours. If you are not seeing the status of your domain update to Active within the Lob dashboard, see the following troubleshooting steps:
Incorrect DNS Records: Ensure that you’ve correctly added the necessary A or CNAME records and removed extra or conflicting records.
Remove extra or conflicting DNS records: Delete any DNS records that might interfere with the proper setup of your domain/subdomain.
Domain Forwarding Issues: For some registrars like Namecheap or GoDaddy, you may need to disable domain forwarding.
If your domain is not active after 24 hours, please reach out to our support team.
Within Campaigns, you can add one short URL to your campaign. The short URL added to a campaign does not have to be unique to the creative and you may use the same short URL across multiple campaigns or creative. Note when doing this approach though, visits on that URL would be looked at in aggregate across all of the campaigns/creative. So if you would like to specify which campaign had visits, we recommend creating a short URL specific to that campaign.
Static short URLs can be added to a campaign to simply track URL visits for that campaign. Most commonly used with PDF creatives, static short URLs allow you to attach a trackable short URL to a campaign, so if the end recipient visits the URL that’s placed on your mail creative, the campaign will be associated with a visitor to that URL link. Note that for this functionality to work, the short URL tagged in the campaign must match the short URL on your mail piece’s creative.
To add a static short URL to your campaign, create a new URL in the dashboard or directly within the campaign flow on the Creative step. For any previously created short URL, you can select to add an existing short URL previously created within the Creative step of the campaign flow as well.
Lob can insert a shortened URL onto your html template using merge variables if you don’t want to add the shortened URL to your creative at the time of designing your creative. To insert and map your shortened URL to the html template variable, add your creative with merge variables in the Creative step of campaigns. Add your desired shortened URL to the campaign, and within the creative merge variable mapping section, select the merge variable where you would like the URL applied to. The shortened URL title should show at the bottom of the mapping variable dropdown field to select. We recommend creating a proof within your campaign before submitting to confirm the short URL applies in the correct spot on your creative and looks as expected before sending to print.
Currently short URLs are tracked at the campaign level, not at the recipient level. This means you will be able to see that your “Summer 2024” campaign had 100 URL visits, but you won’t be able to know “John Smith” is one of the recipients who visited that URL.
You can view analytics for your short URLs in two ways: in the engagement tab within the mail analytics page of the dashboard, or within a campaign details page analytics. Both URL charts will show how many mail pieces were sent with a Lob short URL attached to it, and if a user visited that URL it will then show the total number of visit to that URL. The mail analytics page on the dashboard will allow you to see all short URL sends and visits in aggregate, with the ability to filter by various aspects like date range or metadata. The short URL chart within a campaign details page will only show the URL sends and visits within that campaign specifically, taking into account the date from when the campaign was sent to today. If no short URL was added to your campaign, you will see a placeholder showing no short URL was added instead of seeing the URL chart.
As USPS’ Mail Service Provider of the year, Lob works in lockstep with the postal service to bring you solutions to optimize your direct mail performance.
Informed Delivery by USPS enhances the mail experience by providing subscribers a daily email with a digital preview of incoming mail.
The preview may be a representative image or an actual scan of the mailpiece. The email includes a "ride-along" image: a small, full-color, interactive image that redirects to a target URL. This supplemental content is meant to enhance the customer call-to-action and reinforce the messaging and objective of the mailpiece.
You can review the USPS's 2024 Informed Delivery Guidebook here.
Access to this feature is exclusive to Enterprise plan customers, and by request only. Upgrade to the appropriate Print & Mail Edition to gain access.
Direct mail helps your brand increase awareness, connect with potential customers, and drive conversions. However, combining this marketing method with digital technologies can lead to even more successful results. Using Informed Delivery is one of the best ways to do this.
While there is no guarantee everyone in your audience has opted into the Informed Delivery program, the list continues to grow. Per USPS, as of March of this year, the Informed Delivery user base has grown to 62.4M active users!
Increased Customer Engagement: Integrates physical mail with digital campaigns.
Additional Digital Footprint: Extends marketing reach at no additional cost.
Attribution Data: Provides additional insights into mail campaign performance.
Cost Savings: 3-4% postage discount for approved campaigns during the USPS promotional period, August 1-December 31, 2024. Reach out to your Account Manager to learn more.
This process is necessary regardless of how a user will execute the campaign.
Log into the Lob Dashboard; navigate to Billing > Promotions. Click on "Create an Informed Delivery Promotion."
Indicate the Promotion Name
Input the Promotion URL
Upload your Ride-along image
Ride-along image specifications: Must be full color, JPG, 200x300px, max file size of 200KB.
Click "Create an Informed Delivery Promotion" to send your promotion application to USPS for approval.
You will receive an email notification once your promotion is approved. (Please allow for 3-5 days approval time.)
Once approved, you can send an Informed Delivery campaign with postcards, letters, self-mailers, and checks.
Use the Lob API to POST informed_delivery_campaign and get a campaign_id.
Include required fields: Ride-Along Image, URL, Campaign Size.
Ride-along image specifications: Must be full color, JPG, 200x300px, max file size of 200KB.
Optionally, include
Brand Name: If you do not pass a brand name, it will auto-populate in the Informed Delivery email as the Company name in Lob's system.
Representative image: A sample image of your mailpiece. This photo should represent all mailers in the Informed Delivery Campaign, and will be sent to all Informed Delivery subscribers; avoid using any PII. Campaigns with no representative image will display a USPS scan of the mailpiece.
Representative image specifications: JPG, 500x780px, max file size of 200KB.
On successful POST, receive a campaign_id and validation if it qualifies for an existing promotion.
Once validated, send your mail as usual, including theinformed_delivery_campaign_id in your submission.
Begin your campaign setup as usual in Lob Campaigns.
When prompted, select the option to use Informed Delivery.
Choose from available approved Informed Delivery Promotions (Procured in Step 1).
Fill out required information:
Promotional URL
Upload the Ride-Along Image
Ride-along image specifications: JPG, 500x780px, max file size of 200KB.
Optionally, input:
Brand Name: This populates in the Informed Delivery email sent to the end user; if you do not update this field, it will default to your company name in the Lob database.
Representative image: Upload a sample image of your mailpiece. This photo should represent all mailers in the Informed Delivery campaign, and will be sent to all Informed Delivery subscribers; avoid using any PII. Campaigns with no representative image will display a USPS scan of the mailpiece.
Representative image specifications: JPG, 500x780px, max file size of 200KB.
Please look over the uploaded images and make sure all information is correct.
Click "Next Step" to proceed with the Campaigns worklflow.
Click "Place Order" as you normally would to finalize the campaign.
Engagement metrics for Informed Delivery campaigns will be visible in the Mail Analytics in the dashboard, under the Engagement tab. Learn more about Mail Analytics here. Below is a breakdown of the engagement metrics:
Metric
Description
Mail Pieces
Total number of mail pieces sent as part of your Informed Delivery Campaign.
Emails
The number of recipients signed up for Informed Delivery who received an Informed Delivery email.
Emails Opened
The number of emails that were opened. Note: This number can exceed 100% as multiple people within the same household may receive and open their Informed Delivery email.
Click Through
The total number of times the link in your Informed Delivery campaign was clicked.
Note your image must be in full-color; the USPS has provided more helpful guidelines here: https://www.usps.com/business/pdf/informed-delivery-campaign-elements-guide.pdf
Reach out to your Account Manager today!
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