By
Lob
Direct mail cuts through digital noise by putting your message directly in customers' hands, whether that is a personalized postcard, a targeted letter, or a beautifully designed brochure. Choosing the right service matters. Some businesses want to send materials to specific individuals using personal data, while others want to reach entire neighborhoods. To do this at scale, you need a provider that is consistent, accurate, and able to deliver nationwide.
When looking for a reliable direct mail service with personalization capabilities and nationwide reach, you need one that combines automation, quality control, and advanced tracking. Lob offers these features through our integrated platform that connects with your existing marketing systems.
A reliable direct mail service consistently delivers mail as expected, maintains high print quality, and provides visibility into when and where each piece is sent and delivered. Reliability means your campaigns arrive on time, look professional, and can be tracked throughout the delivery process.
Print quality refers to how the final mail piece looks and feels when it reaches your recipient. In a reliable service, print quality remains consistent no matter where it is printed.
Lob ensures this consistency through:
When your mail looks professional and consistent, recipients are more likely to open and engage with it, rather than tossing it aside as “junk mail.”
Most direct mail companies only provide batch tracking, which tells you when groups of mail enter the postal system. Piece-level tracking gives you visibility for each individual mail piece.
With Lob's piece-level tracking, you can see:
This detailed tracking helps you time follow-up communications, measure campaign performance, and troubleshoot any delivery issues that might arise.
Traditional direct mail can take weeks from design approval to delivery. Automated systems cut this time significantly.
Lob's Print Delivery Network speeds up the process by:
This faster turnaround means you can launch timely campaigns tied to events, seasons, or customer actions without planning months in advance.
Personalization means creating mail pieces tailored to individual recipients based on their data. This goes beyond just adding a name. True personalization includes customizing offers, images, and messages based on customer information.
Variable data printing changes elements on each mail piece without slowing down production. Unlike traditional printing where every piece looks identical, variable data printing customizes each piece in a single print run.
With Lob, you can personalize:
Triggered sends are automated mailings activated by specific customer actions or events. Instead of sending everything at once, mail pieces go out when they are most relevant to each recipient.
Lob integrates with popular CRM systems and provides an API that allows you to:
These timely, relevant communications typically perform better than batch campaigns because they reach customers when they are already engaged with your brand.
Digital marketers are used to testing and optimizing campaigns while they are running. Lob brings this capability to direct mail.
You can test different versions of your mail pieces by:
This testing approach helps you continuously improve your direct mail performance over time, rather than guessing what will work.
A Print Delivery Network is a system of connected print facilities located across the country. Instead of printing everything in one location, mail is produced closer to where it will be delivered.
Lob's network includes print facilities strategically located throughout the United States. This nationwide coverage ensures:
All printers in the network follow the same quality standards and use identical equipment, so your mail looks the same regardless of which facility produces it.
Automated routing systems determine the optimal print location for each piece of mail based on its destination. This intelligent routing:
By printing mail closer to its final destination, Lob helps ensure your campaigns arrive when expected, even during busy mailing seasons.
A delivery window is the expected range of dates when mail will arrive at recipients' addresses. Lob provides more predictable delivery windows by:
These guaranteed windows help you plan multi-channel campaigns where direct mail works alongside email, digital ads, or other marketing touchpoints.
The direct mail industry includes several types of providers, from best direct mail services to digital platforms. Each has different strengths and limitations when it comes to automation, personalization, and scale.
Traditional direct mail requires manual steps like emailing design files, reviewing physical proofs, and coordinating with printers. This process is time-consuming and prone to errors.
Lob automates the entire workflow from design to delivery. You can create and launch campaigns through our user interface or API, with no manual handoffs required. This automation saves time and reduces mistakes.
Our platform also integrates with popular marketing tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Marketo. These integrations allow you to trigger mail based on customer actions, sync data between systems, and measure campaign results alongside your digital channels.
Basic direct mail services might add a name to a generic template, but true personalization goes much deeper. Lob supports dynamic content that changes based on any data point in your customer records.
For example, an insurance company could send policy renewal notices that show different coverage options based on the customer's current plan, location, and life stage. A retailer could include product recommendations based on past purchases, with different images and offers for each recipient.
This level of personalization makes your mail more relevant and valuable to recipients.
Many direct mail providers offer limited visibility into when your mail actually arrives. You might get a confirmation when it is printed or shipped, but not when it reaches individual recipients.
Lob provides piece-level tracking throughout the delivery process. You can see exactly when each mail piece enters the postal system and when it is delivered. This transparency helps you:
Traditional direct mail often comes with setup fees, plate charges, and minimum order requirements that make small campaigns expensive. As volumes increase, these fixed costs become less significant, but they create barriers for testing and targeted mailings.
Lob uses digital printing technology that eliminates setup costs and allows for cost-effective campaigns of any size. You can send one piece or one million without changing your production process or paying extra fees.
This flexibility makes it practical to send highly targeted mailings to small segments of your audience, rather than blasting the same message to everyone to meet minimum order requirements.
Direct mail costs include design, printing, personalization, and postage. When evaluating the return on investment, it is important to consider both the costs and the measurable outcomes.
Traditional direct mail services often require volume commitments, which are contracts where you agree to send a minimum number of pieces over a specific time period. These contracts may offer lower per-piece rates but limit your flexibility.
Lob uses a pay-as-you-go model with no minimum requirements. You pay only for what you send. This approach gives you the freedom to:
Our transparent pricing makes it easy to calculate costs in advance and measure the ROI of each campaign.
Traditional offset printing requires “make-ready” processes such as setting up plates, calibrating colors, and running test prints. These setup costs can add unnecessary expenses to your campaign, regardless of how many pieces you print.
Lob uses digital printing technology that eliminates these make-ready costs. Each piece is printed directly from a digital file without plates or manual setup. This approach reduces waste and makes small runs economically viable.
Digital printing also eliminates the need to store pre-printed inventory. Instead of printing large batches in advance and storing them for future use, you can print exactly what you need when you need it.
The true measure of direct mail success is its impact on your business results. Lob helps you connect mail campaigns to outcomes like website visits, purchases, or account sign-ups.
You can track these connections using:
These tracking methods allow you to calculate key metrics and demonstrate the impact of your direct mail investment.
Lob makes it easy to create, send, and track personalized direct mail at any scale. Our automated platform connects with your existing marketing systems to turn customer data into targeted, timely communications that drive measurable results.
With nationwide print coverage, piece-level tracking, and flexible personalization options, Lob helps you reach the right people with the right message at the right time, without the complexity and limitations of traditional direct mail.
To see how Lob can transform your direct mail strategy, book a demo at lob.com/sales.
How fast can I go from API call to mailbox?
Lob's automated platform processes direct mail quickly, with most mail entering the USPS network shortly after it is created.
Is there a minimum or maximum daily volume?
Lob has no minimum order requirements. You can send a single piece if needed. There are also no maximum limits for daily volume, allowing you to scale from small tests to nationwide campaigns without changing platforms.
Can I use my own postage permit?
Yes. Lob supports the use of your existing USPS postage permit. Alternatively, you can use Lob's permit without any additional setup. Both options include the same tracking and delivery features.
Does Lob support recycled or sustainable paper stocks?
Yes. Lob offers recycled and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper options for all mail formats. These choices maintain the same print quality and delivery times as standard stocks.
What happens if a piece is undeliverable?
Lob provides delivery status updates for each mail piece. If USPS marks a piece as undeliverable, that status appears in your dashboard. This information helps you identify and correct address errors in your database to improve future deliverability.
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