Making Lob Accessible for Non-Developers with Podio

Lob's API's are powerful building blocks anchoring some amazing solutions. But what if you aren't a hardcore software developer who knows how to use these building blocks? Great news: with the combination of Podio and Lob, there is a solution for you.

Podio is a customizable work management solution from Citrix. It is an amazing platform for building a variety of systems. Lead management, CRM, document workflows, team collaboration, and communications are just a few use cases. It is a very extensible platform and can be integrated with other systems such as Lob.

Podio is one of the best solutions for “Citizen Developers”, end users who develop new software applications despite little background in IT or custom app development. The"App Market" included with Podio enables non-developers to build powerful solutions quickly and easily.

The Lob App Pack on Podio

On the Podio App Market there is an app pack for sending Postcards and Letters with Lob. This app includes the pre-built data structure for postcards and letters, and the code that interacts with the Lob API. Even if you aren’t a software developer, you don’t need to know anything about the Lob API in order to set everything up.

After you have installed this app pack, you can enter your Lob.com information into the Lob Account Settings” app. This information includes your API Key and the HTML template IDs for your postcard and/or letter.

The Lob apps for Podio also enable you to track when Lob has sent a mailing (postcard or letter), if the mail was returned to sender, or if the mail was re-routed. Podio takes advantage of Lob’s webhook functionality in order to maintain this information. Setting up this tracking is as simple as entering the Podio-provided webhook URL into the Lob dashboard.

Once you install the Lob app pack for Podio and configure it with your Lob account and HTML templates, you can set up very sophisticated workflows. You can configure a workflow to create postcards on a one-time basis, trigger a postcard when specific actions occur with a customer or prospect, based on future scheduled dates (such as your customer’s birthday or anniversary), or with an ongoing drip campaign. The flexibility of Podio integrated with Lob opens up myriad possibilities--all without needing a software developer on staff.

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