Lob's website experience is not optimized for Internet Explorer.
Please choose another browser.

The Best Direct Mail Marketing Alternative to PostPilot

Lob is the best alternative to PostPilot for all your direct mail marketing needs. Discover why 12,000 brands have selected Lob as their automated direct mail marketing platform of choice.
Table of Contents

Introduction

Choosing the right partner for automated direct mail marketing services can make or break your direct mail campaigns. A reliable direct mail partner brings expertise, efficiency, and a streamlined process to your direct mail initiatives. Look for a direct mail company that offers an extensive print delivery network and a comprehensive suite of services, including but not limited to address verification, audience targeting, printing, mailing, and robust analytics.

A seamless end-to-end solution optimizes your direct mail campaigns for maximum impact. The right partner understands the nuances of direct mail automation, leveraging technology to enhance targeting, personalization, and campaign effectiveness, and doing all those things while minimizing the environmental impact of direct mail. Direct mail providers should offer direct mail that isn't just eco-friendly, but carbon neutral through the entire lifecycle, from raw materials to ultimate disposal.

These are a just a few reasons why businesses that take their direct mail marketing seriously choose Lob over PostPilot. PostPilot says,"PostPilot was built by ecommerce operators for ecommerce operators. We’re smarter, cheaper, faster, and better-looking than the competition." You already know that selecting a professional and trusted automated direct mail company is the key to unlocking the full potential of your marketing efforts. You need more than a point solution designed for a singular industry and one that understands the needs of businesses from a variety of industries, stages, and sizes.

Discover why Lob is hands down, the best direct mail marketing alternative to PostPilot and why 12,000 companies have make it their provider of choice.

“It would be impossible for us to do our job without Lob.” - Ben Jacobs, Chief Technology Officer, Encamp 

The benefits of automated direct mail marketing 

By streamlining processes, reducing manual labor, and leveraging technology, Lob ensures you get more value from your marketing budget. 

Cost-effectiveness is not just about reducing expenses but optimizing your return on investment. Lob’s streamlined processes and advanced automation technology ensure that every dollar spent translates into tangible, meaningful results.

What would normally be a very tedious process of customizing mailers, reviewing proofs, and going back and forth with a printer has been completely streamlined. There’s no effort on either the provider’s or our client’s part, making it a very effective solution for us and them.” - Abhas Gupta, CEO, Mabel

Personalized targeting extends beyond addressing recipients by name; it's about understanding their preferences and tailoring content to resonate with their unique needs. This level of personalization significantly boosts the relevance of your direct mail campaigns, increasing the likelihood of positive responses. 68% of consumers are more likely to engage with a brand’s message if it’s personalized. Improved response rates are the ultimate goal, and with Lob, you're not just sending mail but fostering connections that drive meaningful interactions.

Automated direct mail allows for personalization that was once thought impractical on a large scale. You can tailor your messages to specific demographics, interests, and behaviors, creating a more intimate connection with your audience. This personalized touch captures attention and fosters engagement, transcending the limitations of traditional mass-mailing approaches.

BonusGet the Modern Marketer's Guide to Personalization and personalize your direct mail campaigns like a pro.

Businesses choose Lob over PostPilot every day to leverage the advantages of direct mail efficiency and effectiveness.

A reliable and efficient partner for automated direct mail marketing 

The evolving landscape of direct mail automation demands a reliable and efficient partner to navigate its complexities successfully. Considering your options, you must underscore the significance of having a platform that gets the job done and a partner that understands your challenges and helps you succeed. Lob’s direct mail solution isn't just a platform; it's a partnership dedicated to your success. We understand the intricacies of direct mail and are committed to staying at the forefront of technological advancements. Reliability is the cornerstone of our service – from data management to printing and analytics, our end-to-end solution ensures seamless execution at every step. Efficiency is embedded in our DNA, allowing you to focus on your core competencies while we handle the day-to-day execution of automated direct mail.

Lob supports businesses across diverse industries, including insurance, healthcare, telecommunications, financial service and banking, and retail and e-commerce. It is crucial for your partner to comprehend the specific requirements of your business and not be focused solely on one industry vertical.

“This is not merely about automating a task; it's a transformative strategy. Instead of spending hours manually printing and labeling postcards, Pros can streamline the entire process, freeing them to focus on their core business activities.” - Jenn Bergner, SVP of Marketing, Housecall Pro

Lob's direct mail marketing advantage 

Address Verification to eliminate errors

Address verification can help you enrich and correct customer data to avoid errors and waste. Address Verification solutions allow you to programmatically correct typos, validate address deliverability, and access metadata to enhance customer insight. Using Address Verification enables you to save time, eliminate errors, automate manual tasks, and increase the quality of your data - at scale.

Lob Address Verification enables you to send mail to the right place at the right time— every time. Lob customers can reduce shipping costs by 15% and eliminate customer churn segments. By removing the root cause of common customer-facing problems, Lob Address Verification has saved thousands of hours for fulfillment and support teams. With our flexible API, thorough documentation, and over 30 integration partners, implementing Lob is easy; most customers are up and running in days.

Predictable direct mail marketing costs to maximize ROI

In the 2024 State of Direct Mail Marketing, 82% of respondents reported increasing direct mail spending for 2024, a marked uptick from 58% in 2023. Marketers and direct mail practitioners are investing more in direct mail marketing because it’s a proven, time-tested channel that delivers high conversions, response, and ROI. But for those things to be true, you must ensure you get the most bang for your marketing budget. Choosing a direct mail automation platform that offers customizable pricing plans to help manage your direct mail costs is crucial. A competitive direct mail automation platform should have pricing plans that include print and postage so you’ll never be surprised and can accurately forecast your spend per campaign.

Direct mail templates to make the creation process a breeze

Some direct mail automation companies will give you access to ready-to-use templates for various direct mail formats, including postcards, letters, self-mailers (tri-folds), snap-packs, checks, and more. You can get heaps of inspiration from these Best Direct Mail Campaign examples

A nationwide Print Delivery Network to mitigate delays

More robust direct mail automation platforms, like Lob, will also provide access to a nationwide Print Delivery Network, ensuring your direct mail pieces will always be printed and mailed on time, whether you are sending one or one million pieces. PostPilot says they print in a just a handful of facilities including, "South Carolina, Arizona and London," leaving your direct mail vulnerable to delays. With Lob, you won't worry about campaign delays, logistics, and paper shortages. Lob manages end-to-end fulfillment through our world class print delivery network, so your mail is always priority. At any scale and frequency.

Lob's nationwide direct mail Print Delivery Network

Built-in direct mail marketing analytics to see what works

To ensure you can track the success of your direct mail campaigns, you’ll want an analytics dashboard to see what’s working and what’s not at a glance or in depth. With Lob, you get an out-of-the-box analytics suite to measure how each campaign performs so you can learn and iterate with each send. There's a reason 84% of marketers agree that direct mail delivers the best ROI of any channel they use!

Integrates with your tech stack seamlessly for an omnichannel approach

Lastly, deep integrations with marketing automation, customer relationship management, and customer data platforms are essential in using customer data to create direct mail campaigns that get acted on and are integrated into your other marketing activities. You need integrations beyond the e-commerce basics that PostPilot provides.

Lob technology integration partners

Industry-leading security

Lob’s industry-leading security is trusted by Fortune 500 companies to reach compliance goals and is built into every aspect of our platform.

As a leader in the direct mail industry, Lob undergoes annual audits conducted by a third party to ensure SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA compliance.

Lob's leading security and compliance

Sustainable and carbon-neutral direct mail

54% of consumers agree they more likely to purchase from a brand that prioritizes sustainability. 

Lob is keenly aware of the impact direct mail marketing has on the environment and works to minimize it by investing in sustainable direct mail

Lob builds ESG accountability into every direct mail campaign and is committed to setting a new sustainability standard for direct mail and helping our customers and partners meet their sustainability goals.

All mail sent with Lob is carbon neutral through the entire lifecycle, from raw materials to ultimate disposal. PostPilot merely claims that they are eco-friendly and that its paper is sourced from FSC-certified mills.

Since 2018, Lob has planted over half a million trees, more than double the amount used to produce our mail pieces, through our partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects. Our customers reduce waste through built-in address verification, error handling, and direct mail best practices.

Lob offers sustainable, carbon-neutral direct mail marketing

Real-life direct mail customer success stories

Over 12,000 companies choose Lob to automate their direct mail, and we’re proud of those partnerships and success.

Over 12,000 companies trust Lob for direct mail marketing that gets results.

Let’s look at a few examples:

How Branch improved customer retention by 25% with automated direct mail

Branch is a full-stack insurance company that uses data, technology, and automation to make bundling home and auto insurance easier and more affordable.

Branch partnered with Lob to revolutionize its direct mail operations. Lob's robust features and integrations addressed Branch’s challenges and brought many benefits. 

Lob’s versatile direct mail capabilities support the company's outreach efforts to insurance regulators and agency partners. It enabled the rapid sending of letters, postcards, and other mailings, enhancing engagement and communication efficiency. 

As a Certified B Corp, Branch wanted to minimize traditional mail for environmental reasons, and Lob's carbon-neutral mailings aligned with its sustainability goals. Despite evolving communication channels, the insurance company recognized the continued relevance of direct mail in maintaining customer engagement and reducing fallout.

“Some carriers I've worked at said, ‘Oh, mail's dead. You should just use texting and email.’ But if we didn't have mail campaigns, we would've had a lot more fallout.”  - Gabriel Tornberg, Senior Operations Manager, Branch

Branch experienced incredible results from automated direct mail, including impressive engagement and conversion rates. Branch’s direct mail letters included QR codes, which made it seamless for recipients to take action, and 25–30% of recipients actively scanned the QR code. This allowed recipients to access their digital documents and additional details, offering a more engaging and efficient experience than traditional, lengthy letters.  When converting members to Branch’s insurance exchange, the QR code in the letter was pivotal. It contributed to an impressive 25% improvement in retention.

Read Branch’s full success story

VentureStack brings home 2x marketing results with automated direct mail

North Carolina-based VentureStack provides real estate investors with better deals.

Direct mail for the real estate investing market hasn’t changed much in the last decade, resulting in many firms using similar-looking boilerplate mail. The templates were basic, handwritten letter formats and lacked personalization, customization options, and elements like QR codes for tracking and attribution. Because of the limiting templates, VentureStack struggled to stand out from the competition in acquiring new home-selling clients with its direct mail campaigns. 

VentureStack began using Lob in its new customer acquisition campaigns. It found near immediate success with a two-page letter.

“A real differentiator was the ability to customize our mail pieces. And something that stood out immediately was not having the bottleneck of someone fulfilling an order. Having a technology integration to get some of my time back and not focus on placing orders was a big win from the start. I could focus on A/B testing, finding new data,  and tweaking different things, so Lob was a big game changer for us.” - Tim McGarvey, Co-Founder, VentureStack

The most critical metric VentureStack uses to measure the efficacy of its direct mail campaigns is the return on ad spend (ROAS), essentially the return on investment. It tracks each campaign with an individual phone number. McGarvey says, “If we're at or above that mark, that's an indicator that we need to put effort into the channel, and we'll break that apart and figure out how to continue to increase the return.” He further explains, “In our industry, companies normally target a 4 to 5 times return to be a viable, sustainable marketing channel. We have an 8.3 return on ad spend from direct mail, so we're blowing that out of the water.”

Read VentureStack’s full success story.

Conclusion

As you’ve learned, Lob is the best direct mail marketing replacement for PostPilot, and having a partner, not just a faceless platform for your direct mail marketing success, is crucial. Lob is here to help you hit the ground running and leverage the unparalleled conversion, response rate, and ROI that direct mail delivers. From our intuitive Campaigns interface to our advanced APIs, nationwide Print Delivery Network, advanced tracking and analytics, and trusted security and compliance to our sustainable, carbon-neutral mail, Lob is the choice for direct mail marketing. 

Ready to learn more? Request a demo from our direct mail experts. 

Have other questions? Check out our direct mail FAQs

Send lightning-fast campaigns that drive results with Lob

Send targeted, lightning-fast campaigns at scale. Take our intuitive platform for a spin.

For more information about how this data is used, please view our Privacy Policy