It’s easy to trigger direct mail from Postal Connector - allowing you to send individual letters, postcards or self mailers, automatically, 24×7. After a little setup, direct mail is printed, mailed and tracked when Postal Connector sends a trigger.
Set Up Your Postal Connector Integration
Before you can trigger direct mail, you’ll need to set up your Postal Connector Integration. If you haven’t yet set this up, please do so by following these directions.
Create a Triggered Drip Campaign
To enable your workflow to send data to your Triggered Drip Campaign, you’ll be setting up a Webhook action, based on the trigger of your choice.
The first step is to create your Triggered Drip Campaign using the Triggered Drip Campaign Wizard.
Start from the top menu navigation: Campaigns > New Campaign > Triggered Drip > Postal Connector. The Wizard will walk you through each step in creating the campaign.
Note: If you don’t see Postal Connector as an option, it means the integration hasn’t been set up or completed. This will need to be done before moving forward. See our help doc Postal Connector Integration for instructions on setting up this integration.
Once the Triggered Drip Campaign has been created, the Webhook URL will need to be copied and added to the webhook workflow created within Postal Connector.
To find the webhook URL, open your campaign list and locate the newly created campaign. Click on the ellipsis next to it, and select “Settings”.
This will bring you to the information page for your Triggered Drip Campaign.
Leave this page open for now so that you can copy the Webhook URL, and add it as the URL in the Postal Connector workflow webhook when you are at that step.
Create your Workflow in Postal Connector
The next step is to create your Postal Connector Workflow.
In your Postal Connector account, select “Automation”, and then select “+ Create Workflow” in the upper right corner.
Here, you’ll have the option to select from a menu of pre-built workflows or start from scratch. Since triggering for direct mail requires a webhook, you’ll need to build your workflow by clicking “Continue” in the “Start from scratch” section.
Name your workflow, and then click the light blue box in the top center “Add New Trigger”.
Next, select your trigger of choice from the options on the left. For this article, we are selecting “Contact Changed”.
On the next screen you can update the trigger and/or add filters, if needed. Once complete, click “Save Trigger”.
If you have additional triggers and/or actions needed before a record is to be triggered for direct mail, add them to the workflow. Otherwise, select the “+” under the trigger to add an action.
To add the webhook action, begin typing “webhook” into the search bar, then select “Webhook”.
Now, head back over to the Request Method URL window that you previously left open and add the following details into the Postal Connector webhook setup:
Set the Method to POST
Copy the Request Method URL (all characters after POST:) and paste it into the URL field in Postal Connector
Under Headers, add two sections.
Key = Authorization
Value = copy/paste the Authorization header. You’ll find this in the Request Headers section under the Request Method URL you just pasted above.
Key = Content-Type
Value = copy/paste application/json which is also in the Request Headers section.
Your webhook should resemble the following image. If it does, click “Save Action”.
Finally, click “Save” in the upper right hand corner. Your workflow is now ready.
Let’s test it out!
Your Triggered Drip Campaign is defaulted to Test Mode. All Triggered Drip Campaigns are set this way initially as a feature that enables you to test your workflow to make sure that it is firing properly, and that the connection to the campaign is working the way you want to. This can all be done in Test Mode without actually sending mail and using your Direct Mail Credits!
To test the Workflow, you’ll first need to publish the workflow in Postal Connector.
Click the “Publish” toggle and then “Save”.
Next, we recommend manually updating one or more contacts, based on the trigger you selected, to trigger the workflow and send data over.
Navigate to the Campaign Dashboard. In the middle left section, the number of valid records received will be outlined under Contact List Health.
In the upper right hand corner, you’ll see that the Campaign is set to "Test mode". To view the test mailer(s) that were created, click on the "Preview Created Mail" button.
A popup window will appear with a PDF of each of the test mailpieces generated for your test records. Remember that since you are in test mode, none of these pieces have actually been sent to the printer. However, once your campaign has been toggled to “Live Mode” and triggers are coming through, clicking “Preview Created Mail” will show live mail that has actually been sent to the printer.
With a successful test, you’re ready to flip your Triggered Drip campaign to Live Mode, and, if needed, purchase your Direct Mail Credits.
To Ensure Your Campaign is Live You’ll Need Credits
Triggered Drip Campaigns will not function without at least 100 Direct Mail credits, in the correct format for the campaign. Format refers to the creative format and postage combination. For example if you are mailing a 4×6 Postcard with First Class postage, you’ll need to purchase Direct Mail credits for 4x6 First Class.
You cannot use credits that have been purchased for a different format and postage class.
If you already have credits, your campaign will seamlessly flip to Live Mode when you manually toggle it over from Test Mode.
However, if you don’t have at least 100 credits, in the proper format, you’ll need to purchase them. If you do not have enough credits, a pop up window will appear when the campaign is toggled to Live Mode on the Campaign Dashboard, where you can purchase them. Select “Purchase Credits Now” and proceed with the steps to purchase credits.
Once live, with enough credits in queue, there is nothing more for you to do. The Campaign will “listen” for Postal Connector to trigger it, and will send the postcard, letter or self mailer you’ve chosen to each recipient with no further interaction.