With Postalytics and Salesforce Flows, Marketers can send individual pieces of direct mail (letters, postcards, or self-mailers) without human intervention, 24×7. After a little bit of setup, direct mail is printed, mailed and tracked when conditions in Salesforce trigger Postalytics to do so.
What Salesforce Objects Can Be Used?
Since Postalytics requires names and/or companies as well as addresses for sending mail, you can create Salesforce Flows that use the Lead or Contact Objects. It is important to setup the Salesforce Flow and the Postalytics Triggered Drip Campaign to for the correct object.
Setup Your Salesforce Integration
Before Direct Mail can be triggered from Salesforce Flows, the Salesforce authentication must be configured in Postalytics. If you haven’t yet configured your authentication, follow these directions.
What Are the Steps Required to Launch a Salesforce Triggered Drip Campaign?
- Create a Postalytics Triggered Drip Campaign – in Test Mode
- Add the newly created Endpoint URL to a Salesforce Outbound Message
- Create a Salesforce Flow that includes the Salesforce Outbound Message
- Trigger test Contacts or Leads for mapping and testing
- Toggle the Postalytics Triggered Drip Campaign to Live Mode
- Ensure you have Direct Mail Credits available in your Postalytics account
Create A Postalytics Triggered Drip Campaign
Postalytics generates what is known as a webhook URL when a Triggered Drip Campaign is created. A webhook URL acts as a listening device for web applications like Postalytics. This is a URL that will be triggered by Salesforce when the condition is met to send the direct mail.
Below we’ll focus only on the Salesforce specific components of the Triggered Drip Campaign setup.
For the full step by step instructions on how to create a Triggered Drip Campaign in Postalytics, read this article.
Create a New Triggered Drip Campaign and choose ‘Salesforce’.
Give the campaign a name and enter the return address.
On the next page select the recipient country.
Following that, choose a template from your list of proofed templates. If you don’t see a template that you want to use, see the Create New Template article. If the template is a letter, you’ll then select the envelope.
Now, on the Sync page, choose your Salesforce Integration, and the Salesforce Object (Contact or Lead) that you will be integrating with. This should be the same object that used in the Salesforce Outbound Message and Flow.
Follow the rest of the steps in the Campaign Wizard to complete the Tracking, URLs, Postage, and Confirmation portions.
Once done, the campaign will be in Test Mode, by default. Copy the webhook URL to be used in the Salesforce Outbound Message.
This URL is always available and can be viewed or copied in the Campaign Settings section.
The campaign is not fully complete yet, as it will need to be Mapped and should be tested using our unique Test Mode feature. We’ll come back to both of these later in this article.
Create a Salesforce Outbound Message
The next step after creating the Postalytics Triggered Drip Campaign, is to create the Outbound Message in Salesforce.
This is the data set that is sent to Postalytics via the Webhook URL when a trigger is activated from the Salesforce Flow.
From the setting icon, select ‘Setup’.
Then, on the left hand side Scroll down and select ‘PLATFORM TOOLS’, ‘Process Automation’, ‘Workflow Actions’, and finally ‘Outbound Messages’.
On the Outbound Messages Home Page, select ‘New Outbound Message’ in the middle of the page.
To set up the Outbound Message, first select the object. Begin typing in either “contact” or “lead” and it will provide a dropdown menu to choose from. Click ‘Next’.
Name the Outbound Message, and add a description if preferred. Paste the Webhook URL from the Postalytics Triggered Drip Campaign here as well.
NOTE: A separate Outbound Message is needed for each Triggered Drip Campaign set up in Postalytics, using the Webhook URL associated with that campaign.
A “User to send” as is also required here.
Finally, select the Contact fields to send from the Available Fields box on the left, using the add arrow to move them to the box on the right. Postalytics requires the following fields, at minimum:
- First Name
- Last Name
- or Company
- Street Address
- City
- State
- Zip Code
Most Salesforce users use the standard Salesforce Address fields. For example: Mailing Street, Mailing City, Mailing State/Province, Mailing Zip/Postal Code. This is not necessary IF that information is held in other fields.
Other fields you can optionally include are fields that you will be mapping into your Postalytics template for personalization - with either Variable Data or Variable Logic. You must include a Salesforce field for each Variable Data field that you’ve included in your template setup.
When you’ve completed the New Outbound Message, click ‘Save’.
Your new Outbound Message has been created and is now ready to use in a Flow. Navigate to Flows from the left side panel.
Select ‘New Flow’ in the upper right corner.
For this Flow, we’ll be setting up a Record-Triggered Flow, but as you can see, there are few different options to choose from depending on your strategy. Click ‘Create’
Set up the configuration by selecting the Object, the Trigger, and Conditions, and any Optimization desired. Click ‘Done’.
In the Flow Builder the trigger will be listed first. To add the Outbound Message step to the Flow, click the plus sign (+) under the Trigger.
Next, select the ‘Action’.
Begin typing the Outbound Message Name to bring up the selection options and click the appropriate one.
On the following screen, input a Label/API Name associated with the Flow. These fields are required. Click ‘Done’.
The Flow should now look similar to this. Click ‘Save’.
Name the Flow on the next screen and click ‘Save’.
Send A Test Contact or Lead For Mapping And Testing
Before leaving the Salesforce Flow, select ‘Activate’ so that a sample record can be triggered to send data via the Webhook URL. A sample is needed in order to map the fields from the Contact or Lead Object to the Postalytics Campaign. This will also ensure that the setup is working properly.
Create a new test contact, making sure to include all of the fields that were set up to send in the Outbound Message. This will trigger the Salesforce Flow, containing the Outbound Message – sending a request to the Postalytics Triggered Drip Campaign to create a mail piece for mapping and testing purposes.
Map Fields
Navigate back to the Postalytics Triggered Drip Campaign and select ‘Map Drip Fields’. This will remain as-is and the campaign will not move forward until the mapping process is completed.
If the test Contact or Lead did not include at least the minimum required fields for a Postalytics mailing, the following message or something similar will appear. Go back into Salesforce and trigger another Contact or Lead ensuring all of the required address data is included.
If the test Contact or Lead is confirmed to have at least the minimum required fields for a Postalytics mailing, the next screen will include the mapping on the left side. Scroll down panel to confirm and map up to 50 fields, including 35 “Variable Data” or user defined fields. When finished, click “Create Mapping” on the bottom right side.
The mapping is now complete!
Test Mode – Campaign Default
Every Triggered Drip Campaign is set to Test Mode by default. This feature enables testing of the Flow to make sure that it is firing properly and that the connection to the Postalytics Campaign is working the way it is intended to – without actually sending mail and using your Direct Mail Credits!
We recommend sending a few tests from Salesforce to the new Triggered Drip Campaign after the mapping process is complete to verify that the mailers are being generated properly from the triggered Contacts or Leads.
Toggle between Live and Test Mode by clicking the toggle button in the upper right corner of your Campaign Dashboard.
NOTE: You can toggle your campaign between Live and Test Mode an unlimited number of times. Use the Test Mode setting to make changes to your campaign, such as editing your template or modifying Starting URLs or other settings.
To view the test mailers, click ‘Preview Mail’ just under the toggle area. It might take a minute to render the first time. If no mailers pop up, go back and trigger another test contact.
Set the Campaign to Live Mode to Start Sending
When you’re happy with the testing results, toggle the Postalytics Triggered Drip campaign to Live Mode, and purchase your Direct Mail Credits, if needed.
Only when the campaign is in Live Mode will it start sending mail. To pause the sending or make any changes, just toggle the setting back to Test Mode.
Direct Mail Credits
At least 100 Direct Mail credits, in the correct format, are needed in order to toggle the campaign to Live Mode.
Format refers to the mailpiece size and postage combination. For example, 4×6 First Class, 6×9 Standard, or 8.5x11 letter. If you already have credits, your campaign will toggle to Live Mode seamlessly.
If at least 100 credits are not available, a pop up window with a warning will appear when the campaign is toggled to Live Mode.
Select ‘Purchase Credits Now’ and proceed with the steps to purchase credits.
With Credit is queue and the campaign in Live Mode, Postalytics will be “listening” for the trigger. There’s no need for further interaction. ssit back and relax while the campaigns keep rolling along.