Lob in San Francisco provides the building blocks for developers to automate offline correspondences. Enterprise companies use Lob’s suite of APIs to mail fully dynamic and personalized customer communications with print media. Lob also provides insight into deliverability with piece-by-piece tracing and a proprietary Print Delivery Network to streamline production across fully redundant nodes all over the country.
$0
per month (Up to 500 Mailings)
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
PFL helps businesses deliver authentic moments by
creating impactful direct mail that is data-driven, bringing measurement,
personalization, and predictability from digital to direct mail. PFL offers direct mail that is... Simplified: PFL simplifies direct mail execution by managing the entire process under one roof from strategy and production to delivery and measurement. Engaging: Supports engagement that results in action by paring digital tactics with memorable…
We selected PFL against Lob largely because of pricing and automation capabilities. We felt the team at PFL had our best interests at heart and could provide the robust automation we were looking for.
Lob has always been able to show us our mailing and projected volume very timely and accurately, and has consistently delivered solutions in the majority of cases. However, due to the complexity and variability of the insurance industry, unique situations occasionally arise that may fall outside their current capacity or operational model.
The reason it's not a seven or above is purely because of the timing of a solution we had requested originally back in August 2023. It's now February 2024, and we're waiting for a wow-factor pitch deck. Previously, we only received a demo recording and an order form quote. These truthfully aren't helpful enough to convince and sway our senior leaders into spending the $35k+ investment into the PMC.
Personalization: It allows us to create highly personalized direct mail pieces tailored to individual recipients. For instance, we can include the recipient's name, relevant product recommendations, or even custom images that resonate with their preferences.
Multi-Channel Integration: The platform seamlessly integrates with our existing digital marketing tools and CRM systems. It enables us to orchestrate cohesive campaigns that combine email, social media, and direct mail to reach our target audience through multiple touchpoints.
Automated Workflows: PFL offers robust automation capabilities, streamlining the entire direct mail process. We can set triggers, such as website visits or email engagement, to automatically trigger the sending of personalized direct mail pieces, ensuring timely and relevant outreach.
Variable Data Printing: The platform simplifies variable data printing, enabling us to print custom content for each recipient efficiently. This is particularly useful for A/B testing different messaging or designs within a single campaign.
In my opinion, the admin usability is horrendous. Specifically when looking for specific mailers, the search and pagination UI requires back end loading, it doesn't allow opening in new browser windows, it doesn't remember state when clicking into mailer requiring you to search again. I've started using Claude Code integrated with the API instead of clicking through the Admin UI because, in my experience, it is so hard to use.
The UI is friendly, clear, and accessible, and I access it directly through the interface (Salesforce) that I perform my function in every day. It is intuitive to navigate, and I am able to find most functionalities I need without the need to consult an admin and/or support teams.
Only thing holding me back from a perfect 10 would be the timelines for involving the technical team on occasion. There have been a few times where the PFL technical support team has been booked up for days or more than a week out which can delay our project timelines. This doesn't happen often, let me be clear. But when it does, it's usually at the worst time for our campaigns.
Root keeps Lob because it is already deeply integrated into our systems, and replacing it would require significant engineering effort with limited expected cost savings. As well as the unknowns that come with other options, switching vendors would likely require a significant multi-quarter effort without clear cost savings or efficiency gains.
JourneyMail is one I have evaluated. It did not seem as full featured as PFL Direct Mail Platform, nor did it integrate with the rest of the Salesforce products like PFL Direct Mail Platform (journeymail ONLY integrates to marketing cloud). My customers tend to be cross-cloud and own multiple products and want solutions that can integrate across their stack easily.
It does take a while to launch or re-launch a campaign, which can make it difficult to pivot quickly. However, if you're integrated with Marketo, then PFL is as scalable as your database and marketing strategy! The sky is the limit in terms of creativity. Post launch, the program is hands-off apart from report monitoring and potential optimization tweaks.
