Send physical mail with Lob, PostGrid or Open Letter Connect

A contact workflow can mail a letter to a contact through your organization’s own account with one of three mail providers: Lob, PostGrid or Open Letter Connect (OLC). Goliath does not sell mail or postage: each letter is billed to your provider account at that provider’s pricing.

Nothing is mailed until an organization admin connects an account, verifies a template on it, and the provider accepts one test letter. Until then, workflows cannot send mail and no letter goes out.

Connect your mail account

Only organization admins see the mail cards. They are under Mailers.

1. Open the organization menu → Integrations and find Lob, PostGrid or Open Letter Connect.
2. Select Connect Lob (or Connect PostGrid, Connect Open Letter Connect). Once an account is connected, the card shows Manage instead, and Connect another account is in there.
3. Choose the Account type, paste your API key, then select Verify & connect. Goliath checks the key with the provider before saving it.
   • Live account prints and mails real letters, and the provider bills your account for each one.
   • Test account mails nothing and bills nothing: OLC’s sandbox, or a Lob or PostGrid test key.

Manage walks each account through four steps in order. Each step shows a check mark once it is done, and the account reads Ready to send once it can send. With a live and a test account connected, each has its own tab.

Connecting a key for an account type that already has an account replaces that account (Replace), and setup starts over. Disconnect, the power button beside the account’s name, stops new mail through that account. Either way, mail already submitted may still be delivered, and the confirmation names the workflows that send through the account: their new letters are refused until another account is chosen.

Turn on delivery tracking

The provider tells Goliath when each letter is mailed, delivered or returned. Sending does not wait for it.

• PostGrid: in Manage, select Turn on tracking. Goliath creates the webhook with PostGrid; there is nothing to paste.
• Lob: in Manage, copy the Webhook URL. In Lob’s dashboard, switch to the account’s mode (test or live), open Webhooks, create one with the URL and subscribe it to the letter events. Paste the webhook’s secret into Secret key from Lob and select Save.
• Open Letter Connect: copy the Webhook URL. In that OLC account, open Settings, then Webhooks, add the URL, and choose the order_items.updated and order_items.qr_code_scanned events. Paste the Secret Key OLC shows into Secret key from OLC and select Save.

An account connected before this step existed shows Get the webhook URL first; select it, then follow the steps above. Until the secret is saved, that provider’s updates are refused. Connecting a new key for the account gives it a new URL to add with the provider.

Verify a template

A letter can use only a template verified on the account that sends it. Verifying does not mail anything.

• Lob and PostGrid: under Verify a template, choose one of the account’s templates in this mode and select Verify. Create the template with the provider first.
• Open Letter Connect: enter the OLC template number (the number OLC shows next to the template) and select Verify. OLC renders a free proof.

The account’s verified templates are listed above the field.

Mail one test letter

An account can send from workflows only after the provider accepts one test letter for it: per mail class on Lob and PostGrid, per product on OLC. Once the account has a verified template, select Send a test letter, choose the Template and the mail class or product, enter your Business name and your own address (OLC also asks for an Offer percentage), then send it.

• On a live account, this mails one real letter to that address and the provider bills you for it. Goliath asks you to confirm first (Mail a real letter?). Where the provider can cancel a letter, Goliath instead sends it and cancels it right away (Send a live test letter?, Send and cancel); if the cancel is not confirmed, it may still be printed and billed.
• On a test account, the provider accepts the letter and mails nothing.

Add the step to a workflow

In a contact workflow, add Send physical mail from the step chooser, then set:

• Campaign label and Mail account.
• Timing: Send as soon as this step runs, or Schedule with provider with Days the provider holds the letter, where the account can schedule.
• Verified template, and the Mail class (Lob, PostGrid) or OLC product and offer percentage (OLC).
• Explicit return address.
• Recipient address source: Contact mailing, then owner’s mailing, or Contact mailing only. The property’s street address is never used as a fallback.
• Template merge fields, each Not used, a Literal value, or one of the contact’s name or mailing-address fields.

A workflow with this step cannot be saved or published until its account, template and mail class or product are ready to send.

If a letter cannot be sent when the step runs, for example because the contact has no usable mailing address or the account was disconnected, the step records why and the run continues to its next step.

Every letter a workflow prepared is in Library → Direct mail, and on the contact’s timeline, with its status. See Direct mail.

While Pause everything is on, no letter is mailed until an admin resumes. See Pause all automated sending.