Lob Zapier integrationAutomate Lob with Zapier.
The Lob Zapier integration gives you 6 actions, 0 triggers and 0 searches. Your Zap starts in another app, then Lob prints and mails a letter, a postcard or a self-mailer, or cleans up an address before anything ships to the printer.
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What the Lob Zapier integration actually does
It lets an event in another app put a physical piece of mail on its way through Lob. A Zap (the automation you build on Zapier) watches that other app, then asks Lob to print and mail, or to check an address. Lob only receives orders here: it never starts the Zap itself.
A postcard per new contact. A response lands in your form tool, Verify US Address corrects the street line, then Send Postcard mails your front and back artwork to the cleaned address.
A letter from a PDF you already host. Send Letter takes a link to an 8.5"x11" PDF, or HTML pasted into the box, and mails it in a double window envelope, in color or black and white.
A folded self-mailer. Send Self-Mailer needs one inside file and one outside file, plus a full US-style recipient: street, city, state and zip are all required.
What Zapier does not do with Lob: nothing that happens inside Lob can start a Zap, because the app has no trigger. There is no search step either, so a Zap cannot look up an existing Lob record. And the HTML boxes refuse Lob template IDs: you paste the HTML itself and insert your variable values from earlier steps.
If you are weighing the two tools, see our Lob Make integration page and our Make vs Zapier comparison.
Zapier vocabulary in one minute
Eight words come back all over this page. Here they are once, in ordinary language.
- Zap
- The automation itself: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time the trigger event happens.
- Trigger
- The event in an app that starts the Zap. Lob has none, so with Lob the trigger always comes from another app.
- Action
- What the Zap does once it has started: the step that writes, sends or moves something. Every Lob step is an action.
- Task
- The unit Zapier bills: one action your Zap completes successfully. Your plan counts these, nothing else.
- Polling vs instant
- A polling trigger is checked on a timer. An instant trigger is reported by the app the moment the event happens.
- Filter
- A step that lets the Zap continue only when what arrived meets your condition, and stops it otherwise.
- Connection
- Your Lob account linked to Zapier once, then reused by every Lob step in every Zap you build.
- Multi-step Zap
- Any Zap beyond one trigger and one action. A second action, a filter or a search makes one, and it needs a paid plan.
What a Lob Zap really costs in tasks
Lob is not a premium app, so it works on the free plan. What you pay for is tasks, not apps.
- Free plan100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps
- Free plan limitTwo steps: one trigger, one action
- Premium appNo, Lob works on the free plan
- Filter or second actionMakes the Zap multi-step, paid plan
The trigger in the other app never costs a task, however often Zapier checks it. Each Lob action that succeeds counts as one task, and an action that fails is not counted. Verify a US address, then send a postcard: that is two tasks per run, and a multi-step Zap, so a paid plan. A few apps and actions take more than one task. Since Lob has no trigger, the interval grid below applies to the polling trigger of the app that starts the Zap, not to Lob.
Connect Lob to Zapier in 3 steps
- 01
Open the Apps page
In your Zapier account, go to Apps and click + Add connection. You need a Lob account already, plus access to anything you do not own yourself and want the Zap to touch.
- 02
Pick Lob in the dialog
Type Lob in the search box of the dialog, select it, then click Add connection. A new browser tab opens on the Lob side to sign you in. Check that you picked Lob itself before you confirm.
- 03
Sign in and grant access
Log in to Lob in that tab and allow Zapier to use the account. The connection then shows up on the Apps page, ready for every Lob step you add later. You only do this once.
Your first Zap: verify a US address, then mail a postcard
GoalEach new form response gets its street address corrected by Lob, then receives a postcard.
- 01
Create the Zap and pick the trigger
Start a new Zap and choose your form tool as the app that starts it, with its new response event. This is the trigger: Lob cannot fill that role.
- 02
Test the trigger on a real response
Run the test. Zapier brings back the three most recent responses of the connected account, so you map the next steps on real data rather than on guesses.
- 03
Add Verify US Address
Add a Lob step, choose Verify US Address and map the street line of the response into Primary Line, the only required field. Test it and read what comes back.
- 04
Add Send Postcard
Add a second Lob step, Send Postcard. Point the front and back to your artwork links, use the verified address for the recipient, and set the Use Type.
- 05
Test, then publish
Test each step once and check the result before going further. Then click Publish to switch the Zap on. Two actions make it multi-step, so a paid plan is required.
The 6 Lob actions, grouped by what they do
Lob gives you 6 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.
Send Letter
ActionIn Zapier“Creates a new letter in a double window envelope that will be mailed to the 'to' address, and from the 'from' address. Please see our documentation (www.lob.com/docs#letters) for details.”
Mails a letter in a double window envelope, from your return address to the recipient. You supply either a link to an 8.5"x11" PDF or HTML pasted straight into the file box.
Send Postcard
ActionIn Zapier“This action creates a new postcard that will be mailed to the 'to' address, and from the 'from' address. Please see our documentation (https://lob.com/docs#postcards) for details.”
Prints a postcard from two pieces of artwork, a front and a back, and posts it to the address you map. Each side accepts a PDF, PNG or JPG link, or HTML.
Send Self-Mailer
ActionIn Zapier“This action creates a new self-mailer that will be mailed to the 'to' address, and from the 'from' address. Please see our documentation (https://docs.lob.com/#tag/Self-Mailers) for details.”
Sends a folded piece that needs no envelope, built from an inside file and an outside file, each a PDF, PNG or JPG link or HTML.
Verify International Address
ActionIn Zapier“Corrects, standardizes, and enriches an international address. Does not accept US addresses (use Verify US Address). For details, see our documentation.”
Corrects and tidies an address outside the United States, then hands the cleaned version to the next step. It wants the street line and a two-letter country code (ISO 3166).
Verify Single Line US Address
ActionIn Zapier“Corrects, standardizes, and enriches (e.g. county, geolocation, deliverability) a single-line US address. Please see our documentation for details.”
Takes a US address typed as one line, city, state and zip included, and returns it corrected and standardized, with extras such as county and deliverability.
Verify US Address
ActionIn Zapier“Corrects, standardizes, and enriches (e.g. county, geolocation, deliverability) a US address. Please see our documentation for details.”
Checks a US address entered in separate parts and returns a standardized version, enriched with details like county, geolocation and deliverability.
When a Lob Zap breaks
Zapier attaches no help article to Lob, and the source lists no Lob-specific rate limit. What breaks is mostly on the Zapier side.
Four situations explain most surprises. If one of them hits you, see our Zapier troubleshooting page.
Nothing from before the Zap is mailed
A Zap reacts only to what happens after you switch it on. Contacts already in your form tool get nothing; mailing that backlog is a separate job.A bulk import gets held back
If the trigger app suddenly returns a huge batch, for example after an import, Zapier's flood protection can hold those items instead of mailing them all.The same contact does not fire twice
On a polling trigger, Zapier remembers what it has already seen, so the same item never starts the Zap a second time.A Zap that feeds its own trigger
If a later step writes into the very place the trigger watches, the Zap sets itself off again and again and burns through your tasks fast.
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