What was the big change that bumped up order volume so much?
Their area/rural route sending is something that I've used from other vendors for my marketing in the same vertical.
Frankly, I've been wracking my brain (and those of friends at coffee meetings) trying to think of a business to build on top of this API.
Reminders and marketing are the two broad markets that jump to my mind, but I'm struggling a bit to find niches where the attributes of postcards (or letters) win vs other solutions:
* cost (94 cents vs free for email or far cheaper for text messages)
* timeliness (5-7 days vs immediate)
* point of delivery (physical address vs device or computer)
Regardless, I'm impressed with lob.com and when the right mail business opportunity comes along, I know who my API partner will be.
- Automated postcards generated from your Facebook timeline or Flickr feed when you're traveling
- Simple/inexpensive invitations for parties, reunions, save the dates, etc. Hook it up to Facebook, too.
- Information distribution to parents of school children (how to register for online report cards, absentee reports, etc).
- Targeted political messaging (although there are already companies that do this)
Though it seems a better fit for marketing automation systems: i.e. if you supply software to a car dealer, then you can use them to send reminders to people for their annual checkup or services.
I run an online business. I'd love to be able to send customers postcards after purchase. Didn't know this existed.
I do have a contract programmer I could turn to.
The code: https://github.com/wanderingstan/email2post
I first heard about them when they hired me to do some tight-deadline code contracting last fall. Leore was great to work with so I'm not surprised they've attracted a good team. Congrats guys!
Certainly rings a lot of bells here at Pwinty as we both launched about the same time.
Our first ever order arrived sooner than expected and was fulfilled by me running down to the local photo store with a memory stick and them over to the post office. Then spent a few months with a commercial photo printer living in our dining room. We'd drape a blanket over it when guests came over for dinner, but it had a habit of whirring to life at the most inopportune times.
My wife tolerated this wonderfully for a good few months until we had a better alternative!
Last year, when I first started hearing about Lob, I was very impressed by the cool services people could quickly create using their API. It looks like it's only gotten more popular from there!