Getting Started
Poplar's tech-enabled solution allows you to easily set up campaigns and personalize mail pieces that print, ship, and reach home in a matter of days. Here we'll walk through the essential steps for getting up & running, and key details to consider:
Account Setup
The following details cover organization settings and how to enter a fixed return address, add team members to your account, and set account-wide suppressions.
Organization & Team Members
Once you've completed onboarding, you'll have full access to your account. First, we suggest heading to your Account Settings Organization tab to set your organization's contact details. The listed Billing Email is the one that will be copied on all invoices and transaction confirmations.
Next, head to the Team tab to add any members that will need access to the account. When a new member is added, they'll receive an email invite to the platform.
Billing
When creating an account, we require you to provide a credit card to keep on file. We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.
A credit card is the primary means of payment for Poplar, but if you plan to mail large volumes consistently and wish to prepay via ACH, wire, or check, please reach out to support@heypoplar.com.
Funding your Account
To avoid any roadblocks during the campaign setup process, be sure to prioritize topping up your credit balance. As you mail, we will deduct it from this credit balance. We will email a notification if your balance drops to $20 and again at $0. If your balance is insufficient when generating a mailing, the mailing will be paused. You have up to 30 days to top up your account and manually mail the piece.
If your balance is insufficient when creating a One Time Send with an uploaded list, you will be prompted to pay for the cost of the send via your card on file. If you have enabled invoicing, we will not be able to charge the card automatically, and you will need to add the credits manually if there is not enough credit balance.
Auto-Refill
When Auto-Refill is turned on, your card will be automatically charged if your account balance drops below a set threshold amount.
pageBillingCampaign Strategy
Poplar is designed to help utilize customer data and maximize results in ways traditional Direct Mail hasn't been able to in the past. The best way to start is by outlining your campaign objectives, target audience, offer and design ideas, target metrics, volume and frequency, format, timing and postage, and whether you want to launch programmatically via trigger or as a batched One Time Send.
Triggered vs. Batched Mailings
One of the first steps in campaign planning is deciding whether you want to set up a Trigger to automatically launch the mailer at a certain point in your workflow or target a specific audience segment all at once with a batched mailing via the One Time Send process.
pageCampaign SetupModeling & Targeting
Modeling and Targeting are among the most important first steps for setting your campaign up for success. The key to efficient targeting is a quality mailing list containing relevant and trustworthy data. As you begin mapping out your strategy, consider these variables along the way:
Are you mailing B2C or B2B?
Is your Audience data coming from a third party or directly from customers themselves?
How are you planning to track and measure the success of your campaign?
Audience Data
The Audiences tab provides an easy place to store email or physical address data. However, it is most commonly used to store campaign-specific suppression lists, separate from your global Do Not Mail List. You can upload a Comma Separated Values (.csv) file comprised of either mailing addresses or email addresses if you're opting to use our address enrichment feature.
pageAudiencesIn-Home Timeline
The following is a typical average timeline for First Class and Standard mailers sent through Poplar; this is an important factor to consider when calculating the launch date of your campaign:
Poplar is optimized for speed, so mailers are sent to production almost immediately and begin printing within 24 hours. Depending on the postage used, in-home time can be as little as 3-7 days. Mailers sent in the early-to-late afternoon may not enter production until the following day.
Due to recent policy changes and the COVID-19 pandemic, USPS has been experiencing backlog in certain areas of the country. We kindly ask our clients to keep this in mind when determining shipping speed and tracking mailers sent via Standard shipping. For time-sensitive campaigns, we recommend mailing First Class when possible.
Creative Design
Poplar offers five mail formats: three different sized postcards and letters available in Black & White or Color. For your campaign to be considered Active, you must upload a Creative design in the following supported file formats:
Format | Type | Notes |
| For creatives utilizing personalized/dynamic elements | |
| For designs that remain the same for each recipient | |
| To be used as an only option, not recommended for highest print quality. |
You will be prompted to upload two separate files for the front and back; these files can be a mix of two different supported formats.
Printed Samples & PDF Proofs
If you're interested in receiving a physical sample of your creative before launch, you can do so via the One Time Send option from within your campaign.
You'll have a thirty-minute grace period to cancel the mailing before it enters the mail stream. To bypass the grace period, hit Send Now from the campaign's One Time Send dashboard.
Once the mailing is done processing, you'll be able to see a preview of the mailer along with a delivery date estimate and live status updates on where it is in the mail lifecycle from production to delivery from the campaign's History tab.
PDF Proofs
During the creative upload process, you'll be given the option to view and download a PDF preview of what your file will look like after cut, with the auto-applied address block:
Always download and review your creative preview to ensure all images and text are rendering in high resolution, with no typos or missing elements.
Start Mailing
Once your campaign has been created, creative files have been uploaded, and audience data has been prepared, you're ready to launch! There are two ways to start mailing:
One Time Sends
To send a Batched Mailing, head to the One Time Send tab within your campaign to begin the process; you'll be prompted to upload a segmented Audience File containing either email addresses or physical addresses.
pageOne Time SendsTrigger Automation
To set up Triggered Mailings, Poplar's Mailing API will need to integrate with your CRM/Marketing platform directly OR through a third-party connector (such as Zapier).
pageSupported PlatformsA Campaign must contain Creative artwork before it's considered Active for a One Time Send or trigger configuration.
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