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Setup Guide: Recipient Search

How to set up a Recipient Search automation to build a targeted mailing list without a specific triggering event.

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Written by Adam Rutkowski

Recipient Search is its own automation type — separate from Radius Mail. Where Radius Mail (and most other automations) mail people in response to a specific triggering event, like a completed job or a new Shopify order, Recipient Search is built for a different job: helping you build a targeted mailing list based purely on search criteria, with no triggering event required. If you know the kind of area and the kind of household you want to reach, but there's no order or job kicking things off, Recipient Search is the automation for that.

This makes Recipient Search a good fit for proactive prospecting — reaching out to a neighborhood or demographic segment on your own timeline, rather than waiting for a customer action to set your mail in motion. The setup walks you through defining your area, narrowing it down, setting your sending limits, and reviewing your targets before anything goes out.

How to Set Up Recipient Search

Recipient Search walks you through a few steps: defining where you want to mail, narrowing that area down by demographics, setting how much mail goes out, and reviewing your targets before you launch. Here's how it works.

  1. Define your search area — Start by telling LettrLabs where you want to target. Using the map, you can draw a radius around a point, or draw a custom polygon if you want a more specific or irregular shape than a simple circle. This gives you more control over the geography than a radius alone — useful if you want to target a specific neighborhood, side of town, or service area that doesn't fit neatly into a circle.

  2. Add demographic filters — Once you've defined your area, narrow it down further with demographic filters, such as homeowner status, estimated home value, or other available demographic filters, so you're only targeting the addresses that match the kind of household you're looking for. Unverified: the exact list of demographic filter fields available in this step was not fully confirmed against the live UI for this guide.

  3. Set your sending limits — Next, set your sending options — this controls how many pieces of mail go out as part of this automation, so you can keep your send within budget or within the volume you're prepared to handle.

  4. Calculate your targets, then review — When your area and filters are set, click to calculate your target count. LettrLabs will take a moment to process your search criteria — you'll see a brief loading state while this happens. Once it's done, you'll get a results table showing what it found, so you can review your targeted addresses before moving forward. From there, you'll choose your send schedule — the cadence and timing for when your mail should go out.

  5. Review and launch — Take a final look over your search area, filters, sending limits, and schedule. Once everything looks right, launch the automation to put it into effect.

Because Recipient Search doesn't depend on a triggering event, it's a good fit any time you want to build and mail a list based purely on where people are and who they are — rather than waiting on something like a completed job or an incoming order to kick things off.

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