Guide · private beta

HubSpot + Inkly:
set the trigger, we hold the pen.

Inkly adds one action to HubSpot workflows: Send a handwritten card. A deal closes, a renewal comes up, a meeting gets booked - and a real card, written with a ballpoint pen, goes in the mail with no human effort. You connect your portal once, map your contact properties once, and it runs.

HubSpot

A contact enrolls in your workflow

The action

Sends the name, address, and message

Inkly

A pen machine writes the card, real ballpoint

Mailbox

Stamped and mailed within two business days

Private beta. The HubSpot app is not in the marketplace yet, so connections are invite-only. Ask for access; once enabled, the Connect HubSpot button appears in your dashboard. Your HubSpot subscription must include contact-based workflows.

Setup, once

Four steps, about five minutes.

1

Connect your portal

On your dashboard, open Automations and press Connect HubSpot. Approve the install in HubSpot and you land back on the dashboard, connected. There is no API key to create, copy, or paste - connecting is the whole credential step.

Connecting has to start from your dashboard, not from HubSpot. That is what proves the portal belongs to your Inkly account - a connection begun anywhere else cannot finish.

Inkly dashboardAutomations

HubSpot private beta

Send cards from contact workflows

Connect once. No API key to copy.

Connect HubSpot
Interface preview. Eligible accounts see the connect button under Automations.
2

Add credits

Cards are prepaid. In API keys & credits on the dashboard, add credits before the first workflow run. Every card draws from the same account balance, whether it was sent from a workflow, the API, or the order form.

If the balance runs out mid-workflow, the action fails visibly with "Not enough Inkly credits" and no card is sent. Top up, then re-enroll.

Each portal starts with a 25-card and $125 daily safety limit. You can change either limit or pause sending from the dashboard. Usage resets at 00:00 UTC.

Inkly dashboardCredits

Account balance

$247.50

50 cards available

Add credits
Interface preview. One balance covers dashboard, API, Zapier, and HubSpot sends.
3

Add the action to a contact workflow

In HubSpot, create or open a contact-based workflow, set your enrollment trigger, then add an action and pick Inkly › Send a handwritten card.

Deal-driven sends work today from a contact workflow: enroll contacts whose associated deal reaches Closed Won. That keeps the recipient - and their mailing address - unambiguous, which is exactly what a physical card needs.

HubSpot workflowContact-based
1Contact meets enrollment criteria
2Inkly
Send a handwritten card
Interface preview. Inkly appears in contact-based workflows only in this release.
4

Write the message, map the properties

Pick a card design and handwriting style from the dropdowns - both load live from our catalog. Write the message once: it is the template every card uses. Then point each recipient field at the matching contact property.

Personalize with Inkly's merge fields: {{first_name}}, {{last_name}}, {{company}}. We fill them from the recipient fields you just mapped, so one message covers everyone. A missing first name becomes "there"; a missing company becomes "your team".

Send a handwritten cardInkly
Recipient first nameContact property: First name Street addressContact property: Street address MessageHi {{first_name}}, thank you...
Interface preview. Map once; each new contact enrollment supplies its own values.

Field mapping

What to point at what.

Action fieldHubSpot propertyNotes
Card design Pick one The printed front. The message inside is always handwritten.
Handwriting style Pick one The hand the pen writes in.
Message Type it Up to 500 characters and 16 lines. Use {{first_name}}, {{last_name}}, {{company}}.
Recipient first name First name Also fills {{first_name}}.
Recipient last name Last name Also fills {{last_name}}.
Recipient company Company name Optional. Fills {{company}}; blank becomes "your team".
Street address Street address Required. Contacts without one fail the action on purpose.
Apt / suite / unit Street address 2 Optional.
City City Required.
State State/Region Two-letter code or the full state name - we convert it.
ZIP code Postal code Five digits or ZIP+4.
Country Country Optional. Leave empty for US. We mail US addresses only for now.
Target arrival date Any date property Optional. We mail five business days ahead of it.

The one thing that trips people up

Most CRM contacts have no mailing address.

Email-first CRMs rarely carry a street address, and a card cannot be mailed without one. So the action fails visibly when the address is missing or is not a complete US mailing format. You will see it in the workflow's action history, with the field named. We would rather show you a failed step than a green checkmark that mailed nothing.

Filter at enrollment

Add enrollment criteria: Street address is known AND Postal code is known AND Country is US (or unknown). Only mailable contacts ever reach the action.

Or branch inside the workflow

Use an if/then branch on the same properties: mailable contacts get the card, everyone else takes a different path - an email, or a task to find the address.

We check that an address is complete and correctly formatted for US mail. We do not verify that someone lives there - an address that passes can still come back as undeliverable.

Worth stealing

Six workflows that pay for themselves.

Deal stage becomes Closed Won

"Thanks for trusting us - excited to get started." Signed by the rep.

Lands three days after the signature, when every other vendor sent a templated email.

Enrollment: Contact-based workflow, enrolled when an associated deal reaches Closed Won

Renewal date is 30 days out

"Year one was good. Here is to the next." Arrives before the invoice.

The cheapest retention spend you will ever approve.

Enrollment: Date-based enrollment on a renewal date property

Meeting booked with a target account

"Looking forward to Thursday." Arrives before the meeting.

Almost nobody does this. That is exactly why it works.

Enrollment: Enroll on meeting booked, filtered to a target-account list

Lifecycle stage becomes Customer

A welcome note from the founder, in the founder’s chosen hand.

The strongest moment to be memorable is the week they start paying you.

Enrollment: Enroll when lifecycle stage is Customer

NPS or survey score of 9 or 10

A thank-you - and, if you like, a referral ask.

You are rewarding exactly the people most likely to refer.

Enrollment: Enroll on the survey property, filtered to promoters

A contact goes quiet for 90 days

"Been a while - still here if you need us."

A card cuts through where the fourth follow-up email did not.

Enrollment: Enroll on last activity date older than 90 days

Questions

Before you wire it up.

Can a contact get two cards by mistake?
Not from a retry. Every workflow execution is recorded, so if HubSpot re-delivers one - a timeout, a hiccup on our side - it replays the original answer and no second card is written or charged. Re-enrolling a contact is a new execution and deliberately sends a new card; HubSpot keeps re-enrollment off unless you turn it on.
What does a card cost?
$4.95 each from your prepaid balance, with no minimum. The 50-card minimum on the order form does not apply to workflow sends.
What if we run out of credits?
The action fails with "Not enough Inkly credits" and nothing is mailed. It does not queue and it does not retry for days - a card arriving unexpectedly late is worse than a failed step you can see. Top up, then re-enroll the affected contacts.
Can we send to contacts outside the US?
Not yet. Non-US addresses fail the action with a clear message. Add Country is US to your enrollment criteria to keep them out.
Which HubSpot plan do we need?
A HubSpot subscription that includes contact-based workflows. This release is scoped to contact-based workflows, not deal- or company-based workflows.
What happens if we disconnect?
Sends stop immediately. Inkly asks HubSpot to uninstall the app and retries if HubSpot is temporarily unavailable; the encrypted cleanup credential is erased after uninstall completes. Cards already in production still get mailed.
Can we trigger from a deal or company workflow?
Not directly yet. Use a contact workflow with an associated-deal enrollment trigger - the card needs one unambiguous person and address, and deal properties do not carry those.
How do we know it worked?
The action returns the Inkly order id and scheduled mail date into the workflow, and every card shows up on your Inkly dashboard with its status. Your account balance stays in Inkly instead of being copied into HubSpot workflow history.

Wire up the first one.

Connect your portal from your dashboard, and we will set the first workflow up with you.

Open your dashboard Ask for beta access