How to: Fax Marketing

The fax is very “yesterday”, old technology, boring and should’ve died a long time ago. And yet I still cannot find a business card in my rolodex which does not contain a fax number. Is this a “me too” phenomenon, is everyone clinging to old technologies or are they just too lazy to throw the traditional fax machine out?

Well surprise surprise, most people have a fax number as it is still considered a sign of a credible business. The thinking is, if you have a fax number you must have infrastructure and means, and thus be a credible business. Also, every time you deal with a contract, authorisation or proposal you end up faxing back documents. Try signing the screen of your laptop or getting an email accepted as authorisation and see how far you get.

This all begs the question. If most businesses have a fax number and the number of faxes received is far below the number of emails, surely faxes create a little excitement when received, get a little more attention, get read, are not easily deleted and are easily slipped into a folder for later reading and action. So why are more people not using the humble fax for marketing, as another channel to market.

Well don’t be surprised, many companies are very serious about fax marketing and using fax broadcasting to do this. Fax broadcasts allow 1-to-many faxing, are cheap, effective and provide a whole other medium to reach your potential target market. Having a clear message delivered to your target market in hard copy is quicker, cheaper and easier than direct mail and has less chance of being deleted than an email. Still need convincing?

Key to effective fax broadcasting is a quality fax broadcast provider. A quality fax service provider will ensure you are only charged for faxes delivered, will allow detailed reporting on the delivery process as it happens, have the best rates and be supported by the best and most reliable technology.