Fax marketing

[ronsimons]

Thought Id paste an article based on Fax Marketing, maybe of assistance to some.

Fax marketing

Within your marketing strategy do you concentrate on the traditional marketing methods like advertising in magazines, or on other high ranking websites etc? Have you considered, or do you invest in other areas that can be cost effective and long term? Are you or your business missing out on valuable areas that could mean the difference between success and failure?


Most companies hate receiving unsolicited faxes – fact. It is annoying on a regular basis; the sender is using up all of your paper and line time! Scoundrels!! I must agree that I too hate these fax marketing techniques and get pretty upset every time the machine indicates another, more annoying than junk emails!

However, occasionally one prints that advertises a service that I am interested in, this fax is often filed away for future correspondence as I find the said company's services interesting. Most of the faxes I receive are irrelevant to my business and marketing strategy, however there are some that I do contact. These are normally those faxes sent from reputable marketing companies and occasionally I ring and adopt the advertised services; the remainder go in file 13 (also known as the bin).

Let’s analyse that: On average it costs several hundred pounds to employ a professional fax marketing company to send out 20,000 – 30,000 faxes. If you’re chosen fax marketing company is targeting the right business audience (as a reliable company should do with its extensive database) you are sending faxes to people/companies that are more likely to adopt your services.

Stats suggest that when you target the right audience you will have a lead rate of 1 in 100; on average 1 company/person will contact you in 100 faxes sent. This equates to possible sales of your service to 200 new customers if 20,000 faxes were sent! For example your company offers ‘web design’ and the average price for your service is £1000 (average for 20 page static site) then you have a potential 200 new business leads equating to £200,000!!! That is cost effective and efficient marketing that often brings more custom than advertising in traditional media.

Although you will receive leads the downside is that a certain percentage of those receiving your fax may complain and a very small percentage will contact you and request that they receive no more or words to that effect!

Overall fax marketing is an extremely cost effective and an efficient means of delivering your services to a niche target audience.

I sent 12,000 out advertising piling equipment the response resulted in the sale of £400,000 worth of equipment.

[Ian J]

If I had my way fax marketing would be illegal. I'd love to be able to sue someone for theft of my paper and ink

[ronsimons]

Hi Ian,

As stated within the article, some are not happy receiving unsolicited faxes, I feel the same about spam emails, unsolicited phone calls. The fact remains that a percentage will respond, ensuring it remains a vaiable marketing method that is cost effective.

visited your sites you seem to specialise in construction? I run several construction sites where you are free to advertise your services

[ronsimons]

Be aware of companies that advertise fax marketing that are not based in the UK, many may not adhere to UK legislation and belong to or adhere to the direct marketing association codes of conduct.

[Mark_anderson]

Well, I won't prefer the fax marketing, as ronsimons has mentioned this technique is not reliable.

[ronsimons]

Ref comment above

Fax marketing is a very relliable source of marketing - it is cost effective and efficient - but would choose a UK based company.

[KAVIK35]

Although indications show that fax marketing can be effective and cost effective. Here in Canada the new "Do Not Call List" legislation allows most #'s including faxes to be legally protected from unsolicited calls. Unfortunatley this leads to an ever shrinking amount of #'s that are available to fax to. The fines are quite steep at $1500 -$10,000 per offence. In addittion many recipients associate this with telemarketing and are further upset by the fact that unsolicited faxes use toner and paper that they pay for.

[ronsimons]

Originally Posted by KAVIK35

Although indications show that fax marketing can be effective and cost effective. Here in Canada the new "Do Not Call List" legislation allows most #'s including faxes to be legally protected from unsolicited calls. Unfortunatley this leads to an ever shrinking amount of #'s that are available to fax to. The fines are quite steep at $1500 -$10,000 per offence. In addittion many recipients associate this with telemarketing and are further upset by the fact that unsolicited faxes use toner and paper that they pay for.

Not sure about the legislation in Canada; the UK allows fax marketing as long as the customer has subscribed to a direct mailing list. Direct marketing lists focus on marketing in a niche area rather than indiscriminate faxing.

[ronsimons]

What I do know, is that Eastern European and Indian companies selling a similar service may not adhere to UK legislation - fax number from any source.

[andybarr]

I've looked at this before but i've never seen a cheap list of fax numbers. You can find them on ebay but I dont trust them one bit. To buy a specifc list for a sector seems to cost a fortune.

Do you know any good suppliers? I used yelldata a few years back if anyone remembers that service but they don't offer it any more.