Fax Marketing

Author
Discussion

rushdriver

Original Poster:

637 posts

259 months

Wednesday 18th February 2004
quotequote all
Has anyone ever used fax marketing as a tool to generate more sales?

If so , who did you use, how much and how good was it?

Cheers

John

Don

28,377 posts

285 months

Wednesday 18th February 2004
quotequote all
My advice is - don't.

People, rightly, get very annoyed if its not relevant to them in the same way they hate spam and junk mail. There have been successful prosecutions I believe - based around "stealing" paper or some such.

Counter-productive I'd say.

dazren

22,612 posts

262 months

Wednesday 18th February 2004
quotequote all
Don said:
There have been successful prosecutions I believe - based around "stealing" paper or some such.

I raise my glass to the plantiffs.

SPAM is SPAM wether it's targetted or not.

DAZ

steviebee

12,926 posts

256 months

Wednesday 18th February 2004
quotequote all
I'd go along with the others on this!

It's lazy marketing and highly annoying!

chim_girl

6,268 posts

260 months

Wednesday 18th February 2004
quotequote all
As someone who works from home - Please don't do it, there's nothing worse than my fax machine ringing at 4am only to deliver some kind of spam.

I had to register with the mailing preference service to get my number removed. Heaven knows how it got there in the first place, it is supposed to be unlisted!

golfman

5,494 posts

247 months

Wednesday 18th February 2004
quotequote all
Spam, whether fax or email is now illegal in Europe and you can be heavily fined.

Ok as long as your customers ‘opt in’.

Be very careful.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3120628.stm

However if you ignore all this, Winfax is very good, I use it regularly to keep key customers updated.

dontlift

9,396 posts

259 months

Wednesday 18th February 2004
quotequote all
I refuse to deal with any company that uses this or other spam methods

Fax is the worst of them all - my last fax machine i wound up having to keep it unplugged because it was costing me a fortune in junk crap in the end had to change the number

>> Edited by dontlift on Wednesday 18th February 22:38

simpo two

85,504 posts

266 months

Thursday 19th February 2004
quotequote all
Damn right. I work from home and got, well, highly bloody cross when my phone would ring at 1am. It was usually 192.com and I had great pleasure in collecting the faxes and sending them to the Information Commissioner to help prosecution (The FPS is only voluntary, and useless if the sender has no scruples).

The faxes stopped. I hope the bastards who ran 192.com and its like are either in jail or being kept awake by phones in a torture cell. Bastards.

Feel better now! But I hope we answered your Q...?

Plotloss

67,280 posts

271 months

Thursday 19th February 2004
quotequote all
Gets right on my tits personally speaking.

Expect to see your phone line tied up by pissed off 'targets'...

rushdriver

Original Poster:

637 posts

259 months

Thursday 19th February 2004
quotequote all
Thanks for the replys.

I have to say that it was what I was expecting but it's always good to get some feedback!

Cheers

John

Dick Dastardly

8,313 posts

264 months

Thursday 19th February 2004
quotequote all
The other problem you've got is that most fax machines are shared by a whole department, floor or even company and often whoever sits nearest the fax will just throw any junk in the bin. I'd direct mail or email prospects if you can

rushdriver

Original Poster:

637 posts

259 months

Thursday 19th February 2004
quotequote all
I thought about direct email but I would have thought that it is even worse than fax. I never open up a email that I don't know who it's from.

Maybe the good old fashioned phone call/appointment is best.

John

Dick Dastardly

8,313 posts

264 months

Thursday 19th February 2004
quotequote all
I recently did a direct mail campaign which had a 1.5% response rate (which is actually quite decent !)

I also sent out a load of emails which I, as you, believed would be a complete waste of time but got about a 4% return! When you factor cost into this it makes it much more favourable (so long as you have enough email addresses and the users 'permission')

Plotloss

67,280 posts

271 months

Thursday 19th February 2004
quotequote all
Ah now, direct mailing (paper) you are doing bloody well if you can hit 4%

We send 120 million or so a year and 4% is the highest...

rushdriver

Original Poster:

637 posts

259 months

Thursday 19th February 2004
quotequote all
Plotloss said:
Ah now, direct mailing (paper) you are doing bloody well if you can hit 4%

We send 120 million or so a year and 4% is the highest...


120 Million!, wow that's serious marketing.

John

simpo two

85,504 posts

266 months

Thursday 19th February 2004
quotequote all
Perhaps the key is personal invasion. A fax arriving is noisy and interruptive. So, for that matter, is a sales call, though at least you get a human being to talk to. Spam, though much reviled, is at least quiet (ie it doesn't wake you up or interrupt you) and you don't have to pay for paper. I don't mind carefully targeted e-mails from companies offering useful services.

MOD500

2,686 posts

251 months

Saturday 21st February 2004
quotequote all
chim_girl said:
As someone who works from home - Please don't do it, there's nothing worse than my fax machine ringing at 4am only to deliver some kind of spam.

I had to register with the mailing preference service to get my number removed. Heaven knows how it got there in the first place, it is supposed to be unlisted!


How do you go about getting your fax number on the mail preference list to prevent spam faxes please? As the amount of ink and paper wasted in the office is a farce. Have recently noticed faxes coming from firms purporting to being able to remove your fax number from all lists........these companies however are usually based in Europe, and it costs £1.50 per min to fax back your reply, calls last 3 mins.........hello!

Also, has anyone else received letters from Nigerians claiming to have $10 million in a safe account? Another one came this morning from South Africa, a similar letter came 2 weeks ago with a German post mark and stamp. It looks to be the same hand writing on both envelopes

Thanks

MOD.

unrepentant

21,270 posts

257 months

Saturday 21st February 2004
quotequote all
I hate spam faxes above all other forms of spam.

I registered with the fax preference service www.fps.org.uk in 2000 and it works brilliantly. Then a few months or so ago I started getting junk faxes again. I returned a few of them to the senders with a cheery message along the lines of off you written across them. However, on closer investigation I learned that BT had removed me from the FPS list!

A BT manager has "looked into it" and concluded that it was a "computer error". I'm now re-registered.

But if you are a business (it is already illegal to send unsolicited faxes to private individuals) the FPS works really well.

MOD500

2,686 posts

251 months

Monday 23rd February 2004
quotequote all
Thanks for the info!

unrepentant

21,270 posts

257 months

Tuesday 24th February 2004
quotequote all
MOD500 said:

Have recently noticed faxes coming from firms purporting to being able to remove your fax number from all lists........these companies however are usually based in Europe, and it costs £1.50 per min to fax back your reply, calls last 3 mins.........hello!




Mod

These you need to report to ICSTIS www.icstis.org.uk
who are the regulator for premium rate numbers. These faxes are just a scam.


>> Edited by unrepentant on Tuesday 24th February 10:35