Agora Direct Marketing

I have come across companies that send out a few thousand faxes in a fax broadcast then don’t get the response they expect  then drop it as an advertising medium. This is while a competitor is generating most of their income from fax marketing.

This article is intended to give you information on how those that succeed do it.

The way they operate is simple: they religiously send out mass faxes each week.

They use a very simple image and the largest text is the phone number. It is geared around getting the call to come in with minimal information. In other words the fax does not sell, it just generates interest and then when the prospect calls up, the real sales process starts.

They have found, just like most fax advertisers that being consistent in sending faxes gets the best result and increases the rate of response and therefore the ROI. An example of this could be day1 send 5000 faxes, get 2 sales, day2 send 5000, and get 3 sales, day3 send 5000 and get 9 sales. This is on consecutive days but not sending to the same numbers.

Another point is that the send quantity is not directly proportional to the response rate. One has to find out what quantity gets the best response for a particular image being used.

In all of this, testing is key. From testing the following can be determined:

1. What is the best image
2. How many faxes need to be sent
3. How often can I send to the same numbers without minimizing the result

Here are some general copywriting tips that work well for faxing.

1. The copy has to achieve the following in the individual: ATTRACT, INTEREST, MESSAGE.
2. Don’t give features, give benefits – sales is an emotional thing so use those emotions.
3. The fax is a communication so make sure that it does just that.
4. Faxes seldom takes the place of a salesman – it takes the place of the lead generator.
5. Make sure the person does not have to think about what you are selling – make sure it is clear.
6. You want the person to take an action so make sure that you TELL him what to do.

In faxing, do not get affected by the ask-offs. Make sure you take their number down to get removed but if you are getting the result (lead generated) you are doing the right thing no matter how forcefully the occasional (and I mean occasional) person tries to convince you that you are doing them in by sending them faxes.

Tags: direct response marketing, fax broadcasting, Fax Marketing

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Fax Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.