Agora Direct Marketing

Australia’s Do Not call Register is going to be expanded to include fax numbers. Currently the Do Not Call Register does not apply to businesses or Fax numbers.

The Australian Government is providing $4.7 AUD over the next four years to get this operational. Of this $3.5 will be contributed by telemarketing and fax marketing companies in the form of fees paid to the register.

The negative effect of this is that it is the small business that will be affected. The small cleaning company that relies on this type of advertising to bring in new business will have to pay more for the same service.  The small businesses seldom have large cash flow or profits that they can dip into if needed.

Currently fax broadcasting is relatively inexpensive in comparison to other forms of direct response marketing while getting simillar, if not better results.  It is ideal for businesses which do not have large marketing budgets like small business.

There are those who receive advertising faxes who are offended. The vast majority of fax broadcasting companies go to great efforts to remove these fax numbers from their lists. After all there is no point in advertising to those who will not respond anyway.

For more information, have a look at what the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy says.

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.