Fax marketing

Using press and magazine advertising, brochures, mailings - old hat or still cost-effective?
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Maxd
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Fax marketing

Post by Maxd »

We tried fax blasting 10,000 people in the UK. Did not work but as I never got a print out from the guy i have no idea if he really did the job and now he does not answer.

Anyone else tried it let me know :)
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

Maxd

Like many other people I detest fax blasting and would go out of my way to avoid doing business with an originator.

Do you feel that fax blasting is any different from e-mail spamming?

e-mail spam uses up our time and resources - garbage fax uses my resources without my consent.

It's unlikely that you will gain much kudos from your admission on this forum.

MG
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Post by Hells Bells »

Nasty form of marketing, hate receiving them, and bin them all without reading, so I would say tough luck.
Paul Carmel
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Post by Paul Carmel »

Glad I don't have a fax machine.

PS. Your WWW don't work............
Cheers
PC
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Mouse
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Post by Mouse »

I can only agree with what everyone else has said.

The only time I ever did it was on the say so of my boss who wouldn't listen to my advice.
Following the 'fax-shot' I spent nearly 2 whole days apologizing to businesses and I certainly think it did much more harm than good.
Even he had to admit it was an abject failure!

If it did occur - then you may well be into damage limitation (unless of course you had an offer to die for!?)

Mouse
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Maxd
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Post by Maxd »

An old girlfriend of mine did it in the Netherlands and said it worked. I checked out the legality of it beforehand and apparently you can put your name on the list but it is not there by default.

We will try anything once to see if we can get some ROI. I tend to agree it is dirty marketing and probably incredibly bad for the environment.

As for other offline methods, there is a guy in Norway that advertises in local rags and sends us lots of customers. He also has a website too, so probably a combo of both that works.
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Garri
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Post by Garri »

I'm amazed that anyone would even consider fax blasting, let alone to admitting to using it.

Back in the early 90's when I first got a fax machine and started my business I used to get reams of this sh!t faxed to me - the spam of its day.

Then one day I tracked down the personal address of a director of a company involved.

I can't say on this forum what I did but I will say that it involved considerable planning, it didn't involve any physical violence to the person but it was fun, weird and most probably illegal!
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Garri
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Post by Garri »

We will try anything once to see if we can get some ROI.
Max, judging by your weblink, why does that not surprise me?
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Maxd
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Post by Maxd »

Heh Garri, what about my weblink? We are not a one man band and have many places to fill, so we go for the stealth approach sometimes.

Like I say, I checked out the legalities. No worse than the advertising we get through the letterbox pretending to newspapers :)
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Post by Paul Carmel »

Bye Bye.
Cheers
PC
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Garri
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Post by Garri »

Max, apologies but the weblink you had previously to the one you have now was pointing to one of those spammy gateway/holding pages.
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Maxd
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Post by Maxd »

Hey Mr Butts, I said it failed and I am not really interested in it again. To be honest I have no idea why people even have a fax machine in this day and age.
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Maxd
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Post by Maxd »

Garri wrote:Max, apologies but the weblink you had previously to the one you have now was pointing to one of those spammy gateway/holding pages.
Yeah, I corrected it :)

I had a look at your url too. Interesting in a blog format but I cannot see where the pay day comes from as there is no affiliate ID in the links. Going back later to get a commission? add aff links later? We have played with blogs and had a hard time monetizing them.

Cheers

Max
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Post by la vache! »

My fax got grilled in a recent power surge curtesy of EDF. I haven't replaced it, just got another hands free dect instead, far more practical. I would have resented getting an advertising fax as it would have wasted MY paper and cartridge! At least with e mail spam, it is just a little time which is required to delete them. Not that I'm advocating that either!
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Mouse
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Post by Mouse »

I would have resented getting an advertising fax as it would have wasted MY paper and cartridge!
Susan - that was one of the main complaints along with the interruptions - as most major 'fax outs' are scheduled to go out overnight it means people who work from home get bleeps/noise etc in the middle of the night.

These days I think the marketing approach chosen can have a big impact on the image of the company, as viewed by the potential clients.

Mouse
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