Any experience in Fax Advertising?

[Caroline_Pegden]

It sounds a bit old fashioned, but I wondered if anyone had experience in B2B fax advertising?

What was the cost and the return on investment? What are the do's and dont's?

Looking forward hearing your stories.

Caroline

 

[AllUpHere]

I've been earning a living full time as a marketing consultant for 10 years, and I've never once been asked about fax based advertising. This suggests to me that it's probably dead. If it's not, there is probably an opportunity to benefit from it. What type of business are you trying to promote?

 

[Caroline_Pegden]

Thank you very much for your reply - you're probably not well placed to advise us on this, then!

 

[fisicx]

Does anyone still have a fax machine?

 

[AllUpHere]

I could tell you how to get the best results if you wanted to give it a go, but I'd have no idea if it would be worthwhile until you tried it.

 

[fisicx]

Just spoken to my wife (works for an international finance company with thousands of clients) and they don't even have a field in the database for fax numbers.

 

[billybob99]

Sounds like a way to waste someone's paper and p**s them off.

 

[NickGrogan]

Most fax numbers go through to emails as PDFs now.

I used fax marketing in the past and it was very effective. Email is probably more useful now.

 

[Caroline_Pegden]

Thanks all to your replies - very helpful! You might be surprised by how many companies are still hooked on fax machines... cf FT article on "The joy of fax" - https://www.ft.com/content/e40d51ea-452b-11e7-8d27-59b4dd6296b8

 

[fisicx]

Thanks all to your replies - very helpful! You might be surprised by how many companies are still hooked on fax machines... cf FT article on "The joy of fax" - https://www.ft.com/content/e40d51ea-452b-11e7-8d27-59b4dd6296b8

Need to subscribe to FT to read the article

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Does anyone still have a fax machine?

The NHS has thousands of 'em, unsurprisingly.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46497526

I recently bought my Dad a cheap printer that he can 'supposedly' use as a Google Cloud Printer, expecting it would be the most up to date option.
Also unsurprisingly, it doesn't want to be a Cloud Printer at all but it does really, really want to be a fax machine for some odd reason?

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

If I received a faxed advertisement... it would probably end up filed away with the other spam...

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Need to subscribe to FT to read the article

Search 'The joy of fax' then click on the google result. It usually works for paywalled articles.

(incognito if you've already been cookied)

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

Thanks all to your replies - very helpful! You might be surprised by how many companies are still hooked on fax machines... cf FT article on "The joy of fax" - https://www.ft.com/content/e40d51ea-452b-11e7-8d27-59b4dd6296b8

From the link...

A spammer who uses fax surely either needs to go back to spamming school — or has discovered a gap in the nuisance mail market.

Says it all!

 

[Mr D]

Used to have a fax machine. Been well over a decade since sent a fax, been longer than that since been sent one.

 

[The Byre]

Our next campaign - A Free Wax Cylinder with every Widget!

 

[Deleted member 59730]

Sounds like a way to waste someone's paper and p**s them off.

And in the days that people tried this with me I put them on a list to NEVER buy from them!

 

[WaveJumper]

I don't know anyone with a fax except my Solicitor

 

[Caroline_Pegden]

Thanks for all your contributions!

 

[The Byre]

Our solicitors do not have a fax machine - and lawyers were the last to give up on such old and obviously interim technology.

What are the do's and dont's?

Do move on with 21stC methods.

Don't bother with daft ideas like this one!

 

[Deleted member 59730]

What about telex machines?

 

[The Byre]

What about advertising using semaphore flags. heliography and Morse? As a former patrol signaller, I feel that the use of Morse as a marketing tool has been sadly overlooked!

But fax?

Dididahdid, dididah, dahdidahdit, dahdidah. Dahdahdah, dididahdid, dididahdid!

 

[TheoNe]

I know of one small organisation that still use 'fax advertising' as a form of B2B direct mail but they are finding the response rate to be increasingly inconstant. I would suggest that is down to the decreasing use of fax machines and the shift to computers to send/receive mail/adverts etc.

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

This may help!!

 

[Mark T Jones]

As a rule it is a great idea to go in the opposite direction from the crowd. Since virtually nobody uses fax any more it will be very high impact.

The challenge, as others have said, is to find individuals who actually use a fax machine!

 

[Financial-Modeller]

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