Marketing has grown up. Gone are the days when it was OK to simply buy a Yellow Page ad and hope people called. Savvy distributors now develop fully integrated plans that use several media, including high-tech options such as e-mail and the Internet. As distributors pull together their New Millennium plan, however, they shouldn’t forget one very important tech tool from the last 20 years: the facsimile machine.

Don’t be fooled by the hype. Yes, e-mail is an incredibly important development. But it hasn’t killed the 1980s stalwart fax machine. Used correctly, faxes can actually be attention-grabbers. If misused, however, a simple fax may cost a company valuable business (or, in the future, a hefty fine from the government).

A fax machine offers a fast and inexpensive way to alert potential customers of new service or product offerings or special promotions. People are so overwhelmed by junk e-mail that they are often relieved — even happy — to receive information via the comparatively quiet fax machine.

Tangent Industries, Atlanta, is an aggressive user of the fax machine. In fact, the company’s president, Bert Bellinson, says his distributorship “leads the league” in fax advertising.

“It’s cheaper than sending mail and less intrusive than a phone call,” says Bellinson. “We send it, and if the general manager doesn’t care, he can throw it away. The fax is there when they come in Monday morning because we send our faxes between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.”

For more than three years, Tangent has sent blind faxes promoting its products to every hotel chain in the country. The company sends between 1,000 and 3,500 faxes per week, although no individual hotel receives more than six faxes per year from Tangent.

“In 18 months, we’ve sold 20 percent of all nationally branded hotel chains in the country,” Bellinson says. He credits the success solely to the fax campaign. “Otherwise, how would people in Walla Walla, Wash., know about little old us?”

Broadcast Your Message
The practice of sending a single fax en masse to multiple recipients is called “broadcast faxing.” To help with this most common form of fax advertising, many fax machines can be set to automatically dial multiple numbers from a database. In addition, most new personal computers include a fax/modem that allows the user to send and receive faxes from the desktop; computer fax programs are easy to set up for auto dial.

There are also companies that will send faxes on your company’s behalf; some also sell fax databases. Tangent Industries buys a list of hotel chain faxes, and Bellinson says it is worth it. But be careful with these services — purchased lists may include a high percentage of non-deliverable numbers.

Broadcast faxing is a good way to communicate with customers who rely on regular updates and product changes.

A one-page newsletter with timely information can also be beneficial. It shouldn’t be an advertising blurb about the company; focus on the benefits customers can get from a service or product.

More Than Direct Sales
Although it is possible to sell products and services directly from a fax, it is most effective in keeping current customers informed and in generating new business leads. After all, people are usually more willing to request free information or call about a special promotion than to send their credit card details to an unknown company.

Bellinson says the real payoff of his fax ads is the sales leads they generate. He has a full-time “direct marketer,” who fields calls from people responding to Tangent’s faxes. This salesperson recently passed up Tangent’s longtime No. 1 salesperson.

Another faxing option to consider is a fax-back service. This allows customers to call a company, choose from a menu of options, and then request that information be sent to them via fax. The automated fax-back system will print a listing of how many customers called and where the information was sent.

It can also pay to get creative with fax advertising. Tangent Industries uses the service to stay one step ahead of its competitors on emergency items.

“We watch the Weather Channel,” Bellinson says. “If we know there’s snow coming, we send a fax to let customers know that we have ice melt and can get it to them tomorrow, before the storm hits.”

Change Is Coming
Perhaps the only sound as annoying as an alarm clock waking you at 5 a.m. is the incessant screeching of a fax machine. That’s why it is crucial that faxes get to the correct person or company.

“People are so overloaded with information that they don’t want what they don’t need. If someone says they don’t want to see your faxes, then you need to respect that,” says marketing consultant Janet Wiens, who is based in Bartlett, Tenn.

Tangent includes a small header on the top of each fax it sends telling recipients they can be deleted off the company’s fax list at any time.

Including an opt-out line on faxes was once enough to avoid all potential legal problems, but that could change in just over a year. A war is being waged over whether a fax machine can be used as a marketing tool — even if the fax is between a distributor and its regular customers.

It has been illegal under federal law since 1992 to send unsolicited commercial faxes. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) allows individuals to sue the sender of junk faxes for $500 per copy. Most states will permit such actions to be filed in small claims court.

That restriction isn’t enough for some. After complaints from businesses whose fax machines have been bogged down by unsolicited materials, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) introduced amendments to the TCPA that would restrict fax marketing even further.

The FCC wants to impose a strict opt-in standard on all fax marketing. Previously, an established business relationship was sufficient to show that a business gave its permission to receive unsolicited fax ads. Under the new ruling, the FCC would require a business to obtain the recipient’s express permission to send faxes in writing.

The International Sanitary Supply Association (ISSA) was actively involved in the fight against the proposed regulation. It says the rule change simply goes too far.

“We’re not in opposition to the general foundation of the regulation. We understand the problems caused by junk faxes,” says Dan Wagner, manager of regulatory compliance for ISSA. “It’s the way the regulations are being interpreted and the way they are all-encompassing. [The FCC was] interpreting the regulations in such a manner that any fax that had any commercial aspect to it — dealt with promotion, asked for money, dealt with specific attributes of product — would require a company to have to request permission to send it. It went so far as to include invoices. If a customer asked you to send an order form, you wouldn’t be able to grant the request unless you had a signed permission.”

The rule change was supposed to go into effect on August 25, 2003, but thanks in part to the efforts of groups like ISSA, it will now take effect January 1, 2005. The FCC said of the postponement, “many organizations may need additional time to secure this written permission from individuals and businesses to whom they fax advertisements.” The FCC also indicated that it would consider additional petitions for reconsideration.

Wagner suggests distributors who disagree with the proposed FCC regulations should contact their congressperson. In addition to petitioning the FCC, ISSA is working with Congress to rewrite the law to establish an existing-business-relation exemption.

Back To The Marketing Basics

As distributors devise marketing campaigns, it’s important to remember that no matter what media they choose, the message should be cohesive — the ads should change, but the company’s overall image should remain consistent.

That’s why a plan of action is essential, says marketing consultant Janet Wiens of Janet Wiens Marketing and Communications Consulting in Bartlett, Tenn.

"Your plan should spell out what you will say, how you are going to say it, and who in your office will do it," she says. "That’s the basics of marketing, whether you're selling Coca-Cola or cleaning products."

Start by looking at all the available outlets for advertising — fax, e-mail, Yellow Pages, the local paper, trade shows, a company website, and more. Prioritize them by what will yield the most bang for your buck.

"Start small and add things that you find work for you," says Wiens. "You don’t have to jump in with both guns blazing."

Spend a lot of time going over the message you hope to convey, she adds. What do you want to say to your customers about yourself? What makes your company or product special or different in the marketplace? Once you have these answers, hammer them home in every message you send, including advertisements, promotional materials and in salespeople’s presentations.

Finally, be sure to review your plan at least once a year. Take stock of what worked and what didn’t. Evaluate the reasons for mistakes and make adjustments.

"If you are not looking at your business in a big picture view at least once or twice a year, then you may wake up one day and realize you've lost your five biggest customers." —B.M.

Becky Mollenkamp is a freelance writer based in Des Moines, Iowa.

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POSTED ON: 10/1/2003