Published: February 13th, 2012 • Last Updated: January 7th, 2021
Author: Ross Taylor on AskRoss.ca

Ask Ross’s Adventures in Marketing via Fax Machine

You know those annoying unsolicited faxes you receive in your business fax machine each day? I usually save up a few, then sit down and call the “don’t send to me ever again” number they have in the fine print at the bottom.

So it surprises even me to admit here that I became one of those guys. Last month I connected with one of the fax marketing companies, and designed a simple one page fax which was broadcast to 200,000 businesses over the course of the next month.

I decided late last year I was going to invest a lot of marketing dollars and effort in support of my businesses – a multi-pronged attack on the market. What’s the point of having a blog, unless you have eyeballs reading it?

And you can be the best mortgage broker (or whatever you are) in the country, but if people don’t know who you are, then you are a legend in your own mind only.

So I have redesigned the website, the Twitter page, and the Facebook Fan Page, and I am also doing some print media and now the fax broadcasts.

Last year I thrashed around with my old website, and my blogging and some self designed Facebook ads. I also tried some of the more old fashioned ways – community newspapers, daily newspapers like the Sun, the Star, Metro, etc. I even did a flyer postal route drop via Canada Post. And the results were spotty at best.

Yet most of my new clients still came from referrals – which is a good thing, yes, but I did not see the volume I had hoped for.

Now at least the phone lines are percolating – and it’s up to me to convince those blocked number callers why they should do business with me.

Not everyone blocks their number. Many call up, extract as much useful information as possible, then resist all my later efforts to engage them in further dialogue.

However, there are a few who stay involved – and that’s what sales is all about. Generate leads, and convert some of those leads into clients.

I’ll take my chances on the numbers game – just give me some incoming calls from my advertising efforts, and I will convert my share. Last year’s Canada Post flyer campaign’s calls were so low I suspected the mail carriers had dumped my flyers, instead of delivering them!

Sometimes, I would run an ad in the Sun for a week, and get zero calls. So for all we disparage the fax broadcast process, I can’t complain if the phone is ringing.

I’ll be happier when the phone is ringing more from my internet activities – the website, my blogging, my commenting on others’ posts; my tweeting, and my Facebook ads. That’s where I see the future in lead generating and building my clientele. Don’t you?

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