Fax marketing

Ron Musgraves

Ron Musgraves

Exterior Restoration Specialist
Staff member
Fax marketing




Win fax pro is my recommendation for the software you should buy.


Why you should fax market.

1. Its free once set up
2. You can target specific accounts.
3. It’s a nice reminder to customers on call in your data base.
4. At least one person see the ad when it come over a fax.


The problem associated with people thinking it’s a pain is in residential. Of course I would not recommend faxing homes to many restrictions. A person’s home is private and I’m not into residential. residential faxing will get you in trouble. agaist FCC regulations.

Commercial use: there are always going to be a few that don’t like it. You cannot please everyone, as we know. Faxing is not the answer but just one tool in a marketing plan of attack.
 
There are laws that prohibit broadcast faxing (fax spam if you will) so while it is a good idea and I agree with what Ron has said about commercial being the better market and Winfax being the software of choice, I can't suggest anyone do this.

I can say that if you are calling folks to confirm the number before you send and to be sure you have the right person, well then you have permission. Fax away!

Beth



;)
 
In our state at present time as long as you follow rules its perfectly legal. qwest our communications company as well as many services that solicit your business to target certain customers. 10,000 faxes cost bout 250.00 to send through these services.


About the legalities, residential has many more restrictions. Commercial customers as long as your header comply with the FCC guidelines and you include disclaimers and not randomly fax numbers that may not be fax locations. i'm glad you mentioned this Beth because your right some state as well as federal regulations prohibit this type of marketing.

The only FCC regulations i know are the times of hours and the random calling. As everyone knows that Arizona is laxed about telemarketing. I read that 60% of all telemarketing in the US comes from Arizona.

Beth,

Thanks for the reminder of caution, its really good to find out about the law first. many states may have prohibited this form of advertisment.
 
Thanks Beth

Glad to see that someone else does their homework I was wondering if there were restrictions on this method of solicitation. I will check out these regulations in my area before I proceed with this method of marketing.

Thanks, Andrew/Safe Clean:cool:
 
I looked into this a couple of years ago and could have sworn that it was illegal.I simply typed in unsolicted fax laws and found several web sits that state that it is a covered under the telecommunications act.here is just one of the sites.I'm still unclear but it says it is a federal offense.
http://www.badads.org/fax.shtml

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (47 USC § 227) and its implementing FCC regulations (mainly 47 CFR § 64.1200) prohibits the transmission of any material advertising the commercial availability or quality of any product, service or property to any person without that person's prior express permission or request.

Under the TCPA, recipients of unsolicited fax advertisements, if otherwise permitted by the laws in their state, can file suit in state court to collect the greater of $500 or actual damages for each fax, and/or obtain an injunction. If a court determines that the violations were willful or knowing, the damages can be tripled at the discretion of the court.
 
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The FCC's do-not-call rules do not apply to calls placed to business telephone numbers. However, your state may have laws that require do-not-call lists for calls placed to business numbers.

the paragraph above states Business to business.

Remember
Each time you receive a call from a different person or entity you must request that person or entity not to call you again.

These two paragraphs are right from the rules book. By the way thanks John for that link. it explains the rules and the laws. Again any random dialing is illegal.

The other thing you need to provide means for anyone who is fax off a target list a way to cancel subscription permanently.


You’re right about it being illegal in most all places. The rules need to be followed.

Basically they are the same as telemarketing. In many states have been banned.

This site should give people the proper knowledge.

John Great info. i love the contribution of this site.

this is the link i found the restrictions http://www.fcc.gov/ccb/consumer_news/unsolici.html
 
john just a quick note, why the other site is a little misleading is that the organizations is agaisnt this type of marketing. sometimes these org. dont tell the whole truth.

your right about the cautions, i really recommend if you do this really do yor home work. it could get you in a real Jam.

thanks again for the warnings, i didnt realize it was that tough.


funny when i wake up in the morning the fax usally has two or three ads from other people. i do have a commercial fax number.

now i know why the phone company stop selling these lists.
 
Hey Ron,
I am still unclear,did that paragraph come from the top of the page,because there is a section at the bottom that says

Fax Messages

Unsolicited Advertisements Sent To
Home and Business Fax Machines
The FCC's rules prohibit the transmission of unsolicited advertise-ments to fax machines.

No person may transmit an advertisement describing the commercial availability or quality of any property, goods, or services to your fax machine without your prior express permission or invitation.

You have an established business relationship with a person or entity if you have made an inquiry, application, purchase or transaction regarding products or services offered by such person or entity.

If you have an established business relationship with the person or entity sending the message, an invitation or permission to receive unsolicited fax advertisements is presumed to exist.

You can end this relationship by telling the person or entity that you do not want them to send any more unsolicited advertisements to your fax machine.
 
John this is from the FCC site

"The FCC's do-not-call rules do not apply to calls placed to business telephone numbers. However, your state may have laws that require do-not-call lists for calls placed to business numbers. "

the link is above,


The site you are mentioning is an anti fax site. They are bending the definition in there favor.


Still there is way more rules than I realized.
 
Here are the rule I need to follow to make it legal according to FCC & state regulations.

1.Fax list designated to be fax machines.
I need to know whom the faxes are going to. Cant buy a list that I don’t know whom the recipients are.
I need to provide a separate cancellation source.
If I do not take the request off the list can get into trouble.
The id number needs to be on the header of the fax from the place of origin.
 
dont be unclear , i wouldnt reccomend this to anyone. dont want them getting in trouble.

i'm going to call the attourney general office on monday and get and answer.

we have many companies hear in phoenix that just do this as there business.

strange the conflicting info you have shown. i read alittle further and it seems to contradict itself.

anyway thanks for your insight. i;m going to get to the bottom. could all these companys be operating illegally?
 
A while back I bought one of those infomercial courses,and one of the ways they said you could get rich quick was selling by fax and all of a sudden they sent a letter around stating that it was illegal to mass fax as a way to get potential customers.And that is the reason I thought it could be illegal.The way it is portrayed on the fcc web site is sort of a non major deal.If they tell you just to complain it probably isn't too serious(but still illegal)
 
thanks again for the info, your probably right about the law being laxed about enforcement.

i want to check this out and see, i know about at least four different companys that operate in the phoenix area. for awhile after 9/11 i was getting one a day from a flag companie. when i get these faxes i'm going to call the service companys and see what they say and if they say if legal i will get the facts why. i'm still calling the ag's office on monday as well.

talk too yah later
 
so that might be a loop hole, thats probably why the phone company quit providing lists. we send ours with a names on most lists. we had to start generating our own lists a few years back.

interesting , i will definitly read the information.

thanks Beth,
 
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