I was looking through some old business ideas today and I had a faxing idea where I would send a targeted fax to a local group (company, school, etc) with a general heading "holiday committee" so the fax could get to the person who was in charge of holiday planing for example and have a sales letter approach. What do you think of this idea? My thought is I could get a fax program, unlimited calling and instead of mailing a postcard I could send these out and save a few bucks. You thoughts?

Hi Tim -

Unsolicited faxes will make some suspects very angry at you. I know from experience.

About 10 or more years ago, I faxed to some schools, then followed up. Some schools were very upset. One even wanted to bill me for their toner (ink) and "wasted" paper.

The lesson I learned was to call first, and get permission, before faxing anything.

Since then I have done it that way, and in over 85% of the time, if you ask first, it's ok. If you don't ask, you might even annoy some of those 85%, as well as the other 15%.

Also note, in some places, junk fax is illegal (more than just annoying).

Further, if you just use a title ("Holiday Committee", etc.), and haven't called first, the chance is greatly reduced that it gets passed on to the correct person. Call first, get permission and a contact name, put a name on the cover letter to the fax, and then it is easier to follow-up.

Be laser beam focused in your marketing, rather than taking a shotgun approach.

- Donald

Hyp, Donald has it right. Until I switched to a digital fax, I was flooded with junk faxes that wasted my paper. I personally HATE junk faxes. Nearly every business owner and manager in my business networking groups share this sentiment and flat out refuse to do business with anyone who sends unsolicited marketing faxes, telemarketing phone calls or spam emails.

In fact, in North Carolina, if a business owner can prove that they asked you to stop sending faxes, he can sue you for up to $2,500 for each unsolicited fax sent after that request...and win. If you fail to include a way with each fax to easily remove a business' fax number from your list, you're subject to a $1,500.00 fine.

Take Donald's advice. Find another avenue. You stand a much better (though, still limited) chance of getting direct mail through to your targets. Good luck!

Skip

Thanks guys for the advice. I'll stick with my original plans of direct mail. Wish I had more time to just call people but that will come with time.

TC