Fax Marketing

fredjclaus · November 24, 2009

I was at a bible study this morning and stopped into the church office on my way out the door. Their fax machine had a couple "FaxBlast" advertisements in it. Now I was under the impression that faxblasting was illegal.

What is the general thought on faxmail marketing? I currently run a mail campaign to market my photography to business clients, but I'm think about sending faxes to some of the potential cleints. Do you think a letter faxed to a potential cleint introducing myself, my company, and my services would be a turn off or is it generally acceptable?

fredjclaus · November 25, 2009

Here is a portion of what the FCC has on their website regarding fax marketing; Please read the second bullet point. Am I correct in stating that there is no violation of any laws if the company has their fax number posted on their website or they have business cards in public places listing their fax number?

Amended Fax Rules and Established Business Relationship Exemption
The rules provide that it is unlawful to send unsolicited advertisements to any fax machine, including those at both businesses and residences, without the recipient’s prior express invitation or permission. Fax advertisements, however, may be sent to recipients with whom the sender has an EBR, as long as the fax number was provided voluntarily by the recipient. Specifically, a fax advertisement may be sent to an EBR customer if the sender also:

obtains the fax number directly from the recipient, through, for example, an application, contact information form, or membership renewal form; or
obtains the fax number from the recipient’s own directory, advertisement, or site on the Internet, unless the recipient has noted on such materials that it does not accept unsolicited advertisements at the fax number in question; or
has taken reasonable steps to verify that the recipient consented to have the number listed, if obtained from a directory or other source of information compiled by a third party.

If the sender had an EBR with the recipient and possessed the recipient’s fax number before July 9, 2005 (the date the Junk Fax Prevention Act became law), the sender may send the fax advertisements without demonstrating how the number was obtained.

BradfordBenn · November 26, 2009

I just wonder how the fax would be received on the other end. The image quality obviously will be poor, and I am not sure how unsolicited faxes will be received. At work we did a fax blast for a new product launch to our existing dealers a few years back. I was amazed at how much bad will came out of it. Out of ~1,600 faxes we got back about 400 comments that indicated it was poorly received. Needless to say we haven't done one since.

How do I know this? I was the technology tweaker that made the outbound faxes happen and I also got all the responses.

termina3 · November 26, 2009

If you're seriously concerned about the legalities, talk to a lawyer.

denisegoldberg · November 26, 2009

fredjclaus wrote:

What is the general thought on faxmail marketing? I currently run a mail campaign to market my photography to business clients, but I'm think about sending faxes to some of the potential cleints. Do you think a letter faxed to a potential cleint introducing myself, my company, and my services would be a turn off or is it generally acceptable?

I would view this as a form of spam. I would be very surprised if you get a good reaction to marketing via fax.

--- Denise

fredjclaus · November 26, 2009

Denise,

I agree with you. I do view the ads that come in via fax at the church as spam, however there doesn't seem to be any legalities about this sort of marketing. I think I'll stick with what works for me, and just do the mailing of letters.

Dan7312 · November 27, 2009

It's not so much the legalities...

denisegoldberg wrote:

I would view this as a form of spam. I would be very surprised if you get a good reaction to marketing via fax.

--- Denise

Fax Marketing

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