Introduction
Fax Marketing with VisitorsDirect.com gives you many advantages over telephone canvassing, direct mail or email broadcasts.
Fax Marketing is extremely cost effective - you have no printing, postage or labour costs & your response rates are usually higher. This is because while most recipients will throw away direct mail unopened, be irritated by unsolicited telephone calls and block, or immediately delete unread, spam emails - they are unlikely to discard a fax without at least reading the first few lines.
Fax Marketing is also the least intrusive method of putting your sales message directly in front of your target market. Every recipient can read your sales message with confidence, safe in the knowledge that the fax cannot harm his computer with threatening viruses, trojans, etc. Also, by being printed matter, it can be posted on the office notice board or passed round. This gives your message much greater coverage.
Fax Marketing with VisitorsDirect.com is very simple and can be very quick. You can decide on a campaign in the morning and have it running the same afternoon. All that you have to do is send us your flyer (we accept copy in Word or .pdf format), along with your selection of types of companies and/or areas that you want it to go to .. and we do the rest.
If you want assistance and practical guidance to design your fax flyer along with some excellent marketing tips, go to the bottom of this page. Also check out the ten most common mistakes to avoid.
Just a few of the many reasons why your should use VisitorsDirect.com Fax Marketing and greatly increase your sales.
Fax Marketing is extremely cost effective - you have no printing, postage or labour costs & your response rates are usually higher. This is because while most recipients will throw away direct mail unopened, be irritated by unsolicited telephone calls and block, or immediately delete unread, spam emails - they are unlikely to discard a fax without at least reading the first few lines.
Fax Marketing is also the least intrusive method of putting your sales message directly in front of your target market. Every recipient can read your sales message with confidence, safe in the knowledge that the fax cannot harm his computer with threatening viruses, trojans, etc. Also, by being printed matter, it can be posted on the office notice board or passed round. This gives your message much greater coverage.
Fax Marketing with VisitorsDirect.com is very simple and can be very quick. You can decide on a campaign in the morning and have it running the same afternoon. All that you have to do is send us your flyer (we accept copy in Word or .pdf format), along with your selection of types of companies and/or areas that you want it to go to .. and we do the rest.
If you want assistance and practical guidance to design your fax flyer along with some excellent marketing tips, go to the bottom of this page. Also check out the ten most common mistakes to avoid.
Just a few of the many reasons why your should use VisitorsDirect.com Fax Marketing and greatly increase your sales.
Costs
Charges are per page and are based on the volume of pages transmitted on each run. They also include free use of our extensive business database. Charges include set-up costs, testing & proofing and are based on a fax with text and some graphics sent to a selection of our marketing database at high resolution. All costs are for peak-time transmission.
No. of fax's sent Cost of delivered page Total Cost 10,000 Faxes 1.5p (Minimum Order) £150.00 25,000 Faxes 1.25p £312.50 50,000 Faxes 1.15p £575.00 100,000 Faxes 1.10p £1,100.00 UK VAT is not chargebale on orders, since our accounting office is in Spain. Terms Of Trading Initial orders are accepted upon a ‘payment prior to transmission basis’. Payment may be made by Paypal, cheque with order, UK bank transfer Benefits
Consider the many benefits that Fax Marketing with VisitorsDirect.com gives you.
Unlike email's, your recipient can be absolutely sure that your fax advert is not carrying any virus's or trojan's that will cause untold damage to any computer. Unlike email spam, where most are blocked by filters, or deleted unread, you can be sure that your message has reached its target. Unlike direct mail, where most are binned unopened & where you pay delivered or not, you only pay for completed fax's. Unlike direct mail or email, you can be 100% certain that at least the heading and the first few lines of your message will be read. You can also be sure that all your faxes will be sent during office hours at top quality giving crispest text and sharpest images. You will have full fax number compliance with Fax Preference Service regulations & have opt-out facilities for companies who do not want to receive future fax's. We operate on a strict opt-out practice. When a company advises us that they no longer want to recieve marketing material from us, we remove them from our database and retain the fax number to ensure that we do not add them again in the future. You get free use of our database allowing you to target your message precisely. As our American cousins would say - " You'll get more bang per buck from your advertising". Selecting Your Target Market
Fax Marketing system is based upon our unique selectable database of over 500,000 U.K. Companies. We can target your sales message using any, or all, of the following criteria -
Business Identification Codes Our database classifies all types of businesses into one of eleven main business types using Business Identification Codes (BIC's). These BIC´s can be sub-divided to make your targeting more precise. Click on any industry type below to see the range and numbers of companies that we can access for you within each business code. Numbers quoted are for all companies within that sector throughout the UK. Note: we make every effort to ensure that all our fax numbers are categorised peoperly. However, to ensure that we only send your flyer once to any company, we use the fax number as our unique database identifier. This means that we can only have each fax number once on our database and only have it in one of the above categories even though a large number of companies operate in several different business areas. | Place Your Order with Paypal
Other methods of payment can be found below.
If you would like to order via our 'verified' Paypal account, use the buttons below. Note: Paypal does accept payments by debit and credit cards, even if you don't have a Paypal account. Once payment has been made, we will be in touch straight away to take the campaign details (including your preferred target area's or category), prepare the proof, and confirm dispatch date of campaign. Paypal payment request will come from: sales@ourorderform.biz Try to have your campaign text ready (short and to the point is always best!) with any images you would like to include on the A4 fax. We will convert images to greyscale and lay out the ad for your approval, prior to dispatch. 10,000 Fax Broadcast
Order 10,000 Faxes to your targeted area/category of the UK
25,000 Fax Broadcast
Order 25,000 Faxes to your targeted area/category of the UK
50,000 Fax Broadcast
Order 50,000 Faxes to your targeted area/category of the UK
100,000 Fax Brodcast
Order 100,000 Faxes to your targeted area/category of the UK
Other Methods of Payment
If you would prefer to pay via cheque or UK bank transfer, please use the form below to place you order. Please use the 'comments' box to let us know your telephone number and your preferred payment method. We will then send you confirmation of order and payment alternatives. Once payment has been made, we will be in touch straight away to take the campaign details, prepare the proof, and confirm dispatch date of campaign.
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Country/Region
We have sub-divided the country into nine geographic area's. These are Scotland, North West England, North East England, Midlands, Wales, East England, South England, South West England, London & Home Counties, Northern Ireland.
Within these we list
London & South East - 117,520
East England - 15,421
South England - 44,355
South West England - 36,010
Birmingham & Midlands - 81,627
North West England - 83,199
North East England - 24,808
Wales - 28,718
Scotland - 38,073
Northern Ireland - 21,624
Postcode & Regional Map
The UK is divided into 142 postcode areas. For ease of use, we only use the alphabetic part of the code (i.e. CM or AB, but not CM12 etc.). List of the numbers of companies in each postcode and a copy of our database listing types and numbers of companies within eash business identification code.
Telephone Area
Sending to a local telephone area can target your message to just a few square miles (e.g. 01224 covers Aberdeen city while the AB postcode covers a much larger area).
Number of Employees
These range in seven groups from 1 - 5 to over 500 and are
a - 1 to 5
b - 6 to 10
c - 11 to 25
d - 26 to 50
e - 51 to 100
f - 101 to 200
g - 201 to 500
h - above 500
Be aware, however, there is no uniform system for reporting the number of employees within an organisation. Some companies report the total number of employees within the company, while others report the number site by just the numbers of employees in a particular location.
We have sub-divided the country into nine geographic area's. These are Scotland, North West England, North East England, Midlands, Wales, East England, South England, South West England, London & Home Counties, Northern Ireland.
Within these we list
London & South East - 117,520
East England - 15,421
South England - 44,355
South West England - 36,010
Birmingham & Midlands - 81,627
North West England - 83,199
North East England - 24,808
Wales - 28,718
Scotland - 38,073
Northern Ireland - 21,624
Postcode & Regional Map
The UK is divided into 142 postcode areas. For ease of use, we only use the alphabetic part of the code (i.e. CM or AB, but not CM12 etc.). List of the numbers of companies in each postcode and a copy of our database listing types and numbers of companies within eash business identification code.
Telephone Area
Sending to a local telephone area can target your message to just a few square miles (e.g. 01224 covers Aberdeen city while the AB postcode covers a much larger area).
Number of Employees
These range in seven groups from 1 - 5 to over 500 and are
a - 1 to 5
b - 6 to 10
c - 11 to 25
d - 26 to 50
e - 51 to 100
f - 101 to 200
g - 201 to 500
h - above 500
Be aware, however, there is no uniform system for reporting the number of employees within an organisation. Some companies report the total number of employees within the company, while others report the number site by just the numbers of employees in a particular location.
How To Design your Flyer & Other Useful Info!
Of course, if you ask us, we will design your flyer for you at no extra cost. Just give us the text
Most businesses send out some sort of mailshot several times a year. It may be a large-scale mailing or small batches of personalised letters to a dozen, or so, key customers at a time. If the targetting and theoffer are right you will get a positive response. If you get them wrong - you are wasting your, and your recipients time.
But you won’t get the targetting and offer right for everybody, so you will have to decide what is a good response for your business. If, for example, you are marketing high value goods like cars, one sale per 10,000 fax’s may be a good response. For lower value items, much higher response rates would be required to give a satisfactory return.
Then again, if you are promoting a service, such as cleaning and valeting and one fax produces a lucrative ten year contract, it would be difficult to put a value on the response.
Remember that there are two types of response - there will be companies who will respond immediately to your fax and there others whose responses come trickling in over a period of time. It is not unknown for fax advertisers to get responses back months, even years, after the original fax went out. So it is always worthwhile to consider what will make the recipient keep your fax for future reference.
To achieve this satisfactory response rate what do you have to do?
Basically, it boils down to four things. You need a good list of potential customers, a proven product to promote and a strong offer embodied in a compelling fax flyer. Writing this compelling flyer is really not too difficult if you set about it the right way.
To create GREAT COPY that responds to your prospects burning questions, the fax flyer should be split into the following parts.
It should start with an eye-catching HEADLINE.
The HEADLINE, or even better the following line, should include a PROMISE, This can be in the form of - WE WILL SAVE YOU "MONEY", or "TIME", or "EFFORT". Or WE WILL ENABLE YOU TO SELL MORE, or WE WILL HELP YOU GIVE BETTER SERVICE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS, etc.
Then list the many BENEFITS that your product/service will bestow on your potential customer.
Give PROOF of these BENEFITS - such as testimonials.
Highlight to your readerThe CONSEQUENCES of not having this product or service
Then have A brief SUMMARY, along with as many means of contacting you as possible - phone/fax/email/web. The easier that you make it to contact you, the more responses you will get !!
End with a strong CALL TO ACTION. The flyer should shout - Do THIS - Do This NOW!!
Points to bear in mind while writing your flyer
Get the content right.
Persuade your potantial customer to continue reading the flyer beyond the header and first sentance (Your Promise)
Analyse what works best in form and style.
Understand the twelve best ways to maximise your response.
Beware of the twelve most common mistakes.
First of all, sit down and think out your approach
1 - Know what objectives you want your fax flyer to achieve. You may want it to sell a product or to generate sales leads. You may want it to launch a new product or service, or to break into new markets. You may be test marketing to try out new products, or ideas. You may want it to enhance your service to existing customers by giving them right up-to- date information.
2 - Identify your likely potential customers so that you have an idea of what sort of approach is likely to work best with them. What prior knowledge do they have about your product? Why do they need what you are offering? What would they want to hear about your product? What are their likely objections?
3 - Be sure that you have choosen the right media. Fax is much more cost effective than mailing but it is limited to black and white. It will only be welcomed by people who are keen to hear what you have to say. Faxshots need powerful content and generally, should not go beyond a single page. They are very quick to set up and can be sent out in stages as the response rate justifies.
4 - Work out how to get the reader's attention. The person who first reads your flyer may not be the one who has specifying/buying powers. Remember that some fax machines are located in general offices and the recipient, having read the first part of the fax, must be encouaged to pass it on the person who can take action. Offer a tangible and quickly-realised benefit for an obviously reasonable price. Ask for it to be passed on to a specified person, or posted on the office notice board. Other approaches include highlighting unusual product features, emphasising low prices, launching special offers & competitions or using startling headlines. Offer a free product sample of small gift, a voucher or a cheap, unexpected gimmick. Good gimmicks can get attention, even from serious corporate customers. Remember, this is often the hardest part. Think of what grabs your attention when a fax comes in, or in a newspaper or other advert. What prompts you to open junk mail or take action over a TV advert. Think of the psychology of why prospects consider buying opportunities. Remember that it is twice as likely that a buying decision will be made for emotional reasons - feelings, moods, desires, than for strictly logical ones - like just needing your product or service.
Where do I start
1 - The first step is to write yourself a brief. The brief should be detailed and specific - the who, what, when, where & why? Write all five of these as a list on a sheet of paper and give general answers. Consider the needs of different audiences and different market sectors. You could plan to write separate versions of the flyer for different groups of businesses.
2 - Take a typical customer and identify one major benefit that he/she would get from buying your product/service and lead with that. Other reasons can come later, but start by backing your most likely winner. Forget trying to be too clever, you don’t need a really smart idea. Finding a simple, powerful way to say what benefits your product or service gives people will always be the best approach. But if your product is truly unique, or exclusive, say so.
3 - Find something new to say. Even if the product has been around since Adam discovered apples. Brainstorm ideas. For example, think about new or unexpected uses. Look at it again as if you had never seen it before.
4 - Be aware of links that you can make to outside events and marketing activities. Examples include exhibitions and other trade advertisings, current and world events. Plan your copy to take advantage of seasonal factors and known buying patterns.
5 - Try out your ideas on other people. Ask others, if possible existing or potential customers, to read your draft copy and tell you what the words mean to them.
Making it convincing
1 - Make your offer sound credible. Be direct, enthusiastic and, above all, honest. Explain the good reasons for buying. Anticipate objections and counter them. Make all the facts and figures you quote accurate and specific. KISS - Keep It Short and Simple. Make the facts and figures speak for themselves.
2 - Use language your potential customers will feel comfortable with. Tailor your wording to your audience. Match your tone to your company's image and your industry.
3 - Offer plausible trade-offs. 'Buy two and get the next one free' is attractive. Buyers can see you are trading off price against volume.
4 - Exploit third-party material that backs up your claims. Testimonials will always boost your success rate while reprints of press cuttings give credibility. Quote scientific studies that support your arguments, or else refer to the popularity established by previous sales. eg. 'A million housewives every day...' or 'Already Britain's Number One scanner'. Give guarantees. This can be important if you are targeting new customers.
5- Above all, avoid making your flyer or offer look, or sound like a scam. Nothing turns people off as quickly or generates negative feelings like a whiff of a scam.
12 ways to maximise response
Write a straightforward headline, featuring your main benefit to start the reader off on the right track.
You have only seconds to make an impact. Get to the point immediately and avoid waffle in your opening sentence.
Explain your offer. Make sure your reader sees the big benefits in the first paragraph.
Show how your product solves the customer's problem.
Be clear - Be simple - Be convincing.
Use short words. short sentences and short paragraphs.
Focus on the reader and the readers needs. When you are writing, talk to the reader directly, as you would if he/she was standing in front of you.
Use the tried and tested attention-getting-words, like bargain; big; bright; easy; first; free; improved; love; money; new; now; safe; save; want; and, above all, you.
Avoid sounding self-important in the hope of sounding serious.
By ending a paragraph with a question, or ending a page in mid-sentence. you can tap into the cliffhanger effect and attract readers to read on.
Check through what you have written. Then ask someone who does not know the product to check through it again.
Read everything out loud. If it sounds strange or forced, you need to modify it.
The Fax Letter
1 - Make the faxshot as long, or as short, as it needs to be to say what you have to say. Research shows that even the busiest people will read on if they get a whiff of a worthwhile benefit. Response levels confirm this.
2 - Look at the formats that are successful for other people's faxshots. Formatting devices like italics, bold, underlining, indenting and subheadings can break up slabs of text. But beware, however of making your copy look messy. Generally, sans-serif fonts such as Arial or Lucida Sans will give a crisper, more readable fax than more curly fonts like Times Roman or Garamond.
3 - Finish on a call to action. The copy should end with an exhortation to act: ' do this, do it now'!!
4 - A PostScript can sometimes be very useful to re-state your main point. A ps can often be the most read sentence.
5 - When you have finished, proof read everything you have written twice. Spelling mistakes and glaring errors of grammar will distract readers from your message.
Making your fax marketing campaign work
1 - Encourage immediate buying decisions. Offering a free gift with all orders by a certain closing date is a reliable way of boosting response. However, be aware that some business customers and most government departments will disregard any offer that comes with a free personal gift. Contact the Copy Advice Service (020 75804100) to check the rules affecting free gifts and special offers.
2 - Make it as easy as possible to reply and find out more with absolutely no obligation. Give a telephone contact point, ideally a freephone (eg 0800) or lo-call (eg 0845) number, to encourage spontaneous enquiries. Include your email and website addresses on your flyer. If you want your customer to respond by giving you their contact information, have an order or response panel on your flyer that is attractive and allows your prospective customer to give their details as unambiguously as possible. Remember KISS. Keep your reply panel as Short & Simple as possible.
3 - Do not assume that by sending your flyer to a company, it has reached all of the potential customers, or the buyer/specifier. Successful advertising campaigns rely heavily upon repitition of your message.
4 - The mood of the potential customer when he/she reads the fax is also very important. Consider yourself. How different is your buying mood when you have just has a contract cancelled as against your mood when you get a big, new sale?? Suddenly that nice new car that you were promising yourself is attainable and the first fax to promise immediate delivery at just the right price arrives!!! Some recipients may be interested enough to file your flyer for future reference, but most will rely on another fax arriving when they are in a buying mood.
5 - Offer as many payment methods as possible. If possible, provide details to encourage people to buy instantly by credit card, Arrange to accept cheques, bank transfers, credit, debit and charge cards . Consider giving interest-free credit, or longer payment terms for order placed before a fixed deadline.
The 10 Most Common Mistakes That Can cripple your Fax Campaign
Sending out sales flyers to prospective customers or potential clients is one of the most effective ways to create loyalty and get your market to buy.
But then, many sales approaches are regarded as junk mail by today's consumers. For example, when was the last time you opened a sales letter and actually read it? And why didn't you? Because it didn't entice you. It didn't speak to you and most importantly it didn't give you any reason to bother. Here are ten simple and avoidable mistakes that could be costing you in lost sales:
#1. Your flyer doesn't speak to anybody in particular.
Okay, you've prepared a fax flyer and are ready to send it out. Number One question is - who will be receiving it? Will it be the person that you want to read your message? If it isn't, how will you get your message brought to the attention of that person?
With the best will in the world, we cannot know where each fax machine is located within any company. Nor can we know the name of each manager within any company, so personally addressing your fax is just not possible.
However, you can visualise the role of the person that you want to target. That is most likely be the person who makes the decision as to whether your product or service is purchased. So direct your flyer to that person. Tell whoever receives the fax to pass it on as your flyer contains information that will be of direct benefit to their company. Then again, your flyer could be of benefit to employess generally, e.g. you want them to join your health club, etc. In that case, you should tell them to pin it up on the staff notice board.
Always consider that the most important time in your flyer's life is the first five seconds as the recipient scans it. That decides whether it is acted upon - or binned unread. Get past that test and you'r half-way there
#2. It's missing a headline.
Flyers need to attract the eye. Without a headline, a flyer is just a block of words that can easily be ignored. Just look at the headline of this article: it speaks directly to YOU, doesn't it? It speaks in the present tense, and it implies that there is information in this article that you need to read now (and it's true, too!). That's a big reason why you are reading this, isn't it? Motivate your readers to keep reading!
#3. You don't know the difference between FEATURES and BENEFITS.
This is the biggest, most common mistake that companies make in their flyers. If somebody writes me a letter and says, "Hey! Look at what we've got! Look what we've done! Aren't we great?!?", I'm going to throw it away.
What do people really want to hear about? They want to hear about themselves. It's simple human nature. We all have egos, and they need to be stroked. So talk about them: "Hey! You know that problem you have? This is how we can help you out..."
If you are writing about your business, you are writing a FEATURE. That's not what you're supposed to be writing. If you are writing about the consumer, you are writing a BENEFIT. That's what people want to hear about - what's in it for me?
#4. Give them a reason to respond.
If your response rates are down, you may not be giving your market enough of a reason to contact you. Where's the offer? If the consumer reads your entire sales letter, but they are not motivated to take action IMMEDIATELY, you did it wrong. Tell them - Do This, Do It Now!!
You could consider giving them a discount or some form of special offer for responding to your flyer, but above all, you must motivate them. Also make sure that they can respond to your offer as easily as possible. Give them complex forms to fill in or ask for what they consider to be too much, or sensitive, information is a big turn-off.
#5. You are assuming they'll take your word for it.
UH! UH! - you need to give them proof. That means statistics or facts that show them that it works. That could mean testimonials from people who have enjoyed the benefits. Or any other form of proof that you can think of. People won't just listen to you based on what you say - show them what others are saying.
#6. Your letter is unpleasant to look at.
Beyond the headline, how have you formatted your flyer? Is it just a bunch of words? Then forget it. You might as well have mailed them a 700-page Charles Dickens novel, because that's what they will relate your flyer to. You don't necessarily have to put in pictures. But at least put in some sub-headlines or lists. They need something they can easily scan to quickly get the gist of the letter. It will greatly increase the odds of them reading the whole thing. But beware, some pictures can actually detract from your message. Make sure that any that you use reproduce well in black and white. Line drawings are ideal. Try to make it look as professional a flyer as possible because this will reflect on how they think of your company. In most cases, a flyer is not a letter and flyers dressed up to look like letters usually look boring.
#7. You didn't break down the barriers.
Barriers are the things that keeps the consumer from buying from you. Most of the time, barriers refers to risk. They worry that they are investing their time or money in something that won't work. You need to convince them that it will be worth it. Offer them a 30-day, money-back guarantee etc. If you can give them a reason to take the plunge, risk-free, there's a good chance that they will.
#8. You don't have a "P.S." at the end.
The "P.S." is a great way to hit the last few skimmers - people who aren't reading. Sum up your biggest benefit, combine it with your offer, and throw it in as the last line in your letter. Watch those response rates grow! For example:
P.S. "Un-repeatabe offer. Take this opportunity while stocks last". Etc.
Always finish your flyer with very firm call to action - in the form of Do this, and do it now!!
#9. Nothing makes you stand out.
Who are you targeting and why? You need to position yourself as something unique. If you are just like the others, then why should they buy from you. Remember that when you make your offer and explain your benefits. You need to have something different to motivate your specific target market. And don't forget that you prospective customer also wants the best service available as well as the best price.
#10. Your flyer arrives at the wrong time.
When is the right time? That's easy, it's when the recipient has an interest in your product or service and is prepared to act on it. Give your flyer the best possible chance of hitting a prospect by considering when they are most likely to give it their consideration. If they could also benefit from your services or products in the future, tell them to file your flyer for reference as they will need it then.
Using professionals
1 - Should you go to an agency? Agency fees will usually be prohibitive unless you are planning to move towards large-scale fax mailings.
2 - Should you write the copy yourself or invest in a freelance copywriter? If you have a good knowledge of your product and the sort of people who buy it, you can probably write a compelling flyer yourself.
3 - Test your flyer on collegues/family/friends to find out quickly and cheaply if you can afford to take the DIY approach. If their combined reaction is nil or negative take the hint and get help from a professional. A good freelance should be able to work with you to write a well-thought-out flyer quite reasonably.
Finally... Some comments from expert marketers that may be useful.
"I find that the best approach is to list all the questions that people would ask me if I was talking to them face to face. List then in order of importance and then answer them all. By doing this, the flyer writes itself. "
"The 'one-shot wonder' doesn't often happen in the real world of fax broadcasting. Often you need a series of fax’s to get to the stage of an appointment or order"
"It is tempting to think from your products and your companys point of view. Instead, think from the recipient's point of view. Focus on his or her needs and use 'you' and 'yours', rather than 'we' and 'ours'."
"There is only one rule about the amount of information on your flyer. You should say everything that needs to be said to give people reasons for buying and to overcome any objections that might hold them back."
"Carry your themes through. If you are planning a sustained marketing program try to develop a series of faxings each with something new to say but all with a consistent theme."
Reasons Why Prospects Turn Into Buyers
Buyers buy for a variety of reasons. They do so not only for logical reasons, but also for emotional ones. When you market any product or service, you must always be aware that you are dealing with human beings and all their moods and peculiarities.
A buying decision is always made up of two main elements -
Needs - clear rational reasons why a prospect should make this purchase.
Desires - feelings, moods and emotions.
We all tend to think that customers buy something only when they need it. Not true. Why would anyone buy jewellery on need alone?? In study after study, it has been found that business buying decisions are twice as likely to be based on emotions as they are on logical reasons.
A very useful exercise to convince yourself of this is to list all the possible reasons why someone should buy your products or services. The list can be very long and every time you think that you have listed them all, a new reason pops into your mind. Usual ones include - obsolete, the old one was broken, newer technology, sets a good appearance to visiting clients, good investment, item at sale price, good value for money, more efficient, reduces staff costs, improves customer service, etc. etc.
All the above reasons are good, logical reasons why you would think that someone should buy your product/service. These logical needs can and do apply, but most purchases are made not just because the customer realises an immediate and pressing need. A number of other things can, and do, influence the buying decision. These alternative explanations usually carry more weight in the customers final decision. Motives, whether they be a desire to gain or a fear of loss, are twice as likely to be the deciding factor. Think of all the reasons that influenced your buying decision over your latest car. Where colour/style/feelgood came into it and just how much of the decision was based on pure logic.
So when designing your next fax flyer, remember that as well as listing your products, or services, usb’s (unique selling points) you should also aim to get across your ucb’s (unique customer benefits) and appeal emotionally to your target as well as logically.
Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher, once stood in the marketplace of Athens surveying all the goods for sale on the stalls around him for quite some time. At last when he moved on he was heard to remark "I'm amazed at the large number of items that I don't need". As a philosoper he was only thinking - 'needs' - and as a philosopher his emotions did not come into it. Moral - ancient Greek philosophers make lousy customers.
What Is Direct Marketing?
There are two methods of marketing a company’s products. Direct Marketing and Indirect Marketing.
Indirect Marketing uses newspapers, magazines or on-air advertising. By using it you can reach many thousands, even millions, of potential customers. Its main disadvantages for the small or medium size company are that it is expensive, you don’t know who's seeing your advert and you can’t test market it on a small scale.
With Direct Marketing you are in complete control. You choose who gets your message and then target it directly to your chosen market using fax flyers, mailshots, emails, telesales calls, or any mixture. This is much more cost effective as it allows you to test and measure the response to see if your advert is working.
Just as there are two types of marketing, there are two types of advertising. Brand Advertising and Direct Response Advertising.
Brand Advertising is used by big companies to build and increase awareness of their brand. Smaller companies beware, unless you have lots of money which you are happy to lose - avoid Brand Advertising.
Successful small or medium size businesses use Direct Response Advertising and then only with the specific aim of generating a good, clear response. The type of response they want will vary depending upon the type of business they are in and their overall marketing strategy. It may be for an immediate purchase, it may be for someone to get in contact and ask for a brochure, or to visit their website, etc.
The great advantage of Direct Response Advertising is that you can very quickly tell whether it is working. It either produces a response or it doesn’t. The response can be measured and used to check that your advertising works - and if your advertising isn’t working - STOP IT - and stop throwing your money away.
It is absolutely essential that you test and measure all your advertising !!
On every campaign the very least that you need to know is what the response was to your advert. From that, how many of these respondents were converted to sales. Then, what those sales are worth to you? From this figure, deduct the cost of the campaign to see how profitable, or not, the campaign was for you. You can then decide whether to step it up, alter it, or stop running it.
Building your company’s sales success through direct response marketing is fairly straightforward. Be innovative and continually test new marketing strategies on a small scale. This could be a direct mail campaign, a new fax flyer, a letter to your existing customers, an email, a two week telephone campaign etc. etc. You test small, then you measure the results. What did it cost? What revenue did it generate? If it wasn’t profitable, you’ve learnt an important lesson and move on. If it was profitable, you roll it out and make it an integral part of your marketing mix.
Most businesses send out some sort of mailshot several times a year. It may be a large-scale mailing or small batches of personalised letters to a dozen, or so, key customers at a time. If the targetting and theoffer are right you will get a positive response. If you get them wrong - you are wasting your, and your recipients time.
But you won’t get the targetting and offer right for everybody, so you will have to decide what is a good response for your business. If, for example, you are marketing high value goods like cars, one sale per 10,000 fax’s may be a good response. For lower value items, much higher response rates would be required to give a satisfactory return.
Then again, if you are promoting a service, such as cleaning and valeting and one fax produces a lucrative ten year contract, it would be difficult to put a value on the response.
Remember that there are two types of response - there will be companies who will respond immediately to your fax and there others whose responses come trickling in over a period of time. It is not unknown for fax advertisers to get responses back months, even years, after the original fax went out. So it is always worthwhile to consider what will make the recipient keep your fax for future reference.
To achieve this satisfactory response rate what do you have to do?
Basically, it boils down to four things. You need a good list of potential customers, a proven product to promote and a strong offer embodied in a compelling fax flyer. Writing this compelling flyer is really not too difficult if you set about it the right way.
To create GREAT COPY that responds to your prospects burning questions, the fax flyer should be split into the following parts.
It should start with an eye-catching HEADLINE.
The HEADLINE, or even better the following line, should include a PROMISE, This can be in the form of - WE WILL SAVE YOU "MONEY", or "TIME", or "EFFORT". Or WE WILL ENABLE YOU TO SELL MORE, or WE WILL HELP YOU GIVE BETTER SERVICE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS, etc.
Then list the many BENEFITS that your product/service will bestow on your potential customer.
Give PROOF of these BENEFITS - such as testimonials.
Highlight to your readerThe CONSEQUENCES of not having this product or service
Then have A brief SUMMARY, along with as many means of contacting you as possible - phone/fax/email/web. The easier that you make it to contact you, the more responses you will get !!
End with a strong CALL TO ACTION. The flyer should shout - Do THIS - Do This NOW!!
Points to bear in mind while writing your flyer
Get the content right.
Persuade your potantial customer to continue reading the flyer beyond the header and first sentance (Your Promise)
Analyse what works best in form and style.
Understand the twelve best ways to maximise your response.
Beware of the twelve most common mistakes.
First of all, sit down and think out your approach
1 - Know what objectives you want your fax flyer to achieve. You may want it to sell a product or to generate sales leads. You may want it to launch a new product or service, or to break into new markets. You may be test marketing to try out new products, or ideas. You may want it to enhance your service to existing customers by giving them right up-to- date information.
2 - Identify your likely potential customers so that you have an idea of what sort of approach is likely to work best with them. What prior knowledge do they have about your product? Why do they need what you are offering? What would they want to hear about your product? What are their likely objections?
3 - Be sure that you have choosen the right media. Fax is much more cost effective than mailing but it is limited to black and white. It will only be welcomed by people who are keen to hear what you have to say. Faxshots need powerful content and generally, should not go beyond a single page. They are very quick to set up and can be sent out in stages as the response rate justifies.
4 - Work out how to get the reader's attention. The person who first reads your flyer may not be the one who has specifying/buying powers. Remember that some fax machines are located in general offices and the recipient, having read the first part of the fax, must be encouaged to pass it on the person who can take action. Offer a tangible and quickly-realised benefit for an obviously reasonable price. Ask for it to be passed on to a specified person, or posted on the office notice board. Other approaches include highlighting unusual product features, emphasising low prices, launching special offers & competitions or using startling headlines. Offer a free product sample of small gift, a voucher or a cheap, unexpected gimmick. Good gimmicks can get attention, even from serious corporate customers. Remember, this is often the hardest part. Think of what grabs your attention when a fax comes in, or in a newspaper or other advert. What prompts you to open junk mail or take action over a TV advert. Think of the psychology of why prospects consider buying opportunities. Remember that it is twice as likely that a buying decision will be made for emotional reasons - feelings, moods, desires, than for strictly logical ones - like just needing your product or service.
Where do I start
1 - The first step is to write yourself a brief. The brief should be detailed and specific - the who, what, when, where & why? Write all five of these as a list on a sheet of paper and give general answers. Consider the needs of different audiences and different market sectors. You could plan to write separate versions of the flyer for different groups of businesses.
2 - Take a typical customer and identify one major benefit that he/she would get from buying your product/service and lead with that. Other reasons can come later, but start by backing your most likely winner. Forget trying to be too clever, you don’t need a really smart idea. Finding a simple, powerful way to say what benefits your product or service gives people will always be the best approach. But if your product is truly unique, or exclusive, say so.
3 - Find something new to say. Even if the product has been around since Adam discovered apples. Brainstorm ideas. For example, think about new or unexpected uses. Look at it again as if you had never seen it before.
4 - Be aware of links that you can make to outside events and marketing activities. Examples include exhibitions and other trade advertisings, current and world events. Plan your copy to take advantage of seasonal factors and known buying patterns.
5 - Try out your ideas on other people. Ask others, if possible existing or potential customers, to read your draft copy and tell you what the words mean to them.
Making it convincing
1 - Make your offer sound credible. Be direct, enthusiastic and, above all, honest. Explain the good reasons for buying. Anticipate objections and counter them. Make all the facts and figures you quote accurate and specific. KISS - Keep It Short and Simple. Make the facts and figures speak for themselves.
2 - Use language your potential customers will feel comfortable with. Tailor your wording to your audience. Match your tone to your company's image and your industry.
3 - Offer plausible trade-offs. 'Buy two and get the next one free' is attractive. Buyers can see you are trading off price against volume.
4 - Exploit third-party material that backs up your claims. Testimonials will always boost your success rate while reprints of press cuttings give credibility. Quote scientific studies that support your arguments, or else refer to the popularity established by previous sales. eg. 'A million housewives every day...' or 'Already Britain's Number One scanner'. Give guarantees. This can be important if you are targeting new customers.
5- Above all, avoid making your flyer or offer look, or sound like a scam. Nothing turns people off as quickly or generates negative feelings like a whiff of a scam.
12 ways to maximise response
Write a straightforward headline, featuring your main benefit to start the reader off on the right track.
You have only seconds to make an impact. Get to the point immediately and avoid waffle in your opening sentence.
Explain your offer. Make sure your reader sees the big benefits in the first paragraph.
Show how your product solves the customer's problem.
Be clear - Be simple - Be convincing.
Use short words. short sentences and short paragraphs.
Focus on the reader and the readers needs. When you are writing, talk to the reader directly, as you would if he/she was standing in front of you.
Use the tried and tested attention-getting-words, like bargain; big; bright; easy; first; free; improved; love; money; new; now; safe; save; want; and, above all, you.
Avoid sounding self-important in the hope of sounding serious.
By ending a paragraph with a question, or ending a page in mid-sentence. you can tap into the cliffhanger effect and attract readers to read on.
Check through what you have written. Then ask someone who does not know the product to check through it again.
Read everything out loud. If it sounds strange or forced, you need to modify it.
The Fax Letter
1 - Make the faxshot as long, or as short, as it needs to be to say what you have to say. Research shows that even the busiest people will read on if they get a whiff of a worthwhile benefit. Response levels confirm this.
2 - Look at the formats that are successful for other people's faxshots. Formatting devices like italics, bold, underlining, indenting and subheadings can break up slabs of text. But beware, however of making your copy look messy. Generally, sans-serif fonts such as Arial or Lucida Sans will give a crisper, more readable fax than more curly fonts like Times Roman or Garamond.
3 - Finish on a call to action. The copy should end with an exhortation to act: ' do this, do it now'!!
4 - A PostScript can sometimes be very useful to re-state your main point. A ps can often be the most read sentence.
5 - When you have finished, proof read everything you have written twice. Spelling mistakes and glaring errors of grammar will distract readers from your message.
Making your fax marketing campaign work
1 - Encourage immediate buying decisions. Offering a free gift with all orders by a certain closing date is a reliable way of boosting response. However, be aware that some business customers and most government departments will disregard any offer that comes with a free personal gift. Contact the Copy Advice Service (020 75804100) to check the rules affecting free gifts and special offers.
2 - Make it as easy as possible to reply and find out more with absolutely no obligation. Give a telephone contact point, ideally a freephone (eg 0800) or lo-call (eg 0845) number, to encourage spontaneous enquiries. Include your email and website addresses on your flyer. If you want your customer to respond by giving you their contact information, have an order or response panel on your flyer that is attractive and allows your prospective customer to give their details as unambiguously as possible. Remember KISS. Keep your reply panel as Short & Simple as possible.
3 - Do not assume that by sending your flyer to a company, it has reached all of the potential customers, or the buyer/specifier. Successful advertising campaigns rely heavily upon repitition of your message.
4 - The mood of the potential customer when he/she reads the fax is also very important. Consider yourself. How different is your buying mood when you have just has a contract cancelled as against your mood when you get a big, new sale?? Suddenly that nice new car that you were promising yourself is attainable and the first fax to promise immediate delivery at just the right price arrives!!! Some recipients may be interested enough to file your flyer for future reference, but most will rely on another fax arriving when they are in a buying mood.
5 - Offer as many payment methods as possible. If possible, provide details to encourage people to buy instantly by credit card, Arrange to accept cheques, bank transfers, credit, debit and charge cards . Consider giving interest-free credit, or longer payment terms for order placed before a fixed deadline.
The 10 Most Common Mistakes That Can cripple your Fax Campaign
Sending out sales flyers to prospective customers or potential clients is one of the most effective ways to create loyalty and get your market to buy.
But then, many sales approaches are regarded as junk mail by today's consumers. For example, when was the last time you opened a sales letter and actually read it? And why didn't you? Because it didn't entice you. It didn't speak to you and most importantly it didn't give you any reason to bother. Here are ten simple and avoidable mistakes that could be costing you in lost sales:
#1. Your flyer doesn't speak to anybody in particular.
Okay, you've prepared a fax flyer and are ready to send it out. Number One question is - who will be receiving it? Will it be the person that you want to read your message? If it isn't, how will you get your message brought to the attention of that person?
With the best will in the world, we cannot know where each fax machine is located within any company. Nor can we know the name of each manager within any company, so personally addressing your fax is just not possible.
However, you can visualise the role of the person that you want to target. That is most likely be the person who makes the decision as to whether your product or service is purchased. So direct your flyer to that person. Tell whoever receives the fax to pass it on as your flyer contains information that will be of direct benefit to their company. Then again, your flyer could be of benefit to employess generally, e.g. you want them to join your health club, etc. In that case, you should tell them to pin it up on the staff notice board.
Always consider that the most important time in your flyer's life is the first five seconds as the recipient scans it. That decides whether it is acted upon - or binned unread. Get past that test and you'r half-way there
#2. It's missing a headline.
Flyers need to attract the eye. Without a headline, a flyer is just a block of words that can easily be ignored. Just look at the headline of this article: it speaks directly to YOU, doesn't it? It speaks in the present tense, and it implies that there is information in this article that you need to read now (and it's true, too!). That's a big reason why you are reading this, isn't it? Motivate your readers to keep reading!
#3. You don't know the difference between FEATURES and BENEFITS.
This is the biggest, most common mistake that companies make in their flyers. If somebody writes me a letter and says, "Hey! Look at what we've got! Look what we've done! Aren't we great?!?", I'm going to throw it away.
What do people really want to hear about? They want to hear about themselves. It's simple human nature. We all have egos, and they need to be stroked. So talk about them: "Hey! You know that problem you have? This is how we can help you out..."
If you are writing about your business, you are writing a FEATURE. That's not what you're supposed to be writing. If you are writing about the consumer, you are writing a BENEFIT. That's what people want to hear about - what's in it for me?
#4. Give them a reason to respond.
If your response rates are down, you may not be giving your market enough of a reason to contact you. Where's the offer? If the consumer reads your entire sales letter, but they are not motivated to take action IMMEDIATELY, you did it wrong. Tell them - Do This, Do It Now!!
You could consider giving them a discount or some form of special offer for responding to your flyer, but above all, you must motivate them. Also make sure that they can respond to your offer as easily as possible. Give them complex forms to fill in or ask for what they consider to be too much, or sensitive, information is a big turn-off.
#5. You are assuming they'll take your word for it.
UH! UH! - you need to give them proof. That means statistics or facts that show them that it works. That could mean testimonials from people who have enjoyed the benefits. Or any other form of proof that you can think of. People won't just listen to you based on what you say - show them what others are saying.
#6. Your letter is unpleasant to look at.
Beyond the headline, how have you formatted your flyer? Is it just a bunch of words? Then forget it. You might as well have mailed them a 700-page Charles Dickens novel, because that's what they will relate your flyer to. You don't necessarily have to put in pictures. But at least put in some sub-headlines or lists. They need something they can easily scan to quickly get the gist of the letter. It will greatly increase the odds of them reading the whole thing. But beware, some pictures can actually detract from your message. Make sure that any that you use reproduce well in black and white. Line drawings are ideal. Try to make it look as professional a flyer as possible because this will reflect on how they think of your company. In most cases, a flyer is not a letter and flyers dressed up to look like letters usually look boring.
#7. You didn't break down the barriers.
Barriers are the things that keeps the consumer from buying from you. Most of the time, barriers refers to risk. They worry that they are investing their time or money in something that won't work. You need to convince them that it will be worth it. Offer them a 30-day, money-back guarantee etc. If you can give them a reason to take the plunge, risk-free, there's a good chance that they will.
#8. You don't have a "P.S." at the end.
The "P.S." is a great way to hit the last few skimmers - people who aren't reading. Sum up your biggest benefit, combine it with your offer, and throw it in as the last line in your letter. Watch those response rates grow! For example:
P.S. "Un-repeatabe offer. Take this opportunity while stocks last". Etc.
Always finish your flyer with very firm call to action - in the form of Do this, and do it now!!
#9. Nothing makes you stand out.
Who are you targeting and why? You need to position yourself as something unique. If you are just like the others, then why should they buy from you. Remember that when you make your offer and explain your benefits. You need to have something different to motivate your specific target market. And don't forget that you prospective customer also wants the best service available as well as the best price.
#10. Your flyer arrives at the wrong time.
When is the right time? That's easy, it's when the recipient has an interest in your product or service and is prepared to act on it. Give your flyer the best possible chance of hitting a prospect by considering when they are most likely to give it their consideration. If they could also benefit from your services or products in the future, tell them to file your flyer for reference as they will need it then.
Using professionals
1 - Should you go to an agency? Agency fees will usually be prohibitive unless you are planning to move towards large-scale fax mailings.
2 - Should you write the copy yourself or invest in a freelance copywriter? If you have a good knowledge of your product and the sort of people who buy it, you can probably write a compelling flyer yourself.
3 - Test your flyer on collegues/family/friends to find out quickly and cheaply if you can afford to take the DIY approach. If their combined reaction is nil or negative take the hint and get help from a professional. A good freelance should be able to work with you to write a well-thought-out flyer quite reasonably.
Finally... Some comments from expert marketers that may be useful.
"I find that the best approach is to list all the questions that people would ask me if I was talking to them face to face. List then in order of importance and then answer them all. By doing this, the flyer writes itself. "
"The 'one-shot wonder' doesn't often happen in the real world of fax broadcasting. Often you need a series of fax’s to get to the stage of an appointment or order"
"It is tempting to think from your products and your companys point of view. Instead, think from the recipient's point of view. Focus on his or her needs and use 'you' and 'yours', rather than 'we' and 'ours'."
"There is only one rule about the amount of information on your flyer. You should say everything that needs to be said to give people reasons for buying and to overcome any objections that might hold them back."
"Carry your themes through. If you are planning a sustained marketing program try to develop a series of faxings each with something new to say but all with a consistent theme."
Reasons Why Prospects Turn Into Buyers
Buyers buy for a variety of reasons. They do so not only for logical reasons, but also for emotional ones. When you market any product or service, you must always be aware that you are dealing with human beings and all their moods and peculiarities.
A buying decision is always made up of two main elements -
Needs - clear rational reasons why a prospect should make this purchase.
Desires - feelings, moods and emotions.
We all tend to think that customers buy something only when they need it. Not true. Why would anyone buy jewellery on need alone?? In study after study, it has been found that business buying decisions are twice as likely to be based on emotions as they are on logical reasons.
A very useful exercise to convince yourself of this is to list all the possible reasons why someone should buy your products or services. The list can be very long and every time you think that you have listed them all, a new reason pops into your mind. Usual ones include - obsolete, the old one was broken, newer technology, sets a good appearance to visiting clients, good investment, item at sale price, good value for money, more efficient, reduces staff costs, improves customer service, etc. etc.
All the above reasons are good, logical reasons why you would think that someone should buy your product/service. These logical needs can and do apply, but most purchases are made not just because the customer realises an immediate and pressing need. A number of other things can, and do, influence the buying decision. These alternative explanations usually carry more weight in the customers final decision. Motives, whether they be a desire to gain or a fear of loss, are twice as likely to be the deciding factor. Think of all the reasons that influenced your buying decision over your latest car. Where colour/style/feelgood came into it and just how much of the decision was based on pure logic.
So when designing your next fax flyer, remember that as well as listing your products, or services, usb’s (unique selling points) you should also aim to get across your ucb’s (unique customer benefits) and appeal emotionally to your target as well as logically.
Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher, once stood in the marketplace of Athens surveying all the goods for sale on the stalls around him for quite some time. At last when he moved on he was heard to remark "I'm amazed at the large number of items that I don't need". As a philosoper he was only thinking - 'needs' - and as a philosopher his emotions did not come into it. Moral - ancient Greek philosophers make lousy customers.
What Is Direct Marketing?
There are two methods of marketing a company’s products. Direct Marketing and Indirect Marketing.
Indirect Marketing uses newspapers, magazines or on-air advertising. By using it you can reach many thousands, even millions, of potential customers. Its main disadvantages for the small or medium size company are that it is expensive, you don’t know who's seeing your advert and you can’t test market it on a small scale.
With Direct Marketing you are in complete control. You choose who gets your message and then target it directly to your chosen market using fax flyers, mailshots, emails, telesales calls, or any mixture. This is much more cost effective as it allows you to test and measure the response to see if your advert is working.
Just as there are two types of marketing, there are two types of advertising. Brand Advertising and Direct Response Advertising.
Brand Advertising is used by big companies to build and increase awareness of their brand. Smaller companies beware, unless you have lots of money which you are happy to lose - avoid Brand Advertising.
Successful small or medium size businesses use Direct Response Advertising and then only with the specific aim of generating a good, clear response. The type of response they want will vary depending upon the type of business they are in and their overall marketing strategy. It may be for an immediate purchase, it may be for someone to get in contact and ask for a brochure, or to visit their website, etc.
The great advantage of Direct Response Advertising is that you can very quickly tell whether it is working. It either produces a response or it doesn’t. The response can be measured and used to check that your advertising works - and if your advertising isn’t working - STOP IT - and stop throwing your money away.
It is absolutely essential that you test and measure all your advertising !!
On every campaign the very least that you need to know is what the response was to your advert. From that, how many of these respondents were converted to sales. Then, what those sales are worth to you? From this figure, deduct the cost of the campaign to see how profitable, or not, the campaign was for you. You can then decide whether to step it up, alter it, or stop running it.
Building your company’s sales success through direct response marketing is fairly straightforward. Be innovative and continually test new marketing strategies on a small scale. This could be a direct mail campaign, a new fax flyer, a letter to your existing customers, an email, a two week telephone campaign etc. etc. You test small, then you measure the results. What did it cost? What revenue did it generate? If it wasn’t profitable, you’ve learnt an important lesson and move on. If it was profitable, you roll it out and make it an integral part of your marketing mix.
