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Fax Broadcasting is one of the most reliable technologies available to Marketing. It may be an old technology but it still delivers the goods in communication.

However, with the onset of electronic mail, fax has been relegated behind email as preferred means of communication and document transferral. But what many people forget is that there is a psychology behind every electronic device and the psychology behind a fax machine is relatively stronger than email because of the following reasons:

1. The fax machine is located in a common place in the office. In fact, it’s the second most popular place after the water cooler. When a fax message arrives in the office, everybody is sought in curiosity. Unlike in email, only one person is able to read through it. Sometimes, it does not even reach the eyes of the recipient because it gets lost among the hundreds of messages in the inbox.

2. The other factor that you need to remember about a fax machine versus email is that when a fax arrives, it arrives on paper whereas an email arrives electronically. It’s so easy for somebody to just take an email and push the delete button and not have anything to do with it. But with fax, it’s tangible and whoever picks it up has to make a decision whether the message should be thrown into the bin or pass it on. Since the action is visible to everybody else in the office, that person will think twice and make sure that it is passed on. Otherwise, if it is something important he will be blamed and will be talked about for a week in the office. Furthermore, the probability of your message being passed on to the business owners increases if your message is really well-written.

The fax machine has many different uses. There is one technique in the use of fax that is revolutionary but no one does it. This strategy is a bit extensive but it works all the time. It’s what we call in the industry, a ‘fax and whinge survey’. Basically it comes with the headline that says, “Have a fax and whinge.” What you’re doing is that you send somebody a survey with questions that are tailored in a way to get them to whinge about their business. Once they have completed the fax, what you’ll do is send them two movie tickets for free. It is extensive because every time a lead completes the survey, you send them two movie tickets. The purpose of sending them movie tickets is we want them to complete the survey. People ask me why movie tickets when we can send other items. A movie ticket is tangible, can be considered a financial gift but not cash and can easily be used by the recipient of your survey.

After they have completed the survey and sent it back to you, you need to call them right away to thank them, confirm their name and contact details and assure them that arrangements are being made for the tickets to be sent.

Once the tickets have arrived, it would help to call them again and say, “I just want to make sure you’re alright or you’re movie tickets have arrived.” Again thanking them for being part of the survey and lead the conversation that will give them the opportunity to be in consultation with you.

This does two things, first is that you made contact with them, you’ve made a statement to them, you made a promise to them and you’ve just delivered it to them. So before you even started to have a conversation with them, you’ve positioned them in a way where you’ve made a promise to them and you’ve delivered it to them.

Second is you’ve given them an opportunity to whinge about their business. It is critical therefore that the questions in your survey should ask about their fears and frustrations about their business. This will give you a clear picture of where they are at in their business. Having this knowledge will give you an opportunity to tailor fit your proposal according to their needs.

This is really a powerful strategy when used the right way. What is the right way, then? You have to make sure that you’re sending it out to well-qualified prospects and not just to anybody doing business. You have to do a little bit of research and homework before hand. Otherwise, you will not be able to maximise this strategy to your advantage.

It may cost you an extra $20 but for the same cost you could easily get 10 qualified leads. And if you’re good at it,

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