Fax marketers range from new explorers, ad hoc, through to regular and seasoned professionals. Whilst the use of fax marketing varies from industry to industry, the basic principles and fundamentals largely remain the same.
Fax is in black and white/ grey scale, so when designing your document always keep that in mind. If you have considered taking a shortcut and just converting your printed flyer or email to an A4 fax, you’re not alone, however here’s a few reasons why each fax should be designed with purpose and intention:
– Like any other form of marketing, your fax needs a strategy and goal
– Detailed images, coloured images do not convert well, great for email- but not fax
– Aim to have slightly larger font sizes, 10pt size or higher, and avoid narrow style fonts
– Avoid too many shaded/ black and colour backgrounds, this will use too much ink and may appear distorted and pixelated
– Avoid a fax document which is too text heavy (there are exceptions to this). You only have a few moments to get a reader’s attention, try using short statements or bullet points and avoid paragraphs of information.
– Consider an ‘Attention’ in the fax to a relevant department or decision maker
– Have clear ‘call to actions’ is a MUST eg: To register call now XXXXXXX or Limited numbers available, Order now www.website.com.au/order
– Offer an incentive, this will give readers a reason to act and less chance of having a customer opt out of future marketing campaigns
– Ensure your fax is compliant
Like all marketing its trial and error. What works for you before might not work again for you now, so try split testing or altering your design or offer and see what gets you the best results. Have a way of tracking those results to have a better understanding of what works.
