You may be wondering if marketers are still using fax as a method for reaching their audiences and if they are, why?
Isn’t fax an outdated form of technology, especially considering the speed at which people can receive and answer an email or a text message?
The fact is, fax marketing is a long way from becoming obsolete. In fact, fax is one of the more secure communication methods out there, especially during an age where information security is more important than ever and cyber criminals are on the hunt for people’s data that they can exploit for their own purposes. Faxing also provides a tangible copy of the message to contacts that can’t accidentally get deleted from an inbox or text message chain. As well, marketers and businesses are still very much aware that it can be hard to ignore an incoming fax and are therefore still just as likely to use this method to communicate with their subscribers.
You may still be questioning the validity of fax as a communication method, thinking that it requires someone hunched over a fax machine sending the fax message to each contact one by one. But that is where you would be mistaken! With fax automation software, you can not only send a fax blast to your entire contact list at once, but you do not even have to touch a fax machine to do it!
How to do a fax blast
If you’re new to the automated fax blast marketing game, or are simply curious how to do a fax blast using automation software, here are the basic steps to take.
1.Choose your fax automation software
The first step to creating your fax blast is to select the fax automation software that will work best for your business. You should be sure that the software has enough sending capacity for what you are planning to send, as well as the means to schedule your fax campaign to send to the right contacts at the right time.
The right fax automation software should allow you to segment your fax blasts to prevent overloads to the sending infrastructure as well as let you determine exactly when sending is allowed – for example, you could allow the system to send fax blasts only during office hours and not during the middle of the night.
2.Design your fax blast
Once you have selected your fax automation software, the next step in how to do a fax blast is to create a new fax campaign within the software and design it to your specifications.
When designing your fax blast, you should be able to either upload files directly from your computer to the campaign, as well as have the capability to design the fax campaign within the software itself; adding text as images to custom documents and formatting them as required.
An important thing to keep in mind when adding images to your fax blasts is that when the recipient fax machine receives the fax, these images will be in black and white; so it is best to ensure there is enough contrast in your selected images so they will be displayed properly. Good fax automation software should allow you to preview your designed fax blast campaign before sending it to see how the text and images will appear to a receiving machine.
3.Schedule the fax blast
Now that you have your fax blast content created and designed, you are able to proceed to the scheduling step of the setup process. Here, you will be asked to provide a sender name and sender number so the system knows what to display to the recipient fax machine when the fax comes in.
Next, choose your contact list(s) that you wish to send the fax to. Ideally, your chosen fax software would have a built-in contact manager where you can upload and store your fax contacts. Alternatively, it should be able to pull contacts into the software from a third-party contact manager using an API connection.
Once you have selected your contacts, determine the start date and time for the fax blast. This date and time will represent when the fax automation software will begin sending the fax blast out to contacts. If there are too many contacts to send to at once, the system should segment them and send to them in batches (this is where the feature that prevents sending to contacts in the middle of the night comes in handy).
And that’s all there is to it! Once you review the campaign setup and complete it, the fax automation software will queue the fax blast up at the appropriate time and begin sending it to your contacts automatically. Pretty simple, right?
Let SimplyCast help with your fax blasts
SimplyCast realizes the importance of fax marketing within many different industries and provides a fax automation tool as part of its all-in-one engagement platform. Giving fax marketers and businesses the ability to create, design, and schedule their fax blasts without ever having to touch a computer, the fax channel is a worthwhile investment to make.
Still curious about how to do a fax blast using automation software? Check out this blog on the three biggest mistakes you can make with fax automation and be sure to click the button below to request a demo of SimplyCast’s Fax Automation solution to see just how easy it is to implement fax into your marketing strategy.
