Fax Advertising : Hitting Your Target Immediately

Fax Advertising : Hitting Your Target Immediately

by: Chris Bradley

In the business of marketing and advertising, it used to be that companies that wanted to get the word out quickly to key customers on a new development would rely on email with followup phone calls. But with the new technologies available in fax broadcasting, fax advertising has taken over as the advertising medium of choice when it comes to contacting your customers at the speed of light.

Fax Advertising Puts Your Message in Their Hands

A perfect example of how fax advertising hits your target customers immediately with your critical marketing communications is the use of fax broadcasting in the travel industry. With public transportation, time is of the essence. Thousands of travelers depart every hour all over the world, and things can change in a heartbeat. Anything that can speed things up in the travel business can save companies millions, and keep valuable customers from heading over to the competition for their travel.

Fax advertising has proven to be the perfect tool for handling the lightningspeed requirements of the travel and transportation industry when they need to get their advertising in their customers’ hands at a moments notice. For example, one cruise line has 10 cruise ships that set sail about 14,500 times per year. With those kinds of numbers, unsold berths on each ship can add up to tons of lost sales throughout the course of a year, and it can be almost impossible to make potential customers aware of the empty berths at the last minute when a ship needs to take off.

Fax advertising to the rescue! That same cruise line has begun using a highly sophisticated fax advertising system which allows them to identify those travel agents that have been making reservations for customers most recently. The line is able to blast last minute fax broadcasts to those travel agents, offering discounts if someone want to purchase a last minute ticket for the empty berths right before a ship sets sail. The fax advertising has resulted in a huge increase in sales as a result, despite the last minute time crunch.

The same applies for the airline industry, where the timing of flight arrivals and departures is tight and quick communication is a must. One small, upstart airline was innovative enough to employ fax advertising to win business away from the competition. When a large competitor airline had to temporarily stop operations due to a strike, the small upstart went into action with a fax broadcasting campaign, quickly notifying travel agents of its excess seat capacity in certain areas and its ability to accommodate passengers left out in the cold by the strike. Even though the strike was over in a week, it was still enough time for this innovative air carrier to sell seats to lots of people who couldn’t delay their travel plans for the strike, thanks to the speed of fax broadcasting.

You may be in a business where time is of the essence. Maybe you have excess capacity that has gone wasted because you just couldn’t offer it to customers due to time constraints. Or perhaps there have been times when your own competitors have dropped the ball, but you couldn’t take advantage of the situation quickly enough to use it to your advantage. If you find your business in these types of situations, fax advertising may be your perfect solution. If you’re interested, test the water. Hire a fax advertising services firm and do a few trial runs. If your sales take off as a result, you can expand your fax advertising instantaneously with a simple mouseclick. Who knows; like the travel industry, you may find your sales taking off and heading for the clouds.

About The Author

Chris Bradley is V.P. of a http://www.3centfaxbroadcast.com where they help business save money and increase profits with their do it all fax service, where they do the work and you concentrate on your business.

This article was posted on August 16

by Chris Bradley

Internet Faxing Service Review

Internet Faxing Service Review

by: Ellen Farrell

The Internet is reshaping every form of communications medium, and faxing is no exception. The latest twist: Internet faxing services that let you send messages to any fax machine from any Web browser or email, and others that give you a กpersonal fax phone number,ก then forward any documents sent there to your email inbox.
The Fax Machine Workhorse in the ก80s and ก90s.
It enabled you to send a document to anyone, anywhere, at any time, and know that it was received instantly. It was a godsend in the 1980s and everyone had to have one. But it has become an expensive bit of machinery that will cost you money every time you use it. Smart organizations are now reducing or eliminating the fax machines they use in favor of electronic services. The fax machine costs you in paper, toner, phone bills and repairs. It is like a taximeter in that regard, and the bill keeps growing and growing. Currently most of the documents that you fax are created on a computer. If you fax them through a fax machine, you must print out the documents, manually create a cover page, and you must go to the fax machine to send the documents. Every time you receive a fax, you must retrieve it from the community fax machine, rather than having it delivered directly to your PC workstation like any other document. Many people still use fax machines today. The alternative is to use fax services from companies that provide Internet fax services.
Fax Machine Costs
The fax machine is considered a simple tool by many, which is probably why they haven’t replaced it yet. Anybody can stick a document into the auto feeder, dial a phone number, and send the document at 14.4 or 33.6 Kbs. But it costs to send a fax.
Among the actions employees must take to fax a document, labor is the greatest hidden operating cost. Labor is a key factor because your staff is more expensive than phone calls, and it makes the biggest difference in fax costs. Most businesses neglect to factor in the costs of actions such as employees walking to the machine, waiting to use it, the faxing process and the employeeกs return trip to their desk. All of this takes time. And in the world of hidden fax operating costsyou guessed ittime is money. Also, keep in mind that it isn’t unusual to find executives with sixfigure salaries performing some of the same faxrelated tasks as clerical workers. When that happens, those labor costs can be as astronomical as some of those sixfigure salaries. Costs also incurred are lease and maintenance charges for fax machines as well as sending charges for making fax phone calls. These depend on the rates you pay and the speed at which your fax machine and the machines you send to can distribute faxes.
How Internet Faxing Works
Ever heard of eFax? You sign up for a fax number. When people send you faxes, they’re autoforwarded to your email Inbox, where you can read them, trash them if they’re junk, or print them out only if necessary. Not only do you save paper and ink, but you don’t need a fax machine or a second phone lineand you get your faxes wherever you happen to be in the country.
Together, in principle, these Internet fax services offer all the advantages of fax a universal system for quick and convenient distribution of anything you can put on paper without making you spend your money on a fax machine, fax supplies or fax phone fees.
In the business world, any time that you can save money, your customers will ultimately save money too. That is why Internet faxing is a good idea. Internet faxing is the practice of using your email (or a website) to send and receive faxes. The speed and efficiency of email, coupled with the lower costs of sending broadcast faxes via email is more desirable than making lots of phone calls.
Sending and Receiving faxes over the Internet with your regular fax machines sounds cool, but so far, todayกs standard fax machines do not yet know how to speak Internet you can’t use them over the Internet. Some of the newer models will have this capability, but it will take time to gain worldwide acceptance. In the meantime, there are a number of services that bridge the gap between traditional faxes and the new world of Internetbased communications.
A number of companies, such as eFax, Faxaway, Internet Fax Provider and MaxEmail, allow you to send or receive faxes over the Internet. These services are either free or charge a monthly fee.
However, many of these services are limited in what they can do:

Require people to dial a long distance number to send you a fax [eFax, MaxEmail]
Attach their own advertising to your outgoing faxes to cover their cost [eFax]
Don’t offer fax numbers in all local area codes [eFax, MaxEmail]
Don’t work for handwritten faxes (unless they are scanned in) [all]

Still, Internet faxing provides many advantages. Convenience and better resolution are the two main pluses. They allow you to send and receive your faxes entirely with your email service the best thing to happen to the business world in the last 10 years. You can send and receive faxes anywhere you can access your existing email account: from your home, office, clientกs office, hotel, airport or cottage. Or even better, a webbased interface that keeps track of everything youกve done with your faxing business and allow you to do cheap and efficient broadcast faxing.
Some of the advantages of Internet faxing:

To send a fax, simply send an email. It will automatically be converted to a fax and delivered immediately
To receive a fax, simply check your email. All faxes sent to your fax number will be forwarded to your email
Web fax For people who need to fax their information to thousands instantly. Send thousands of faxes in minutes from our website Broadcasting.
Avoid tying up your computer or telephone lines
No software to download or hardware to buy
Easily distribute press releases, product and pricing information, newsletters
Sending to International phone numbers is cheap the charge is based on the destination country
Easy and convenient faxes are sent and received over the Internet from the office, at home or on the road. Your Internet กFax Machineก is available 24×7 and is never busy.
TollFree is cost effective some virtual fax numbers are toll free so that no matter where your customers are, they will not pay any additional long distance charges and your North American clients and contacts can reach you free of charge.
Privacy You are the only person to see your faxes, giving them the same privacy as your email.
Portable You can receive your faxes at multiple email addresses simultaneously and you can send and receive faxes while traveling.
Receive faxes directly in email Faxes are receivable and retrievable anytime, anywhere. Faxes are not misplaced and privacy is ensured.
Send faxes directly from email. Eliminate manual faxing. Faxing is integrated into workflow and faxes are delivered faster and at less cost.
Immediate Implementation No unique client/server or software is necessary, only standard email capability. Minimal to no user training.
Unlimited scalability Support as many users as required without purchasing additional fax machines.
Combine multiple document types into one fax Fax multiple documents as easily as sending an email.
Account code tracking Budget and cost management is simplified.
Automatic retries for busy or incomplete deliveries Eliminates need to continually check progress of a fax.
Email notification of incoming faxes Users know immediately when a fax has arrived.
Delivery confirmation via email Users always know when their faxes have been delivered.

Quick Summary of the 4 big services

Efax (http://www.efax.com/) Undisputed leader in the field of Internet faxing. Offers free version. Free version doesn’t provide you with a local number. Regular service is expensive. Offers many other products remote control of computer, etc. Requires proprietary fax viewer software to view faxes. The most local area code numbers available in the US.
Faxaway (http://www.faxaway.com/) Competitive regular service. Web faxing not supported. Many customizable features and options for sending. The personal fax number they assign you is not local they are all in some location where the area code is not local to you just like the free eFax service not too useful for your customers.
Internet Fax Provider (http://www.internetfaxprovider.com/) Offers tollfree numbers which can be used anywhere in the US with the first 50 faxes per month included in the monthly rate very convenient for the people sending faxes to you they will not pay any additional long distance charges. Best rate for broadcast faxing. Many customizable features and options for sending. Comprehensive Web faxing features.
MaxEmail (http://www.maxemail.com/) Offers local numbers in the US. However, you will find that only the major cities are covered. No web faxing available. Good receiving plans.

These fax services use the Internet to mimic real fax machines that is, they deliver your fax to a recipientกs fax machine, anywhere in the world, just as if you had dialed it yourself. Most of these services charge anywhere from 10 cents to 20 cents a page. Thatกs more than youกll pay to send a fax across town, but itกs much less than you would pay to dial an overseas phone number, even for a short fax.
Most major efax vendors offer additional features, including broadcast faxes, the ability to route incoming faxes to you as email attachments and monthly billing.
On the sending side: Most Internet faxing vendors allow you to send faxes by attaching files to an email. When the Internet Fax server gets the email, the emails get converted into a fax coversheet with the recipientกs fax number pulled from the ‘to:ก address. The attached files then get converted to TIFF or PDF files for easy viewing by the recipient. The service will then deliver the converted fax to the recipientกs standard fax number.
On the receiving side: Most Internet fax vendors will provide you with a phone number that you can then give to your customers. This number can be a local number (if you are located in or near a major US city) or a toll free number (available everywhere.) People will send you faxes to that number in the standard way. The service will then convert the fax to a PDF or TIFF image (or in the case of eFax, a custom image for viewing w/ their software) and send to your email as an attachment. You can then view the fax with any standard Windows Image viewer.
In the future as more fax machines include builtin Internet connectivity, faxing might give email a run for its money as a cheap, convenient way to send documents. Until that time, however, efax services will provide the best alternative to picking up the phone and sending faxes the oldfashioned way.
Conclusion
In summary, after reviewing all of the major Internet faxing service vendors, I have found the best service to be the one provided by Internet Fax Provider (IFP). IFP has the best rate plans and offers tollfree numbers that include 50 free faxes per month. I don’t go over 30 faxes per month, so it certainly makes sense for me because with the toll free number provided, my customers don’t have to pay long distance charges when they send me a fax. IFP also has the best broadcast sending rates and regular sending plan with the most features. And it was the simplest to use (you don’t have to use all the available options.)
For free Internet faxing, I found that eFax offers the best plan. But of course, it puts limitations on the service and you don’t get a local fax number. Also, if you live in a big city and you would like a local fax number, then eFax is the best solution. That is if most of your customers are local, because if not, they will pay toll charges when sending you a fax.
Internet Faxing Services Reviewed
The following services provide some type of Internet Faxing:
CallWave

http://www.callwave.com

Installable software helps consumers and businesses get more out of their wireless phone, home phone, and Internetconnected PC by กbridgingก calls between these devices.

More of a cell phone solutions provider requires custom software.
Data On Call

http://www.dataoncall.com

The company offers a comprehensive suite of fax services including electronic faxing (inbound and outbound), web/fax integrations, developer APIs, fax broadcasting, fax on demand, and custom applications.

Only offer 858 area code and toll free. Expensive. Broadcasting at 8cents/min.
Digital Mail

http://www.digitalmail.com/

Email to fax and fax to email services. Users receive a unique phone number, accepting voice mail and faxes.

Difficult to understand, No price structure setup
EasyLink

http://www.easylink.com

Small Business Integrated Desktop Messaging Email to fax, fax to email and desktop faxing. The service was previously named FaxSav.

Large corporate solutions not meant for small businesses or individual users.
eFax

http://www.efax.com

Send faxes, Receive faxes, anywhere you can get email.

They have a free service with limitations. Standard service is expensive.
FaxMate

http://www.faxmate.com

Email to fax, desktop to fax, broadcast fax, and fax to fax via the Internet. Its U800 service allows users a personal tollfree number, which automatically forwards faxes and voice mail to email.

International send rates are standard. $30/mnth, $0.15/min
Faxaway

http://www.faxaway.com

Internet fax & unified messaging service. Faxaway gives customers faxing tools at their desktop.

No local numbers available. Competitive rates and many features and options.
FreeFax

http://www.freefax.com

Send via web, receive as email

Ad supported. Only webbased interface available.
IntelliFax.com

http://www.intellifax.com

Allows you to send and receive Internet faxes. Provides middleware for other Internet fax vendors.

Limited local numbers available. Good send rates. Limited features and options.
Internet Fax Provider

http://www.internetfaxprovider.com

EmailtoFax, FaxtoEmail, Broadcast faxing. Best Internet faxing solutions and rates available in the US. Simple to use with powerful options.

Offers toll free numbers with 50 free incoming faxes included.

Best rates for broadcasting service. Webbased interface included.
Interpage

http://www.interpage.net/subfaxing.html

Offers a variety of Internet and Telecommunicationsbased services including EMail Paging, Web and EMail Fax Services, Remote Site Monitoring & Internet Voicemail. Focus is not on faxing services. Competitive rates meant for large corporations.
MaxEmail

http://www.maxemail.com/

Allows you to send and receive faxes via the Web or email and includes voicemail. You can receive notification of incoming faxes and voice messages directly to your digital phone.

Expensive service. Offers local fax numbers, but not as many as eFax and not as convenient as a tollfree number with free service.
Our Fax

http://www.ourfax.com

OURFAX, is the worldกs first, easy to use, ad supported 100% FREE service, that allows any email user in the world, to send faxes directly from their email address, to almost any fax machine in the world.

Free Ad supported, Amateur website
SuperFax

http://www.superfax.com

Super Fax is a small internet fax device that replaces your fax machines, receive your faxes, and emails them to you, on your email address.

$495US per unit. Still need a fax line
ZipFax

http://www.zipteam.com/zipfax/

ZIPFAX.com will allow you to send from your desktop email to fax machines. It offers text only with no attachments.

You must prepay for online postage with a minimum opening balance of $9.99. Rates are 14 cents per page for most US states.

About The Author

Ellen Farrell former telecommunications specialist in Telecom. Have reviewed many telecomunications products for large and small business. Worked with large Telecom service providers in marketing and development. Currently review technology for business development in Northeastern US.

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 13, 2004

by Ellen Farrell

Throw Away The Fax Machine – A Guide To Online Fax

Throw Away The Fax Machine – A Guide To Online Fax

by: Kimble Young

Have you ever felt like throwing the fax machine out the window? Well you may not know it but you can, not literally please.

There have been services available for some time which allow you to take your fax needs online and save yourself the hassle of wrestling with the fax machine.

Any provider should be able to supply you with a basic faxtoemail service. You are usually assigned your own fax number and any faxes sent to this number are then attached as an image file to an email. That is then delivered to your email account. You will need to keep your fax machine for sending faxes but you can set it to not answer the phone and keep it on your main business line.

Most but not all fax services also provide a facility to send faxes by email, web or straight from the desktop. This feature can be utilised to send invoices or forms to customers without first needing print and then fax the document. Faxtoemail allows you to compose an email to [email protected] and attach each document you want to be faxed. You are then notified by email when your fax is complete.

Traditionally enabling your business to fax has meant ordering a separate phone line and number and purchasing a fax machine or fax software for each user. Which is an expensive proposition for a communications channel that is still essential but often rarely used these days. With online fax services these costs are all rolled in to a single monthly fee which is paid to your fax provider. Often this fee is just a fraction of the cost of phone line rental alone. Add the savings in paper and ink and using an online fax service starts to make a lot of sense.

If your customers fax through a lot of forms that you need to process and archive you’ll know how tedious it can be to flick through a whole binder just to find a specific fax. With an online fax service your fax correspondence can be filed along with all your electronic correspondence.

Points to consider when choosing a provider:

Do you receive your own dedicated number? Some virtual office providers for example will place you on a shared number and your faxes may be seen by anyone.

File formats: Make sure the provider can email you in a format that suits you. Most will send in a common format like PDF but others may use obscure formats that require special software to read.

Do they have a method of sending faxes that suits you? Some will offer you a choice of methods; ranging from basic emailtofax through to desktop clients which will allow you to ขprintข directly to a fax.

Is there an area code that will be local for your customers? Even if you are a regional business you may want to consider a metropolitan fax number if your customers are located there. Remember, you now have the choice.

There are some things to be aware of when switching over to online fax:

The first is that a fax machine makes a copy of a piece of paper and that online faxing makes a copy of an electronic document. You’ll no longer be able to rapidly scribble out a note and fax it anymore. However, you can just as rapidly send a quick memo by emailtofax or through a fax printer. Filling out a form that has been faxed to you is no longer simple but it can be done by opening the fax in an image editing program and typing with the text tool.

The second caveat is that you may be used to signing almost every fax you send, this is no longer possible as there is no paper stage. The author recommends that if you have access to a scanner you can scan your signature and save it as a black and white image ready to be inserted at the footer of every document you type up.

All in all if your staff don’t use the fax machine much, or use it for a lot of repetitive work, then faxing online can save you a lot of money in ink, paper, communications costs and most importantly productivity. If you can’t give up the routine of walking up to the fax machine with a piece of paper then you might still consider online faxing; but only to receive your faxes. Remember to turn off the auto answer feature of your fax machine.

About The Author

Kimble Young is the product development manager for Fax Online an Australian online fax services provider. He has many years experience in the communications and Internet industries.

http://www.faxonline.com.au

This article was posted on April 23

by Kimble Young

Fax Broadcast Services Get Your Message to Million

Fax Broadcast Services Get Your Message to Millions

by: Chris Bradley

If your company is one of those innovative businesses that has taken advantage of new fax broadcasting technologies to get your message out, you’ve probably come to realize that the fax broadcasting services industry is everchanging and new developments are coming out all the time.

It’s pretty much a fulltime job just to manage a fax broadcast database of any size, not to mention keeping the related fax broadcasting software updated and operational.

If you’ve gotten frustrated with the overhead and manpower required to manage your entire fax broadcasting operation internally, it’s time to lighten your load by considering some outsourcing, and the possible use of an outside fax broadcasting service. Not only can this free you and your people up, but it will leverage your time and allow you to reach more people, quicker and with less money per fax.

Tips for Selecting the Best Fax Broadcast Services

In selecting the outside fax broadcast services that are right for your company, remember – technology is everything in the fax broadcast industry. Fax broadcast services won’t save you time unless they’re convenient to use and require little involvement by your own personnel.

When shopping for fax broadcast services, you’ll want to ask a ton of questions about the software and systems used by each fax broadcast service that you interview.

How flexible are their systems?

Do you get a lot of options and tailoring, or are you pretty much stuck with the system they have, even if it doesn’t meet your exact needs?

Really good fax broadcasting services have stateoftheart fax systems that can do things like integrate faxing, email and direct mail. The better systems also allow you to control and tailor your various fax broadcasts from your own PC at your own office.

This allows you access and control of your fax broadcasts when it’s convenient for you, and reduces the time it takes to communicate instructions from your office to your fax broadcast service provider.

Take some time, shop around, and ask a lot of questions. This will be time well spent, and you’ll be very pleased when you end up with a fax broadcast service that’s easy to use and gets your fax broadcasts out quickly and by the specifications that you yourself can control from your own computer.

You’ll be tickled pink with the staff time that will be freed up, and your new fax broadcasting capabilities will make you glad that you chose to investigate the use of fax broadcast services for your own company.

About The Author

Chris Bradley makes it easy and affordable to start a fax marketing job. To find more information on how you can save money and grow your business with fax marketing, visit http://www.3centfaxbroadcast.com

This article was posted on September 02

by Chris Bradley

Life After Press Release Distribution?

Life After Press Release Distribution?

by: Carolyn Moncel

A few weeks ago I was participating on an online message board. One of the members was a new business owner who was very excited about sending out her companyกs first press release. The question she posted to the group was important, but also a common one echoed by so many smallbusiness owners charged with handling media coverage inhouse for the first time: กNow that Iกve distributed my press release, what do I do next?

The answer to that question is a simple one: You follow up with the media. Following up with reporters by phone or email where appropriate, can be more important than sending the release itself. Why? Because maybe the reporter didn’t receive the fax sent, hasn’t read his email yet, or the headline for the release sent via wire services just didn’t engage him enough to want to read the release in the first place. Or maybe the release wasn’t sent to any one reporter in particular, which is always a nono.

Fear is the number one reason why most people avoid making contact with the media. In fact, most smallbusiness owners worry that they won’t know what to say to the reporter once they call, or that they will catch the reporter at an inopportune time and anger him or her. However if youกve taken the time to target the right reporter, study their news beat and the types of stories they prefer, and adhere to their deadlines, you should have nothing to fear in picking up the phone and calling a reporter.

There are basically two approaches one can take to follow up. First if you are confident in telling your companyกs story, you can just call up the appropriate reporter and tell him or her about your news and ask permission to send over the release. If there is interest from the reporter then send the release over immediately. The second way is to send the release to the correct reporter and then follow up with a phone call or email base your follow up method on what the reporter prefers.

One word of caution: Always remember that reporters are very busy people so try to give them two days before following up. It takes them a while to get through all of the messages that they receive. However, if you have a breaking story to report and you want to alert the reporter in advance, or you have an event taking place any particularly timesensitive news, then give the reporter a call the next day after the release has been sent.

So you have the reporter on the phone what exactly should you say to him or her? Itกs easiest to start with the one sentence you should never utter: กIกm following up to make sure you received my news release.ก Consider this the second commandment just right under ‘thou shall not forget to ask a reporter if he or she is on deadline before pitching a story.ก Itกs also always a good idea to do a little preparation prior to making your phone call.

Here are some tips:

Do make sure that the press release sent is available in two forms fax and email. The reporter may not have received your release, and if he or she has an interest, they will want you to resend it. The faster you can resend it the better the chance of coverage, so have the fax version ready in the fax machine and the email version ready to go once you hit the กsendก button.

Do prepare two alternative story ideas in case the reporter rejects the one offered in your release.

Do purposely leave out a couple nuggets of information so that you can offer them up to the reporter during follow up.

Do take time to listen to what the reporter says during your conversation. Your follow up call should not be a monologue but rather a dialogue. If you listen closely, the reporter will indicate interest and what your next directives should be. For example, youกll discover whether or not you need to conduct a second follow up.

Do make note as to whether your release has been forwarded to another reporter. If this turns out to be the case, then prepare to contact the new reporter with your story idea, but follow these steps again.

Do accept กNoก gracefully. When a reporter says กnoก to your story, accept the fact that he or she has a good reason at least at that particular point in time. Therefore, you should never try to push a reporter into running your story because you will run the risk of alienating that reporter forever. He or she will remember you and each time you try to pitch a new story, you will be punished. Simply say ‘thanks,ก tweak your release and try again later. The timing or story angle may be wrong. Again, if you are listening closely, sometimes the reporter will tell you why the story will not be covered. Perhaps he or she wrote a story on a similar topic recently.

Last, it never hurts to prepare a little script to help you concentrate on the specific points youกd like to make to the reporter. Practice what you are going to say so that it feels natural during delivery. Below is an example of what you can say once you have the reporter on the line:

Hi, John. Iกm Carolyn Moncel from MotionTemps, LLC. Are you currently on deadline and is this a good time to talk? Great! I know that you like covering stories about running offices more efficiently and my company specializes in helping other businesses get their offices organized.

To kick off a new service that we’re offering to our clients, we’re sponsoring a contest called กChicagoกs Most Disorganized Office,ก and the release that I sent to you has all of the details.

Oh, you didn’t receive it? Shall I resend it and to which fax number? Oh, youกd like it by email instead? Can I please verify your email address? You can expect to receive the release in five minutes.

In case you’re interested in covering the story, I thought Iกd provide you with some additional numbers and sources, which might help to flush out your story. Would like me to fax that to you now also? Thanks for the consideration. Can I follow up with you again? If you have further questions, just give me a call at 8778150167 or email me at [email protected].

Now, what happens if you get the reporterกs voice mail? Actually you can use the voice mail to your advantage because it allows you another opportunity to leave your contact information, pitch your idea and offer up alternative ideas without interruption. You can use the same script as above with a few modifications.

The bottom line here is this: the media will never know about your company unless you tell them. You can’t wait for the reporter to call you because it will almost never happen. That type of response is reserved for hard news stories and extremely rare circumstances miraculous rescues, scandals, extraordinary acts of kindness and most business stories just don’t fall into any of those categories. As the business owner the onus is on you to tell your companyกs story to the reporter, and you do it by following up.

About The Author

Carolyn DavenportMoncel is president and founder of Mondave Communications, a global marketing and communications firm based in Chicago and Paris, and a subsidiary of MotionTemps, LLC. Contact her at [email protected] or by phone in the United States at 877.815.0167 or 011.331.4997.9059 in France.

This article was posted on May 30, 2003

by Carolyn Moncel

Simple Steps to Project a Professional HomeBusine

Simple Steps to Project a Professional HomeBusiness Image

by: David A. James

One of the more difficult tasks to deal with when starting a homebased business is to decide how to establish your pathways of communication in such a way that you appear organized and professional, yet don’t have to break the bank to get started.

I have found three methods of communication that I use on a regular basis: email, telephone, and fax. These could probably be considered ‘the basics’ for most businesses, large or small, and these are the ones we’ll discuss.

As a side note, with technology, of course, there are many variations on these tools. For example, you can now use a cell phone with a builtin camera to take a picture and instantly send it to a friend or business contact. This is pretty spiffy indeed, but this really falls into the category of email or telephone communications, depending how you want to look at it. This probably isn’t going to be a main communication method for most businesses, unless you’re an interior designer or an artist and in need of constant visual communications with your clients.

Email – I’m assuming you already have an email account or know how to get one. Many people have what are known as free email accounts such as Yahoo (http://mail.yahoo.com) or Hotmail (http://www.msn.com, click Hotmail). While these are easy and free, they don’t portray much of a professional image. Instead, you should take the name of your business, for example Home Income Digest, and purchase what is known as its ‘domain name’. In this example, the domain name would be ‘homeincomedigest.com’. Now you have the ability to correspond using [email protected], [email protected], or whatever name(s) you prefer. This is usually coordinated with the web hosting company that hosts your domain name. There are many topics to discuss with email, but let me hit another one very quickly: autoresponders

An autoresponder automatically responds to a person who has just sent you an email by sending a message that you have previously composed back to them. Sounds great, but many people take this as a sign that you really aren’t serious about your business or are trying to automate everything to the point that you don’t have to do any work. Others say autoreponders show you ARE serious and want your customers to know you’ll be in touch as soon as you can. I think you see the dilemma here. My advice is don’t use autoresponders if you can generally get back with people promptly (within a few hours, or one business day at the most). However, there are situations where autoresponders are perfect, for example sending receipts, since most people don’t expect personal interaction for this type of correspondence.

Telephone – In most cases, you really should get a second phone line. The problem with using your personal phone line is that there is no greeting you can give that will sound correct for all situations. Sure, your friends will get used to you saying, ขHello, this is Jenni’s Interior Designsข but it’s pretty cheesy. Caller I.D. may help, but still. Also, there is really is no appropriate way to compose a voice mail greeting. You could get voice mail with multiple mailboxes, but recording a greeting of ขHello this is Jenni. For Jenni’s Interior Designs press one, to leave a personal message for Jenni press twoข doesn’t really impress either. Opt for the second phone line, and make sure you use it strictly for business. Also, try to keep the phone in a quiet room or where you can shut the door if necessary.

One great tip is to record a new phone message each day with the date included. For example, ขHello, today is September 17th, this is Dave with Home Income Digest. I’ll be out of the office from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. today, please leave a message and I will get back with you as soon as I can. Thank you for your call, have a great dayข. Immediately your customer knows you’re still alive and actively in business. They are also more likely to leave a message because it’s obvious you’re serious about keeping your customers informed. Do this every single day; it will pay off.

Fax – With the rise of email, which can use attachments, faxing isn’t as common as it used to be. However, not everyone is handy with creating and using attachments, and there are still situations where fax machines are still the better choice, such as sending a document with a signature. Since a fax machine is dormant the vast majority of the time, there really isn’t a need for a separate phone line for your fax, unless of course it’s your primary means of communication for some reason. Most likely, it’s better to get a phone feature called ‘multiring service’. For a few dollars a month, this allows you to have two separate phone numbers and ring patterns on one phone line. You set the fax to pick up on a double ring, and you know to pick up the phone yourself on single rings. If you have yet to buy a fax machine, I would recommend getting a multifunction laser unit that does faxing, printing, scanning, copying, and attaches to your computer as well. This will give you a lot of options for storing and editing documents, along with options for communicating with your customers. But always remember the most important thing about a fax machine keep it full of paper!

Above all, the most important, and simple, thing you can do to impart a professional appearance is to physically be in your office at all times during business hours. In the end, no one likes getting passed to an answering machine. But more importantly, there is no way to calculate how much potential business you are losing simply because you’re not there to answer the phone.

About The Author

David James is the editor of ขHome Income Digestข, a publication, updated quarterly, presenting more than 40 of the best homebased businesses currently available in the country. Located at http://www.homeincomedigest.com, Home Income Digest includes only wellresearched, established, small business opportunities. For more information on the author, visit http://www.homeincomedigest.com/aboutus.htm

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 18, 2003

by David A. James

Consumer Review on CallWave Call Alert Service

Consumer Review on CallWave Call Alert Service

by: Teddy LCc.

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About The Author

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This article was posted on March 25

by Teddy LCc.