looking for menu fax service in nj

[glenn]

Tangentially related to food and nj. Are there companies that exist that have access to business fax numbers in NJ and then send out broadcast faxes to those numbers? Is that illegal? immoral? I'm looking to send out my daily specials to businesses within my area. Thanks for any info.

[markk]

Is that illegal?

Hopefully.

immoral? 

Yes, in my book.

Why don't you just get great fliers made and have them put out in the buildings somehow. I'd never buy anything from a place that faxed me an unsolicited fax, ever.

[jsfein]

I can't cite you to a particular statute or regulation, but I'm pretty sure that unsolicited faxes are illegal in NJ and carry a pretty hefty fine for each unsolicited fax. If I come across a link to confirm, I'll do so.

[pnapoli]

hi glenn. it is illegal under federal law and FCC regulations to send an unsolicited advertisement to a fax machine. as someone above noted, the fines associated with violations are steep -- $500 per incident -- and, if a court finds that you've done so willfully or knowingly, the fines can be tripled.

[glenn]

Why don't you just get great fliers made and have them put out in the buildings somehow.  I'd never buy anything from a place that faxed me an unsolicited fax, ever.

←

Did that. At least to the best of my ability. The waterfront offices in JC, which is what I'm targeting, are like a fortress. You can't get past 1st base there. You can't even go upstairs to an office to deliver; they have to come downstairs.

Legalities aside, you really would never buy from a place that you got one fax from? That's pretty harsh.

[Rebecca263]

Hey, we love YOU, but have you ever had to deal with a number of unasked for faxes to your number? It's more than a nuisance, it's time and paper consuming, and it ties up your fax from other calls. Maybe you can make a mailing, I'd suggest a small start by putting out a post card with a coupon, so you get an idea of usage.

[hitmanoo]

Isn't this included in the kind of thing that the "do not call" list exists to prevent?

[markk]

Legalities aside, you really would never buy from a place that you got one fax from?  That's pretty harsh.

←

Never, on principle. (And while this is besides the point, when telemarketers call and I tell them I'm not interested and they go right on selling, I usually put the phone on speaker, ask them a billion questions to take up as much of their time as I can, then when they ask me if I want to buy their product, say "no, I told you at the start I wasn't interested.")

BUT here's an idea for you. Make up some great fliers with a coupon and your web address, and get some people (or kids) to hand them out to the people coming out of those office buildings at lunchtime (might be too late for same day orders, but you'll probably see a lot the next days). I did this last year for a client in Hoboken who opened a new pet store, and it worked great.

[richl2214]

This is the SPAM of faxes. Sending a fax to someone who doesn't solicit it is actually worse than computer spam. At least computer spam doesn't waste the receiver's money on ink and paper like a fax does. Any business that sends a fax to me like that gets crossed off my list of places I would patronize.

Edited August 10, 2005 by richl2214 (log)

[JeAnneS]

Not that you are asking for suggestions, but how about fliers (with coupons?) at rush hour at grove street path and/or harsimus cove light rail? We walked from the Jersey Ave light rail and it was worth the trip But people on the other side of newark ave need to know you are there!

[rooftop1000]

http://www.rfgmarketing.com/pages/1/index.htm

Glen these guys will help you design a fax menu, promise distribution to 100 local businesses, and set up a web site at...... I8at.

used them for years at the Saddle River Market....I believe we dealt with Andy....not sure if he is still there

tracey

[WHT]

A better idea might be to do a post card mailing asking for people interested to call and give a fax number. Offer them a discount on orders and see how it goes. Have it printed on your menus that you gladly fax or e-mail menus to people. Make sure you offer insider only specials to your recipients and business will grow.

[glenn]

Thanks for the tips and opinions.

I've tried some of the suggestions mentioned and some of them simply don't make economic sense. I think we've explored every avenue in trying to increase our delivery business. Our next step might be to rent a cart and give out samples (with menus) by the waterfront offices. [i have a license to do that.] We've already inundated the area by handing out menus during lunch time several times a week for about 2 months. It's not cheap!

Regarding the fax service. I contacted 2 places. One was RFG as suggested here, but they haven't returned several messages. The other one stated that what they were doing was legal since they received the permission of someone at the receiving office. I don't know if there's any truth in that, but that seems to be the justification of these fax services. We did try this service for a couple of days and stopped because of problems we were having in getting them to fax what we wanted. [the guy only wanted to communicate with me by fax, not email or phone - as a result, things never got communicated properly.]

Just so ya know the extent I go to... I don't have a delivery person; I'm it, at least on deliveries that require a car. Last night I had a delivery to one of the fortresses, oops, apartment buildings in Newport, a luxury building. I ended up leaving menus on all 25 floors - taking the stairs to each one. Talk about building up a sweat!

[Curlz]

Glenn-

How accessible is a directory listing of the companies in those buildings you're targeting? Have you considered getting on line and finding a contact person in HR or PR or customer relations (you get the idea) within each of the major companies within those buildings? An email that has something in the subject line that says Jersey City lunch discount might get their attention; I'd then make the body of the email very simple, so if they just glance at it, they'd see 15% off (or whatever) your first (three?) lunch delivery(ies) from Melt. Something like that can be easily shared with a LOT of employees. Whatever you do, don't send attachments, as many servers will kick those out as spam.

Of course, you could also try to find dept numbers and call in to ask who w/could disseminate the info--basically asking if you can email the same info I just mentioned. Receptionists can sometimes be the biggest help, and may actually give you the name or email address for an office manager--you never know.

Basically, you just need to find the company bigmouth who will share the info. You know...someone like me!

[rooftop1000]

hey glenn

how about a fax "contest" jar have people put in their office fax number to win a lunch a week or something....you may be working with a limited pool of people but other people in their offices will see the fax.

and....you will have to be careful to weed out repeat numbers

T

[glenn]

Glenn-

How accessible is a directory listing of the companies in those buildings you're targeting?  Have you considered getting on line and finding a contact person in HR or PR or customer relations (you get the idea) within each of the major companies within those buildings? [...] 

←

Evie, thanks for the suggestions. But - been there and did it. I actually hired a marketing person for 2 days who called a zillion companies on the waterfront. I got a list of every business in JC from city hall and had the marketing person contact every business in the waterfront area. Yes, he asked for the BIGMOUTH - though I think he used another term ). He was actually very good on the phone... he knew how to schmooze people. He got some positive reactions and we might have gotten some business as a result, but not much. In any event, I'm done with that sort of thing. It's to expensive and not effective.

Personally, I find unsolicited email more offensive than unsolicited faxes, but that's me.

Rooftop, I don't know how effective running a promotion for fax numbers would be, not to mention it really might look like we're reaching for straws. But it's definitely worth consideration.. thanks.

[WHT]

Advertising costs are usually 100% deductible and too that end you may want to run your own fax service. Several companies make fax software that will do broadcast faxing. Figure a way to build your list of interested people and run it in house. The software is generally under $80.00, I happen to like using Symantec’s Winfax Pro. As it is easy to use and runs like a virtual printer. It can also be set up to fax things like menus automatically to people calling in.