About Georgi Todorov

Georgi Todorov is a digital marketer, specializing in Outreach strategies, International SEO and Influencer Marketing. He recently started his own blog about digital marketing called DigitalNovas.

How to Pick a Suitable Online Faxing Service for your Small Business

It is not common to see a fax machine in many offices today, particularly if they handle a lot of sensitive information and share business documents and correspondence. It is pretty easy to send faxes from a computer, smartphone, or tablet, which saves you the costs of acquiring a fax machine.

While some software applications offer signatures through email, it’s often less safe than faxing or sending a fax from Outlook, for example. Utilizing online fax allows you to use your computer fast to send quick fax to your customer or client to sign it and then return it to you quicker than through courier or conventional fax.

Sending documents through online faxing can be an excellent option if your small business deals with many contracts that need a signature. There are many and different internet fax services out there, but when picking one for your company, you need to analyze all the advantages and cons of each carefully. Below are some useful tips and tricks to help you choose the best online fax service provider for your small business.

1. Search Capacity

Online faxing is typically different from conventional faxing. The main difference between the two is the ease with which you can locate the paperwork you need. Instead of going through many folders to find a specific document, you can utilize keyword searches to help scan your files and find the documents you want. To use tags and keywords, you need to look for an internet faxing service provider that provides these functionalities. Go for a service that enables you to use your filing and include your tags for easy searching in the future.

2. Unlimited Integration and Storage

Looking for an internet faxing service that provided integration and storage will help streamline your file sharing experience. Most of the online fax services you will find on the market like eFax provide you with online storage, which allows you to keep records of all the faxes that you have sent. This feature enables small businesses to keep business files in a good centralized system. Since all your faxes are currently digitized instead of being in the paper, filing them takes less physical space and is also an easier task to do.

Most of the internet fax services also come with functionality that archives all your documents, which saves them on a server. That means that you have a ready storage solution that can double up as backup space in worst-case scenarios, such as your files getting erased from any of your devices. That is particularly vital for small business owners who might be depending on one or two computers to hold all their work. In the same way, some internet fax services also provide cloud integration.

3. Mobility and Ease of Use

The world is becoming more mobile, and individuals are not tied to their computers all the time. The prevalence of mobile phones and cloud technology allows people to work virtually from any place. Look for an internet fax service that makes accessing vital documents and business correspondence while on the go pretty easy. Online fax services with an app should be a priority. However, do not allow the flashy mobile features to override the laptop or desktop computer systems. Look for an online fax service that provides mobile support without eliminating desktop functionality.

4. Localization of Fax Number

One of the common concerns for small enterprises that outsource most of their services is having a business look incoherent. When it comes to internet fax services, businesses will look for a suitable faxing number that aligns well with their contact information. In a small business setting, having a local area fax code increases your reliability and trustworthiness. It also offers you the appearance of owning a physical location for your business, even if you conduct most of your business operations remotely or online. You can also have a toll-free number option for suppliers and clients who live far away from your city.

5. Page Limit

Before you pick an internet faxing service, you need to have a rough estimate of the number of faxes you need to send every month. Depending on your company’s size and the partners and customers you interact with, you can estimate your usage. That will help you get a robust faxing service that works under your planned budget. Some internet faxing services have some caps when it comes to the number of pages you can send and might hit you with high charges if you go beyond the maximum limit.

Make sure you select the appropriate plan that will suit the communication needs of your business, both financially and practically. If your business is growing and might require more in the days to come, look for internet faxing service that offers an unlimited tier to avoid outgrowing your faxing service.

6. Electronic Signature Capabilities

Internet faxing is a god way to share vital contracts when it is impossible to have an in-person meeting. Utilizing internet faxing services with electronic signature functionalities is a must-have if you will be handling business operations on the go. Despite the faxing service you pick, make sure your contract is well-written to become legally-binding with the electronic signature. Utilizing online faxing when signing business documents and contracts will not only assist your small business in moving faster, but it’ll also keep one copy for future reference.

Conclusion

Knowing the right things to consider when picking the best internet faxing service is vital. Like many other business aspects most people are upgrading this process to use online faxing. While the nature and main functionality of many online faxing services are similar, the best ones provide some exciting and unique features that best suits small businesses. Electronic signature capabilities, page limit, localization of fax number, search capacity, mobility, ease of use, integration, and unlimited storage are some of the essential details you need to take into account when picking a faxing service.

Choosing the right faxing service provider for your small business will help keep things organized in your company. Besides, you’ll not have to worry about running out of papers, mass faxing, storage, the ability to receive and send faxes from your tablet computer or smartphone, among other things.

6 B2B Lead Generation Ideas to Use in 2020

Lead generation is a necessary evil for every B2B company. To sell your products or services, you have to have customers who are both willing and able to buy from you. In 2020, your company faces new challenges in finding and generating leads. The biggest issue in the way is attention scarcity. 

The Problem of Lead Attention 

People have a limited attention span. Once you introduce technology into the equation, that attention span goes down even more. Paralleling the growth of the internet is the growth of distraction. Even before the internet popped up and made it more difficult for us to focus on a single message, getting lead attention was difficult. Today, that challenge is even harder as you compete with those in your own industry and outside attention grabbers. 

For B2B companies, generating leads isn’t always the hard part anymore. Attracting and holding their attention is the difficult job you face right now. 

1. Be Easy to Find 

Many customers in B2B sectors are actively seeking out and finding the companies they want to work with. Meaning, they’re reaching out to you. Make it extremely simple for them to find you. If you want to be easy to find, you have to have an active, visible presence in the places they’ll be searching. 

The most obvious place to start is search engine optimization (SEO). If you’re not already doing this, you should begin in earnest as soon as possible. When SEO is done well, it can help you appear closer to the top on the front page of Google search results pages. Being anywhere but the first page means you’re basically invisible to people searching, since most people never click past page one. 

Once you’ve gotten an SEO plan underway, work on building up your presence elsewhere in places that may be relevant for your industry. This means select social media networks, local business directories, and other places. Depending on your industry, the places you need to be present will vary. 

2. Create Circular Pathways 

This applies more to customers or leads who are already within your field of view, but it’s useful all the same. From every interaction, there should be a clear path forward as to where they can or should go next. A simple way to do this is to put soft calls to actions (CTAs) everywhere, with a quick pathway to get there. 

What this looks like in practice is a blog post that offers further related reading, a “thank you” page that shows suggestions of other purchases or registrations they could make, or webpages that link to each other to help viewers get around to the information they need more easily. All of these are examples of making it easy for people to stay in your system and consumer more of your content or take more actions on your platforms, which helps you make the sale. 

3. Content Breakdowns 

Often, research companies and government organizations release largescale data reports and dump huge quantities of information at once. These reports are usually non-contextual and are just releasing the facts from their studies. Provide value to your market by summarizing the impact of the information in your specific industry. Add context to the information and show how it affects your industry, what it means for the industry, and what people should do about it.

This is a wonderful way to add value to your customers without you having to go and do the research on your own. It’s likely to bring in new leads through search engine marketing, or as a lead magnet for an email list subscription or other opt-in request. A piece of content like this can be long and in-depth or short and to-the-point, depending on what your strategy is and how you plan to use the content. 

4. Collaborative Content 

Working together with related, non-competing brands or other companies in the same industry is a great way to expand your reach without boosting your competition. Partnering with complementary companies is a great way to create a win-win scenario for both parties, since you can do something to help them interact with your audience while they introduce you to theirs. 

This can come in the form of collaborative content that’s written or produced together, co-sponsored events, affiliate programs, or similar alternatives. Your options are only as limited as your imagination! Find what works best to tap into a complementary company’s audience to grow your own reach and collect more leads. 

5. Live Webinars

Webinars give you the unique opportunity to provide value in a way that still feels limited and exclusive. Unless a person participates at the right time, they can’t access the content from the webinar, making it a good tool for building a personal connection with individuals. Even if you host the same webinar at different times, it still feels individual to the participants, since they have to register for a time slot and show up at the right moment. 

The two main things to get right with hosting webinars is you have to offer significant value to participants, and you have to tell people ahead of time what they can expect to gain from the session. If you get these two things right and put in the work to market it, webinars are a great way to introduce people to your brand and start the relationship off on the right foot. 

6. Provide Hands-On Service 

In the increasing hands-off, automated world of business today, a bit of direct conversation goes a long way in providing a superior customer experience. Whenever possible, escalate customers to a direct communication channel like a phone call through various office phone systems, an in-person meeting, etc. Certain email marketing tools and CRM software can be helpful here. When you can escalate the conversation, you’re getting one step closer to the person each time, building rapport and allowing for more in-depth conversations about your products, services, and other concerns. 

Today, most customers already know a little bit about you when they contact you. It’s likely that if they’re reaching out, they’re looking for more than just the written statements online. Make sure you’re giving them an avenue to have a closer connection with you without them having to struggle to get in touch. Here’s a guide on how to find anyone’s phone number. By you offering to talk or meet in person, you’re making yourself easily accessible and increasing the chances of creating connections that result in a great impression of your brand. 

Lead generation is an ever-evolving art form. Trying new things can help you stay ahead of your competitors to reach and attract leads before they do. Find which of these and other strategies work best for your company as you move forward into 2020.