Online Fax - How It Can Save You Time And Money

For any individual or business owner, any program or service which can save you both time and money, is a no-brainer. You simply can't afford not to use it if you want to keep up with your competition. Online fax is such a program or service, you must have it if you want to truly compete in these uncertain economic times.

How does using an online fax service save time?

Actually, in a lot of ways. First, it has been estimated that sending a traditional fax via the old fax machine takes around 10 minutes. This is considering the time it takes to walk to the machine and back, setting up the machine, preparation of cover letter and sending the fax. We will disregard any socializing with co-workers along the way to the fax machine or while you're there sending your fax.

Compare this conventional method with Internet or online fax where sending your fax is much the same as sending an email. How long does it take you to send an email? Granted, you might have to take the time to do a cover letter but using online fax is quick and simple. Perhaps, more importantly, you don't have to go anywhere since you can send your fax directly from your desktop. Access is immediate and at your fingertips and you can send your fax via your current email system.

This is only the most obvious way web faxing can save you time, but in actual use, online fax can save you or your company much more valuable time. How? Mainly, it has to do with the handling, sorting, filing and storage of your online faxes, which are in digital form. All you faxes can be easily filed and stored on your computer and/or online in your account. Whenever you want to retrieve a fax, it is only a matter of a few clicks of the mouse, no matter if you received this fax yesterday or six months ago. This can be a great time saver for anyone, all your faxes are available anywhere and at any time. In addition, with online faxing you can simply import your contact lists and broadcast your fax to thousands of clients at once. This will definitely save you more time.

How does using an online fax service save money?

Online fax is much cheaper than conventional faxing for many reasons. First, you don't need to purchase or have a fax machine running 24/7, burning up energy and money. Since everything is done through your email system and your web connection, this is paperless faxing. You don't need to buy any papers, inks, toners and you don't need to have a dedicated fax phone line which can definitely save you money.

Furthermore, web fax services are very inexpensive, you can even get a "pay-as-you-go-plan" so your costs will be at a minimum. You can even get a yearly plan and save more money. On average, these services cost around $8 to $10 per month, but there are some good, reliable fax providers which charge much less - so it pays to shop around.

Those are the obvious money saving features, but using Internet fax can also save you money in another indirect way. As you probably know, junk faxes can tie up your machine and waste valuable resources in the process. However, with online faxing, since it is an email process, you can easily block junk faxes from ever reaching you or your company. This will save you both time and money.

Lastly, you also have to realize, using an Internet fax service will mean your company or business is open around the clock, 365 days of the year. No more missed faxes because of busy signals or paper jams - you or your company can be reached at all times. So no more lost deals or revenues because a vital transaction couldn't reach you in time. All this as you can plainly see, will save you or your company both money and time. So are you using an online fax service?

Sending a Fax by Internet and Other Ways to Do Business With Your Smartphone

As any savvy business owner knows, the nine to five corporate world hardly ends there. As soon as you leave the office, you're bombarded with several emails regarding important business issues. From scheduling conference calls with international clients to drawing up important contracts that will secure you business, it's more important than ever for individuals to stay in touch with their company while they're on the go.

That's where smartphones come into play. You already use your smartphone to check your email, check the news and even post the odd message on Facebook - but when it comes to your business, your smartphone can go a lot further than you think.

Whether you're in transit for an important business meeting across the country or you simply want to ensure that your office is running smoothly while you're out, your smartphone holds the key to looking after your business - even when you're thousands of miles away.

Send a Fax Online. It doesn't matter if you're at home or on the road - when an important document needs to be sent, time is of the essence. That's why sending a fax by Internet is one of the best new innovations for your smartphone. With just a few taps of your smartphone, you can send a fax from online to anyone in the world. Your recipient will receive your fax via their own fax machine, or if they're opted in to your Internet fax service, they can receive it in their own email inbox.

To send a fax online via your smartphone, all you have to do is upload your document to your email fax service and select your desired recipient. Sending the fax by email services is just like, well, sending an email - once you hit "send", the fax will be in transit, ready to be instantly received by the other party.

Email fax services via mobile phone make sense for business owners because they allow you to not only conduct business, but to keep the flow of information running smoothly. If there's an important document or contract that needs to be sent, an online fax service gives you the control and peace of mind you need. You won't have to waste time worrying that your fax was never sent or received - instead, your fax by email services take care of that for you.

Set Up a Mobile Marketing Campaign. Marketing insiders are buzzing about the latest advance in marketing and advertising: mobile campaigns. Instead of sending advertisements and promotions via direct mail or email, businesses can opt to send their marketing messages directly to their clients' mobile phones.

Research supports mobile marketing as the next big trend in advertising - and the conversion rates support these beliefs. However, you don't need intensive research to see the sense in text message marketing; after all, when was the last time you received a text message and didn't read it?

How to Stretch Your Business Budget With Online Fax

No matter what size your business, everyone can benefit from slashing their expensive telecommunications and marketing budget - and there's no better way to do this then by taking advantage of online fax.

If you've never heard of online fax before, then you're in for a real treat. This innovative fax service is the newest way to reach out to clients and employees from around the world without shelling out big bucks for office equipment, paper, toner and other expensive consumables. A PC to Fax service works by faxing any document straight from a computer to the recipient's fax machine. The recipient can also opt to receive the fax via their email account if they also have a Fax to PC service. Additionally, most Fax by PC services work with any computer operating system, making it an ideal choice for companies with multiple brands of computers. Whether you want to fax with Windows or Mac, an online fax can be sent with just a single click of the mouse.

It sure beats standing around the office fax machine while waiting for your recipient to receive your twenty-page fax.

On a similar note, stretching your telecommunications and marketing budget is all about saving valuable time as well as money. While it's clear to see the pay-off with using an online fax service - it's cheaper in the long run and frees up more employee time - there are other budget moves that might not immediately present itself as the best solution for saving company dollars.

That's where this article comes in. We have the skinny on some of the surefire moves that will save your business time and money - and as any business owner knows, that's a certain recipe for success: Outsource Your PR. Let's face it: your marketing and PR budget takes up a significant chunk of your business budget. But rather than slashing your entire budget in the effort to save dollars, consider outsourcing your PR efforts instead. There's a wealth of online talent who will be willing to write up press releases, brochures and online advertisements at a competitive price. Sites such as Guru.com, Elance.com and other freelancer sites are rife with marketing and PR experts, so post a test project and see what kind of talent is out there.

Besides, your business marketing and PR efforts should be the last thing to go during a recession. It may make the most sense for short-term financial savings, but there are plenty of potential customers out there who don't know much about you. Make sure your business is spreading the message and bringing in even more clients.

Use An Online Fax Service To Build Online Trust

Perhaps, one of the biggest obstacles, for many websites and online businesses has to be trust or rather the difficulty of building trust with your online visitors or customers. The whole history of the Internet has been littered with horror stories of rip-offs, scams and hacking issues; which leave most web users with a very cynical view of any person or company doing business on the web. This scenario is especially true, if that company or individual, doesn't have a well established brand with a solid reputation and known background.

This whole issue of trust does affect your sales and bottom line. If your visitor doesn't trust you or your company, they will simply hit that back button. Customer gone, customer lost.

How to solve this issue of trust?

Many companies and websites solve this problem by placing "trust seals or banners" on their sites such as those from the BBB or Better Business Bureau. This will quickly help build trust and dispel many misgivings of dealing with an unknown website or company. Another very effective way to instantly build trust, is to place your contact Telephone or Fax number front and center, so that visitors and customers know immediately how to reach you or your company.

Placing your business address and contact information in a very prominent place on your site will go a long way in building legitimacy and confidence in the mind of any potential client or customer. In many cases, it is something most savvy consumers do automatically when dealing with a new company, especially one that may only exist online or on the web.

The Online Fax Service or Number Solution

Many companies are going with an online fax service or number to help build that trust. This number will appear and look like any other fax number - only difference being this is a fax number which is handled through an online fax provider. In actual fact, it is much the same as using any kind of fax number, except in this situation you use your current email program and your web connection to send and receive all your faxes. You can still send or receive faxes from a conventional fax machine, your online provider simply handles all transactions on your behalf for a small monthly fee or charge.

Signing up to an online fax service or provider is relatively simple and can be done within minutes. Keep in mind, most online providers will offer a 30 Day Free Trial, so you can check out the quality of their service before you buy. Once you sign-up, you're given a local or toll-free fax number which you can use - some services will even let you "port" or "keep" your current fax number, but there is usually a small fee involved. Regardless, once you have your fax number, you're in business.

This fax number is connected to an email address or addresses and whenever you get a fax, you receive an email telling you and you can read the fax directly as an attachment or you can log in to your online fax account or interface to check it. Remember, your faxes can also be stored online and you can send your faxes from this location as well. And since everything is web based, it means all your faxes are available anywhere, anytime

Advantages of Using a Business Phone System

A business telephone system may be best defined as a multi-line telephone system typically used by business owners for their communication needs. Business phone system can be anything from a small key system to a large scale PBX (Private Branch Exchange).

The unique feature of today's business phone systems is that they link phone, computer and fax into one integrated package. All systems begin with the basic ability to send and receive local and long-distance calls globally. Standard features of business phone system include call waiting, call forwarding, remote access, and caller ID.

Perhaps one of the most attractive features is the auto-attendant. When customers call in, they hear an automated menu of options. This may include instructions to press particular numbers to reach departments within the business (press one to reach sales, press 2 and more). Menus can be set up to automatically change after regular hours and on the weekends. The auto-attendant feature makes even small businesses appear as big corporations to the caller.

To avoid customers feeling uneasy while on hold, most business phone systems have music on hold feature. More sophisticated systems even allow different types of music to be programmed for different types of customers. There is also the much needed conferencing facility that can quite often prove a boon to business houses.

Modern phone systems have a lot of advanced features. The system provides unlimited extensions and each extension has a message created by the employee that comes on when there is no one available to answer the phone. There are means of identifying callers (caller ID), saving messages (voice mail), forwarding calls when the employee is elsewhere, and redirecting calls when the employee is out of the office.

The competition is fierce in the present day world of commerce and even small and mid-size businesses must take care to ensure they have the best communication facilities. There are many different systems available, and each one of them offer its own array of features especially suited for today's business requirements.

What Are Fax To Email Services

Fax to email services are just what the term implies, you use your current email system to send and receive all your faxes. This is commonly done by signing up to an online fax service provider who acts on your behalf to handle/process all your faxing transactions. Your faxes are sent as email attachments, usually in a Tiff or PDF file.

Basically, that's what using a "fax to email" service means, but there are some other over-riding factors which you should consider when going this route. Mainly, you must follow a few simple guidelines, if you want to get a quality service which fulfills all your communication needs. Asking a few questions now, will save you time, money and quite a few headaches down the road.

First, you must check and find out all the features and prices of the different prospective fax email services which you are considering. What is the monthly rate or fee? How many faxes (incoming and outgoing) can I send/receive each month? How much will you pay per fax if you go over your monthly limit? How long are my faxes stored online? How many email addresses can I have associated with my account? What type of file formats can I use? Can I port my current fax number over to this new provider? Does the provider have a desktop application?

Second, what kind of reputation does the fax to email service provider or company have? Check online fax forums and comparison sites to see what other users are saying about the provider or fax company? What kind of support services do they have? Do they have a FAQ section or Guide on their site?. Do they solve all problems quickly and easily? What are their support hours and can you reach them at any time of the day or night?

Third, you must determine the "quality" of the fax service provider you're considering. Besides customer reviews and forum posts, one of the best ways to do this is to try a Free 30 Day Trial - which most of the major providers do offer. Nothing beats first-hand experience when testing or judging the quality of a company or service. Simply try before you buy.

Lastly, when choosing a fax to email service, just use some common sense. If you or your company does very little faxing in the run of a month, then you only need a lite service plan or even a "pay-as-you-go" service which will be much cheaper than a regular fax service plan. Obviously, if you do an average amount of faxing each month, go with a basic or regular fax service plan. However, if your company does heavy faxing, then you should check to see if the provider has a corporate or even a custom business fax plan available, which can be tailored and priced to match your specific requirements. Most major fax to email providers do offer these corporate plans so it does definitely pay to shop around before you buy. Simply do your homework, then choose wisely and you can't go wrong.

Choosing the Best Online Fax Service for Small Businesses

In view of the rapidly advancing communication technology, there is no longer the need for the traditional bulky fax machines and messy operations to receive and/ or send documents by business enterprises. Online faxing facility is proving to be a big boon to thousands of small business houses worldwide. Apart from operational convenience, online fax will mean huge savings in cost and particularly the small businesses are gleeful about this factor.

Besides, there is no need to have a separate dedicated telephone line for faxing. The internet fax services not only gives you the freedom to receive and send documents at an impressive speed, but also allows you to access fax facility even while you are on the move. Since Internet fax service is Web-based, it is accessible from any computer with an Internet connection located anywhere. Since small business owners are mostly on the move, the portability of Internet fax is a definite plus factor.

There are a plethora of online fax service providers who offer their services on an easily affordable monthly payment basis to small businesses and the charges are based on the plan of their choice. As a matter of fact, many online fax service providers will be willing to offer a 30-day trial period for you to decide on the best service provider.

Following are some useful tips for you to decide the right type of online fax services

1. Some services may limit you only to e-mail delivery that can be disadvantage to traveling employees. Make sure you are in a position to send and receive faxes wherever there is an Internet connection - even if you cannot access e-mail.

2. Do not straightaway decide on the provider based on the price factor alone before ascertaining whether there are any hidden charges. Be absolutely clear about what you will be paying for, what the limitations are, and how you will be invoiced each month.

3. The Internet fax service providers will usually deliver the fax to you as a TIF file attachment. Find out whether you will be able to deliver documents in a range of other formats.