Over the last week or so I have begun trolling the back alleys of various unnamed social networks where agents like to hang out, and I have been noticing some of what agents call marketing.

I continue to read about all of their direct mail efforts to their farming area and how cost effective mailing out postcards can be. In fact several recent posts have actually trumpeted the postcard as some sort of “anti-Web 2.0″ movement.

One 57 year old agent wrote in a recent posting that “At 57, maybe I’m too old and there is no place for me here… I actually lick stamps. How embarrassing is that???” While not embarrassing, well maybe a little, it’s actually quite telling.

I Googled real estate postcards and real estate direct mail and to my surprise over 200,000 references showed up. I saw everything from real estate post card templates, to real estate postcard designers, to real estate postcard seminars..even real estate postcard coaching. Of course the same held true for real estate direct mail.

It is also safe to assume that all, if not most, of this direct mail is going to be directed at people who have not signed up to receive this email, may not be at all interested in this direct mail. I doubt even further that the intended recipient ever opted-in for said direct mail. Yet nonetheless, it is a real estate agent marketing staple and the recipient’s interest or lack thereof is not of any importance to the real estate agent who is farming his or here target area.

Then in addition to the “farming spam”, let’s look at another phenomenon. The Attack of The Expired Listing. This must be on the game plan of every real estate broker on the planet. And if it’s on the game plan of every broker on the planet, then it most assuredly is on almost every agent’s game plan on the planet.

Picture this, you have just been locked into an unbelievably one-sided listing agreement for nearly a year. Your house has not sold. You don’t remember your agent’s name, and there’s a hole in your front yard where the yard sign used to be. Your listing expired yesterday, and despite the laws on telemarketing and the do not call list, you are absolutely deluged with more and more real estate agent spam. Unwanted and unsolicited phone calls, post cards, and even the occasional knock on the door. Would that not endear you to a real estate agent?

Isn’t this Spam? I mean sure, Spam as we know it is the unsolicited transmission of messages to someone who has not elected to receive the message. For the most part it has been relegated to the discussion of email, but is it not just appropriate for the junk mail most agents dump on their direct mail recipients? I bet nearly 100% of the direct mail an agent sends out is unsolicited. Yet, real estate agents are one of the most vocal groups of people who complain about being marketed to.

Instead of sending postcards, might it be better to utilize Web 2.0 technology and market to people who give you permission to market to them? Isn’t it time to set aside and obsolete interruption marketing campaign and become successful permission marketers?

Repeat after me the credo of permission marketing:

“Anticipated,” “Personal,” and “Relevant.”

We have spoken here about Permission Marketing but for some reason most agents won’t embrace the ideology. The man who coined the term, Seth Godin, says “the idea that people would seek out marketing, ads and content the same way they sought out books is radical”.

Yes! In our digital age if you give people what they want, they will seek you out BECAUSE you have something they are interested in. As real estate agents, too much time is spent on talking and marketing to people who do not want what you have to offer.

Most agents, not willing to accept the fact that the rest of the marketing world has known for a while continues to relegate their product to junk mail. I for one would not want my home, my most valuable asset seen as junk. Godin further says that “junk turns into spam when you show up at my doorstep, when your noise intercepts my quiet.”

The result of Google and the prevalence of search means that people are far more forgiving of things that need to be sought out, and less patient than ever with selfish marketers that insist on showing up in your face. (Seth Godin)

Realtors choose to complain about Spam while overwhelmingly engage in it. Yes, we all do it and in some regards it has its use, but relying mostly on Spam to deliver your message to such a small target group is wholly ineffective.

For pennies..literally pennies per day, you can reach prospective buyers and sellers from across the globe. Here’s a little hint…they will actually give you the permission to market to them.

Imagine thousands of people per day sending you requests for information. Doesn’t that make more sense?

Read a little about Permission Marketing. In fact, read the whole book. It may change the way you cull listings and buyers.

Advertising just doesn’t work as well as it used to – in part because there’s so much of it, in part because people have learned to ignore it, in part because the rise of the Net means that companies can go beyond it. “We are entering an era,” Godin declares, “that’s going to change the way almost everything is marketed to almost everybody.”