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Why do you Keep Sending me e-Flyers?! Aaaargh!

I think I'm on every single Realtor® spam email list. Not an hour ticks by that I don't receive a request to join a new company, info on a mortgage program, or an e-Flyer from another agent! Yeah, I'm talking to you, the agent who keeps SPAMMING me with advertising from your listing.

And the answer is: NO! I do NOT have a buyer for your listing. First of all, your property is probably OUT of the area I service and I don't have buyers in that area. Besides that, if I was interested in showing your property, I would simply go to the MLS and enter my buyer's search criteria, and if your property meets that criteria, it will be on my list anyway! So please take me off your email list.

Do I send out advertisements and do marketing? Yes but only with the permission of the recipient, such as an initial phone call. Why? Because that's the way I want to be treated.

So why are so many agents sending me e-Flyers? Because agents are suckers for the e-Flyer companies. The companies promise they will distribute X number of e-Flyers, but who do they send them to? Interested buyers? No, because they don't know which buyers are interested and even if they did, they don't have buyers' email addresses. So they send the e-Flyers to agents -- agents are convenient targets because all their email addresses are easily obtainable on Realtor.com. But I can't see that they get results from qualified buyers.

Has any agent had success with responses to e-Flyers? Or did it just make your fellow agents angry?

Join my NEW group for professionals who work from their home office at http://activerain.com/groups/virtualoffice

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Posted by Regina P. Brown, e-Pro Realtor® on 12/14/2008 01:38 AM

Comments (45)

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45 Comments on Why do you Keep Sending me e-Flyers?! Aaaargh!

DEC

I am tired of receiving them too. As if I do not receive enough emails...S. Bell

e-flyers are about as valuable as the emails i get on a daily basis from spammers selling perscription drugs. First place i think of buying me pharmaceuticals is from the guy with the email joiesnmd2342342@yahoo.com who sends nothing but a link to a grade school designed website. The spammers and the people who hire them to flog their product are both equally to blame.

Forward the spam to the agent listed on it and tell them to remove you from their list, then forward the spam to the agent and his broker daily until your removed.

I disagree. I have tremendous luck with my eflyers, I send them to over 2000 agents in our board plus another couple thousand to my address book, chamber list and guest book inquiries. The agents that get them have commented on the quality of my flyers and how they appreciate being able to forward them to other customers. We create our own and send them through Publisher.

I find one of the keys is to have a good description in the subject line so they know at a glance if it's of interest and open or not and delete.

Once in a while an agent asks to be removed from our list, which we do immediately, but most are happy to get them .

As far as receiving them, I like that too. It takes just a second to glance at a flyer. It helps me know what is for sale in my market place and it gives me fresh material to send to the buyers that I am presently working.

I just listed a beautiful home and the seller called me to list it because she said she wants an active innovative agent to market her home - she is on my Chamber list!

I too am tired of getting this junk mail. My business accound gets more then 50 pieces a day. I I just delete it and move on.

The junk mail is annoying but occasionally something comes in that pays off. For most of it, I follow Hal's advice - just delete and move on! Merry Christmas!

This may be more addressed to Lisa than to Regina, but the common courtesy with email flyers is to make them permission based, in other words, the receiving party asks to receive them. The guest book people you describe probably fit that category. To just blindly send them to everyone in the local board makes them spammy.

A good email flyer program has an "opt out" or unsubscribe function that is seamless. The received clicks on one link and is automatically unsubscribed. To make the receiver sent you an email to unsubscribe puts the onus on the receiver.

Most of the flyer emails I receive are from board affiliates (builders or lenders) and I just delete them. It takes less time for me. And by the way, they would all be my lender or builder of last resort. Heck, I even get them from the developer that's building in my subdivision.

I do received alot from out of my area that I serve, but I do think it is a good idea to send them out because you never know you will take a interest of the property. Just another way of exposure.

Unless the flyers are permission based, they are SPAM. Plain and simple. When I receive them, I mark them as SPAM. Unfortunately, if that agent has something significant to ever say, I won't see it b/c they are now flagged as SPAM.

Tina in Virginia

I'd let go of any negativity you have this....focus on the solution, emailing back asking to be removed. In the larger scheme of things, it is a small matter.

Regina - In our area they have started to become more and more regular and one office in particular loves them. I actually had to write one agent back personally as they had sent the same one 4 times in under 2 minutes. Of course her next flyer stated that it was her duty to her client to "advertise" the property in every available venue. Of course, me being a little frustrated by that, had to use the word "advertise" as my weapon, as it being advertising, they way she had done the email, violated the CAN-SPAM Act. So I pointed this out to her in reply. Sure I was wasting my breath, but if I can educate at least one person, I'm ok with taking a little time out of my day. A great defense if they are really building up in your inbox is to learn how the CAN-SPAM Act works. There are rules that have to be followed if you're sending these kinds of emails, so a little knowledge of the Act will allow you to either tell people how they're violating it or learn how to do it without breaking any laws. Unfortunately the CAN-SPAM Act isn't enforced as people violate it constantly and its so hard to catch anything but the biggest violators. I think eventually, agents will learn how to use it properly and it will get better, but it will get much worse in the near future. Its like any tech-tool when people start to hear about it, they run there in droves. When it isn't making them overnight-successes many will back off and move on to something else.

I feel pretty confident that all of our ties to Real Estate 2.0 puts us out there to have our email addresses sold.......Eblasts directed at consumers are typically purchased lists....I am sure I am bought and sold daily.........

I've found that agents in my market like receiving our commercial flyers, but that may be because the commercial activity is only a fraction of the residential volume. If every residential agent were to send out e-flyers for every listings, it would be overwhelming.

But, Regina....I have been sending them to you because I thought you loved having your in box filled with 100s of worthless emails that you are stuck going through so that you do not end up deleting a client lead. I figured you enjoyed seeing all the pictures of homes that are not even listed in your state. Guess I got confused...I will double my efforts now because I just know that you love getting junk mail as much as everyone else and just have not realized it.

I have always thought those flyers are so stupid. Why in the heck would you waste your money sending a flyer to Michigan for a property in AZ or Tinbukto!!

Unless they are from my area, I mark them as spam. If I am in a mood to yell at someone, I may email the agent and tell them how stupid I think them sending the flyers to everybody and their dog really IS.

Samantha, I agree!

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Robert, that is a good solution (although a little time-consuming).

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Lisa, it sounds like you have had good luck because you do something more effective than those e-Flyer companies: you send to agents in your board (which is IN your area) and your address book (clients and friends), chamber list (local residents) and guest book inquiries (parties who have expressed an interest). That is much more effective than most of the ones I receive.

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Hal, Bruce & Mary: that's why it's good to change your email from time to time. It's a waste of valuable time to keep deleting emails all day long.

Another tip: I have a few different email addresses, I use a different one for companies which I think may be spamming me and selling my email address to other companies.

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Fred, I agree with permission based. It's just common courtesy.

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Brad & Angela: All exposure is not good exposure. You can waste your time and effort and money sending out emails to zillions of uninterested folks, or you can target your efforts to mail to the ones who have expressed an interest. I prefer the latter.

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Tina, I agree that it's spam and unprofessional.

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Hi Janice, emailing back would seem like a simple solution. But unfortunately, it takes time, energy, and effort away from your productive day... and many times it doesn't work. Sometimes it even puts you on MORE spam lists by emailing back!

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Matt, do you have a link to the CAN-SPAM act? I'd be interested in reviewing it. THANKS!

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Julie, I agree, I think we have targets on our backs because we are easily accessible!

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Tim, not just overwhelming, but targeting the wrong folks... they should be targeted buyers, not agents!

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

James, that's cute! Gotta love your humor...

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Oh I so agree. Most times I delete without even reading. Have to confess every so often one catches my eye as I think it MIGHT match a buyer -- but it never does. You'd think I'd learn!

I get tons of Emails suggesting they have a buyer for one of my properties. That makes little sense when one realizes that I am a home inspector and do not sell property.

Tami, like I said, I figured out that it's not the agents who determine the area, it's the e-Flyer companies, they are just trying to meet a quota and don't care if they target buyers or not.

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Leslie, emailing the agent may not stop their spam... but it sure makes you feel better, doesn't it!

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Alexsandra, I do the same thing... of all the flyers I've received, read, and thought about, not one has ever been a match for any of my buyers. But I still get sucked in anyway!

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Steven, so you're on their spam list too, eh? So sorry...

Join my NEW group for professionals who work from their home office at http://activerain.com/groups/virtualoffice

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

I think the only people who are Truly reading those e flyers are the listing agent proof reading it and the e flyer company themself.

But... look at it this way, maybe we should as professional real estate agents start working again , start doing open houses again, drop by and door knock, call up a past client just to say hi. and maybe ,PREVIEW homes in your area listed by other agents.... just maybe take a peek at an e flyer...just in case we have a buyer for that listing because , we may someday be needing the thousands of agents support to sell our listings via the web.

Sonny, you're right that we need to get out there in the community! Folks want to do business with people they know, like, and trust... not spammers!

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

Sonny, you're right that we need to get out there in the community! Folks want to do business with people they know, like, and trust... not spammers!

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

DEC

Today, right on cue, I received even more spam email from other agents! Is there no end to this brainless parade of stuff I don't care about and don't have time to read?

Join my NEW group for professionals who work from their home office at http://activerain.com/groups/virtualoffice

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

DEC

Wow Regina: You are really on fire with your thoughts against this stuff. It really must bug you. I know I don't enjoy seeing my inbox filled with this type of nonsense, either.

Karen, I've seen the blogs that get the most responses, the authors are opinionated and aren't afraid to take on controversial topics. I know this is a subject that many of us have strong feelings about, as you can see from the responses, so I'm happy that this topic is being debated.

Regina P. Brown

Hi Regina, I would agree with you that it can be a pain in the butt to get emails on properties from outside of your service area but I do think that you would want to know what new listings come on the market or if there is a significant price reduction on a particular property. Most of the top agents in our board send out flyers or emails announcing their new listings---particularly if they are really nice--- even though our MLS system lists the new listings each day. I like them because if you miss the new listing in MLS you are apt to see it in an email. I try to send them to only agents in my service area. Truly, the only people that have complained to me are the ones that aren't making a go of it in the business--maybe they are just annoyed that someone else is getting the listing. Giving an opt out option is the best remedy, but pushing the delete key is pretty effortless...

Roy, I don't agree with sending email to folks unless they have requested it. I don't do it, mostly because I don't want it done to me.

Just think, what if EVERY agent sent EVERY new/revised listing to EVERY other agent? That would be dozens per day. Now consider that I get these e-Flyers from all across the state, and from out of state where I would never have a buyer... so multiply the figure above... it adds up pretty fast.

THANKS for taking the time to comment on this blog post! Join my NEW group for professionals who work from their home office at http://activerain.com/groups/virtualoffice

Regina P. Brown
Allison James Estates & Homes
www.ReginaBrown.AllisonJamesInc.com

They are not any different than the junk mail we get in snail mail or the old telemarketers on the phone. I don't pay much attention to the ones I receive.

Have A
Great Day

DEC

It is very easy to just click delete and "move on"....It may just be a listing that is in your area and somehow you missed it....

Happy Holiday's!

Doris, Bellinger: It almost feels like a privacy invasion -- and you're right, it's no different than spam mail or phone calls!

Regina P. Brown

OCT

Resurrecting an old subject!

I too am tired of eflyers and particularly those that come telling me about an open house in Washington (state) when I do business in Fredericksburg Virginia. A few minutes ago I decided to unsubscribe to the system that has been sending me such eflyers. When I saw "usubscribe" as my option I knew immediately that I did not want to go to their site at all. Probably full of viruses (if that is the plural for virus). Off to Cloudmark they went. BTW, Cloudmark is a great program for catching spam!

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