Annoyance Marketing.
Not effective.

Don't know about trainers. No way in my board to mail to the entire board. I don't mind them, as I often catch a "gem" that because of tight search criteria didn't pop up in my mls search. It's easy enough to delete.

I still believe in permission based marketing so when I get these I unsubscribe to the sender. It is just clutter to me.

Spam plus an insult to my intelligence.  They must think I don't know how to use mls.

There's a lot of it but not sure it's increasing. Not sure who recommends it. I certainly don't the announcements of new listings, price changes, and open houses of homes in other parts of the country.

I delete all of that.... and I never email any listings....

definitely SPAM.

According to the definition of spam as "UCBE" Unsolicited Commercial Bulk Email, yes this is spam.  I know the San Ferndando Valley Association of Realtors provides as part of it's member services the ability to mass mail these types of emails to all their agents and surrounding area agents.  That's why I used to routinely get emails about properties in Michael Jacobs' area (which over an hour away from me, maybe close to 2 hours).

I've gone through and unsubscribed.  If it comes from Mailchimp or Constant contact I open the headers and follow the abuse link and report them as spam.  Now I get maybe one or two a week.    

Fred,

I have no idea who recommends annoying others, but given your evidence they do.  A

NO! NO! NO!  We used to do this YEARS ago with some eflyer deal but agents HATE being spammed. We stopped this pratice back in the dark ages folks.  If I have clients that are looking in a specific area I will find and know what's out there for my clients. I do not want a gazillion listings popping into my mailbox every day.

I deleted and unsubscribe from it.

I get Agent's pushing their listings in my email. I wouldn't email a database of Agents. I'd probably do a Broker Open House & capture those Agents who are interested in touring the new properties hitting the market. 

I also get lots of mls- repeated information.  It's easy to delete and not that time consuming. As far as a training strategy,  maybe a long time ago but doubtful now.

No but many people use the services now that make it easier like HomeSnap, etc. I delete them all & will see listings in the MLS if I want to show them.

I will say I don't mind seeing price reductions on listings that I've shown before. Possible reason to go back & put it in front of that buyer again.

2 of the big firms are automating new listing notifications. I spend more time cleaning out my in box than ever before. I don't actually mind because occassionally I'll see something that I might not normally find for one of my clients. 

Yes this is Spam, it's annoying, and I delete most of them.

I dont do it, but I am fine with those who do.

Just mark them as spam.

texting. I got 10 yesterday.

I've seen an increase, so in addition to ignoring and deleting, I've been unsubscribing. Somne trainer send me 7 emails in a row the other day about events she was conducting. It's getting out of hand.

I have a folder just for these and I rarely open it, except to empty them.  If I need to find a listing for a buyer, I use my MLS.  In terms of these emails resulting in a sale, I suppose a 1-2% response would justify doing it, but I don't. 

Yes there has been an increase, no I do not email new listings, price reduction or the like.

I do not do it myself. I get tons of them. -Kasey

Let see.....hmmmm,

Who represents 90% of all buyers? That is a hard one to ignore.

Do MLS provide the ability to REVERSE prospect to agent with buyer clients with established criteria? Your own associon very likely is the inspiration behind such behavior in an effort to establish THEIR relevance.

How many agents depend on their client to find the house they want to see on THE DARKSIDE before doing anything?  To help these lazy agents, a proactive agent may want to broadcast their special listing.

And, with the high skill levels of experienced agents, could one not assume such agents know how to screen their email?

Finally, would a message to the offending agent, stating "If I am compelled to put you in my BLOCK/Spam/direct to trash list, be aware I will not see the offer you may email to me at some future date. Is this the outcome you want for your clients?"  (of course if sent via a 3rd party or from your MLS the offending agent is not exposed to this risk.)

I don't mind seeing what other agents are doing so I can be sure my process is noticeable. The real shame of it is many of these are services to which the agent subscribes and other agents become victim to their pursuit of shiny things. Much like Mail Chimp, such services should/will be intercepted by many ISPs and filters.

PS: When I have perpetrated the very action you mention there was a very substantial, very MEASURABLE beneficial outcome directly related to a RESPONSE from the recipient, not views, not impressions., not even read but a RESPONSE. And that is the outome all marketers want.

Fred Griffin, I'm getting these emails daily, drives me nuts, don't open them. They're also all over the state of FL, not just my area. 

It is SPAM.  I get emails from agents sharing their listing on lake Timbuktu.

I agree - they are annoying and clogging up my inbox. I know how to find what I need.

I guess some agents think their listing is more special than the hundreds or thousands of others available.  Just thank the good Lord not everyone does it.  That would be a mess. 

It is like junk mail from the USPS. Some of it may find its way to an interested party. Most will go in the recycling bin or, in your example, delete button.

I don't think that's effective... I watch for new listings daily and have my clients on a drip campaign to receive new lisitngs that match the criteria they want in a home.  It annoys me when I get these, especially when its a listing that's  30-40 miles away from me ????  I usually hit the "unsuscribe" button.

Oh, yes! It's like they think we don't know how to use the MLS, isn't it?! 

Fred Griffin - aren't we all tired of this?

I get lots of MLS flyers with all the above. I just unsubscribe and then delete.

I like to think of it as reconnaissance. If they are willing to show their hand of marketing and allow me how to better beat them, then let the emails flow and the heads roll.

This is one of my major pet peeves.  I sweart, there are some agents that spam multiple times a day and if I ever got an offer from them, they would move to the bottom of the stack if there was something equal to their offer.  I HATE THIS STUFF.

Having built one of the first email marketing companies in the country, and having been involved in lobbying efforts when the CAN-SPAM act was enacted, I can tell you that these mailings violate the law.  I see agents violating this every day (I also see them violating the Do not call registry).  One day the FTC is going to clamp down.  

I also say it is not very effective.  We have one service here that will email all the agents in the area, and they always are automatically filtered to junk.  Since I did not flag them, it is because the IP address they are sending from is probably blacklisted.  If these agents are sending it through their own server, they stand a chance of all of their email ending up in junk, even when they are mailing to a client.  Not a risk worth taking IMHO.

I don't do this because I don't like getting unsolicited emails filling up my inbox...

I report them as spam and then their emails go to spam next time.  And yes that has landed a few offers in spam so they better call me if they send an offer.  I ask politely once for them to stop before I spam mark them. 

I have been sending out a monthly email for about fifteen years.  The timing is important but since I send out about 2,000 when it is time to send them it looks like span to yahoo or perhaps even gmail.  Email is not as affective as it once was and even though there's an opt out option they get flagged.  Yahoo is the worst as they don't even reach the spam folder.

I will email a listing to a select few I know may have a buyer. Sometimes zero and sometimes up to five. Never any mass emails! They tend to bother me!

I always opt out.  If I had a buyer for their home, I would be showing it.   I think it is spam, we get enough emails daily.

It's spam. Our MLS discourages it and sends out periodic reminders to agents to stop. I just unsubsctibe when I get those.

It's spam unless they allow us to be removed from their email list.

Joe Pryor nailed this one!

I do to those i feel may know of someone in the price range

No.