It’s inevitable with any new form of marketing that after awhile U.S. laws and regulations will be established both to protect consumers and limit what exactly constitutes an acceptable message. It had happened first with print, then voice, then fax, then email and now the cycle continues with mobile messaging. In the past few months, the most of the major carriers have either implemented or tightened their restrictions on mobile marketing and this trend shows no signs of abating any time soon.

In one sense, these new requirements actually point to a rapidly maturing mobile marketing industry. The last couple of years were essentially the testing and proving grounds for text messaging, mobile content and most recently mobile search. Companies were largely in an experimental mode, trying out various combinations of mobile campaigns to see what worked and what didn’t. Now, in 2008, these companies have largely settled on the types of mobile initiatives they want to implement and are starting to launch such programs in earnest.

(more…)

Earlier this month, Judge James B. Zagel became part of the email marketing industry’s history with his ruling on the landmark e360 Prospect vs. Comcast case. In his decision, Zagel dismissed all of e360’s claims outright, while keeping in play Comcast’s countersuit against the company. Ouch.

To me, the most fascinating of e360’s four charges was that by Comcast blocking their emails from being received by its subscribers, the ISP was essentially in violation of the First Amendment and the right to free speech. Interestingly enough, the judge agreed that “the idea of blocking seems at odds in some way with free speech protection, even though there are limits imposed on the free speech protection of commercial speech, which is, I infer, the principal, if not the only, business of e360.”

(more…)

In Part 1: Real Estate Mobile Marketing, we discussed how mobile marketing can be a tremendous asset for realtors/agencies in their listing strategy by taking advantage of the time-sensitive nature and accessibility of cell phones. Now, let’s talk about how mobile marketing can help with on-property marketing efforts.

As noted, the recent softening of the real estate market has led once hot areas to grow cold, while competition continues to grow. Therefore, any sort of competitive edge is critical for realtors and agencies to help get through these tough times.

Here are just a few examples of how mobile marketing can augment or even replace your current real estate listing marketing practices.

(more…)

It’s not exactly a fun time right now for the average real estate agent/firm. The sub prime fiasco mixed with a declining new house purchases has left the industry in a state of major change. Like any sector facing a tough market, agencies are making cuts to help survive, including, inevitably the marketing budget.

However, while cost-cutting measures like this can help in the short term, it’s more advisable to consolidate efforts to those that are both economical and effective. This is where mobile marketing can help.

At the very beginning of my career in the early 90s, I helped author a national housing survey for the Urban Land Institute. In the report, we concluded that the housing market, based on lot inventory levels I painstakingly had to research, was about to go very soft, especially in California. We recommended that more effort be placed on marketing and positioning of existing properties vs. future inventory.

This was a pretty shocking prediction as at the time California real estate agents basically did almost no marketing because demand was incredibly tight. Our findings were basically dismissed as overly pessimistic but as it turned out we were actually optimistic.

(more…)