What happens when the so-called forms of "alternative media" become the mainstream? Real Estate Agents are about to find out. After years of growth since 2001, the total amount of money spent on real estate print advertisement fell in the past year according to a study by Borrell Associates. Why? Buyers are using new technologies and interacting with Realtors in new ways.

In the coming years, real estate agents will need to adapt their marketing strategies or risk becoming an anachronism in a digital world. The old mediums of the past are giving way to two new ways of reaching buyers: the Internet and the mobile platform. There have been countless articles written about the benefits of marketing online; we're not going to explore that here. Mobile marketing has received less attention, but the importance - and benefit - to Realtors is just as real.

In this three part series, we're going to explore the world of mobile marketing as it relates to real estate agents. This article - Part I - will take a look at how the mobile market is poised to explode. Part II will take a look at the current mobile strategies real estate agents are using and their effectiveness. Part III will try and predict where the technology is headed.

Lately there has been tons of hype in the mobile market in United States. With the iPhone, 3G networks and the coming release of the Blackberry Bold, it seems like we're leading the world in mobile innovation. In reality, this buzz masks the fact that the United States trails the world in mobile use. From Europe to Asia, the mobile platform has (generally) matured much further. And all signs point that it's only a matter of time before the extraordinary growth abroad trickles down to the United States - both in terms of uses and technology.

Two recent reports, one by Limbo - a mobile marketing tracking group - and the other by Nielsen Mobile shed the following light on mobile growth worldwide:

• There are currently 262 million cell phone users in the United States
• Of those, 55 percent actively use text messaging. In Britain, 93 percent use text messaging. In India, 94 percent.
• The number of text message users in the U.S. grows by several percentage points each quarter.
• In the U.S., just 37 percent of users recall seeing a mobile advertisement on their phone, versus 51 percent in the UK and 85 percent in India
• In the U.S., 60 percent of mobile users between the ages of 18-24 recall seeing a mobile advertisement. This is an increase of nearly 10 percent over the past six months.
• As of May 2008, there were 40 million active users of the mobile Internet in the U.S.

What sort of takeaways can you get from these statistics?

• There is a huge untapped market in the United States. With 262 million active cell phone users, the potential market is quite big. However, the U.S. isn't fully using the mobile technology at their disposal quite yet. The number of users actively text messaging grows each quarter, as does the number of mobile Internet users. There's every indication that our usage will catch up with Britain and Asia - it just has taken a bit longer.
• Mobile marketing is a great way of reaching a younger audience. Not only are younger demographics more likely to use rich mobile technologies, they also encounter more advertisements (or at least remember them better).
• The Mobile Internet is maturing, and will continue to. According to Nielsen Mobile, the U.S. actually is one of the largest mobile Internet market in the world. While just 15.6 percent of users use the mobile Internet, that still is more than 40 million people. And the number continues to grow as new technology like the iPhone makes mobile Internet browsing easier.

How fast will the marketing component mature? The U.K. and Europe saw nearly exponential growth once their subscribers started using more and more mobile technology, and as the U.S. market grows, experts predict we'll see the same. This from Brandweek:

"Forrester Research forecasts that mobile-marketing spending in the U.S. will surge from the $270 million it stands at now to $405 million in 2009. Then it all goes exponential, doubling every year through 2012, at which point the Cambridge, Mass.-based research firm predicts mobile marketing will be worth $2.8 billion."

So how can you as a real estate agent tap into this huge market and make a difference in your bottom line? What technologies are at your disposal? Find out more in parts II and III, coming soon.

SPS recently announced SPS Mobile Marketer which offers Agents an automated and FREE way to engage mobile consumers with Instant Text Property Flyers, Mobile Web sites and Text Lead Alerts. For more information, go to http://singlepropertysites.com/mobile-features.shtml

Over the last few months we have really worked had to pack as much value and marketing services into our system as possible. Here is a summary of the May 2008 Newsletter.

NEW: Manage Photos more easily with our new MANAGE PHOTOS system. FAST-FOTO already makes uploading multiple large images a breeze. Our new Version 2.0 brings an improved way to do this with a single MANAGE PHOTOS page for uploading all images, a 'drag-and-drop' to re-sequence and also you can choose any image to be the home page photo. You will save hours compared to other systems!

NEW: PDF Print Flyers saves you time and money. Sites are now presented with a selection of auto-generated print-quality PDF flyers. We will be adding to this selection soon.

NEW: Listings sent to Zillow® for enhanced exposure. Checkout the 'Feeds and Promotion' services for your listings and you'll see Zillow is now included.

NEW: Support for VIDEO. We have made it easy to embed VIDEO in your listing site in a variety of ways. See the VIDEO link option in EDIT/PROMOTE for your listing.

NEW: More photos on Home Page for a more compelling presentation. You can now choose to display a row of thumbnail photos on your home page. This option is set in the new MANAGE PHOTOS page in the OPTIONS tab.

NEW: Support for REALPING.We have made it easy to engage with porspective clients with support for RealPing "Click to Call" Service in your listing site. Just provide your REALPING ID in your Profile (see Your Account/ Profile).

NEW: More Widgets for more automated marketing. We have added new 'single property' widgets to the widget page. Click on the WIDGET icon on the MANAGE SITES page to create any widgets. Widgets allow you automatically present your listing data (for sale, solds etc) to any other website in a specific way - for example, a scrolling list of your 'For Sales' etc.

NEW: 18 inch wide sign riders. We now supply sign riders in 24 and 18 inch wide - all in our high-quality, flexible plastic with a choice of colored lettering and holes pre-drilled (these are not coro-board!)

NEW: Enhanced Support and Control for Offices and Teams, or anyone with Lots of Listings. A new MANAGE SITES page makes it easy to manage hundreds of listings and multiple agents. New 'Search' and 'Filter' fields give you quick access to your listings.

NEW: New Pricing. The more you use our service, the lower the price. Subscription levels now extend to 200, or 300 or even 400 listings which pushes the price-per-listing to around $1 per listing per month. Our unlimited service is available for an office, for $400 per month.

NEW: Centralized Statistics. A new centralized Statistics page gives you all the intelligence you need for all your sites - all in one page. This is the new STATISTICS icon on the MANAGE SITES page.

Click here for the full May 2008 newsletter.

OK, I have to admit I am becoming a convert to posting video and rich media on the web!. Hmm.. I wonder where this is going to take SPS!

How to use Single Property Sites to market your listings

Single Property Sites new Widgets allow you to present your listing data everywhere - and we mean everywhere!

To find out more, go to http://singlepropertysites.com/widgets.shtml

It's now easy to post an elegant looking virtual flyer of your live property site to craigslist and other sites. Simply copy and paste the code we give you in the 'craigslist' tab of the 'Promote Listing' area.

Harness the marketing power of craislist - once your Single Property Sites property website has been created, you can easily post your website virtual flyer. One of the most widely known and viewed online communities, Craigslist allows you to post ads for FREE!

No coding or html experience is needed if you utilize our website Promtion Services. To learn more about these services, or to sign up for your own Single Property Sites go to
http:www.SinglePropertySites.com