RSS Marketing Articles

Does RSS work with advanced marketing tactics?

by Rok Hrastnik, author of "Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS"

Comment: this article was first written in 2005 and is by now heavily outdated. So, instead of using it as a "how to" piece, rather look on it as a piece of internet history. This is how we saw RSS marketing more than 6 years ago!

One of the marketing problems of RSS is that most marketers still do not understand this channel and hence are not aware of all of the advanced marketing capabilities available via RSS.

Let's take a look at some of the more common advanced marketing tactics, especially from the direct marketing point of view, and how they are represented with RSS.

a] Scheduled and autoresponder messages

There are already a few services and software packages on the market that allow for scheduled and autoresponder messages via RSS feeds. Once your visitor subscribes to your special RSS feed, he can receive a pre-determined set of messages in a specific time frame, determined by you. Use these messages to welcome your new reader to your RSS feed; thank your new customer after the purchase, send him additional information about the ordered product and give him the opportunity to buy an additional product at a lower price tag a couple of days later, and so on.

b] RSS metrics

RSS can in fact be tracked: track anything from the number of your subscribers, their reading habits, their reading frequency to your click-through rates and activities after clicking-through from your feed. This includes tracking which of your RSS feeds are performing better, are more interesting to your readers and drive more sales ... and the same for individual content items.

c] Message targeting

Since RSS feeds can be dynamically generated on a per-user basis, you can easily track the interests of your individual subscribers and then target marketing messages directly to them, making each message relevant to their needs and interests in order to increase your sales success.

d] Message personalization

If you generate your RSS feeds for each individual user, you can also personalize these feeds. Basic personalization includes elements such as the reader's first name, while more advanced personalization might include personalized content and product recommendations and so on.

e] Data capture

E-mail marketers have already become experts at using opt-in forms to get as much information from the prospect as possible; the prospect's name, his interests, the current products he is using, his current position in the purchase cycle and so on. RSS can be used in the same way, giving your visitors access to the RSS feed only after they've filled in a simple or complex opt-in form. This can work with e-zine subscriptions, as well as forms you require your visitors to fill in to either register on your website or download your free report or whitepaper.

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Learn how to take full marketing advantage of RSS and get all the expertise, knowledge and how-to information for implementing RSS in your marketing mix, from direct marketing, PR and online publishing to SEO, traffic generation and customer relationship management.

"Unleash" starts with the basics, but also goes beyond to advanced RSS marketing topics not covered elsewhere, such as using RSS for direct and affiliate marketing, RSS metrics, RSS promotion and SEO and even internal communications.

Click here to download the e-book now or browse this site to find out more about RSS marketing and the contents of the e-book.

Just don't forget - it was written and published so long ago, that many things have changed since. While it still has its uses, look at it first as a piece of internet history and not as a reference guide for 2011 and beyond.