RSS Marketing Articles

What is RSS and why does it matter for marketers?

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Comment: this article was first written in 2005 and is by now heavily outdated.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!

E-mail marketing and publishing, search engine marketing and optimization, business blogging, internet advertising, digital public relations, branding, e-commerce and others . all key elements of a strong marketing mix.

And yet each of these is often regarded nearly as a separate entity, being driven by different corporate roles and having its own proprietary set of internet tools.

True, there are some tools being used for multiple purposes, but never before has there been a single tool to improve, enhance and power all of them, without prejudice.

But RSS is such a tool. Misunderstood by most marketers, overlooked by many end-users, it has the potential to power the entire internet marketing mix. It is not the solution to all of our problems, but it is the one tool that can have the most profound affect on our internet marketing and business results in 2005 and beyond.

What is RSS?

RSS is a technology that has the potential of overcoming many of the internet marketing challenges we are facing today and becoming a strong, if not preferred, content delivery vehicle.

The simple RSS explanation from the marketing point of view is that RSS is a simple to use "tool" that allows marketers to easily, inexpensively and quickly get their content delivered to their customers, prospects, business partners, the media, employees and practically everyone else you can imagine.

In addition, RSS content can be delivered to other websites; such as search engines, specialized RSS directories, special content aggregation sites and other site types. All of this using just one technology .

What are RSS Feeds?

RSS content is delivered through RSS feeds --- simple files structured in a specific way [xml].

These files include some basic information about the RSS feed (such as RSS feed title, logo, description, URL etc.) and the actual content in the form of individual content items. These content items are individual stories or articles (usually just descriptions of articles actually published on the internet publisher's web site), presented in a linear list.

The RSS business opportunities range from general marketing communications, direct marketing, PR, advertising, customer relationship management, online publishing, e-commerce to internal enterprise communications and internal knowledge management.

The greatest appeal to RSS is that it's really an all-encompassing marketing/publishing/communications channel, which can be used to power most of your online marketing activities.

RSS Readers/Aggregators

In order to read your RSS content and subscribe to it, end-users need an RSS aggregator.

RSS aggregators are special tools that can take an RSS feed and display it to the end-user. They come in many different forms and flavors, but the most popular are web-based aggregator, such as MyYahoo!, and desktop readers.

While this may seem like a negative side, it actually enables you to communicate even with some of the largest user groups on the internet, such as the entire user-base of MyYahoo!, who might not even care what RSS is, but they will subscribe to your feeds via the simple service provided by MyYahoo! This is not to say that RSS usage is limited only to these people, but it does show that marketers can no longer ignore RSS ... or be overtaken by their competitors.

After getting an RSS aggregator or registering at a web-based RSS aggregator web service, the user needs to proactively add the link to your RSS feed in to the aggregator to view your content. The ultimate permission marketing model.

Every time you update your RSS feed by adding new content items to the RSS file, the user is notified of that through his RSS aggregator, making the content immediately available to him, without it having to face any SPAM filters and other barricades on the way.

Why RSS Matters for Marketers? The "Right Now" Side of the Story ...

What does RSS matter for marketers right now? Here are just some of the top benefits you'll get from using RSS as part of your marketing mix ...

• A recent study by Nooked shows that 87% of key influencers are using RSS to keep up with news and other developments on the internet. These include journalists, analysts and bloggers. Without RSS, reaching these people is becoming increasingly harder.
  
  
• A Nielsen/NetRatings study discovered that RSS users visit their favorite sites more often than non-users, thus showing that by providing your visitors with RSS feeds and explaining to them what RSS is, you will be increasing their loyalty to your websites and your business, and at the same time expanding the number of opportunities you have to make a sale to them or deepen the relationship with them.
  
  
• According to Jupiter Research, RSS users are a highly desirable demographic, with annual incomes over $75,000, and are between the ages of 35 and 44. RSS will make it easier for you to reach these people and market to them.
  
  
• RSS will get all of your online content actually delivered, without you having to worry about spam filters and spam accusations and without you having to worry about competing for the consumer's attention with hundreds of unwanted e-mail messages in the inbox.
  
  
• RSS will also get your content published on other sites, generating more visitors, credibility and search engine juice for your content, website and business.
  
  
• RSS will help you increase the traffic to your site and your natural search engine rankings.
  
  
• Using RSS, you will be able to generate more subscriptions, especially considering the fact that many online users now prefer to receive content via RSS than e-mail. Lockergnome.com, one of the most popular tech sites on the Web today, used to distribute more than 400.000 e-mail newsletters weekly. Today, they have 5 times more RSS subscribers than e-mail subscribers.
  
  
• RSS communications are more effective: Click-through rates show us how people interact with our content. Multiple sources are reporting that RSS click-through rates are actually above those reported with e-mail, proving that RSS in fact does work for marketers. CustomReader, a provider of a branded RSS aggregators, is reporting that the average CTR from feed to site is 23% [3,500 users; 48 hour period]. SimpleFeed, a provider of high-end RSS marketing corporate solutions is seeing an average 6.8% CTR from individual content item in a feed to the site [10,000 users; 30 day period]. Pheedo, the RSS advertising network, is seeing CTRs range from 7% to 11%, under a longer period of observation.
  
  
• RSS can be free to implement, without any cost to you whatsoever.

Why RSS Matters for Marketers? Full Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! support ...

Implementing RSS is not only about the direct benefits, but also about what the future holds for companies that do not hurry and start marketing with RSS ...

Microsoft Shows Full Support for RSS
Microsoft has recently announced full support for RSS in the next version of their Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Outlook and their entire new operating system, Windows Vista. This means that after these are launched, RSS usage will grow explosively and end-users will start demanding RSS content from marketers and publishers. If you are not ready by then and if you have not implemented RSS best practices, your competitors will get the upper hand. It's not only about being among the leaders right now, but also about getting all the experience you need to bring you to the top of RSS marketing once most of the world starts using RSS.

Google AdSense Ads in RSS Feeds
If you are generating revenues from the Google AdSense program, you are actually losing income if you don't implement RSS. Namely, Google recently introduced AdSense ads in RSS feeds, making RSS an absolute must for the publishers that want to get the most out of this program without losing revenues. Furthermore, Google is also joining the ranks of those that are integrating RSS in their web services for end-users, for example by providing RSS search engines and web-based RSS aggregators. By not being found on Google's RSS search engine and by not allowing your target audiences to subscribe to your feeds via their personal Google interfaces, you are losing your prospects.

MyYahoo! as the Source of New Prospects
MyYahoo! has been among the first to fully integrate RSS aggregator capabilities in their personalized portal, making it easy for any of their millions of users to subscribe to any RSS feeds, without even having to know what RSS is. By not being available you are missing out on possible new and existing prospects and customers.

Do you need even more reasons to start marketing with RSS now?

Download the e-book for free!

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.