RSS Marketing Articles

What is RSS marketing and the business case for RSS?

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Comment: this article was first written in 2005 and is by now heavily outdated.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

RSS is getting much coverage lately, but very little is being said about the key aspects of RSS marketing.

In reality, RSS is such a versitile marketing tool that is encompasses practically all marketing functions and can be used for a variety of marketing purposes.

In this article, we will first take a look at the business case for RSS, demonstrating what RSS marketing consists of, and then take a look at the steps involved in RSS marketing.

The Business Case for RSS

What can RSS marketing do for you and what does it include? The Business Case for RSS model will show you exactly that ...

1] RSS as a content delivery channel for communicating with subscribers, customers, prospects and partners gets your content delivered and provides you with multiple new content delivery & business development opportunities. RSS gets all content delivered, as opposed to e-mail, which is currently burdened by spam, phishing and many other troubles.

2] RSS as a promotional/visibility tool increases your traffic by improving your search engine rankings, generating traffic from new RSS specific sites and getting your content published on other sites. Each of these activities brings new visitors to your site, which are now ready to be converted in to new subscribers with which you can communicate (via RSS and/or e-mail) on the long-term. In addition, the improved visibility enforces your brand and generates more credibility for your company.

3] Content delivery to end-users and content syndication together form the basis of RSS conversations, which together work to spread your reach throughout the internet and serve as a strong PR platform.

4] Once you have access to more prospective subscribers, to which you want to deliver content via RSS, you can provide them with your own branded RSS aggregator to make the switch to RSS easier for them, as well as to establish a constant connection with them, enforce your brand and develop brand experience. Your branded aggregator also serves as a sales platform for your own products and an advertising platform to generate advertising income.

5] As a publisher, your goal is to better satisfy the needs of your visitors, establish yourself as a key content source in your industry and make your visitors come back more often. Providing access to additional information is one of the elements to make this possible. Use RSS to syndicate content from other websites and, as an upgrade, to target their most focused content needs, create RSS radars for your key phrases.

6] All of the above will create advertising venue and create a new source of income.

7] In addition, using RSS advertising as an advertiser yourself you can increase the reach of all of the above activities.

The Steps of RSS Marketing

1. Plan Your RSS Feeds
Planning your RSS feeds might be the most important thing you do about RSS. You most certainly need an RSS feed for your e-zine, your news section, your articles etc. But how you will package these, and what others you might want to offer, is much more complex than we can cover in this space. You might also want to do follow-up (autoresponder) RSS feeds, feeds for your affiliates, feeds for your employees or business partners, feeds for the media, and so on.

2. Create a List of RSS Marketing/Publishing Requirements
Then create a list of requirements for the RSS marketing/publishing solution you will be getting to publish your feeds. The list should answer the key questions needed to determine what tools you'll select for your RSS marketing activities.

3. Choose an RSS Publishing Tool and Create Your First Feed
After you've prepared a list of requirements you can start searching for the appropriate tool. These come in a few general categories, such as desktop feed generation tools, hosted online RSS publishing solutions, advanced RSS marketing solutions and some other options. Each has a distinct set of advantages and trade-offs.

4. Promote Your RSS Feeds through Your Own Channels
Promote your RSS feeds to your audiences in order to generate subscriptions. This includes everything from explaining RSS appropriately, using the right copy, using the most appropriate RSS subscriptions mechanisms and on-site promotional tactics.

5. Promote Your RSS Feeds through External Channels
Promoting your feeds through external channels to generate maximum exposure for your business includes promotional strategies, keyword tactics, feed submissions, advertsing and RSS specific promotional approaches.

6. Other Key Activities

• Measure and optimize your feeds
• Syndicate your feed content to other web media
• Display third-party RSS feeds on your site

These are of course only the basics as there is more to master if you want to take maximum advantage of RSS. On the other hand you can also decide to take the easy route and only implement part of what RSS has to offer, just to test it out before investing more time.

Either way, "Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS" will lead you through all the steps and help you with all aspects of RSS marketing.

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.