DIGITAL MARKETING
RSS -- on the horizon and rising Part II
06-02-2006
by denise cox
In her previous article denise cox of Newsweaver covered what RSS is, comparing and contrasting this new communication channel to e-mail. Now she adds some ideas for using your content through RSS feeds - right alongside e-mail marketing.
If you missed the previous article, you can read it here.
Different content for E-mail and RSS marketing?
Just as with e-mail, you are using RSS to provide updates and information about your company, your products and/or your services. An RSS feed delivers a series of discrete 'news' items to its subscribers. Each item generally consists of a title, some descriptive text (around 50 -- 150 words), sometimes with an image, and a link to a web page for more information.
If your content makes sense in the feed format, then you should consider offering it up to potential subscribers. Though pickup on RSS is still very low -- it is clear that it is on the horizon and rising. For example, it's set to receive significant support in Microsoft's next operating system release, Windows Vista. Currently the majority of those signing up to feeds are demographically desirable to marketers, and are technically savvy and info-centric. They include journalists and writers who are using this pull technology to gather information across the internet, in turn making their job easier.
You can see how ENN encourages its readers to use RSS here.
Content ideas for RSS feeds:
Breaking News -- This is currently the most prevalent use of feeds and includes the majority of the major news outlets, as well as special interest news websites. It is also used by bloggers to notify subscribers each time they publish a new comment on their blog.
Time sensitive items -- This can include coupons, travel offers, property listings and book releases. The items don't have to be time sensitive, just relevant and timely - so the feeds could be as diverse as recipes to product reviews.
Company information and press releases -- As I've mentioned, many of the early adopters of RSS are journalists and writers who are researching and/or want to be kept up to date without having to trawl through the internet. Some RSS readers such as Newsgator allow users to set up persistent searches to monitor keywords, such as your company name and brand. This is an excellent opportunity for your company to offer press releases, corporate communications, white papers or investor relation information through feeds to connect with this targeted audience. The additional benefit of feeds is they can help with your search engine visibility.
Notifications -- One way to handle your e-mail newsletters is to publish a feed that lets subscribers know that a new edition of your publication is available online. This means, rather than publishing all the elements of your newsletter separately through RSS, you retain control of the branding, navigation and layout of it in HTML. Another feed option is to publish articles and elements of your newsletter as they are signed off. This option really depends on the nature of your content, and whether individual items can stand alone.
Hey, I can already do all of that with e-mail!
Yes, you might have noticed as you scanned through these ideas that the very same content you are sending through e-mail can be suitable for RSS feeds. Relevant content is relevant no matter what channel it is sent through. What's most important is that you give the potential subscriber the choice so that they select how they hear from you. On the upside, RSS can help avoid the worst rigours of anti-spam technology and ensure the subscriber definitely gets the message.
E-mail best practice also applies to RSS
Just as with e-mail your feeds must be well presented, well timed and relevant. Just as with e-mail, if you abuse the frequency, you'll lose them. Keep feeds short and informative -- and watch the frequency.
Since subscribers can't reply to RSS, it's important to have strong calls to action and contact points, such as an e-mail address for direct feedback.
Make all your channels available to potential subscribers in your feeds. Someone may decide they would rather get e-mail, or both.
It will be fascinating to see how RSS evolves. It may well be that different content elements gravitate toward one channel over another - similar to e-mail and direct mail. Time will tell.
More about this topic
Rok Hrastnik's Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS eBook
MarketingSherpa's RSS in Reality: Not a Replacement for Email - Metrics & Best Practices
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