Implementing RSS as a Marketing Tool: Delivering Content to Drive Leads
By Megan Ouellet, Director of Marketing for Listrak
January 31, 2007
Even though RSS has been around since the mid 1990s, its potential as an essential marketing tool is just beginning to be realized. Marketing directors, especially those that are focused on using email marketing to reach their intended audiences, need to incorporate RSS as an efficient and cost effective alternative to traditional marketing methods.
The web-based nature of RSS goes hand-in-hand with email marketing. Marketers can use this technology to drive more customers to their websites, update their customers on corporate or industry news, and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. All of this translates into additional business and increased ROI.
Furthermore, RSS offers time-saving benefits to marketing directors. For example, new content may be added to corporate websites dynamically and information may be shared simultaneously with customers, shareholders, and the media. RSS also guarantees delivery of the content because it pushes the information to users that subscribed to the feed. Email marketers no longer have to worry about their messages accidentally being filtered or reported as spam.
Best of all, many email marketing solutions, such as Listrak, are pre-integrating this technology with their software. That means that marketing directors can add the feeds and links themselves without having to rely on their IT departments.
With so much growth potential, more and more companies are implementing RSS into their marketing plans. However, it is important to remember that using RSS as a marketing tool is in its infancy. Savvy marketers will put plans in place now that will evolve as user acceptance grows.
What is RSS?
RSS is a supplemental communication method that allows marketers to create keyword-rich content and deliver it directly to their target audience. RSS feeds are delivered instantly to users’ desktops, mobile devices, or online landing pages set up by the users. The feeds contain a link to the sender’s website so it helps drive online business.
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Simply put, RSS streamlines the way information is published and delivered to users. RSS allows users to subscribe to information that they are interested in receiving. As marketers publish new content to RSS feeds, it is pushed directly to subscribers through RSS aggregators, such as Google, Yahoo, or NewsGator.
Users find value in RSS due to the fact that they subscribe simply by pushing a button. Because all of the information is pushed to them directly, subscribers don’t have to visit multiple sites to retrieve the information piecemeal. Also, subscribers avoid sending personal contact information because feeds aren’t sent to their email inboxes.
This is good news for both subscribers and marketers. Subscribers can rest assured that their contact information isn’t being sold to or captured by spammers while marketers don’t have to worry about privacy policies, subscribe/unsubscribe links, or deliverability issues that go along with email marketing.
