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RSS Meets the Needs of Direct Marketers

Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

Contrary to general opinion, RSS meets the needs of even
the most demanding direct marketer, actually providing most
of what e-mail marketing does, except for the strong push
factor.

Most direct marketing reasons against RSS are in fact the
result of inadequate understanding of RSS by most marketers.

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.

Good news for direct marketers is that these capabilities
are already available in many RSS publishing/marketing
solutions, available at very acceptable prices, accessible
even to the smallest companies.

------------------------------

Rok Hrastnik is the author of Unleash the Marketing &
Publishing Power of RSS, acclaimed as the best and most
comprehensive guide to RSS for marketers by leading RSS
experts. The complete guide on RSS for marketers:
http://rss.marketingstudies.net/index.html?src=sa4

More articles by Rok Hrastnik - http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Rok-Hrastnik-279/

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