Marketing with RSS

Is RSS changing the way marketers reach target audiences? It appears so.

RSS allows every visitor to subscribe and receive updates on items that interest them. For marketing professionals, that means providing information to potential customers without knowing a thing about them including what it is about your business that interests them - a definite change in target marketing based on consumer research.

As Greg Sterling posted on MarketingShift, "Eventually RSS will be entirely mainstream, driven by consumer usage of newsreaders and other personalization tools (e.g., Firefox, MyYahoo, MyMSN). Content providers and marketers will need a simple way to adopt RSS distribution to connect with those users. Indeed, for marketers, the potential and promise of RSS is the elusive goal of one-to-one marketing."

MarketingShift's interview with Marc Clarson, CEO of SimpleFeed, provides good insight on the complexities of implementing RSS feeds for marketing and information on the company for those looking to outsource.

Two key points to note:

• There is a need for personalization (multiple feeds) and it's hard to do. Too many can be overwhelming to viewers and an in house staff.
• Marketers still want information on subscribers making seamless integration of RSS with client databases and distinct information on users and content interests desirable.

I can honestly say I recently proposed an RSS feed to my employer and it's something our IT department is investigating.

Filed In: RSS, SimpleFeed, MarketingShift, Marketing, Subscribers, Personalization, FireFox, MyYahoo, MyMSN, Target, Audiences, Customers, Consumer, Research