RSS may stand for “Really Simple Syndication” (among other less-descriptive things), but there's nothing simple about selling the automated Web feed processes to either Web publishers or advertisers.
It's true that only a small portion of the Web user audience — about 5% — knowingly subscribes to an RSS content feed. But the stripped-down delivery technology taps into enough current trends that its proponents are hoping there'll be a large uptick in RSS use this year. People are time-pressed, bombarded with content and growing impatient even with search that returns lots of irrelevant results along with the information they want.
In that atmosphere, users should be ready for a platform that can notify them of changes in their favorite Web content in real time. And the more accustomed users are to subscribing to Web feeds, the thinking goes, the more likely they'll be to allow trusted marketers to reach them via RSS — as long as there's enough value in it for them.
The launch of the Internet Explorer 7 browser could be one crucial tipping point that helps foster RSS. IE7, currently in beta, puts an interactive RSS feed discovery button right at the top of the browser and opens content in the “Favorites” menu, so users don't even have to set up even a simple aggregator account.
Web publishers are positioning themselves to take advantage of an easier, less geeky RSS. LendingTree.com, the online mortgage loan marketplace, went through a Web site redesign last year and as an important part of that made sure to offer its plentiful finance-related content via RSS to interested users.
“We have a large bank of content on credit, home loans, home buying and other topics, and we're adding to it continually,” says Bridget Smith, LendingTree's senior education marketing manager. “So we asked to have RSS included as part of our new content-management system.”
While the content could be sent via e-mail or newsletter, Smith says, those channels involve some delivery uncertainty, especially since LendingTree's mailing list includes many work addresses, where spam filtering may be more rigorous.
“RSS is more consumer-friendly, if they subscribe to the feed and have complete control over unsubscribing,” she says. “And we're actually able to segment the subscriber population more effectively because they explicitly sign up for separate RSS feeds. LendingTree.com currently offers 25 or 30 different feeds on home loans, car and home buying, credit practices and other general informational topics.
“We try to be ahead of the curve in terms of content distribution,” says Rob Lenderman, LendingTree's SEO architect. “We've been testing with the new browsers and found they totally work with our changes. That should help move people toward agreeing to being pushed the data they want, rather than having to go pull the data or to sign up for e-mail, with all the concerns about spam.”
And it's this segmentation of content feed that will in turn allow marketers to target RSS users. “Right now almost everyone offers one feed on their site, and we all get the same one,” says Bill Flitter, founder and marketing vice president of RSS network and solution provider Pheedo. “In the next phase, I start sub-categorizing my content or add some unique identifiers. This will be a natural progression for RSS.”
That segmentation is beginning to take hold at RSS' advertising end. In October, Pheedo rolled out a geotargeting capability on its RSS ad network. Using IP address mapping, Pheedo can let marketers target specific geographic areas in the United States, the United Kingdom and some 200 other countries.
Net Communities Ltd. specializes in selling online advertising space in the United Kingdom. “We partnered with Pheedo because the technology industry has taken very quickly to RSS,” says Andy Evans, founder and managing director.
So far, Pheedo and Net Communities have collaborated on test campaigns focused on the United Kingdom alone, both for lead generation and to drive traffic to Web sites. But when they have a few case studies under their belt, “we'll be rolling out into Europe as well, where possible,” Evans says.
Direct marketers who work with affiliate networks should be rooting for RSS to take off, Flitter says, because it will get their product content out faster and with less effort. “From a cataloger perspective, if I can syndicate a feed out to affiliate sites, then anytime I update my catalog the data is automatically updated on those pages. I don't have to send them new creative every time, and I can play with prices and offers to see what's best at driving visitors back to my site.”
When will RSS feeds offer those capabilities? “Talk to me later in '07,” Flitter laughs.
Are You Web 2?
Quick — what does “Web 2.0” mean to you?
If you're not sure, join the club. A survey of 400-plus marketing executives conducted in early November by Zoomerang, a division of market research firm MarketTools that makes online survey software, found that 79% of those polled were unfamiliar with the phrase or couldn't give it an effective definition.
(FYI, Zoomerang was looking for some reference to Web sites that let users not only control their data but share info and add content and capabilities, increasing the overall value of the sites to both users and targeted marketers.)
The good news is that of those who could define what makes a site Web 2.0, a third are actually putting its capabilities into action, mostly in social networking, video- and photo-sharing features, blogging and other collaborative tools. And 70% of that subset using Web 2.0 tools and tactics say they're paying off.
The study indicates that Web 2.0 rollout is still in its early phase but positioned for greater growth, says Zoomerang general manager Dana Meade. “Given the success reported by vanguard users, we expect to see a sharp increase in the use of second-generation Web tools and techniques by marketers across a wide array of industries.”
Asked why they were deploying Web 2.0 strategies, two-thirds of respondents pointed either to brand building on the Web or to a desire to tap into the fund of innovation already resident among their Web users.
Some of the Web 2.0 definitions offered by respondents were incomplete or a bit wide of the mark. They included “Companies that survived the dot-com crash and are now thriving” (in some cases, yes); “Internet on a cell phone” (a potential Web 2.0 environment, but not a requirement); and “Big Brother is watching” (a real concern, as greater user involvement with the Internet generally requires greater user disclosure).
— BQ
