Let's face it, all any direct marketer wants is to get messages out to people who will find them most relevant. E-mail is one way to reach an audience, provided you can sidestep spam filters and other gatekeepers.
With RSS (Really Simple Syndication), readers can filter content directly to their desktops. Direct recently talked about how DMers can benefit from using RSS feeds with Rok Hrastnik, international Internet director of Ljubljana, Slovenia-based Studio Moderna Group, which operates in the United States and 19 Central and Eastern European markets.
A site like Amazon, for example, could use RSS to offer information about a product such as a tablet PC, linking to video demos on YouTube, user reviews on Epinions and expert reviews on ZDNet. But, Hrastnik stresses, keep the customer's needs front of mind.
“RSS needs to be more relevant than e-mail,” he says. “You can unsubscribe in the blink of an eye.”
DIRECT: Why do you think RSS has the potential to be such as powerful marketing tool?
HRASTNIK: Obviously, RSS is an incredible content-delivery channel with a few distinct advantages over e-mail. It's 100% opt-in, and delivery is guaranteed because your content won't get lost in spam filters. Plus, subscribers can unsubscribe at any time with just a few clicks, which actually isn't a bad thing. It means savvy consumers will remove the subscriptions that aren't relevant to them, making them pay more attention to you…if you're relevant. The problem is that many marketers completely ignore all the other benefits of RSS feeds. You can easily use RSS to conduct online business intelligence and market research, or generate online traffic using RSS for search engine optimization. It also provides a great opportunity to enrich your Web site with relevant third-party content. There's so much potential, but little of it is being used.
DIRECT: What major uses of RSS are DMers missing out on?
HRASTNIK: The key issue is that marketers are looking at RSS as a new, simplistic channel, and not understanding all the DM implications, like lead generation, e-commerce, customer relationship management, affiliate marketing and transactional messaging. RSS can be used for all of these and much more. But it's usually not.
DIRECT: What are RSS's challenges, and how should marketers deal with them?
HRASTNIK: They should stop thinking of RSS as something entirely new and start implementing the tested DM tactics that have worked so well in e-mail and direct mail. You need to make sure that your content is relevant for the subscriber and makes him want to come back for more. Give the reader concrete benefits for subscribing to your feed. Saying ‘This is my news, please subscribe’ just won't cut it. Increase your conversion rate by adding bribes, such as a free white paper, additional content access or coupons. And make sure you're using targeting and personalization, just as you would with an e-mail marketing program. This ultimately will help you analyze subscriber behavior and optimize your RSS strategy.
DIRECT: What types of calls to action work best in RSS?
HRASTNIK: This is a difficult question since RSS can be used to deliver any type of content, from how-to articles, blog updates, forum updates and corporate news to product items, offers, coupons and so on. Essentially, you can deliver anything via RSS, and each type of content will have a different call to action that will work best for it.
DIRECT: How do you see clients judging the ROI of their RSS initiatives?
HRASTNIK: The research we've done shows that RSS initiatives yield a positive ROI, and anecdotal evidence supports this. The biggest issue is that few marketers are measuring anything at all with RSS. We're only just getting into the ‘counting clicks’ phase, and most marketers are still far from measuring conversions, analyzing clickstreams or calculating cost per order. The funny thing is, RSS lets you do all this and more. You just need to start doing it.
