RSS and MarketingThe Perfect Match

1
RSS and MarketingThe Perfect Match

• Beyond Blogs and Social Networks
• Elaine OGorman
• December 2, 2005

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RSS and Marketing

• RSS is more than a distribution technology for
  blogs and syndicated content.
• It is a channel.
• Every new channel holds promise to reach new
  audiences and to have an opportunity to stand
  outa valuable characteristic in an overcrowded
  marketplace.
• Sohow should Marketers begin to think about RSS?

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How Big is RSS?

• Yahoo estimates
• 4 of the U.S. online population reports using
  RSS
• 27 of the U.S. online population uses RSS
  without knowing it
• "Unaware RSS Users" are similar demographically
  to the average Internet user
• This suggests that RSS is not just for the
  tech-savvy few
• Jupiter estimates
• RSS usage has grown 83 yr/yr
• Outstripping the growth of even the internet
  browser in terms of adoption
• Only six percent of marketers said they were
  unaware of RSS as a marketing tool in a November
  2004
• Your competition is making plans to use this
  channel

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The RSS Ecosystem
RSS Distribution
ContentCreation
Web-based Readers
Desktop Readers
Internet
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What are the Opportunities?

• How can marketers take advantage of RSS?
• Corporate blog
• Syndicate web content
• Advertising in other peoples blogs and newsfeeds
• Other types of communications?
• Newsletters?
• Promotional content?
• Transactional content?

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What are the Obstacles?

• Adoption
• But not for long
• Immaturity
• Standards for reading and rendering still
  evolving
• Bandwidth intensive, and conservation methods not
  widely adopted
• Broadcast orientation
• Measurement
• Targeting and segmentation
• Serving individualized content

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Criteria for Success

• JupiterResearch criteria for success of an
  alternative messaging distribution solution
• Security
• Personalized and relevant
• Measurable
• Guaranteed delivery
• End user control, including permission support
• Ubiquity
• Open Technology
• RSS meets all of these requirements but two
• Personalized and relevant
• Measurable

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Individualized RSS

• Newer generation of RSS content creation and
  distribution solves these issues by changing the
  paradigm
• Separate feeds are created per subscriber
• Jupiter has dubbed this Individualized RSS or
  IRSS
• The consequences of this shift
• Measurable
• Targetable
• Personalizeable
• Gather profiles
• Connect with other data (transactional, profile,
  account history)

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Consequences of IRSS

• Corporate blogs
• Reliable measurement, what is of interest, who
  are evangelists
• Newsfeeds
• What gets read, what gets passed on, better
  monetization
• Advertising
• Targeted buys, reliable impressions
• Newsletters
• Untapped audience, wide variety of platforms
• Promotions
• No PII needed, spam-proof
• Transactional
• No deliverability issues, non-refutability,
  phish-proof