RSS: A Medium for Marketers
June 20th, 2004I’ve got some back-log in my drafts folder and just had some time to start posting some of the articles/resources that I have been storing. This article, RSS: A Medium for Marketers, from Jeanne Jennings, was an interesting read. She doesn’t mention web-based RSS readers (Bloglines, etc), which is strange, because they tend to be more popular these days (I have no empirical evidence to back up this claim, I’m going on my knowledge and conversations with others). I liked the piece because it talked about marketing, very high on my list of important topics these days. Here’s what she has to say about challenges for marketers:
“To get people to opt in to your marketing messages, must-read content is essential. It has to be something the reader wants to receive. Promising discounts and special promotions may work in some instances (consumer packaged goods and other frequent or repeat purchase items come to mind); in other cases you’ll need more compelling messages to motivate readers to receive your RSS feed. E-mail newsletters are a natural.”
“Once you’ve got great content to offer your prospects and clients, how do you let them know about it? That’s the second obstacle. If you have opt-in permission to e-mail them, this should be your first line of communication about RSS. You’ll want to explain a little about RSS and the benefits of using it. Certainly, you’ll want to give them everything they need to get started: links to RSS readers, a link to add your feed once they have the reader, and an e-mail address or a phone number for support in getting it all set up.”
Thinking about libraries, RSS, and marketing syndication, I found the first paragraph intriguing. We have always said that weblogs need to be putting out good content in order to draw a readership. Libraries need to be putting out good content in their weblogs before even thinking about getting patrons to use their feed. I think that RSS is still in its infancy in this regard and need to focus more on getting out useful content. After that, we can work on RSS. Although it’s getting more press, RSS is still for the “geeky” and will be for some time. Let’s concentrate on good quality content while pushing RSS in the background. It’ll catch on. Are there libraries out there offering RSS classes to their patrons? Are they attached to weblog classes?