Microsoft and Google Show It's Time for RSS Marketing
Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

Note from the Publisher Bobette Kyle: RSS - most notably in the form of blogs - has been around for a good while. Over the past several months, the technique has become more and more popular as email delivery and open rates have dropped and business people have come to understand that marketing with RSS can be much more than simply blogging. 

Additionally, Microsoft recently announced that the upcoming Longhorn operating system, as well as the next version of Internet Explorer, will include the ability to read RSS feeds. Google has gotten into the picture as well by supporting the addition of AdSense advertising into RSS feeds. Finally, Yahoo! has given you the ability to add RSS feeds onto your "My Yahoo!" homepage, where the headlines are updated automatically. All of this indicates that RSS will not only continue to live, but that we are on the edge of an RSS "explosion." Rok explains what this means for the marketer here and more thoroughly in his RSS for Marketers ebook.

The Article: Microsoft and Google Show It's Time for RSS Marketing

Many internet marketers are still wondering whether to start marketing with RSS or not. It seems that not even all the case studies, hard metrics and benefits available can convince them, or everyone would be jumping on the RSS wagon by now.

Just as an overview, here are some of the benefits marketers are missing out on by not marketing with RSS:

A) 100% delivery of their marketing, relationship building and educational messages to their subscribers, customers, prospects and partners. E-mail isn’t getting delivered, but with RSS you will achieve 100% delivery.

B) Increased search engine rankings and quick content indexing, and increased traffic from other RSS-enabled online sources.

C) Getting your internet content published on other websites.

D) Generating new subscribers more easily and quickly.

E) And much much more …

Even if you don’t believe that RSS is being used by enough people right now, that’s still no excuse to not start using it as a vehicle to generate more traffic to your sites.

Sidebar From Bobette Kyle

Rok is truly a marketing RSS geek. (That's a good thing!) He has immersed himself in the world of RSS, regularly publishing his thoughts on both marketing and RSS through his feeds, as well as interviewing marketers who are successfully publishing RSS as part of their marketing program mix. He shares his own knowledge, plus adds the full text of 30+ interviews, in Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS. Rok is right on when he calls this "the complete guide on RSS for marketers."

Back to the "Regularly Scheduled" Article :-)

But, soon all of this will change, too.

As it was widely predicted, Microsoft is integrating RSS support in the next version of its Internet Explorer, and perhaps even more important, it's making it an integral part of its long-awaited Longhorn operating system.

What does this mean for marketers?

A) By being integrated in IE and other Microsoft software, RSS will achieve mass penetration. For marketers this means that RSS will finally become one of the standard tools of mass communication and content delivery. Furthermore, internet users will start to expect RSS from marketers, probably even more so than e-mail newsletters.

B) Marketers will no longer (eventually, of course, when most of the world starts using the latest software versions) need to explain how to get an RSS reader, but will be able to focus only on presenting their business and benefits to the end-user.

C) Broader RSS integration in Microsoft's tools will enable for additional RSS uses, far beyond basic content delivery in the form of stories, podcasts and products. Marketers and developers will be able to deploy rich interaction applications to make communication and business/personal interaction more fluent, easier and more effective. In essence, for many advanced marketers the capability of marketing with RSS will mean they're either “in” or “out” of the game.

D) This is now official. Marketers need to start taking the lead and implementing RSS feeds across all their communicational initiatives, from PR to direct marketing and sales.

And to top all of this, Google just recently started serving Google AdSense ads in RSS feeds as well.

The deeper meaning behind this is four-fold:

A) The new "program" is the perfect opportunity for RSS publishers to monetize their RSS feeds. With inclusion in Google's standard "runnings" of AdSense ads, publishers can expect to monetize on RSS immediately.

B) This is yet another reason for publishers to start publishing their content via RSS, especially since it won't cost them anything or very little, but will provide them with an additional source of revenues. With the low-cost aspect of RSS, we can expect a flood of new publishers to set-up RSS feeds of their content to generate additional AdSense clicks.

C) With RSS ads included in feeds, more advertisers will become aware of RSS and its marketing potential.

D) Using RSS advertising, publishers are now not only creating an additional revenues source, but are in fact making sure they don't lose ad revenue opportunities.

We used to refer to RSS as the future. Well, that future is now. If you’re not ready to start marketing with RSS, time just might run you over. As well as your competitors …

About the Author

Rok Hrastnik is the author of »Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS«, acclaimed as the best and most comprehensive guide to RSS for marketers by leading RSS experts. The complete guide on RSS for marketers: http://rss.marketingstudies.net/index.html?src=sa10

About "Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS"

(The following is from Bobette Kyle, WebSiteMarketingPlan.com publisher.)

This ebook takes you through the whole process of publishing and marketing through RSS feeds. I am particularly partial to the "Marketing with RSS" section, which not only explains numerous situations where RSS feeds can be useful as part of a marketing program, but also demonstrates each technique by giving multiple examples of feeds currently in use.

I also love the accompanying packet of RSS expert interviews, 30+ interviews with marketers who successfully use RSS. Interviews include Laura Rees, co-author of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding and three other popular marketing books; Alex Barnett of Microsoft; and Shawn Collins of affiliate marketing fame and proprietor at Shawn Collins Consulting. 

Read more about "Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS" here.