Jun 29 2006
Internet marketing is just one component of any business' overall marketing plan and strategy. But it's one that is multi-faceted and in many cases, inexpensive. Whether you're promoting services, products or updates, RSS should be a part of your Internet marketing strategy if it isn't already. In part one I went over the basics of RSS: what it is and how it works. Now let's go over how it can help your business.
Improve search engine ranking
RSS does much of what an email newsletter does. The difference is that users don't have to give away as much, if any, personal information (such as email addresses and names). After all, people are pretty protective of their inboxes. And with all the aggregators and services that list various blogs or articles, you actually get additional exposure that you may not have reached with a typical email newsletter. That also means increased traffic to your site, and that can result in a positive impact on your search engine ranking.
Additional revenue stream
Just like with newsletters (only cheaper, really), you can include ads in your RSS feeds. With the right mix of advertisers this can produce a decent additional stream of income. There's not too much wrong with that.
Become a valuable, trusted source
RSS is really just a channel back to your site. Your site is where all the content is kept. As your archives grow, so does your viewers' perception of your knowledge, expertise and experience. This creates a greater trust with your readers which may cause them to keep coming back to see what your thoughts are.
Stay in touch for less
It's absolutely true that much of what you can do with RSS can be done with any email newsletter campaign. The difference though, may be cost. If you're fortunate enough to have your own in-house/custom newsletter and list management tool, this may not be much of an issue. However, most small businesses will use a third-party tool. And of course that tool costs money, be it per email, per subscriber, whatever. It also may cost you bandwidth. With RSS your only concern is bandwidth. But with a good host, you can easily increase your server bandwidth. Why pay twice?
No spam filters or bounced messages
With RSS, unlike with email broadcasts, your content gets delivered. Whether or not the end-user reads it is well, up to them. But with email there are spam filters, changed email addresses, etc., to deal with. In fact, when delivered, more than half of your email subscribers aren't getting your messages or aren't reading them. Half! I'm willing to bet that number is lower for RSS. In short, RSS can do much of what email can do. But it has unbeatable advantages that can't be overlooked. Additionally, RSS isn't just necessarily a way to deliver content. It can truly perform a multitude of marketing functions. It's just a matter of being creative with it. So what are you waiting for? ***