RSS as a Marketing Tool

Blogging for Business Series:

The Bloke has been preaching the benefits of RSS newsfeeds for a very long time and a recent article by Phil Gomes confirms the fact that RSS is an excellent marketing tool for business.

Why? Well for starters RSS is ‘Incorruptibly Opt-In’. So what does that mean? It means that your readers can be assured of peace of mind when subscribing. They can start and stop when they want to on their own terms without having to give away their private email address.

Contrast this with email. Consumers are increasingly afraid that marketers will sell their email to just anyone who wants it. Others — like me — create disposable email addresses where the resulting spam just kind of accumulates over time. Though I’m not one of those syndication zealots who scream that email is dead as a marketing tool, it is clear that its abuses have eroded trust in the medium over time.

Anything that instills trust and confidence with ease of use will convert into increased readership.

RSS is also a great ‘Time Saver’ for both the reader and the publisher, and it is ‘Measurable’ a-la-Feedburner. You can read more about the virtues of RSS over at imedia.

What other ways can RSS can help marketers and publishers improve their bottom-line?

Of course, this is only a smidgeon of what RSS can do for business. It’s a win/win for readers and publishers, and given that most (if not all) blogs offer RSS why aren’t you blogging for business too?

Related links: instabloke, blog, blogging, blog tools, rss, newsfeeds, feedburner, business