Permission-based Affiliate Marketing – RSS

04 Jan

Posted by admin as Basic, Marketing, Tutotorial

RSS technology, which allows sites to syndicate content such as news to subscribers, has long been touted as the next big thing in permission-based marketing, set to topple email marketing. But can it really be as effective? Read on for the pros and cons of using RSS in your affiliate marketing strategies.

RSS feeds have a number of advantages over opt-in email marketing for affiliates. For starters, it’s not as plagued by delivery problems, spam issues and blocking. It easily gets around overstuffed email inboxes and junk filters, and gives subscribers anonymity compared to email registration info.

At the moment, though, RSS adoption by the average Web user is still in its infancy, and subscribers are usually looking for content syndication, news feeds, blog updates and podcasts rather than marketing messages. According to a report released by Advertising Age in August 2006, only:

5% of American adults use RSS feeds (Jupiter)
88% of the at-work audience doesn’t know what RSS is (WorkPlace Print Media)
Many users are intimidated by the technology, and find the process of subscribing and reading feeds too challenging, a further barrier to affiliates hoping to switch from email marketing to RSS.

Both email and RSS marketing allow for user segmentation, personalisation and metrics capabilities, but the immaturity of RSS over email means these analysis tools are much less refined than those that come standard with most email services. As the reach of RSS increases, it’s likely that the delivery advantages RSS has over email marketing will disappear, as shady tactics such as disguising feeds to look like new content or tricking subscribers into spammy feeds unrelated to their promised content (already a problem at many aggregators) becomes more and more common.

While it’s unlikely RSS will completely replace email marketing, it’s definitely a technology affiliates should invest in to fire up their marketing mix. While RSS adoption stats are currently very low, it’s exactly the technologically savvy individuals using RSS who have a strong influence on the long tail of content that guides buyer behaviour across the Net… and can have a dramatic impact on an affiliate’s bottom line!