RSS

In a world heaving under the weight of billions of web pages, keeping up to date with the information you need can be time-consuming and repetitive. A fast emerging technology called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) solves this problem by allowing users to identify the content they are interested in and have it delivered directly to their desktop or portable device.

RSS takes the hassle out of staying current with new information by automatically telling users when updates are online. This beats having to continually check back to a website and then search for relevant content or wade through a flood of emails. Essentially, users become their own editors, while marketers increase brand awareness among targeted visitors.

No longer do customers have to be separated from the content they need to know about by interface or navigational issues. The problem of ‘modality shift’, which occurs, for example, when a target reads a print ad exhorting them to ‘Call this number’ or ‘Log onto this website’, disappears.

If a user is looking at an RSS feed, there is no modality shift, since they are already in their preferred way of receiving information. There is also a much better chance of RSS feeds – ‘pulled’ by recipients as opposed to being ‘pushed’ at them – actually being read. This kind of ‘pre-qualified’ traffic is also statistically the most likely to be converted into sales.

RSS also addresses perhaps the number one web complaint: spam. A study by Forrester Research contends that an incredible 82 per cent of all worldwide email traffic is spam. By contrast, RSS is one hundred per cent opt-in and, since users can receive feeds anonymously, dispels users’ concerns about personal information being supplied to businesses or re-subscribing when email addresses change.

For marketers, on the other hand, RSS can replace a lot of wasteful email marketing activity as databases are rendered more and more unreliable by outdated or ‘abandoned’ email addresses. RSS recipients always have their RSS feed. It may be the closest thing yet to the Holy Grail of marketing: a one-to-one (rather than one-to-many) channel.

Another key advantage of making RSS feeds available is that, since they are considered links, they can boost a site’s search engine rating, which is not easy without investing time and money. There is also an opportunity for marketers to advertise on relevant RSS feeds.

While there is currently much hype surrounding RSS, actual use is still marginal. However, uptake is likely to surge and become mainstream in 2006, when RSS is packaged with Microsoft’s new version of Internet Explorer, code-named ‘Longhorn’.

Philip Sheldrake is a partner and technology analyst at Fuse PR and a board member of Intellect, the trade association for the UK IT, telecoms and electronics industry, which promotes the use of technology for competitive advantage.

Sheldrake says: “Being a good marketing pro means not only adapting what you’re saying, but the way in which your target can access that information. There are many channels of communication, and marketers need to allow their target audience to select their preference. You can’t insist that they come to your website or subscribe to your email or RSS feed, but if you omit one of those channels, you’ve missed an opportunity to communicate with someone who wants to know about you.

“People who prefer to use newsreaders may go elsewhere for their information if they can’t subscribe to a feed from you. Back in the mid-1990s, B2B marketers might have said, ‘I’ve got plenty of brochures, why would I need a website as well?’ Now, it’s an absolute given. Similarly, being able to syndicate your news isn’t just a nice thing to have, it’s an essential,” adds Sheldrake.

Rutherford Webb is a payroll software provider with around 350 clients which uses RSS to account manage that 80 per cent of its customer base which does not justify having a full-time account manager. The company uses RSS to provide its customers with macromedia-based product demonstrations, analyses, product updates and other information.

For Rutherford Webb’s sales manager, Steve Lenehan, the primary benefit of RSS is timelines. He says: “What it enables us to do – which we haven’t been able to do previously, particularly on a restricted budget – is get the right message out at the right time. This has always been a problem with email and direct mail marketing. You may be pushing out your message when you want to, but it may be hitting people at absolutely the wrong time for them. RSS says, ‘There’s a communication coming in that’s very targeted to me’.”

Lenehan also finds that RSS makes it easy for him to segment his database and split messages right down to what he calls a ‘granular’ level, which is nigh on impossible with subscription services. He explains: “You can make sure your targets are always receiving extremely relevant messages. They don’t have to wade through a load of irrelevant ones.”

While some web experts are positively evangelical about RSS, others are more sanguine. Matteo Berlucchi is CEO of the alert technology company, Skinkers, which provides companies with web-based notification services, such as news updates, product launch information and other prompts.

“We analysed the value chain in RSS and realised that there is a very big part missing. The real value for the marketer is in controlling the communication experience end-to-end to make sure that not only do you get the right message out, but you put it in a presentation framework designed to maximise its impact – give it a certain brand experience,” says Berlucchi.

“The biggest limitation of RSS is that the marketer does not control how the RSS feed is consumed. You’re completely disenfranchised of the viewing experience. You can’t brand the content, because the technology is based on links. It’s just a ‘naked’ feed without any graphics. The protocols have been designed by technical people, who are notoriously anti-brand.”

Consequently, Skinkers has developed a product called Skinkers Notification, a small, intuitive desktop technology which enables marketer to take control of the delivery of their RSS feed by branding it.

Another shortcoming of RSS, according to Berlucchi, is that recipients remain anonymous, negating the great value to RSS publishers of knowing who their readers are.

He concludes: “We foresee a situation in the next year or two where people will start ‘locking down’ their RSS, making it subscription-based and saying ‘if you want my RSS, give me something in return. Tell me who you are or accept my RSS in a branded way’.

“At the moment there is no trade-off. People are being very generous about giving out their information for free and not controlling the RSS feed. We’re seeing the first signs that this isn’t going to last long.”

RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, enables marketers to register content with RSS publishers, who in turn push it to subscribers who have entered a customised search, specifying from which channels they want information. RSS directories include NewsGator (tipped by observers to become the pre-eminent RSS company), Nooked, Moreover and SimpleFeed. Users receive RSS ‘feeds’ (web content summaries) by downloading a software programme called a ‘newsreader’ onto their desktop or portable device. Newsreaders send out ‘spiders’ to aggregate content from the selected sources and send feeds to subscribers. Popular newsreaders include (for Windows) Newz Crawler, FeedDemon and Awasu and (for Mac) Newsfire and NetNewsWire. Users receive feeds as ‘naked’ links ‘skinned’ of everything but the content for low bandwidth consumption and connection speed and consisting of a headline and a simple summary. This makes it easy for users to choose which ones to click on to read the full version.