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RSS' Effect on E-Mail Marketing
BY
David Daniels | March 28, 2005
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I wrote a
research report early this month that looks at the effect RSS (define)
will have on e-mail marketing. Overall, RSS won't be immediately
effective as an alternative to e-mail marketing. The reasons are
various (and covered in the report), but our work also indicates
that for some companies (primarily publishers who cater to a
technical audience), it's sensible to press forward with RSS now as
a supplement to e-mail marketing.
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After the
report was published, some readers said they expect RSS to more
immediately effect e-mail marketing, saying RSS can be personalized
just as e-mail can and removes marketers from spam-cluttered avenues
where delivery issues abound. This notion has its merits (though
it's not backed by any data). But RSS as an e-mail marketing
alternative isn't so black and white.
RSS Isn't
Spam-Free
The notion RSS
is free of delivery issues isn't necessarily correct. The primary
driver of the spam phenomenon is it's a low-cost medium with no
significant economic or regulatory barriers. RSS, in its nascent
state, is very similar in that regard. Moreover, it's very easy to
manipulate an RSS feed so it looks like new content, as Marc Hedlund
describes. That would clutter aggregator feeds.
It's also easy
to create a feed that appears to be a news or entertainment story
but is really an ad dissimilar to the category content. Use of
popular search terms and brand names in feeds unrelated to that
content have already created "RSS spam" at aggregators such as
Feedster and Pluck. This holds especially true when subscribing to
search results feeds.
As legitimate
marketing feeds will be picked up (i.e., delivered), so will clutter
that resembles legitimate feeds. Unfettered, this could
significantly undermine the channel for direct marketing. It's very
probable the RSS horizon will mirror the e-mail channel. Reaction to
bogus clutter could create a category of RSS spam filtering
companies and weaken consumer confidence in the medium.
RSS
Personalization? Maybe, But Master E-Mail Targeting First
RSS is sort of
inherently personalized. The end user chooses what to subscribe to,
and publishers broadcast their content. Personalizing those feeds
further doesn't strike me as something that will catch on. Here's
why: Although salutation personalization is easy in e-mail marketing
through common mail-merge functionality, less than one-half of
marketers take e-mail personalization efforts beyond that. A recent
Jupiter Research report on e-mail marketing tactics finds less than
a third of marketers use click-through data as a segmentation
attribute for targeting.
It seems an
ideal segmentation attribute. However, harnessing URL click behavior
from RSS feeds seems unlikely. To date, we've seen very few
marketers master it as it relates to e-mail. With such low adoption
of personalization and targeting within the e-mail channel, it's
highly unlikely marketers will begin to radically personalize feeds
any time soon.
Low consumer
adoption of RSS also makes it very difficult to come up with
relevant segments large enough to make additional content
development or feeds meaningful. Without a dedicated measurement
application, it's hard to know how a given feed was consumed, let
alone know who the subscribers are. RSS lends itself to broadcasting
content when targeting is limited to the category level, not the
individual subscriber level. By our definition, that's not
personalization.
Get Ready
for the RSS Vendor Flood
We're already
seeing a number of companies, such as SimpleFeed and Syndicate IQ,
enter the space to empower marketers with measurement tools.
Likewise, companies with roots in e-mail (Got Corporation and
SubscriberMail) are adding RSS options. Although interest in RSS is
increasing, this emerging category is anyone's game. It may become
as splintered as the e-mail marketing vendor space is today.
RSS provides
opportunity, particularly for newsletter publishers, but let's not
kid ourselves. As it's repurposed for more direct marketing
initiatives, it won't be a smooth, clutter-free ride. As e-mail
marketers, we can relax. This technology won't seriously compete
with our channel, so we can focus on what we need to: making e-mail
marketing more relevant!
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Dave Daniels is a research director for
Jupiter
Research's CRM and Marketing Operations practice areas and is
intimately involved with covering e-mail marketing and operations.
David's research studies evaluate ESPs, detail operational tactics,
identify changes in consumer e-mail behavior, and provide short- and
long-term strategies to address deliverability. With over 14 years
of experience in direct-to-consumer marketing, David is recognized
as a thought leader in his domain and is frequently quoted in The
Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business Week, CRM
Magazine, and other major media outlets.
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