Can RSS complement e-mail marketing?

For some years RSS has been a neat solution to a problem that few people realised they had. One way of looking at RSS news feeds was to use them to keep up to date with topics of interest that individuals could customise - to in effect create their own virtual daily paper by grouping RSS feeds from various news publishers. For example you might chose to scan news headlines from the world at large using a feed from the BBC or CNN, news from your industry or profession, your favourite sports team or blog. To recap - RSS 'Really Simple Syndication' - offers headlines and opening lines of a news story with a link through to the full story on the web site of the news publisher. Originally it required special reader software to be downloaded to operate the system, but now that chore is even eliminated thanks to reader software  being a component of modern web browsers. RSS offered a quick way of remaining informed on topics important to the individual, a rapid skim of the headlines, perhaps reading one or two items in more depth and at a time convenient to the reader. Quite an attractive option compared to the assault of e-mails to the in-box.  RSS was seen as an alternative, even a replacement for e-mail but that has not happened. But according to BtoB "RSS has emerged as a strong complementary tool for e-mail marketers."  In a current article they propose 4 key tips:-

1. RSS only works if you are using it for frequently updated content.
2. Track and target your RSS feed.
3. Promote RSS using e-mail and promote e-mail using RSS
4. It's OK to double dip sometimes. i.e. repurpose content in both RSS and e-mail news.

The important issue is to get the message to your target audience. To learn how RSS and e-mail marketing can operate within a fully integrated marketing programme why not contact Technical Marketing for the full story.