Nuts & Bolts: RSS
Sell the Channel’s Sizzle
July 2007
Your RSS buffet might be loaded with information your market will find useful, but before it can feast on your insights and deals, it has to know where to request the feeds. Rok Hrastnik, international Internet director at Studio Moderna, a direct marketing service provider, shared his insights on this challenge at the ACCM conference held this past May. He identified the four hot spots marketers must use to publicize their RSS offerings to increase their reach through this channel:
1. Below your e-mail newsletter subscription box. Snag inquirers directly where they need to sign up to receive your e-mail newsletter, allowing them to receive this information via RSS feed. Hrastnik emphasizes that the sign-up box and the RSS promo copy always should be above the fold.
2. High-traffic areas of your site. This advice might be obvious, but it underscores the need to be obvious in your placement of RSS promos. If people don’t see your RSS icons or copy, they can’t take advantage of them.
3. Directly next to topics. If you offer topical RSS feeds, promote direct links to these feeds within the topic list. For example, if a beauty products site offers topical feeds on trends and beauty tips that are broken out on its Web site as information pages on skincare, makeup, tools and sun protection, then it can promote RSS feeds directly next to each topic in the sub-navigation list.
4. E-mail communications. Just because people already are receiving content from you via e-mail doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be interested in switching to an RSS feed option. Every e-newsletter or other type of regular e-mail communication should promote an RSS delivery option.
—Hallie Mummert
1. Below your e-mail newsletter subscription box. Snag inquirers directly where they need to sign up to receive your e-mail newsletter, allowing them to receive this information via RSS feed. Hrastnik emphasizes that the sign-up box and the RSS promo copy always should be above the fold.
2. High-traffic areas of your site. This advice might be obvious, but it underscores the need to be obvious in your placement of RSS promos. If people don’t see your RSS icons or copy, they can’t take advantage of them.
3. Directly next to topics. If you offer topical RSS feeds, promote direct links to these feeds within the topic list. For example, if a beauty products site offers topical feeds on trends and beauty tips that are broken out on its Web site as information pages on skincare, makeup, tools and sun protection, then it can promote RSS feeds directly next to each topic in the sub-navigation list.
4. E-mail communications. Just because people already are receiving content from you via e-mail doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be interested in switching to an RSS feed option. Every e-newsletter or other type of regular e-mail communication should promote an RSS delivery option.
—Hallie Mummert




Social Media ROI
Email Marketing that Works (2nd Edition)