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Simon van Wyk explores how to avoid the email deliverability trap with RSS.

We’ve all seen the headlines. Email marketing is dead. And we all know this isn’t quite true. Spam has certainly damaged email marketing as an acquisition tool. Last year, DoubleClick’s 2004 Consumer Email Study reported that the average consumer was receiving 308 emails each week, with nearly two-thirds of it considered spam. Despite this, email continues to be a highly effective retention and upsell tool. It is also becoming the medium of choice to receive order/transaction confirmations.

Importantly, users are more than happy to subscribe to email newsletters from respected sources - and we all know that the newsletter creates much more of a bond between the user and the company than simply the website alone.

Filtered out of existence

Of course, although users are happy to sign up for newsletters, email filtering is now playing a major part in blocking your prized, highly personalised email, and filtering it almost out of existence. Quite contrary to the issues raised by spam, users are becoming increasingly frustrated that they are not actually receiving the newsletters and communication that they’ve signed up for.

As marketers attempt to improve email deliverability and grow enough new subscribers to offset the attrition, there’s every possibility that, if you haven’t already, 2005 will be the year that you start believing in RSS feeds.

What is it?

Wikipedia defines RSS as a family of XML file formats for Web syndication used by news sites and blogs. Commonly referred to as Really Simple Syndication, RSS is typically used to deliver short descriptions of online content, accompanied by a link to the full version of the article. The content is delivered as an XML file called an RSS feed, RSS stream or RSS channel.

How does it work?

The organisation providing the information sets up an RSS feed related to a particular subject. End users download an RSS reader that allows them to receive and read the feed on their PC.

Users can choose either to set up the reader as a separate application on their desktop or view an RSS feed through their web browser.

Users can also download free news aggregator software that checks each RSS feed to which they have subscribed and display the results in a window on their PC.

Avoiding email filtering

A major benefit of RSS is that it does not flow through the e-mail channel. This means that it’s not subject to being preyed upon by spam filters.

No more privacy issues

RSS does not overly impede the content publisher with having to maintain lists or following strict privacy guidelines. RSS feeds are compiled according to the user’s choices. The only way a recipient can receive an RSS feed is if they request it.

Boosting traffic

Without doubt, users will subscribe to RSS feeds if they provide well written, interesting, relevant content. More so, they will actually read them. Include links to your site in your news and watch the traffic flow.

Supplement not Replacement

ClickZ reports that RSS won’t be immediately effective as an alternative to e-mail marketing but it’s sensible to press forward with RSS now as a supplement to e-mail marketing.

Good time to start

As a marketer, it’s easy to see the value in RSS technology as a means of delivering information to a targeted audience, not to mention extending the reach of a message.

Whilst consumer adoption of RSS is currently low, it is expected that the next version of IE, scheduled for release in the second half of this year will incorporate RSS, making this technology well and truly mainstream.

And as long-time subscribers to enewsletters and email alerts start to favour RSS feeds, it now seems like a good time to complement email newsletters with RSS to start capitalising on this technology before absolutely everyone else does.

The best way to learn more about how all this works is to simply Google RSS reader and select your RSS reader of choice. Alternatively check out FeedDemon and NewsGator or NetNewsWire Lite for Mac users.

Always interested in hearing about the latest technology trends and concerns from decision makers in Australian companies, we ran the second in our survey series over December and January.

We asked our mailing list of online marketing and IT decision makers, along with interested website visitors, their thoughts on technology in every day life, concerns like spyware and phishing, as well as the trends in online media buying patterns.

Here’s what we found out:

Living life in the fast lane

We’re a nation obsessed with technology, consuming all the latest gadgets, online tools and technologies with insatiable appetites.

Almost 90% of respondents believe we are living life at the speed of light and most attribute this fast pace to technology. Happily, 69.2% of the respondents say they believe this fast paced life is a good thing.

The survey also shows that 97.4% of the respondents embrace technology easily - resulting in more people able to do more activities in a shorter space of time.

As a sign of the omnipresence of computers and technology in all facets of our lives - it seems that IT professionals are unshackling themselves from the image of a nerdy, polyester-wearing boffin with limited social skills.

More than 56% of respondents to the survey consider the IT professional to be aspirational and exciting. Whilst only 5.13% of respondents actually describe the profession as sexy, as few as 7.69% actually say it’s for nerds.

Smart phones

Even though the average Australian smart phone user doesn’t boast a star-studded address book like that of Paris Hilton, 69.2% of our respondents are aware that their phones could be targeted in a new wave of software viruses and spam and report their security and privacy is at risk.

15.3% of respondents say their mobile phones have actually been infected with a virus, indicating that smart mobile phone users are becoming increasingly vulnerable to attack with the emergence of a new breed of mobile phone viruses which work like PC viruses, spreading both through wireless connections and by attaching to files.

Browsers

Microsoft Internet Explorer is still the browser of choice for over 66% of the respondents, Firefox is now attracting over 28%.

Of the respondents who are now using Firefox, over 90% were previously Microsoft IE users. Of these new users, 36% report that they receive more spam, 80% see less pop ups and over 45% feel that their computer is less prone to being infected by viruses.

Online advertising

Adopting increasingly unorthodox and organic tactics to market products and services is fast becoming the convention. Australian marketers are turning away from standard banners as a means to advertise online as over 40% of respondents report that they are unhappy with their online advertising yields.

60% of respondents are keen to find new ways to buy online space with behavioural targeting topping the list of media buying strategies.

Searching and Spyware

Not surprisingly 84.62% of respondents favour the Google search engine, with ninemsn Search scoring a poor second place with only 7.69% of respondents.

Google’s desktop search is used by over 60% of respondents, while 29.17% claim that it’s made finding content so much easier. Another 20.83% say that Google’s desktop search is now being used in favour of desktop navigation. 12.5% of respondents report that it’s make them more sensitive to browsing at work.

Almost 90% of respondents are aware of spyware, whilst 84.85% report that they regularly monitor their home PC for spyware proliferation.

64.86% of respondents are familiar with the term phishing, whilst only 24.32% of respondents say that their company has been caught up in a phishing scam. Happily of the respondents who report that they have been personally targeted, none claim that they have actually taken the bait.