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Tips > SSWT 3/15/05
Should RSS Marketing Replace Email Marketing? Not Just Yet...
I've
been blogging on this topic (Email vs RSS) for the last couple
of days, so if you keep up with my blog at http://clicknewz.blogspot.com
then you may have already heard my thoughts on Email Marketing
versus RSS Marketing.
My
initial post on this topic was prompted by the announcement of
Craig Perrine's new course which is being released later this
week: The List Profit Secrets Course. This is another high-dollar
course ($997) and it is specifically on the topic of List Building
& Email Marketing.
Craig
is holding a free webcast on the topic tonight (Tue March 15th),
by the way, and you can listen in at n0 c0st by
registering here.
In
my post "Email
Marketing - Alive & Kicking", I said:
"RSS
& blogging are excellent marketing tools, mind you - I just
dont believe that they take the place of Email Marketing. In fact,
I think Email & RSS compliment each other quite well!"
This morning, Lois
forwarded me a copy of Nick Usborne's email newsletter, which
included an article about Email vs RSS. He made some *excellent*
points, and I felt it was worth sharing with you here:
RSS Instead of Newsletters? At Your
Peril.
by Nick Usborne of
http://www.excessvoice.com
I have been reading a lot about how companies are enthusiastically
embracing RSS as a wonderful alternative to email newsletters.
I
can understand their enthusiasm, in part. After all, legitimate
commercial email and newsletters are being decimated by spam filters.
In addition to which, consumers are growing weary of having to
distinguish between what is spam and what is not.
There
are additional benefits to making newsletters available by RSS.
RSS means your subject line never disappears below the fold of
an email window. With RSS the newsletter is always there, ready
and waiting for when your reader is ready to take a look. With
RSS your archives can be just a click away... providing easy and
immediate access to previous issues.
>> What's the downsides?
There
are a few things that are lost when your newsletter becomes a
feed.
1. First, you lose control of the timing.
You
can decide on when an email newsletter is delivered. With RSS,
it is the recipient who decides when to read your feed, if at
all.
I
know, even with an email newsletter we can't make people read
our content the moment it arrives. But anyone who tracks open
rates and open times will tell you that a significant proportion
of those opens occur in the first 12 to 24 hours.
This
means you can write about time-sensitive issues or promotions.
You can be topical. You can talk about today and tomorrow. You
can direct people to offers or invitations that will expire in
24 hours or 48 hours.
With
RSS you run the risk of losing that sense of immediacy, of being
there in the reader's mind in the here and now.
2. Second, you lose the personal touch.
Many
of the best newsletters carry a personal voice and character.
It may be the voice of an editor, or the voice of the writer.
And
yes, elements of voice are lost in the transition between the
inbox and a browser.
Here's
why. An email inbox is where we read emails from friends and family.
It is often where we read comments and contributions from participants
in discussion lists and groups. It is where we hear the voice
of the writer.
The
best email newsletters take advantage of the personal potential
of an email inbox. We look forward to hearing the voices of our
favorite newsletter writers and editors.
Your
email inbox is a place where individual character and voice can
be heard, where it can be genuine.
But
when you deliver your newsletter via a feed, and people read your
newsletter in their browser, much of that is lost.
Is
this an absolute? No, I can't claim that it's impossible to share
a genuine voice in a browser window. But it is harder.
Look at it this way.
It
is easiest to write with a personal, genuine voice in a text-only
newsletter. (Friends and family generally write in text, not in
HTML with graphics and clickable images.)
It
is harder to maintain that sense of a personal connection when
you deliver your email newsletter in an HTML format.
And
it is harder still when that newsletter is delivered not into
your personal email inbox, but into your browser.
Step
by step, you are shifting from an environment of personal communication
to an environment driven by commercial messages and language.
3. You never get to say hello...
This
is a variation on or combination of the first two points. This
point is about timing, and about place.
Email
newsletters give you an intangible benefit simply because they
appear in someone's inbox at a particular moment. The potential
to connect one-on-one is at its greatest. The sense of now is
real and immediate.
That
sense of now is a very powerful thing. If you have tracked response
rates, comparing an offer delivered by email to an offer delivered
through a web page, you will have likely shared my experience
in seeing a boost in response rates and conversion rates when
the offer is made through a newsletter.
Why?
Because you are supporting the offer with your own voice, and
that voice has more power because it is here and now, delivered
within the personal environment of an email
inbox.
>> Concluding thoughts.
Online
we are constantly faced with new technologies and new ways of
delivering messages.
Just
be sure to understand the true attributes of each new technology,
RSS included.
Understand
the strengths and weaknesses.
If
you choose to use RSS, use it for its strengths.
If
RSS cannot deliver the strengths you have established through
your email newsletter, don't put aside the newsletter.
You
can still do both... send out your newsletter by email, and also
make it available as a feed.
Nick Usborne
http://www.excessvoice.com