Title:
Your RSS Marketing Strategy: Deciding How To Deliver Your RSS Content

Word Count:
1601

Summary:
To get started with RSS Marketing the right way you need to correctly plan your RSS Marketing strategy, starting by deciding how you are going to deliver your RSS content. This short guide will take you through the key steps and decisions ...


Keywords:
rss marketing, rss autoresponder, rss, syndication, customized rss, personalized rss, e-mail


Article Body:
Copyright 2006 Rok Hrastnik

You're interested in RSS marketing, but there either seem to be so many options of how to do it or you've only ever come accross simple RSS feeds that just don't seem to be the approach you're looking for.

The problem with most RSS marketing plans is that the marketer doesn't really go beyond providing a simple RSS feed for all of his online news or his blog. But since you've been reading this column for a while now you know for a fact that RSS offers so much more.

To get started the right way you need to correctly plan your RSS Marketing strategy, starting by deciding how you are going to deliver your RSS content.

The right way to go, even if you're only starting out with a simple RSS strategy, is to provide individual RSS feeds for:

--> your individual target audiences,
--> your different types of content and
--> even your different content topics.

Think of this as a consequtive list of how to develop your RSS strategy.

--> TARGET AUDIENCES Start by listing the target audiences you want to deliver your content to via RSS. Each of your audiences has different content needs, resulting in different groups of RSS feeds that need to be created for these target audiences. One group for the media, the other for your employees, the other for the general public, the other for your existing customers and so on. You can even go further and divide your master groups in sub-groups, based on their prevailing interests.

--> CONTENT TYPES Now consider the different types of content you want to deliver to these audiences. For example your latest news, your blog posts, your how-to articles, your press releases, your podcasts, the latest posts from your forums, direct communications messages and so on. In most cases these types of content don't mix well together. If someone wants to receive your blog updates, which are full of your company representatives' personal opinions and commentary, they don't want to receive your corporate-speak press releases.

If someone is interested in what's happening in your forum and what the latest forum posts are, they don't want to receive your how-to articles in the same RSS feed, simply because these two types of content are so much different. And so on. Essentially, you will need to provide separate feeds for each of the different content types, and you will need to determine what content types you wish to deliver to each of your target audience groups and sub-groups.

--> CONTENT TOPICS Finally take a look at each individual content type for each individual target audience and further break that down by content topic, if needed. And if you're trying to cover many different topics for each content type, you will need to provide different RSS feeds for these different topics, because, again, people interested in topic A are not neccessarily also interested in topic B.

While this may sound complicated, it's really simple once you start doing it.

The point is, this is about giving your subscribers choice of what they subscribe to. Instead of forcing them to subscribe to everything, allow them to subscribe to only what they want and need.

Quite simple, right?

Just remember that you should only break this down as far as it makes sense, keeping in mind the actual content that your target audiences want from you.

Depending on your business, you just might only need to communicate with one target audience, deliver only one content type and deliver only one content topic for that target audience.

DECIDE HOW YOU ARE GOING TO DELIVER THIS CONTENT

Once you have your RSS content mapped-out, you need to consider how you are going to make this content available to your target audiences. This is especially important since it's going to influence the tools you need to get started with RSS publishing

ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL RSS FEEDS

This is about as standard as it gets --- publishing one RSS feed to meet the needs of all of your target audiences at once or publishing multiple topical RSS feeds, which always remain the same. The easiest to do, can be done with any RSS publishing tool on the market …

CUSTOMIZABLE RSS FEEDS

The more and more complex you get with the different feeds you're offering, the more difficult it is for your visitors to select what exactly they want, simply because an individual subscriber might be interested in 10 of your 100 feeds, but he doesn't want to be subscribed to that many feeds by your company.

In this case the best way to go is to also offer your visitors the opportunity to customize your RSS feed à they decide exactly what content type and content topics they want to receive in one or a few RSS feeds they'll be subscribing from you.

The opportunities here are quite endless, as you can allow them to customize their feeds based on topics, content types, authors and more.

If this is the way you need to go because you are offering so much content via your RSS feeds that it makes it difficult for someone to subscribe to only one or a few feeds from you, you will need your RSS publishing solution to support feed customization.

SEARCH-BASED RSS FEEDS

Search-based RSS feeds are a subset of customizable RSS feeds, and they work just like a search engine. You type in a certain keyword or keyword combinations and the search engine gives you the most relevant or the latest results for that keyword combination.

You can do the same with RSS, allowing your visitors to enter specific keywords and then get the content from you only based on those keywords.

PERSONALIZED RSS FEEDS

Giving users the choice to customize the content they are receiving from you is one thing, but certain content may actually demand you to personalize the feed using your subscribers personal information.

The most basic variation, used to lift response, is addressing your subscribers by name or using other data about the customer from your database, such as his address, previous purchases etc.

In other cases a bank might want to deliver information directly relating to your bank account, directly via RSS, such as your latest credit card transactions, and so on.

RSS FEEDS WITH CONTENT TARGETING

Now imagine that you want to create individualized campaigns to individual subscribers, based on the information you already have in your database about their activities, demographics and so on, for example to send a promotion for product A only to those subscribers that might be most interested in product A.

In this case you will need an RSS solution that can pull this data from your database and then segment your subscribers based on the actual data.

AUTORESPONDER RSS FEEDS

Since their introduction, e-mail autoresponders have become a relatively mainstream internet direct marketing tool, although they haven't really made their way to the world of public relations.

The concept is simple à a certain action by your visitors on your website triggers a sequence of e-mail messages, delivered to that visitor, provided you have his e-mail address, over a period of several days.

Direct marketers use this to automatically communicate with the prospect after a certain action, trying to get him to do what they want.

The most common application is offering your visitors a free report, delivered to them via e-mail. After subscribing they start receiving consequtive parts of the report day after day or a every few days, receiving both new information as well as being exposed to the marketer's promotional message.

Other applications include autoresponder messages in relation to transactional e-mail:

--> Subscribe to a free e-mail newsletter. The first autoresponder message thanks you for the subscription and also gives you access to one of the newsletter issues. A couple of days later, while you're still "hot as a lead", you receive another e-mail, pertaining to the newsletter topic, giving you more advice or information on the topic and trying achieve a sales conversion. And so on.

--> Complete a webstore order. The first message thanks you for the purchase and recommends an additional product at a lower price. The second message tells you more about the product you purchased. The third messages makes a special additional purchase offer. The fourths message gives you some great additional tips, and so on.

--> Start an online order, but don't finish it. The first message reminds you that there are still products in your shopping cart. The second message reminds you again, giving you added inscentive to complete the order. And so on …

The opportunities are practically limitless, but you get the picture.

Now simply transform this concept into the realm of RSS.

Someone subscribes to your RSS feed. The first couple of content items, spread-out through the first week, serve as a series of welcome messages giving the new subscriber access to your top content and inviting him to actively participate. Your latest feed updates come through as well, but your new subscriber also gets the extra treatment (content) in the same feed.

And now apply this to anything you're doing with RSS, where it makes sense to follow-up with additional information to your new subscribers once they subscribe, of course depending on the feed topic and target audience.

Very few RSS tools today offer autoresponder capabilities, but some do.

TO RECAP…

Think of your RSS publishing strategy and try to establish which of the these publishing models your RSS publishing tool should support:

--> Topical or Target Audience Oriented RSS Feeds --> Customizable RSS Feeds --> Search-Based RSS Feeds --> Personalized RSS Feeds --> RSS Feeds With Content Targeting --> Autoresponder RSS Feeds

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 Summary: Billions are spent each year on cosmetic products that promise to delete wrinkles, lighten age spots, and eliminate itching, flaking, or redness. But the simplest and cheapest way to keep your skin healthy and youthful looking is to stay out of the sun. Sunlight is a major cause of wrinkles, dryness, and age spots. Your skin does change with age. For instance, you sweat less which leads to increased dryness. Aging skin becomes thinner and loses fat, so it looks less plump ... Keywords: beauty, anti-aging, skin care, skin, wrinkles, sun Article Body: Billions are spent each year on cosmetic products that promise to delete wrinkles, lighten age spots, and eliminate itching, flaking, or redness. But the simplest and cheapest way to keep your skin healthy and youthful looking is to stay out of the sun. Sunlight is a major cause of wrinkles, dryness, and age spots. Your skin does change with age. For instance, you sweat less which leads to increased dryness. Aging skin becomes thinner and loses fat, so it looks less plump and smooth. Underlying structures, veins and bones in particular, become more prominent. Your skin can also take longer to recover when injured. These changes can be drastically delayed by staying out of the sun. Although nothing can totally undo sun damage, the skin sometimes can restore itself. So, it's never too late to protect yourself from the harmful results of the sun. 5 Ways to Slow the Aging Process: 1. Wear protective clothing. A hat with a wide brim shades your neck, ears, eyes, and head. Look for sunglasses with a label saying the glasses block 99 to 100 percent of the sun's rays. Wear loose, lightweight, long-sleeved shirts and long pants or long skirts when in the sun. 2. Check your skin often. Look for changes in the size, shape, color, or feel of birthmarks, moles, and spots. If you find any changes that worry you, see a doctor. The American Academy of Dermatology suggests that older, fair-skinned people have a yearly skin check by a doctor as part of a regular physical exam. 3. Avoid artificial tanning. Don't use sunlamps and tanning beds, as well as tanning pills and tanning makeup. Tanning pills have a color additive that turns your skin orange after you take them. The FDA has approved this color additive for coloring foods but not for tanning the skin. The large amount of color additive in tanning pills may be harmful. Tanning make-up products are not suntan lotions and will not protect your skin from the sun. 4. Use sunscreen. Sunscreens are rated in strength according to a sun protection factor (SPF), which ranges from 2 to 30 or higher. A higher number means longer protection. Buy products with an SPF number of 15 or higher. Also look for products whose label says: broad spectrum (meaning they protect against both types of harmful sun rays(UVA and UVB) and water resistant (meaning they stay on your skin longer, even if you get wet or sweat a lot). Remember to reapply the lotion as needed. 5. Stay out of the sun. Avoid the sun between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. This is when the sun?s UV rays are strongest. Don?t be fooled by cloudy skies. Harmful rays pass through clouds. UV radiation also can pass through water, so don't assume you?re safe if you?re in the water and feeling cool.

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Title: Gas Word Count: 394 Summary: In the U.S., gas is the short form of gasoline, while in many Commonwealth countries, it is known as petrol. Gas is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture that consists of hydrocarbons and is used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. Keywords: Gas, Gas Stations, Gas Prices, Gas Scooters Article Body: In the U.S., gas is the short form of gasoline, while in many Commonwealth countries, it is known as petrol. Gas is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture that consists of hydrocarbons and is used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. There are different types of gasoline in the fuel industry. Small aircrafts use specially formulated, high-octane aviation gasoline, which cannot be used for ground vehicles. Vehicles involved in racing use specially formulated racing gasoline that has very low levels of benzene and an anti-knock index of at least 100. Gasoline used for scientific research has unusual properties, which depend on the nature of the research. Cars with gasoline engines use E85 gasoline that is a blend of 85% fuel ethanol and 15% gasoline. The reason gasoline is added here is to provide a good start and warm up performance to the car, which is possible because of ethanol’s low volatility. The diesel engine cars or cars with compression ignition engines use E95 gasoline that is a blend of 95% fuel ethanol and 5% gasoline. No more than 5% gasoline should be added because this may lower the flash point to unacceptable levels. E85 cannot be used in diesel applications, and neither can E95 be used in gasoline engines because of the different types of engines. It is always better to buy gas during the coolest times of the day, like early morning or late evening as this is when gas is found at its densest. Gas pumps measure according to volume of gasoline and not density of fuel concentration, so you have an advantage here. It is better not to fill your gas tank to the top as overfilling results in the sloshing over of the gasoline out of the tank. Gas has to be chosen wisely for use in vehicles because some brands have greater economy due to its better quality. It is always better to use brands that seem to be beneficial. To save gas, it is better to avoid too much warming up of the engine, even on cold mornings. About thirty or forty-five seconds of warming up is more than enough. Avoid unnecessary starting and stopping of the engine. You use the same amount of gas here as you would in idling the engine for one minute. Use gas wisely, as it is an unrenewable fuel source that will always be needed by mankind.

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Title: How to Prepare for a Long Flight Word Count: 557 Summary: Everyone loves a vacation, but no one enjoys a long plane ride. Over the past few years I have done lots of international traveling, and have become quite an expert of ho to fly, so here are my recommendations on how to make the flight as smooth as possible. Keywords: Travel, flight, vacation, air travel, advice, Article Body: The first thing I like to do is to get as little sleep as possible the night before I fly, this way by the time I get to the plane I can hopefully just go to sleep and wake up at my destination. I only recommend this if you are able to perform any tasks you need to do before your flight. If you have to drive for 5 hrs first you may want to get a good night sleep, and maybe take some Tylenol pm or something else to make you drowsy. Many people like to get a little drunk on a flight, I am not one of them, but if it helps you relax and get some sleep then I say go for it, just don’t allow yourself to drink to the point where you become an obnoxious drunk on a plane. My next tip is to get to the airport 3 hours in advance, this is for 2 reasons. By getting there so early I am always one of if not the first to actually check in for my flight, which usually gets me a good seat, and I don’t have to wait in long lines. The other reason for always getting t the Air port at least 3 hrs before your flight is, if you check in early you cant get bumped from the plane, the people who get there last minute sometime here the words overbooked. Things to pack in your carry on: When ever possible I try to avoid putting things under the plane, but sometimes it is unavoidable, depending on how long I am going away for. What you take with you on the plane can make a big difference between having a pleasant flight and being so unbelievable bored that you go mad. I always make sure to bring a fully charged MP3 player, my MP3 player hold 20 gigs of music so I never have to go into my bag to chance a CD or a memory card, and I have way more music to listen to then time to listen to it. This way I have the music for any mood I may be in, so I just load it up and listen as I fall asleep on the plane. Just incase I cant sleep I will also make sure to bring a book with me, if for whatever reason I can not fall asleep which does happen to me, I like to take my mind off things by getting lost in a good story, but something light and entertaining, I have always found a good Action book or even Science Fiction to be good for that. I also recommend bringing a thick soft sweater with you on the plane, this can be used if it is cold on the plane, or you can use it as an extra pillow. I like to play video games, so I travel with one of the new hand held video games everywhere I go, so if I am not in the mood for reading I can play some games and keep myself occupied, and that really is the key. Keep yourself busy on the plane and you will be amazed at how fast the flight goes, if you stare at the clock and focus on the planes progress it will feel like forever.

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