Although it is growing at a staggering pace, Really Simple Syndication usage is still relatively new, and the benefits of it must be carefully explained — even promoted — to most consumers, few of whom are likely to be familiar with the term either by name or initials.

A survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that only 9 percent of those responding had a good grasp of what RSS feeds are, and 26 percent said they had never heard the term. On the other hand, according to a JupiterResearch survey, 94 percent of marketers are aware of this technology. This knowledge gap is a rare and unique opportunity for companies to build or reinforce relationships with their customers by being the first to explain this new technology and demonstrate its potential.

To position RSS among mainstream Internet users, it is essential to effectively communicate the benefits of RSS: ease, convenience and access to information of interest, according to an October 2005 report, "RSS--Crossing into the Mainstream," by Yahoo! and Ipsos Insight.

Begin by promoting your RSS feeds on your own site. But don't just add an orange button to your home page and think your work is done. Because the technology is new, you need to explain why visitors to your Web site should click on the XML (eXtensible Markup Language) link. 

Launch a mini-educational campaign to explain to your visitors what RSS is, what kind of benefits they can receive by subscribing to your feed, and how easy it is to sign up. A paragraph or two on the technology along with a step-by-step method for subscribing to your feeds can give your customers the confidence they need to adopt the new medium. Pointing out the Internet powerhouse companies (Yahoo!, MSN, etc.) that have jumped on the RSS bandwagon can also increase the credibility of the pitch.

Consider the copy below for a travel agency.

Sign up to receive notices of air fare discounts!   
   
You no longer have to keep checking Web sites for the lowest available fares. Let our RSS link do the work for you. Subscribe to receive updates and they'll be delivered to you as they become available.  There's no need to provide your email address and no need to worry that over-zealous spam filters might keep you from finding your dream vacation at just the right price. Just click on the RSS button to learn more.

As you can see, this is a classic call-to-action. There’s no need to get into details of how the technology works, anymore than you'd feel obliged to offer consumers details about the technical elements of email. Sell the benefits of the content consumers will receive long before you get into the details of how the communications channel works. And when discussing the technology, you need only supply enough information to enable visitors to easily sign up for your feeds.

The link above would lead not to the feed but to a subscription or registration page. You can think of this page much as you would a preference center for your email marketing campaigns. It’s your opportunity to gather information that will help you provide users with the type of information, promotions and alerts in which they're most interested. And for those visitors unfamiliar with RSS, you can ease any concerns they might have with a step-by-step explanation of how to sign up.

As more companies have begun to use RSS as a marketing tool, there are a growing number of excellent examples for RSS registration pages. Common attributes for the best include an explanation of the benefits users will receive from signing up (for example, updates on the latest fashion trends; five-minute meal ideas using seasonal favorites; stock market reports, etc.).

Once you've convinced potential users of the value of the information they’ll receive, you should offer a brief explanation of what RSS is and how to add feeds to their readers. To make the experience as painless as possible, include links to free RSS readers or aggregators such as My Yahoo!, My MSN or Pluck. It’s best to offer both downloadable and Web-based options.

In order for both consumers and marketers to fully realize the benefits of RSS, it is advantageous to gather information from users. As with a registration page for email campaigns, the types and depth of information you request should be based on the business goals you wish to achieve through the feeds. If your online marketing program is basic, and you're content with sending the same information to everyone who registers, little subscriber data is needed. But again, as with successful email campaigns, the real power of RSS marketing lies in its ability to deliver customized, personalized content that leads to true one-to-one communications. With new technologies like Silverpop’s RSSDirect™, the same individualized, targeted campaigns possible with email marketing are now available for RSS feeds.

Naturally, you don’t want to ask so many questions that you scare away potential registrants. It’s often best to require only minimal information at first. Start by collecting only the data you need for basic segmentation purposes. Once you have consumers registered, you can begin to add to the information about each user by collecting incremental data as the relationship progresses. By continually explaining how the information provided can help ensure the user receives information he or she is most interested in, you'll be able to improve the response.

In addition to letting Web site visitors know about the availability of your feeds, market them to others as well. Include information about your RSS feeds in the emails you send customers and in any newsletters you distribute, either online or off. Submit your feed to both Web and feed search engines. And just as you do when launching new Web pages, when writing the content of your feeds, think about keywords and include tags in the item metadata to help search engines appropriately categorize each feed.

At this early stage of consumer adoption of RSS technology, marketers must educate and convince Web site visitors of the benefits of registering for RSS feeds. But the extra effort now is certain to pay off. One hundred percent deliverability, security, and the potential for enhancing customer loyalty and for increasing responses to your marketing initiatives are all very good reasons to begin talking to your customers about RSS today.