Silverpop's RSSDirect™ solution provides businesses with a powerful communication tool that can complement traditional online communications and marketing.

Because individualized RSSDirect supports targeting, personalization and tracking, marketers can use the same online and offline strategies that have worked for years. And, because RSSDirect assures deliverability and cannot be phished, marketers can use it to build on current email programs or even use it for brand-new communications programs for which email may not be as equally well-suited.

Following is a look at how companies in four different industries might use Silverpop's RSSDirect solution to enhance customer relationships.

Travel

• An airline could send ticket purchase confirmations and receipts via RSSDirect to avoid delivery problems and ensure that every message reaches the customer.
• An airline could notify customers of fare sales via RSSDirect, personalizing the message for each recipient by highlighting the cost of tickets from his or her hometown airport.
• Vacation providers can offer articles via RSS that are tailored to the locations or lifestyles that prospective vacationers are interested in.
• All members of the industry can build better customer relations through assured deliverability free from email bounces and bulk filtering, and secure communication that avoids concerns about spam, phishing and identity theft. 

Retail

• Online retailers can ensure that receipts and shipping information are always delivered by avoiding the spam filters associated with email.
• Build trust with their customers with more secure communication that avoids consumers' having to yield their email addresses and also overcomes fears of identity theft and phishing. (In return, with consumers' fears eased, retailers can expect enlarged house lists and bigger overall subscriber bases.)
• Retailers can offer promotional material with the same multimedia and rich content as email, but that plays more reliably.
• Department stores can alert customers about sales, special events and changes in hours of operation. The targeting available through RSSDirect can enable national chains that acquire ZIP code information during the registration process to offer information specific to the customer’s nearest store.

Media

• Newspapers, already heavily using RSS feeds, can now track the specific behavior of each individual RSS subscriber. They can know exactly how many people are subscribing and associate specific subscriber behavior with registration information.
• Going further, newspapers can use subscriber profile information to target specific news stories or local events by ZIP code or age.
• Local TV stations can offer their Web visitors the option of alerts or customized programming guides based on their preferences.
• Radio stations can deliver a list of appearance locations for their on-air personalities, or provide a recap of the top 10 most requested songs.

Finance

• RSSDirect’s secure delivery enables companies to send out private information, such as credit card statements or bank account balances.
• Banks can send fraud alerts knowing that the messages will not be filtered or placed in bulk folders.
• Investment brokerages can provide each customer with customized RSS-based news feeds for the specific companies in which he or she has invested.
• Companies can once again send out links that go directly into their Web sites without fear that phishers will use the same technique and redirect browsers to copy-cat sites.

The interactive nature of the Internet has profoundly changed the way customers and businesses interact, and advances in technology have enabled businesses to create the uniquely targeted, relevant communications online consumers now demand.

While email remains a great way to deliver messages eagerly anticipated by recipients, the twin specters of spam and phishing continue to hamper deliverability and security.  Now with RSSDirect, companies can let customers choose how they would like to receive their messages while preserving the personalization, targeting and reporting that ensure measurable marketing success.