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"Postmodernism is a change-or-be-changed world. The word is out: Reinvent
yourself for the 21st century or die! Some would rather die than change."
Leonard Sweet, cultural historian.

04/27/2005 Entry: "Marketing via RSS"

The direct marketing (spam) industry has discovered RSS. Whoopee! An article in Direct Marketing News espouses the value of communicating a message directly to a customer while avoiding nasty things like spam filters, etc.

Frustrated by the incessant e-mail bouncebacks from ISPs and yearning to send giant audio/video pitches over the Web unencumbered, some direct marketers are turning to RSS, or really simple syndication, to get all of their messages — and all of their message — to target markets headache-free.

"We've been at this awhile, using mediums like TV, radio, e-mail. But I have to say, RSS is one of the best advertising vehicles I've seen come along in awhile," said Terry Weaver, CEO of Truckflix.com, an online jobs broker for trucking companies and drivers.
The article suggests that the industry will move into the technology in earnest in Q4 of this year.

It's easy to knee-jerk this idea, but it has tremendous value for people who want the messages. (Remember, you must subscribe to a feed in order to receive it, which is an ideal opt-in.) I've long recommended that this will be the new sale paper that you used to find in the Sunday paper. I would actually sign up for an RSS feed from Kroger.

Where this won't work, however, is in trying to mix marketing into a feed that provides a different service. I can handle a simple text ad in, say, a New York Times feed, but that's about as far as I'll go. Marketers who salivate over the possibilities of using the technology in old world, mass marketing ways, are fooling themselves completely.

See my extended post on this at the MediaCenter's Morph Blog.

Replies: 5 comments

"it has tremendous value for people who want the messages." No doubt, but spammers are finding a way to use RSS to make sure their messages remain as obnoxious as they are in email. Try searching Technorati for "Nashville" and you'll see what I mean.

Posted by Roch101 @ 04/27/2005 02:34 PM CST

Thanks,Roch. I did the search, and I'm afraid I don't see what you mean. I must be blind.

Posted by Terry @ 04/27/2005 03:07 PM CST

Terry, I just did the search, too. I am not sure how Technorati works, or what the search results have to do with RSS. However, it appears that spam is creeping into Technorati results. The last couple of hits on the first page of that Technorati search are spam. "Doubletree hotel" ads on a badly formatted blogspot blog, from the looks of it. Hope that helps.

Posted by Holly @ 04/27/2005 03:37 PM CST

Yeah, Technorati displays most recent posts firts, so you'd have to go back a few pages to see the twenty succesive "posts" from Golf Search made earlier today.

Posted by Roch101 @ 04/27/2005 04:10 PM CST

I personally don't have a problem with that. It's not really spam leaking into RSS, because these are separate feeds from blogs (albeit crappy) that make no pretense other than to be what they are.

Technorati may wish to find a way to filter these, but that's a search engine matter.

Spammers simply aren't able to infiltrate feeds not originated by them. That's why many think RSS will replace email downstream.

Posted by Terry @ 04/27/2005 04:16 PM CST


"The future is not something we enter. The future is something we create."
Leonard Sweet