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Email Marketer |
Email is intrusive
Email is trackable (open rates, CTR, etc) down to individual level – ROI is easily understood, mature channel with industry standard metrics
Email content can be highly targeted
Email can be highly cost effective
Email can be highly designed / branded / rich content (if HTML version)
Viral (marketing) effects well known
Email drives sales
Email can be to easy to forward
Widespread use and knowldge of email (products) |
Once opted out, contact is suppressed / not contactable
Opt out rates are on the up (normally due to irrelevant communications)
Response rates are falling
Email blocking / filtering out is increasing
Regulation tightening up on opt out / opt in – governance and compliance is becoming harder - risk of legal action by customers
Important/critical content / messages can get lost/blocked in fog of spam
Spoof emails creating environment of confusion / distrust about email
Total number of emails being sent is not sustainable (i.e. number of emails sent out per year as a ratio to the number of recipients and numbers of emails received)
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RSS provision is fully and automatically opt in – zero opt in / opt out governance and compliance overhead – zero risk of legal action by customers
RSS content (through topic channels) has the potential to deliver highly relevant content to subscribers
RSS is able to deliver designed / branded / rich content
RSS does not get blocked / filtered out so that important/critical content is sure to be ‘delivered’.
Not just email-type content can be provided by RSS
RSS content can be accessed through many devices
RSS customer use is growing
RSS awareness by software developers is increasing, more RSS integration and ease of use)
Strong evidence of ‘viral’ (marketing) effects
RSS aggregation becoming common portal feature |
RSS is not intrusive, customers are in control (although marketers should see this as a positive)
RSS is trackable, but there are no industry standard metrics yet
Customer does not expect to provide any data in exchange for ability to subscribe to RSS (this will change – early websites were free-to-view, many are now require registration)
Little evidence to show RSS feeds drive sales, but early signs are good
RSS reader is one more application to download and one more user interface to learn |
Marketers (should) recognise, enable and honour customer preferences - medium (email, web, RSS, DM, IM, etc), frequency, content relevancy
If marketers really want data (and/or money) from customers through the provision of RSS content then marketers need to provide a proposition compelling / valuable enough for customers to do so
Marketers have opportunity to innovate in provision of personalised single RSS feed
Marketers should consider providing an RSS option on current emails
RSS tracking metrics need to be defined by marketing industry (so marketers can clearly compare & contrast against standard email metrics)
Email as a sales driver has had dramatic success over the years...the debate should move away from RSS v Email and move to how RSS can compliment email marketing. Email is here and ain’t going away, at least in the short-to-medium term) |
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Customer |
Once opted out, not bothered again (theoretically)
Email content can be highly relevant
Emails can be blocked to some degree
Increased power to customers to report spammers though increased regulation of opt out / opt in laws
Email can be to easy to forward
Email can be easy to add/edit/delete then forward
Email can be highly designed / branded / rich content (if HTML version)
Email can be filtered, sorted, and archived |
Email is intrusive – that is why opt out rates (for irrelevant communications) is on the up
Email is trackable (open rates, CTR, etc) down to individual level – potential privacy concerns
Email inbox content is mostly highly irrelevant
Email subscription often requires the provision of additional PII data
Important/critical can get lost/blocked in fog of spam
Spoof emails creating environment of confusion / distrust about email
Number of emails is increasing – not enough time (nor inclination) to open and read all
Email address obtained by marketer, and once given can never (or hard to) be retrieved |
RSS is not intrusive
RSS subscriptions can be easily stopped
RSS (through topic channels) gives easy access to highly relevant content, and lots of it
RSS subscription process usually requires no provision of additional PII data (including email)
RSS content can be designed / branded rich (although this may be seen as a negative)
RSS channels can be managed, ensuring important/critical doesn’t get lost/blocked in fog of spam
RSS is efficient - enables much larger amounts of content to be viewed from more sources
RSS content can be accessed through many devices
RSS content being provided by more and more ‘providers’
RSS content can be more trusted (e.g. harder to phish)
RSS can be to easy to forward via email (standard feature in most readers)
RSS can be easy to add/edit/delete then forward via email
RSS can be filtered, sorted, and archived
RSS integration and add-ins into existing products is increasing (e.g. Outlook)
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RSS is trackable – potential privacy concerns
RSS reader is one more application to download and one more user interface to learn
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Customers want choice of medium (email, web, RSS, DM, IM, etc), frequency, content relevancy
Customers expect content for free, without providing data or money), but may be willing to do so if the proposition has real value
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