When you sit at your computer to go online, what's your start page? How many different sites do you visit? If you're like a growing segment of the online world, you're no longer visiting your 15 favorite sites one at a time when you browse the web. Instead, you're using one of the many aggregators that are available, like MyYahoo, as your start page to get the information you want from your favorite sites, all on one page.
Your information, how you want it, when you want it. Perhaps this is why Newsweek magazine said it's a fair bet that 2007 will be about further personalizing your life online. ("Tech: Welcome, Year of the Widget," 12/22/06)
What does this shift really mean for marketers and content providers?
On one hand, it means that a growing segment of your online user base may not remember to visit your site anymore. From their start page, users can choose to click on a headline to visit the domain where the content originated, or they can just stay on the aggregator's page and get the nuggets of information they want.
The good news, however, is that you can help your users personalize their online experience and you can overcome the boundaries of your website, all while driving loyalty and enhancing your brand value at the same time.
One of the new technologies that is impacting the online experience for end users, and the dynamic of content delivery for brands, is RSS. Consider this: In his November, 2005 presentation at The CNET Japan Innovation Conference, Daniel Read, VP consumer products from Ask Jeeves, pointed out that the use of RSS feeds is increasing at a rate of 500 percent per year and that within a couple of years RSS feeds will be fully integrated into the web experience.
Adoption of RSS is spreading rapidly. In fact, according to the 2006 Face of the Web report from Ipsos Insights, the trend to the "always-on" digital lifestyle is being powered by RSS feeds. And it's no wonder. RSS is all about personalizing content, and "always-on" is about delivering this content immediately and directly.
If you're not already doing it, you might consider offering RSS feeds on your website so your users can easily incorporate your content into their start page. In doing so, there are a few key points to keep in mind:
- Items in your RSS feeds need to be current and interesting so that users are likely to include your feeds in the first place, and then click on the content to be re-directed to your site.
- Make those landing pages interesting.
- Cross-promote to other content on your site so that you can keep your users on your site once they're there.
Savvy marketers and content providers, however, are taking further advantage of the rapid spread of RSS, and the strength of their brands, by offering branded, desktop-based RSS readers to their users. Doing so provides the brand with a direct, always-on connection to users' desktops, permanent brand visibility on the desktop, prime real estate (this is their users' new start page, after all), and prime location of the brand's RSS feeds in the reader.
In his book, "Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS," RSS marketing expert Rok Hrastnik points out that marketers benefit from branded RSS aggregators because they integrate the functionalities needed for the company to better promote its brand, its products, its RSS feeds, and also to keep a mutually profitable relationship with the customer.
And what's great about desktop applications, in general, is that in addition to RSS feeds, brands can use these connections to deliver a variety of relevant, personalized, time-sensitive information -- such as weather, traffic reports, sports scores, et cetera -- directly to their users.
After all, if 2007 is all about personalizing the online experience, there's no better way to participate in this movement than by helping your users get all the content they need, in one easy-to-use package under your brand, delivered right to their desktop.
Joe Lichtenberg is vice president, marketing & business development for Eluma. Read full bio.
