Make Money Online With Snowboardjohn

Ok, so you may/may not have heard Seth Godin suggest that using an R.S.S. feed is more powerful than email marketing.

Here’s the exact quote from that big ass interview:

“RSS is far more powerful than email and it’s where you want to be in the future.”

This is yet another example of a lazy marketing generalization which is 100% untrue. (Don’t worry Seth, I love ya buddy, but I know you’re big enough to take it on the chin when you’re wrong).

RSS is not more powerful than email marketing - it’s a totally different form of marketing, for totally different types of markets.

In a market in which there’s:

1. Tons of trust needed to make a sale, read: A lot of money from a few clients who pay a lot of money. Or,

2. A lot of news because the market is new, or changes a lot - like stock trading, or search engine optimization, or online marketing.

…An RSS feed is a good part of the marketing mix. But even then I would recommend trying to get RSS subscribers on a mailing list.

Because ultimately you will make more money betting on the fact that people are disorganized and lazy, than you will betting on people’s ability to go and voluntarily read your blog - no matter how good it is.

ALSO - Many markets are just not suited to an RSS feed like update.

Markets in which people want a solution to a known problem NOW do not lend themselves to constant news or updates. People want their problem solved. And they need to be exposed to some marketing before they are willing to buy.

They DON’T WANT a discussion about their genital herpes, but they DO WANT genital herpes cream. They ALREADY KNOW herpes is incurable - their Doctor (who they trust far more than they’ll ever trust you) TOLD THEM SO. News from the genital herpes front will go unread, ignored, and unappreciated.

But they want the best genital herpes cream around, and it’s going to take them several website visits, and probably several days to make their decision.

To get their business, your best bet is to EMAIL THEM CONSTANTLY (with their permission and within the guidelines of the CAN-SPAM Act) with things which will help them make the decision you want them to make.

That may not be very “Permission Marketing” or sound very nice, but it’s true in my experience. And I’m only interested in discussing reality, NOT how things would work in a perfect world.

After they buy THEN get them on more of a “slow burn” marketing list - with discounts, cross sells, etc.

But still, I wouldn’t use an RSS feed to do any SELLING.

The distinction’s I use are:

- RSS is for markets with news, a lot of changes, a lot of trust required, to do a product launch, build good will etc.

- Email is for markets that don’t have any news, change much, have one time sales (no backend), or have technically incompetent prospects who even find opening their email difficult - never lone figuring out RSS.

For Seth and his market of highly intelligent early adopters: sure RSS is a great tool.

But for the Crochet Pattern Market: not such a good idea.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 5:05 am and is filed under Make Money Online Tip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.