RSS: From Killer Technology to Killer App

RSS is not yet being adopted by mainstream marketers. A new report from JupiterResearch shows just 5% of marketers use RSS in their campaigns - and just 6% of consumers have adopted it at home.

In other words, while RSS is potentially a great technology and communications medium, it has not yet taken off. To gain adoption, it will needs to be “rewrapped” as a great *product* in order for the technology to really blossom. We’ve seen this movie before: the Internet, pre-www.

JupiterRearch says the challenge for marketers is that RSS is not well suited to promotional-offer-oriented content because it doesn’t offer the targeting and personalization capabilities of e-mail. Plus, over 40% of respondents said they lack the resources and experience to deploy RSS.

So what do RSS backers need to do to start turning this technology into the next killer app? Amanda Watlington’s blog offers up four bullet points for success:

* Demystify the technology so non-technical marketers can grasp the power
* Identify or develop tools that are friendly to the non-technical user
* Develop easy-to-implement solutions for use in pilot projects that will demonstrate the value
* Work with vendors for better tracking solutions — a long range project.

Okay, I’ll fess up: the impetus for this blog is a couple of our Elements guys are working on a secure RSS-based Element that achieves all four of the top bullet points. It’s pretty mindblowing, and does a great job of making RSS simple to use. I’ll blog again once we’ve shown it to a few folks.