Disruption Tour --- Run To Survive

Change

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/02/change.html

In down economies, the only thing that’s going to change things is changing things. This is hard for a lot of marketers who are used to defending the status quo, but it’s truly the best option.

If you're not happy with what you've got, what radical changes are you willing to make to change what you're getting?

In my experience, not much. But that doesn't mean you can't start now.

In down economies, the only thing that’s going to change things is changing things. This is hard for a lot of marketers who are used to defending the status quo, but it’s truly the best option.

If you're not happy with what you've got, what radical changes are you willing to make to change what you're getting?

In my experience, not much. But that doesn't mean you can't start now.

The consumer's preferred inbox is changing.

Shift 3

You may not agree that you need a messaging strategy outside of email marketing, but you must adapt to the reality that how consumers get their content, promotions, and updates has changed. Most online users don't just rely on their work and home email address for these communications anymore.

Yahoo! in a white paper published in 2009 indicated more then 50% of consumers are now using Readers and My Home pages to aggregated information they want when they want it.

As discussed earlier, some consumers prefer to get special offers via SMS messaging, while others may ignore their Hotmail or Gmail accounts and head right to Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter for all of their communications -- whether from their old college girlfriends or their favorite restaurants.

The next revolution is to download a Reader application to your browser enabled phone/IPhone and you then take your promotional coupons with you right into the store. Wouldn't it be cool to scan your coupons right off your IPhone at Point of Sale. Check out RSSCheck.com for a demo of this capability.

You may be fortunate to build what amounts to subscriber communication preference segments based on all of these, whether you know you are doing so or not. Most companies won't thrive if the only way of opting in with the company is through a website-based email signup form that captures only an email address. Establishing ways to capture preferences and points of communication is crucial as your customers' habits evolve and migrate to other digital channels. This leads us to the next item.

2009 is the year of the preference center. 

With this sea change happening in front of us, companies that fail to offer their customers more choices will be in trouble. So this fundamental digital principle -- offering the user more choices -- is the right place to focus in 2009.

Over the years, companies have offered an email signup page and/or website registration form (albeit sometimes mutually exclusive of each other) to capture consumers' opt-ins, which are arguably one of the most valuable commodities in the digital world. Remember, these are customers and would-be customers raising their hands to say, "Yes, please market to me." That doesn't happen in all media and marketing, so elevate the value of these opt-ins within your marketing strategy.

In 2009, marketers need to offer a clear and seamless user experience through which interested parties can sign up for communications (B2C promotions or sale, B2B  coop-dollars or special offers. You may be saying, "Should we have that yes you consumer is asking you for it...they are demanding that you provide it to them." So do you provide the following?

·    Ability to receive communications in multiple platforms (Transactional RSS, email, mobile, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

·    Ability to allow consumers to pre-select their preferences, formats, devices, languages, etc.

·    Ability to give your consumers complete control over the frequency of promotons they recieve

·    Ability to choose types of communications and adjust as you go, as opposed to unsubscribing from all

·    Ability to get a sneak peak of any offered communications

·    Ability to understand that consumers what their data to be completely private and they want to exchange their digital rights for a monetary amount. 

RSSCheck’s new role in digital marketing (post #5)

Tipping Point 2

Targeted messaging now requires Transactional RSS, email, mobile, and social networks.

Email marketing can no longer be your only communication silo. While traditional advertising still serves a need for most companies, the ability to deliver and track specific custom messages to users' preferred points of receipt is what separates the potential of some digital channels from that of offline tactics. Transactional RSS marketing trumps Email marketing's ability to accomplish a customers self-selected decision to hear about product offers they want to receive. These offers also come right to their consumers Reader or their My Home page (MSN/Outlook/Google/Yahoo//Apple).

According to a white paper published by Yahoo! RSS’s consumer adoption has moved up from around 11% in 2005 to over 50% of consumer adoption in 2008. This RSS adoption metric includes the use of customized home pages along with consumer Readers. This is now well documented. So we must now address the question of how to develop a Transactional RSS marketing channel that leverages its promotional capabilities.

Mobile, Twitter and social networks are the perfect complementary tools for RSSCheck’s Transactional RSS marketing and for those companies looking to offer a truly targeted messaging solution. RSSCheck’s Transactional RSS, Mobile, social media or SMS messaging takes the 1:1 marketing concept and strips it down to achieve the same kind of messaging goals in a different format.

Yes, you must take some of the creative (and some of the branding impact) out of the equation, and you must have a different call to action. But the upside in doing so it is that you can deliver the message to opt-in users who prefer another communication channel, thereby potentially targeting them one step closer to the point of sale, whatever that may be.

Plus using RSSCheck’s barcode feed coupon product you can deliver feed coupons right to consumers 365 days a year that can then be scanned at Point Of Sale within a store.

RSSCheck’s new role in digital marketing (post #4)

Opportunity 1

RSSCheck is a marriage of electronic polling and pre-selcected customized advertising.

At its best, Transactional RSS marketing blends creativity, marketing skill and IT science, and an Transactional RSS marketing star can now wear several critical organizational hats. Not to mention how they can bring in new incremental business. In challenging times you can now achieve hero status. True permission Transactional marketing success occurs when a marketer delivers a relevant message on target with the audience's wants. So what does that mean?

The relevance side has to do with creating a message that speaks to what your subscribers signed up for and what they expect and want. This is where email can’t compete with true Transactional RSS. Your consumer can will decided what they want and will turn you off when they are finished with your offer. A perfect example of this is in the Automotive Industry. For a window of time you are open to receive car offers in preselected car classes. They when you have made your purchase you are essentially out of the market and turning off your Transactional RSS Feed is also totally under your control and it can be done with one click in your reader.

Repurposing other promotional content from mail, email print is not relevant content to your consumer. You may think so but your response rates are telling you something else. In the new world order of digital marketing if you to sell them you got to speak to them they way they want to be spoken too. A tipping point and one that is turning online marketing on its ear. What if your consumers said talk to me this way, my way and tell me about this product category, The way that I am interested in? What if this gave you over a 11% in your online business. Would you take it if it just cost you a percentage equal the cost of your affiliate percentage. Would you do the deal if there was no up front costs to get this place. Well you have just found out RSSCheck’s revolutionary business model. A new online marketing channel that is pure pay for performance only.

Boy wouldn’t that be a marketing game changer? It is!

RSSCheck’s new role in digital marketing (post #3)

So how often does a marketer get a rare opportunity to excel in their space -- not just email/ppc or seo marketer -- but to find an opportunity that will enable you and your company to thrive in a difficult and challenging environment. Why wouldn't you use the Transactional RSSCheck opportunity to greatly improve your online marketing efforts? Not only would it give you another tool in your online tool box but it would give you a proven new incremental selling channel that is asked for by your consumer. All of this comes to you/your business from RSSCheck free of charge and for only an affiliate fee.

Plus RSSCheck’s technology enables barcodes to be embedded in Transactional Feeds which are also printable by the consumer. Then these coupons can be brought into the store and redeemed at POS. Through your Twitter and your social media accounts merchants can easily publish RSSCheck's Transactional RSS Feeds right to your IPhone. Imagine going into a grocery store for instance and getting the specific coupon/sale offer you want in the category you want right on your IPhone as you walk the isles. This can happen on any browser based enabled phone. The same can happen for any retailer interested in pursuing RSSCheck's Transactional RSS marketing opportunity.

RSSCheck’s new role in digital marketing (post #2)

Old cycles, and true permission opt-in is the new trend in online marketing. At least, that is what we're seeing with regard to an emerging online marketing area called Transactional RSS Marketing. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Although at RSSCheck we have coined RSS to mean Really Simple Sale™. If you are interested to learn more about RSS and RSS Reader technology go to the RSSCheck.com’s website and play the 2 videos. They will give you a great baseline of understand about RSS marketing. A recent StrongMail study showed that more than half (51 percent) of the nearly 1,000 global business leaders polled plan to increase their marketing budgets in 2009 to focus on programs that yield a higher return on investment, such as email marketing and search. On the other hand, many plan to decrease spending on costly, less targeted programs like advertising and trade shows.

However you will learn below is how few businesses even know of the potential of Transactional RSS marketing. This is evident by who is using it and who isn’t. First… what does the giant online retailer Walmart know about Transactional RSS see http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=621119 and learn how they are using it. If you notice they are using it in the promotional area of their business.

What does Tiger Direct one of the top e-tailers know about Transactional RSS see http://www.tigerdirect.com/rss/index.asp

They also respect their consumer ability to pre-select the exact product content/category their consumer wants to hear about through RSS. Again they focus valuable page real estate to the promotions part of their business. You will also notice on their home page how they are now capturing a RSS Feed above the fold. Check out the right navigational a RSS capture button.

Now right about now you are thinking well,,,great this is cool… I will go to my IT department and we will put together a RSS feed marketing program. Of course you can. RSS is simply XML parsing and that is where the simplicity stops. Getting your Transactional RSS marketing programs is 10% RSS technology deployment and a blending and assimulaton of the following… online marketing expertise, database marketing expertise, promotional knowledge, merchandising, merchandise planning and business experience. Now all of these ingredients go into baking your Transactional RSS program and why it has been a challenge for business to find the secret sauce on how to make Transactional RSS work for their businesses. I sense most of you are using an agency to help you with your email programs, seo programs and PPC programs. Why it isn’t easy to crack the online marketing code.

Now to prove the point if Walmart, Tiger Direct, Woot.com, BackCountry.com are using Transactional RSS Marketing and selling billions of dollars through their RSS channel then not to pick on the following top 100 etailers why aren’t Target, Amazon and others doing what Walmart and others are doing. By the way Walmart is up…Others are down in this difficult environment…hmmm?

What doesn’t Target know about RSS?…they are not even using Transactional RSS? Same for Amazon??  And then following the slap the RSS IT on the website example some big etailers are using it but are failing miserably in their execution.

RSSCheck’s new role in digital marketing

 Introduction

Traditional marketing strategies were focused on pushing marketing information to potential customers. Enter the internet age and the pushing technique (used of email) is all but obsolete. What's more important is that businesses can now new marketing strategies that enable customers to "pull" the necessary product information about the company’s they are interested in hearing from.  

Today advertising is everywhere. Consumers are left feeling numbed and overwhelmed by advertising. They feel they are in an arms race between themselves and merchants who want to talk to them.

Instead of noticing advertisement, people prefer to go to the source for product information, locate it and pull it in for themselves. This information "pulling" helps consumers gather their own product deals rather than simply accepting what's being pitched to them. All of this is self-selected, passive, opt-in and maintains online privacy. While this does not signify the end of "push" marketing, "pull" marketing is becoming more and more significant.

This will be the first installment of 5 posts about RSSCheck's Transactional Really Simple Sale Technology...