RSS as a new international e-marketing opportunity

This paper analyses the present use of Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds by presenting a preliminary survey among global firms and investigating RSS as a potential new e-marketing opportunity for firms. The findings show that RSS feeds are highly underutilised in direct marketing among global companies. A survey of major corporate websites reveals that there is a significant difference between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and non-ICT companies in their use of RSS, whereby the former use RSS more extensively. The overall figures on the use of RSS feeds are skewed by the presence on the lists of a small number of companies who use RSS extensively - IBM, Oracle and Electronic Arts each maintains over 200 feeds. At present RSS is used predominantly for press releases and technical information and, to a lesser extent, investor information. Direct marketing accounts for less than 1% of feeds and is used by less than 4% of companies. This is despite RSS feeds being low-cost and time-saving, and providing increased privacy for customers. Both factors contribute to the growing convenience of the customers, which is critical in the new world of e-marketing. There is clearly significant room for expansion in the use of RSS feeds for direct marketing, and work has yet to be done to define the most effective ways of doing this.