Why I refused RSS?

Previously, when I took on projects to promote on the Internet in 2009, RSS feeds were the most effective. Before that, I started blogging in 2003–2004. and when RSS gained momentum, it was the best way to distribute content on the Internet.

I remember that I was very much focused on the number of RSS subscribers, because that was how you created your audience and conveyed your content to them. Remember, this was before Twitter was born and when Facebook was in its infancy (I still can not believe that it was only 12 years ago).

RSS was fantastic in performance in those days, but I think its time is finally over. With the death of Google Reader, the growing popularity of social networks around the world, as well as the growing popularity of messaging applications such as Slack, people now receive content that they want to read through other channels, rather than just email, which knows how to format messages and may not belong to you.

So, today I refuse RSS and this is how I replace this technology.

Specific email campaigns

Over the past few years I have learned a lot about email marketing. In particular, I learned that an effective campaign is really very difficult to do correctly, but if you go consistently, you can quickly grow your business. SEO in me thinks that most of the content that I write should be available without logging in, although the businessman in me is extremely disagree. In March 2016, I read a series of webinars on transactional email marketing; this was my first step towards working directly with the subscriber base.

I increasingly recommend my clients to use the subscription form to the newsletter and gradually build an email marketing system. I always wanted my clients to participate in various forums, events, including in the form of speakers. This allows you to further increase the subscriber base.

Then we start sending messages, telling about interesting stories, announcing new blog posts, and also about why we wrote this message. These stories are interesting to people more than the actual publication. These messages give context and people benefit more from these posts.

Of course, sending event e-mails is a big job, but I think the game is worth the trouble, especially when we are talking about small business.

The main difference of this tool from all the others is that the buyer begins to trust the seller so much that he “turns off” his protection from his advertising.

Customer confidence is the key to sales. Confidence at all stages of communication: from a capturing acquaintance to a deep affection, when you get yourself an asset to this Lawyer of the brand.

Scheduled publications in social networks

Some people are angry at the thought of semi-automated or planned posting on social networks. And this is true. It is difficult to do the right thing. Nevertheless, I believe that this can be done well. Moreover, I have seen excellent cases. Social networks are also a place where most people get interesting content, as well as the place where they share them. Therefore, it is very important to be there.

This is partly why at one time I spent a lot of time increasing the number of followers on Twitter for some of my clients, and now I’m working to develop a professional network on Facebook. Many sites get a lot of traffic from social networks and, being a marketer, I want to find out how they do it and what can be applied for myself and my clients. From here you can understand how to automate everything qualitatively in order to regularly share useful content and attract visitors in real time.

I use the Buffer system to share content through my social network profiles, but there are several other ways that I try to automate social networks in reasonable ways - this is the automatic placement of posts on social networks as they are released, the planned publication of new and old posts. I am sure that I will find a few other ways on intelligent automation, as well as continue to be engaged in social channels.

Social Network Budget

Finally, I conducted several experiments with advertising in social networks. I used remarketing for customer sites and experimented with promoting posts among a certain group of people I gathered after visiting sites. Such campaigns have proven their effectiveness more than once and therefore I plan to use them much more often.

Over the past few years I have learned a lot from experienced marketers how to advance in social networks in the most efficient way possible, so I try to learn and monitor results. While they are great. You can put a super low amount in the promotion and see excellent results from the marketing campaign, so there are no barriers for me here. I look forward to even more experimentation in this.