NEW YORK – Shop.org’s annual summit this week was bustling with retailers and software firms, prospecting for clients and seeking out alliances.
One such new partnership is that of Experian-owned e-mail marketing firm CheetahMail with RSS marketing firm Simple Feed.
“We are really excited about offering RSS as another marketing tool for our clients,” said Ashley Johnston, director of marketing at CheetahMail, New York. “Simple Feed is a great company that makes RSS really easy.”
In addition to e-mail, CheetahMail customers will now be able to use RSS as a tool for communication.
RSS is popular with media companies that have up-to-the-minute content, so it may prove useful for CheetahMail clients like The Discovery Channel, Crain’s, New York magazine and National Geographic.
Ms. Johnston said that she was surprised that not many clients have really asked for RSS.
“We are waiting to see if RSS will be adopted or not, so we have the option ready,” she said.
RSS lets consumers opt in to receive feeds of up-to-date content based on preferences.
According to David Daniels, research director at JupiterResearch, RSS has a very specific demographic: 40-year-old men with high incomes. However RSS’ open and conversion rates are very high.
Time will tell if RSS will become the new e-mail. In the meantime, CheetahMail hopes to have a head start.
“We are a communications company and offering all of the tools for communications is what we want to do,” Ms. Johnston said.
