E-Mail is Dead, Long Live RSS

OK, the subject of this post should read: "Proclaiming something to be dead is dead." But I figured this headline might raise more ire. The gimmick of proclaiming the death of one industry, discipline, technique or technology due to the creation of another is just asking for it. When people claim public relations is dead, when they claim anything is dead for that matter, I laugh. It shows a complete oversimplification and misunderstanding of what we do so they can place their related field on a pedestal.

B.L. Ochman lists nine words not to use in a blog post. Might I add the above approach to the list? Heck, while we're at it, making absolute statements and defining blogosphere rules should join the ranking...even though I'm doing so above. You are just making yourself fodder for a rash of posts noting the error in your thinking.

With the above rant, er, observation in mind, I read this article by David Daniels. RSS' effect on e-mail marketing makes the point that e-mail marketing is not dead. OK, based on the penetration of RSS alone, that's accurate. Not to mention, each technology has pros and cons. If your needs can be addressed by both technologies, it is really your goals, objectives and target audience that should drive your choice of one over another.

But Daniels makes himself the poster child for "you're wrong" follow-up posts with the following statement:

"RSS provides opportunity, particularly for newsletter publishers, but let's not kid ourselves. As it's repurposed for more direct marketing initiatives, it won't be a smooth, clutter-free ride. As e-mail marketers, we can relax. This technology won't seriously compete with our channel, so we can focus on what we need to: making e-mail marketing more relevant!"

Something tells me Fergus Burns is hoping the rest of David's colleagues listen to him and kick their heels up.

Me? I have a mix of e-mail newsletters and RSS feeds. But I could see getting rid of the majority of my e-mail newsletters if they offered RSS feeds of their content. Not all of them, but most of them.

Comments

[B.L. Ochman]

hey go ahead, never give the smallest thought to being the first to find unique ways of always using the biggest and best words in the most unique way.

The article I wrote in 1999, The Traditional Press Release Is Dead, http://www.whatsnextonline.com/wno/newsletter19.html#topic1 is what spurred a lot of those headlines for articles. It's still one of my most popular articles and it's still true. :>)
B.L.

[Kevin Dugan]

Hmm, I was limiting my rant to blogs and did not consider books. And with a 1999 "born on" date, I think it safe to say this rant does not include your article.

But you'd be amazed at how many inanimate objects are expiring these days:

http://tinyurl.com/68gl4

Now the newspaper is on life support.

[Chris Thilk]

My blog covers movie marketing so my examples are specific to that industry but I've written on how RSS needs to integrated into those efforts and e-mail alerts phased out. Check them out at the links below.
--Chris

Emerging Technologies: http://moviemarketingmadness.blogspot.com/2005/03/movie-marketing-and-emerging.html

Email newsletters: http://moviemarketingmadness.blogspot.com/2005/03/movie-marketing-and-technology-email.html