Staying in touch with your site's visitor base, your clients, and your customers is a definite must-do when striving to build your conversion rate.
As long as it's not over done to the point of becoming a turn-off, it's a well known marketing principle that the more times you can contact or connect with a potential prospect, the more likely they are to become a full-fledged customer.
Email Newsletter Subscriptions Now unless you've been hiding under a rock somewhere for the last decade or so, you're surely well aware that email lists-most commonly in the form of "subscribe to our newsletter" or something similar-have been a reliable staple for website owners to use to stay connected with their visitor base.
At some point, spam started to become a serious problem for the average subscriber, and there was a movement away from this marketing method for awhile.
But today, email newsletter subscriptions are still alive and well.
In fact, with improved spam-resistance and today's use of clear privacy policies, some would say that prospecting email subscribers is stronger today than ever.
No matter what your thoughts on this may be, one thing is for sure-visitor confidence in sharing their private contact information is precious territory, but as long as you can prove trustworthiness through your site, most folks will be comfortable signing up for your email list.
And what's more, email lists still work.
Why else would master marketers and internet marketing gurus still swear by them? Operating an above-the-fray email newsletter as part of your website is an awesome way to control your list.
Plus, it works really well with twitter and other external components of your overall web presence.
So, What About RSS Then? The thing about RSS is this...
even for as long as it's been around now, it still hasn't totally caught on.
In fact, most average web users don't even have a clue what it is and how to use it-yet alone have a feed reader set up.
RSS, as much as it's been promoted as a great way to keep your audience up to speed, is simply not mainstream at all.
And even if your visitor base happens to be very web savvy-the demographic that would tend to utilize RSS subscriptions-it's still not a very good way to control your contacts.
First of all, those using a reader are not connecting with your site and its well designed interface at all; instead, they're reading your content externally.
This really removes your capability to sell or pre-sell (yet alone the opportunity to show advertising).
Final Remarks...
Sure, go ahead and use RSS.
It won't really hurt your site.
But don't promote it too heavily, less you'll lose that important direct customer contact.
Seriously consider keeping your email list (or implementing one) as a primary way to reach out to your customers.
As long as it's not over done to the point of becoming a turn-off, it's a well known marketing principle that the more times you can contact or connect with a potential prospect, the more likely they are to become a full-fledged customer.
Email Newsletter Subscriptions Now unless you've been hiding under a rock somewhere for the last decade or so, you're surely well aware that email lists-most commonly in the form of "subscribe to our newsletter" or something similar-have been a reliable staple for website owners to use to stay connected with their visitor base.
At some point, spam started to become a serious problem for the average subscriber, and there was a movement away from this marketing method for awhile.
But today, email newsletter subscriptions are still alive and well.
In fact, with improved spam-resistance and today's use of clear privacy policies, some would say that prospecting email subscribers is stronger today than ever.
No matter what your thoughts on this may be, one thing is for sure-visitor confidence in sharing their private contact information is precious territory, but as long as you can prove trustworthiness through your site, most folks will be comfortable signing up for your email list.
And what's more, email lists still work.
Why else would master marketers and internet marketing gurus still swear by them? Operating an above-the-fray email newsletter as part of your website is an awesome way to control your list.
Plus, it works really well with twitter and other external components of your overall web presence.
So, What About RSS Then? The thing about RSS is this...
even for as long as it's been around now, it still hasn't totally caught on.
In fact, most average web users don't even have a clue what it is and how to use it-yet alone have a feed reader set up.
RSS, as much as it's been promoted as a great way to keep your audience up to speed, is simply not mainstream at all.
And even if your visitor base happens to be very web savvy-the demographic that would tend to utilize RSS subscriptions-it's still not a very good way to control your contacts.
First of all, those using a reader are not connecting with your site and its well designed interface at all; instead, they're reading your content externally.
This really removes your capability to sell or pre-sell (yet alone the opportunity to show advertising).
Final Remarks...
Sure, go ahead and use RSS.
It won't really hurt your site.
But don't promote it too heavily, less you'll lose that important direct customer contact.
Seriously consider keeping your email list (or implementing one) as a primary way to reach out to your customers.
SHARE
