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Speaking at the recent Internet Advertising Bureau's Engage Conference in London, Bill Gates declared "the future of advertising is the internet." And he is right. In many senses, technology is no longer at the service of marketing; it increasingly defines it.

And his three central observations around technology-driven changes -- consumer empowerment, personalization and interactivity -- have recast marketing. Yet these are elements of any relationship marketing company's DNA since well before the arrival of the net.

Individually, these changes are not new. What is new is the convergence of change and the acknowledgement that traditional marketing needs an overhaul -- the targets of such marketing are voting with their feet.

The changes in technologies and mediums such as blogs, RSS feeds and podcasts have given consumers more control of the messaging and content they receive and as marketers we have to work more creatively to reach them. The most searching impact of the internet for marketers, however, is in the real-time dialogues that the medium offers.

Permission-based dialogues go far beyond the one-way communications many marketers have adopted and continue to practice -- even on the web. By definition, dialogue involves listening. Smart marketers are doing so, and the internet and the related, evolving marketing technologies are providing more channels via which to do so.

Using these new tools, we are better able to tune into behavioral differences, into how prospects react to the online marketing and to accompany our prospective customers further along the sales funnel. This is why it is more appropriate to use the term online marketing rather than online advertising -- the online marketer uses the tools at his or her disposition to change consumer behavior, not simply attitudes.

Gates noted that media and internet content will become personalized, allowing us to view what we want, when we want. Actually, that's already happening -- on television with personal video recorders (PVRs), and on the internet, with a technology that is rapidly becoming mainstream. It goes under the (for once) aptly descriptive name of really simple syndication (RSS) and, just as TiVo allows you to watch what you want when you want, so RSS allows you to choose the web content you want to see -- and updates it automatically.

Moreover, just as PVRs have revolutionized TV viewing, RSS is set to transform the way we use the net. Unlike TiVo, though, it also represents transformational opportunities for marketers who use it wisely. As people take more active control of the messaging and content they consume, reaching them gets tougher. Marketers need to understand that consumers who want a relationship with a company or site will increasingly subscribe to RSS instead of email.

But first we need to understand what RSS is and does. Fundamentally, it's a standard for publishing regular updates to web-based content. Using this standard, online publishers provide updates, such as the latest news headlines or blogs. Whenever you see the RSS icon on a website, it means you have found content that can be syndicated or published.

Meanwhile, consumers use RSS reader applications called aggregators or, less impenetrably, news "readers" to collect and monitor their favorite feeds in one place. For consumers, RSS makes it possible to review a large number of sites in a very short time. For publishers, RSS allows instant distribution of content updates to consumers.

RSS has tremendous potential from a marketing perspective and every marketer needs to be aware of what RSS can do. According to Forrester's Marketer Online Survey (in February), 57 percent of marketers are interested in using RSS as a marketing channel -- even though penetration to date has reached barely two percent of North American online adults.

The combination of reduced email marketing effectiveness and growing consumer advertising backlash will convince marketers to test RSS.

Given that RSS feeds are becoming easier to subscribe to, and that more and more online services are becoming RSS enabled, this trend will inevitably force us to understand and leverage the potential of RSS as a tool in customer relationship management. RSS has profound implications for several marketing-related industries and specifically for relationship marketing agencies.

The weak link in RSS as a marketing tool is, undoubtedly, measurement. As Forrester says, measuring RSS-based marketing efforts is like web measurement in 1994 -- there's limited technology in place and the standards don't exist today. They will soon, and there are already a range of techniques from the very basic, that all marketers should use, to metrics that enable marketers who are RSS experts -- yes, there are some -- to analyze the overall impact of RSS marketing.

RSS will get even simpler: browser makers are already working on a one-click button to add RSS content to their applications, and marketers who ignore this increasingly important element of consumer choice are forfeiting a powerful opportunity to reach their consumers.

The hype is shifting from search engine marketing to RSS, the trendy abbreviation for really simple syndication or rich site summary, depending on who's doing the selling.
But a new report from JupiterResearch claims RSS will not have a significant effect as a supplemental alternative to e-mail marketing.

"Most marketers remain skeptical of using RSS as a mechanism to supplement their e-mail marketing newsletter content," states the report written by JupiterResearch's David Daniels, Zori Bayriamova and Eric T. Peterson.

According to the New York market researcher, 45 percent of marketers have no plans to deploy RSS to supplement e-mail, and only 5 percent currently do so. The findings were based on a recent executive survey.

Media and entertainment companies represent the largest percentage of marketers publishing newsletter content through RSS. They account for 17 percent of respondents who deploy RSS to distribute newsletter content.

As defined by encyclopedia Wikipedia, RSS is a family of XML file formats for Web syndication used by news sites and Web logs, or blogs.

RSS typically is used to offer items with short descriptions of online content, accompanied by a link to the full version of the article. The content is delivered as an XML file called an RSS feed, RSS stream or RSS channel. An orange rectangle with the letters XML often links to a site's RSS feed.

A feed reader or aggregator program checks RSS-enabled Web pages on behalf of a user and displays updated content that it finds.

RSS saves users from the need to repeatedly visit favorite sites to check for new content or be notified of updates through e-mail. Most major news sites now have RSS feeds. Bloggers use RSS to share the latest headlines or the article's full text. Sometimes even multimedia files are attached.

"It is more consumer friendly and it won't become truly marketer friendly until more consumers realize the convenience of it and begin to use RSS," Daniels said.

JupiterResearch admits that RSS is ideal for media firms and publishers that use e-mail as a broadcast tool to use as an alternative for newsletter content distribution. Yet there were reservations.

RSS is not well suited to promotional-offer-oriented content because it does not offer the targeting and personalization capabilities of e-mail, the report said. However, even for use as a supplemental or alternative e-mail broadcast tool, the adoption of RSS for marketing purposes will remain low during the next 24 months.

"The immediate benefit for direct e-mail marketers is that RSS removes the e-mail delivery hurdles," Daniels said. "However, that benefit cannot be immediately recognized since the adoption of RSS is low.

"The real impact will be on e-mail marketing providers as these deployments will begin to steal from the e-mail marketing pie," he said. "Accordingly, we're seeing a number of e-mail marketing vendors beginning to introduce RSS capability, if for no other reason than to hedge their bets."

Even marketers using RSS do it to satisfy market pressure. Thirty-five percent of the surveyed marketers have deployed -- or soon will -- RSS because of consumer demand.

But consumer adoption of RSS readers remains low. Only 6 percent of consumers have one deployed at home. The adoption rate will change little until the reader's functionality is embedded into browsers or e-mail clients.

RSS is free from the delivery issues plaguing e-mail and can be implemented at little or no extra cost. But these factors should not be the main drivers of using RSS as a marketing channel.

Spam and ensuing delivery issues partly occurred because of the low cost of e-mail marketing, the JupiterResearch report said.

"Without such economic barriers and self-regulation in place, and keeping these low-cost drivers in mind, RSS could possibly become as cluttered and confusing to consumers as the e-mail marketing channel is currently," the report stated.

Marketers publishing newsletter content through RSS should treat it not just as a low-cost delivery mechanism, but also as a revenue opportunity. Only 19 percent of marketers told JupiterResearch they were exploring RSS for extra ad unit revenue opportunities.

RSS is more ideal for media and publishing firms than for e-mail marketers oriented to promotional offers. This is because RSS feeds essentially are Web pages, and the construction of ad-supported page templates is easy.

"Because consumers' adoption of RSS remains low," the report said, "publishers should have realistic revenue goals."

Marketers planning to deploy RSS are hesitant. The main challenge for 40 percent of them, they told JupiterResearch, is the lack of resources and experience to deploy, which they can overcome.

JupiterResearch said many e-mail marketing service providers, like SubscriberMail, have added RSS publishing functionality to their offerings. This enables publishing of e-mail newsletter content as an RSS feed.

"Although these solutions have yet to take hold with marketers, many RSS publishing tools and resources exist in the market today," the report said. "However, RSS publishing still faces many hurdles: measuring traffic at least on a subscriber level is nearly impossible to do, which will relegate RSS to a broadcast marketing tool in the near term."

That said, RSS will have some sort of direct marketing application.

"Most of the adoption of RSS readers have been among more technically savvy internet users," Daniels said. "If you primarily cater to an audience that is technically savvy you should begin experimenting with to gauge your audiences interest.

"For direct marketers, your time is probably better spent in optimizing your existing e-mail marketing campaigns by doing more targeting, testing and personalization in order to improve the relevancy and ultimately the performance of your email campaigns."

Marketing consultant Renee Blodgett said the effect of RSS and blogging -- online personal journals, also the rage of the moment -- on direct and interactive marketing will be additive rather than disruptive.

"Just in the way e-mail didn't replace the phone and instant messenger doesn't replace e-mail, RSS won't replace e-mail," Blodgett said. "It's a supplementary and complementary communication tool to reach a large group of people with an important message, such as a subscriber base to a newsletter or customers in one vertical market."

Mickey Alam Khan covers Internet marketing campaigns and e-commerce, agency news as well as circulation for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters.

Not many of us have yet been able to familiarize themselves with RSS. This short acronym which stands for Rich Site Summary or also Really Simple Syndication is a new technology which allows Web site owners to make their content available to others in a number of new and interesting ways.

First of all, newsletter publishers, can provide their periodical load of news and articles through an RSS feed instead of sending out an email. But what's the advantage?

Users are getting wary of spam and promotions they are getting in their email inboxes. Many of them think that this is due to the fact that they have subscribed to newsletters that in turn have resold their emails to nasty advertisers. This makes people less willing to subscribe to newsletters on sites that are not fully known and trusted.

But RSS comes to the rescue.

Number one. By publishing your content also in an RSS format, users can simply "grab" the address of your newsfeed and get the periodic load of great news you send them directly inside their newsreader/aggregator if not directly inside their email. Not only. Now your posts are sent to your readers as soon as you publish them, and while you have little control over the layout and formatting of them, each one is an up-to-date reminder to your reader to come back to your site and check for more.

Privacy is guaranteed and service is improved!

Number two. If you do have, good, solid content that you publish on a daily basis, you can have other sites syndicate your news feed as part of their own news service provision to their readers. It's a win-win proposition. Those who syndicate get good headline news for free while you increase significantly your exposure, reach and authority.

If all this sounds interesting to you, I suggest that you give a good read at my new essay "The Future of RSS - Is E-Mail Publishing Dead? RSS-based Information And News Feeds: Pros and Cons For Content Distribution Through RSS" which has just been published by Sabrina Pacifici of LLRX.com.

To get an RSS feed of this site see the top and bottom of the home page where there are some orange tags labelled "XML". By right-clicking on them you can copy the URL of my newsfeeds, which needs to be pasted inside your RSS newsreader/aggregator. For example PC users wanting to get all my news about Online Collaboration can get place this URL in a freely downloadable RSS newreader like Newzcrawler. A Mac user wanting to be updated on my articles about Independent Publishing could place instead this URL into one of the many available Mac RSS newsreaders/aggregators.

As I am writing this article a breakthrough new online service has added a new feature allowing you to subscribe and receive any RSS feed into your own email inbox. Find out how in my latest article online "How To Receive RSS Feeds In Your Email In Four Simple Steps".

For all of you wanting to find out more about RSS, find here below the best online resources about RSS technology, newsreaders and aggregators: