The promise of e-mail as an advertising medium has been to bring brands and consumers together more directly than ever before. The reality, though, is that consumers are increasingly frustrated as
they look for offers they really want amid the info-glut, and advertisers easily get lost in the clutter of spam and phish.
To unclog the lines of communication, Silverpop launched RSS
Direct, billed as the first commercial-grade RSS (Really Simple Syndication) content distribution system for advertisers.
"In traditional RSS, subscribers all pull their information from
the same feed, broadcast-style," says Elaine O'Gorman, vice president of strategy for Atlanta, Ga.-based Silverpop. "Our technology enables companies to supply RSS feeds as individually targeted and
segmented as e-mail messages, with the security and deliverability of RSS. Customers receive an individualized personal communications feed based on their expressed interests."
Subscribers don't need to divulge e-mail addresses, so spammers can't send unwanted feeds. And because RSS readers pull only information from sources selected by the subscriber, the secure "private
line" feeds are phish-proof.