Millions of blogs relied on Feedburner and Google Reader to distribute their content, in the form of an RSS feed. Now, those options have disappeared, and bloggers are left hoping their readers will be proactive and tech-savvy, transferring their feeds to another option like Feedly or use a desktop app like RSS Bandit.
It's time for bloggers to start utilizing RSS to Email. That way, businesses and bloggers can share their content and maintain control of the distribution.
What is RSS to Email?
RSS to Email is a GoDaddy Email Marketing feature that allows your readers to receive your blog posts in the form of an email. This works to both share your content and drive more engagement back to your blog.
First, they subscribe to your RSS feed through a simple sign up form. Then, GoDaddy Email Marketing checks your blog hourly, daily, weekly or monthly and converts any new blog posts into an email and sends it to those subscribers. Mission accomplished!
6 reasons RSS To Email is an effective replacement for RSS feed managers
1. List ownership
Whenever someone subscribes to your blog feed through a GoDaddy Email Marketing signup form, they're added to your list. You own that list and it's not reliant on any application. So if you change blog URLs or a reader's feed manager closes down, you still can stay in touch and distribute your content.
2. Branding, design and content control
RSS To Email actually allows you to create a branded framework for your RSS feed. That means when your readers open up the email, they see your logo, colors, fonts and even content that isn't in the blog feed like calls to action, product placements and links to your social sites.
You look great and instead of being a link in a feed manager, battling other bloggers for attention, you stand out, with your voice and your style up front!
3. Everyone has email, not everyone uses feed managers
Not all of your readers or potential readers will use Feedly or another feed manager. Staying in touch with people via their email addresses means universal accessibility.
4. Grow subscribers everywhere
GoDaddy Email Marketing offers a hosted sign-up form that you can embed on your site. There's other options too. You can also create a Facebook sign up form or share the webform's URL elsewhere like Twitter.
This means you can garner sign ups and grow your subscriber base without relying on people visiting your blog first. If you share the form on social networks and ask customers to sign up on your main site (if you're a business), you can grow your readership steadily across multiple channels.
5. More communication options
RSS To Email offers another benefit. You’re no longer bound by blog posts to communicate with your readers. If you decide to send a newsletter out, a call to action or even a sale, you’ll have the design tools and the email addresses to do communicate directly.
6. Analytics!
Email analytics can be a powerful way to understand your impact with your readership. By taking a look at your view rates and click rates versus unsubscribes, you can see if you're keeping readers engaged and entertained. You can tell which links they're clicking and that can help improve your placement of important links too and increase revenue whether it's ad based or merchandise.
Want simple integration with Facebook, Google Analytics and more? Try GoDaddy Email Marketing.
Knowing your top readers, the ones that share your content with their social networks, is a huge advantage. You can give them a “hat tip” in posts, send them a thank you note and generally get them even more involved in spreading your content.
Maintaining control of your content distribution and blog audience means greater reach and longevity. RSS to Email isn't just a replacement for a feed manager, it's an upgrade.
