When running a small business, digital marketing can grow your audience by sharing content and developing your brand. The internet’s massive audience can help any small business. But, you’ll also need to make sure people notice your content. 

One way to expand your small business marketing is through the use of RSS. But what is RSS, and why does it matter to small businesses?

This guide will cover RSS for small business marketing, including:

  • What is RSS?
  • How does RSS work?
  • Why does RSS matter to small business owners?

What is RSS?

RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. It helps people streamline content by putting users’ favourite stuff onto one platform. 

Instead of searching your favourite news platforms, blogs, or podcasts, you can use an RSS feed to send everything to your RSS feed. Then, everything you plan to read or listen to is waiting there automatically. This helps organise and keep track of regular content. 

With the growing popularity of newsletters and social media, RSS feeds are not as popular as they once were. But, they are still useful for content streamlining. Some may consider RSS to be outdated, but plenty of RSS feeders are adapting to the digital world. 

Ultimately, using RSS feeds lets people find new content they are interested in and subscribe to their favourite platforms. They don’t need to search for it themselves. It appears automatically in their feed. 

How does RSS work?

Understanding what RSS is can help you market your business more effectively. But it’s also important to know how it works if you want to add RSS to your small business marketing strategy.

RSS feeds and files

To compile RSS content, people use RSS feeds. These are apps also known as feed readers or aggregators that collect users’ favourite content. People can only subscribe to content that uses RSS files. 

These apps read RSS files, which translate the content into an easy to reach text format. The apps then transport it to the site in a way that is easy to read. RSS files are XML text files that make the content more accessible so it can automatically update. The format also organises the content with headlines and summaries. 

Some RSS feeds people can download and use, such as Feedly, Feeder, or Inoreader. These platforms let users organise their RSS content into categories and mark content they like and dislike. 

Sites with the RSS symbol, often an orange square with a white symbol, translate their content into RSS files.

What they do 

RSS feeds and RSS files can compile users news articles, blog posts, and podcasts of interest. If you post regular content for your small business, you can make that content accessible to RSS readers. 

With so much content on the internet today, RSS feeders are one way to organise and find what people are most interested in. It sets up a personally designed platform to make users internet experience more efficient. 

Why does RSS matter to small business owners?

As a small business, it’s useful to know what RSS is to use it to your advantage in marketing. You can use RSS for your business by publishing your marketing content via RSS files. 

Find the right CMS

You could consider using a Content Management System, or CMS, with RSS to make your content RSS accessible. 

When users notice the RSS symbol alongside your content, they will understand that you work to make accessing your content easier. This can help you develop your brand reputation by appearing professional and accomodating to potential customers. 

Update your content regularly

To market your small business with RSS, you’ll need to make sure that you regularly update your business marketing content. If you regularly post content to your business website, RSS will allow people to subscribe to it. 

Consider coming up with regular articles content for your website. You can also post about any promotions or new products so people can learn about your business offers.

Become more accessible 

Using RSS will make your content more accessible to people as it will automatically update them when you post new content. It will also organise your content so that the reader can easily get the most important information from it. 

Think about using RSS on top of other marketing methods. For example, if you send out a regular marketing newsletter, you may also want to make it RSS content to reach more people. You can also use RSS on top of social media marketing. The more ways people can access your business information, the more people you’ll be able to reach. 

Reach the right audience

The more you put your content out there, the easier it will be to reach your small business target audience. If you want to use RSS for your marketing content, you can share this with your audience so they know you make an effort to be accessible. 

With so much content on the internet today, you need to work hard to stand out in your digital marketing as a small business. RSS can help you do that because it delivers your content to subscribed users. This means, they won’t have to seek out your website to learn more about your business. 

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