If you’re a member of our coaching club (www.businessownerscoachingclub.com), you know that when we talk about Click-and-Mortar were not just talking about the combination of online and off-line channels. It also means using technology to enhance and deepen personal relationships with your target market.

RSS is one of those practical technologies that should be part of your Click-and-Mortar growth strategy. Whether you’re syndicating content from your blog, your newsletter/ezine, or exclusive paid content — RSS is a major convenience for the people in your target market.

Now don’t get me wrong. RSS is by no means a magic wand that’s going to transform your business overnight with no work on your part. But with a focused plan of action, the right know how, and consistent follow-through RSS can become a major player in your Click-and-Mortar business growth.

There are literally dozens of ways that RSS can help boost your business growth. As you become more aware of the technology, experience the convenience yourself, and watch it at work in the marketplace, you’ll come up with lots more ideas too. For now though, lets look at what I would consider to be the top three reasons why RSS can make you a major niche player in a 21st-century marketplace.

Reason #1. You have another, more reliable delivery channel to communicate with your target market.

With email filtering, IP blocking, and servers getting blacklisted business owners are looking for another low-cost alternative to relationship building. Long gone are the days of being able to use email and be confident that all your mail was delivered. Blocking rates of 30-40% are not unheard of.

RSS is not yet a replacement for email. But it is another very valuable relationship building resource to master and put to work for you.

WARNING: you must respect this communication channel. Abuse it by trying to push your marketing messages, or violate the trust of your target market — and this growth partner can turn on you like rabid dog sensing blood. That’ll make total sense when you read reason number two.

Reason #2. You put the consumer in control, and that’s what people want.

It’s a scary thing for most owners to step back and yield control of communication channels. But the fact is — businesses are no longer in control anyway. It’s only an illusion. The 21st-century marketplace is consumer driven and client-centric.

The businesses that try to fight this will fail. Not because they’re fighting some type of trend in the marketplace. But because they’re fighting human nature.

The psychological drive for human beings to feel in control is what makes this factor one of the 21 Keys to Click-and-Mortar Business Growth. It’s impact is rippling throughout the marketplace right now as the Internet and technology are allowing consumers to experience a level of control that they’ve never had before.

Most owners are fighting it, wanting to hold on to the way business has been done throughout the last century. But the smart owners, the effective entrepreneurs are realizing that this wave of change is not to be fought. Like the pounding surf and forty foot waves we get each year on the North Shore of Oahu, there are only two choices you can make and survive.

• Get out of the water and watch.
• Get in and paddle out to where the waves are breaking to ride the suckers.

Floundering around in between those two options means you’ll be crushed. It’s not an option in the Winter surf, and it’s not an option in the 21st-century marketplace either!

It’s impossible to deny any one of the six human needs, especially the need for security which is one of the most basic needs. Feeling in control helps fulfill that need for security. When you add a technology that’s consumer-centered and makes it simple for the average person to feel in control, and why would they ever want to go back?

(Hint: they won’t!)

Reason #3. RSS makes you an instant syndicated author.

The power and reach of the RSS feed is undeniable. Once your feeds are listed with RSS directories, and your marketing is set up to support your feed content, you’re an instant publisher. With one click of your mouse, you can be syndicating your content and updating thousands of subscribers in a matter of seconds.

Now before you go letting you head get filled with visions of grandeur, this doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically climb to the top of your niche, get positioned as an expert, and stay there without skill, some hard work and a good supporting business structure. There’s more to the game of business blogging than starting your blog, creating feeds, and syndicating your content. (But the good thing is that all can be learned. )

The facts are the facts though. What used to take days with print, and hours with email, can now be completed in under 30-seconds with RSS.

The benefits for the properly prepared entrepreneur are nothing short of incredible. Blog entries, newsletter/ezine, news announcements, site updates, ordering confirmation, and more — you can use RSS to syndicate them all.

Stop standing on the beach watching. The time to learn how to surf is off-peak, when the waves are small and building. That time is now while the blogoshere is still in it’s infancy.

Once those waves start gaining size and momentum, any attempt you make to dive in will be met with pounding surf and dangerous undertows. The longer you wait, the more difficult and costly you job will get.

Step up, dive in, and start your business blogging today! We promise, there’s no sharks that’ll bite.

© Copyright 1999-2005 by RPM Success Group ®, All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form without the express written consent of RPM Success Group ® is prohibited. You may use this article/post in it’s entirety as an RSS feed without previous permission, so long as it is published in it’s entirety with all copyright notices. Call RPM Success Group toll free at 888-334-8151 for offline reprint permissions, or by email editor@rpmsuccess.com.

About the Author: John-Paul Micek and his partner Deborah Cole Micek are Business Growth Coaches. They help small business owners like you, achieve profit-doubling growth in one-third the time it would take to do on your own.

In just 12-months with your membership in the www.BusinessOwnersCoachingClub.com you can bridge the digital divide and transform your small business into a click-and-mortar powerhouse that delivers the profits, personal fulfillment, and free time you want.

John-Paul Micek
Click-and-Mortar Coach
Business Owners Coaching Club
http:/www.AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com

Posted in these categories:
General Posts
Blogging Basics
RSS - Basic Education