RSS Works: Hard RSS Metrics

During my presentation at Syndicate on Wednesday I was finally able to present some hard RSS metrics. I was hoping to present more, but it's a good start as it encompasses metrics from a few different areas ...

Here's the quick summary of the stats presented.

RSS Results: Aggregator Stats

RSS statistics should be most relevant when coming from the actual RSS aggregator and their vendors.

Custom Reader were great enough to supply us with their latest data, based on 3,500 users of their brandable RSS reader and on the last [two weeks ago] 48 hours of their reader usage.

The most interesting piece of data is the 23% average CTR from feed to site within last 48 hours, which proves that RSS works in terms of getting readers from the outbout message to the site.

Other interesting data included RSS reader downloads from various sites and actual usage within the last 48 hours. 15% of downloads on the average used the Reader within the last 48 hours [Fansite: 44-50% within the last 48 hours; Blogsite: 18-26% w/l 48 hours; Internal: 60% w/l 48 hours].

RSS Results: Vendor Stats

Considering the different RSS metrics systems and the fact that no marketing tool whatsoever can be measured 100% precisely from the outside tracking service side, seeing stats from RSS solutions vendors is important as well.

On this end, some basic stats were supplied from SimpleFeed, the providers of one of the more hign-end corporate RSS marketing solutions.

The stats are based on an app. 10,000 end-user sample, 30 day average and 4 months of data.

They are seeing a 6.8% average CTR from content item [individual content item in an RSS feed] to site and a 150% [1.5 clicks] average CTR from feed to site within 30 days.

RSS Results: Lockergnome and CTRs

And finally, let's take a look at the stats from the publisher point of view, a case study we have already seen.

Lockergnome.com, although serving a more tech savvy audience, is an excellent example of the results you can ultimately hope to achieve using RSS.

First of all, they are seeing a ration of 5:1 in favor of the number of RSS subscribers against e-mail subscribers, and even more interesting, a 500% better clickthrough ratio with RSS than with e-mail.

RSS Results: BTI and Search Engine Positioning

The BTI Group is a smaller VoIP provider and, through their high ranking blogsite, the proof that RSS works for search engine positioning.

Here are just some of their results ...

a] 120 page-one search results on important industry search terms
#1 Voip vs traditional phone system
#1 VoIP solution provider
#2 VoIP small business
#2 VoIP architecture
#5 VoIP phone equipment
#6 VoIP benefits
#7 VoIP Small Business costs

b] A 75% increase in traffic to the corporate website

c] BTI's link popularity jumped from 164 in June 2003 to 1312 in December 2004 to 1405 in February 2005

Overview

These metrics clearly show that RSS works for marketers. Are they enough to make this entirely conclusive?

No, but it's a good start. I'm however hoping that more publishers, marketers and vendors will join in and share their stats.

And the next step ... measuring conversion to purchase, reader loyalty and long-term sales impact.