RSS Feed via Email: Dynamic Content for Your Newsletter
Send Dynamic Email Content: How to Use RSS Feeds via Email!
What is RSS Content?
You’ve probably recognized the RSS feed logo in the screenshot above. If you can find the button on a website, you can easily subscribe to their content with just one click.
This way your readers and customers can keep up with everything that’s going on with your business. The RSS feed subscription is suited for all content that’s regularly updated. New posts are displayed in the browser, email program or a specific feed reader. This is similar to a news ticker. Conversely, an RSS feed can also be integrated into static pages. This allows you to display the latest content on your homepage, such as news, stock quotes, tweets or special offers. Simply use your RSS content for your email marketing with CleverReach®. With the help of our dynamic elements, your newsletter will be filled with valuable up-to-date content. Always keep your subscribers posted with the latest offers and news.
How to Integrate RSS Feeds and Dynamic Content in Your Campaigns
Including Dynamic Content in 5 Steps
1. What is RSS?
RSS is a file format based on XML for easy sharing of web content.
The term RSS is originally the abbreviation for RDF (Resource Description Framework) Site Summary, but in the meantime another definition has gained wide acceptance: “Really Simple Syndication”.
An RSS feed is basically a list of the latest articles on a website, accompanied by information about their origin, author and content.
2. Include and Send the Latest Content with RSS
Easily integrate RSS and other dynamic content elements in your newsletter with the intuitive CleverReach® drag & drop editor:
• Click on “dynamic elements“ in the right sidebar.
• Mark the source, in this case RSS.
• Drag and drop the element to your email.
• Enter the RSS URL.
• Click on „Retrieve Content“.
• Select the post.
• Confirm by clicking „OK“.
Select a template for your newsletter:
• Do you want to promote offers from your online shop?
• Or do you want to include your latest blog posts?
We have the right templates for your needs. You want to create your own template for dynamic content? No problem, simply browse our help center post „Using custom elements for dynamic interfaces“.
You decide whether your newsletter…
• Completely consists of RSS content only
• Is a mix of manual elements and individual RSS fields.
Which RSS Content Is Suitable for Your Newsletter Mailing?
Basically all dynamic content can be integrated in your newsletter. Do you want to keep recipients up-to-date with what’s going on in your business?
Then integrate:
• Shop content: Integrate new products, special offers and top-sellers from your online shop.
• Blog posts: Send teasers of your latest blog posts in your newsletter and make your readers crave for more.
• Tweets: Integrate your Twitter account in your newsletter.
You are not limited to your own posts as a data source when integrating RSS content. There’s a huge number of other RSS feeds you want to add to your newsletter:
• News: Keep your reader up to date with the latest news from a news ticker that is sent regularly at a certain time of day.
• Tweets: You can also integrate a Twitter feed without your own Twitter account. In that case, display tweets with your company’s hashtag or on a specific topic.
• Stock prices: Current stock market prices can be embedded in newsletters from the financial sector.
• Weather: A feed with current temperatures, snow conditions or wind forecast is useful for newsletters from vacation regions or hotels.
• Horoscope: A daily horoscope could be a nice surprise in birthday emails.
3. Integrate Dynamic Content with RSS Feeds
The data from your homepage is transferred directly to your mailing. Since the retrieval of the RSS feed is automatic, it is important that this data is always structured the same way so that it is always displayed consistently in your newsletter.
How RSS Content is Inserted in Your Newsletter:
• The content of your web page is retrieved.
• Subsequently, this content is transformed into a structured data format (an XML file).
• This transformation controls how the retrieved content of the RRS feed is displayed in the email newsletter.
• the RSS content is retrieved once directly before sending; all recipients receive the same current content.
4. Finding out the RSS URL of Your Website
To include RSS content in your newsletter, you need the RSS URL of your blog or other sources during the email creation process. The RSS URL tells our system from which web address the content should flow into your newsletter.
But where do you get the URL of your RSS feed to include in your email marketing campaigns?
To find the URL of your own RSS feed, call up your web page and then, by right-clicking with the mouse or using the key combination “Ctrl + u”, the “Show page source” function. Then go to the search function in your browser or use the key combination “Ctrl + f” and search for the keyword “RSS”. You will then see the matching search results highlighted in color and you can identify the RSS URL relatively easily. You enter this in the corresponding field during the creation process of your RSS newsletter.
5. Benefits of Including RSS Feeds in Newsletters
The automatic connection between an RSS feed and your newsletter holds a variety of benefits for you:
- You have a very low effort to fill your newsletter with content, because the process – once created – runs automatically.
- Your newsletter is always filled with the latest content.
- Your recipients are updated in real-time.
- There are various options of using dynamic content as you can use any RSS feed.
- Existing content is reused in another channel.
You want to send automated RSS feed emails to your recipients? No problem: Create our automation workflow „THEA RSS Import“ and keep your readers posted with new posts and content. For more details on creating an RSS automation browse our help center.
Embed RSS feeds and dynamic content with CleverReach®
Manage
- up to 250 recipients
- and send up to 1.000 emails per month for free!
Our Lite Plan has no limited running-term. There is no setup fee and no contractual obligations.
For more emails and features, choose between our Flex, Essential or Enterprise plans. Our price plan calculator will tell you which plan is the best for you!
