SimpleFeed Brings Unprecedented Content Presentation and Measurement to Leading RSS Solution for Marketing

Bertelsmann Makes Bookspan Content Available Via RSS.

Los Altos, Calif., — Nov 21, 2005 – SimpleFeed (www.simplefeed.com), the market leader in delivering RSS marketing services to corporations, today announced SimpleFeed 2.0, a new version of its popular service that gives marketing departments more options for personalized content, and more control over the management, measurement and branding of RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) grew in popularity as a way for bloggers to deliver content via “feeds.” These feeds were designed for utility, not branding, and required some technical know-how in order to create and subscribe to content. SimpleFeed, founded in late 2003, is a pioneer in providing on-demand RSS solutions to marketing departments. Prior to SimpleFeed, organizations and marketers interested in deploying RSS feeds had only one option – build it themselves. With SimpleFeed, companies now quickly and easily offer RSS feeds to customers.

Using SimpleFeed’s templating and design features, the feeds carry the same look and feel as the rest of a company’s marketing collateral. SimpleFeed is now used in the marketing departments of large and small businesses as an efficient way to communicate with customers on recent news, events, research updates, customer forums, support updates, blogs, podcasts and sales promotions, all with sophisticated reporting and analytics.

“After managing RSS Feeds for Fortune 500 companies for over a year, SimpleFeed intimately understand the marketing needs of major corporations. We’ve harnessed the power of RSS and made it accessible to the marketing departments, without the involvement of IT” says Mark Carlson, CEO of SimpleFeed. “With today’s release, SimpleFeed turns RSS into a win-win marketing communication channel – customers get relevant branded content while marketing gets the measurement necessary to achieve their business objectives.”

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) grew in popularity as a way for bloggers to deliver content via “feeds.” These feeds were designed for utility, not branding, and required some technical know-how in order to create and subscribe to content. SimpleFeed, founded in late 2003, is a pioneer in providing on-demand RSS solutions to marketing departments. Prior to SimpleFeed, organizations and marketers interested in deploying RSS feeds had only one option – build it themselves. With SimpleFeed, companies now quickly and easily offer RSS feeds to customers.

Bookspan now offers RSS with SimpleFeed

Bookspan, a partnership of Bertelsmann A.G. and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX), the parent company for more than 40 book clubs sells book directly to members through the mail and online. Using SimpleFeed, Bookspan is now able to build online communities of interest using blogs and RSS feeds. Additionally, customers can subscribe to special offers via the RSS feed.

“Bookspan has succeeded by putting our customers and our employees at the center of our business,” said Christian Busch, director of business development, Bookspan. “By adding blogs and the RSS functionality from SimpleFeed, we have found another way to give customers more convenience and personalization, without burdening employees with the need to learn complex technology.”

SimpleFeed’s new features include:

  • SimpleTag™ Personalization Technology Using SimpleFeed’s SimpleTag™ technology, customers and prospects subscribe to content categories using simple checkboxes on an uncluttered subscription page. This eliminates complex menus and intimidating XML code, and leads to higher subscription rates.
  • Measurement and Analytics Suite More than 48 customizable reports providing insight on key RSS statistics such as subscribers,
    content views, click-throughs, and SimpleTag™ trends for better informed marketing decisions.
  • Feed Publishing and Management An easy-to-use Web-based tool, accessed from any browser, allows feeds to be created and managed without any prior technical knowledge. New privileges provide companies with granular control of users and workflow, and can readily comply with corporate communication policies.
  • Professionally Branded Templates SimpleFeed templates allow corporate fonts, colors, logos and images to be included in feeds, allowing companies to cross-promote products and news, or embed advertising and graphics in feeds. SimpleFeed’s template system also provides consistent presentation regardless of which RSS readers or browser customers use.
  • SimpleFeed Consulting Services™ As the only RSS services company to implement multiple Fortune 500 RSS solutions, SimpleFeed can provide expert guidance on planning, implementing ongoing support, no matter how complex the computing environment.

About SimpleFeed

SimpleFeed, headquartered in Los Altos, Calif., is the newest and simplest way for marketing departments to implement, manage and modify customer communications programs – all without needing any IT support. As a result, SimpleFeed has become the market leader for providing on-demand RSS marketing services to corporations. With SimpleFeed, customers subscribe using RSS to product updates, customer support, recent news – whatever interests them. The result is a simple, persistent communication channel that respects the time and privacy of customers. In return, companies get more attention, more credibility and the ability to measure the results of their communication programs. SimpleFeed is being used by corporations to increase sales to existing customers, acquire new customers and increase customer retention.

Press contacts:

Sarah Bresee
OutCast Communications
sbresee@outcastpr.com
415.392.8282