Growth Tools - RSS.app

In this article we take a look at a simple low-cost tool called RSS.app. I have no affiliations with the company and have not received any payment or favour for writing this article. I've just been a happy customer and regular user for a number of years.

RSS.app and similar apps are useful for people who are interested in growth because it can fulfil a number of useful functions from market research to competitive analysis to keeping tabs on your customers and partners.

What does RSS.app do?

RSS feeds and readers have gone a bit out of fashion. A few years ago, all web sites had an icon somewhere on the site like the one below:

The icon signified that an RSS feed was available. Instead of having to navigate to the site, you could simply add the RSS feed URL to your favourite feed reader or email/messaging client and receive an updated list of headlines, article summaries and maybe an article image.

You could aggregate feeds into topic groups and it was faster and easier than navigating to each site. You also didn't have to put up with advertisements, form fills, cookie warnings etc. Feed readers would also tell you which articles you have already visited or read.

Unfortunately, RSS feeds are now less common because most companies and content producers want you to use their platforms directly. RSS.app solves this problem by generating an RSS feed from any URL that has enough structure to ascertain if the page includes a list of articles and where each article may begin and end.

Thankfully, most platforms conform to such a structure - especially blog pages and content sites like Wordpress, Medium, Ghost and Substack.

So, RSS.app can generate an RSS feeds from any structured page by simply supplying the URL. But there are two other features that make this product super useful.

1) Bundles - Multiple RSS feeds can be aggregated to form a bundle that represents a particular area of interest.

2) Widgets - An individual feed or a bundle can be made available via a widget that can be embedded in a web page using a simple iframe or javascript fragment. There are various widget types from walls to carousels to simple lists and each widget type can be fully customised to fit into your site's style.

Once configured and integrated all updates are automatic. For an example, see the new digest page on my Growth Explorers site that aggregates posts from a range of experts and sites associated with product management, marketing and growth.

How I use RSS.app ?

There are lots of applications for this tool, but I have used RSS.app for the following:

1) Competitor Analysis - Build a wall of your competitors blogs and resource. Keep an eye out for case studies, press releases, feature updates, new releases and more. Share the wall with your sales and marketing teams.

2) Regulatory Tracking - Build a simple feed of an aggregate of all of the news pages from any regulator or government body that is relevant to your product or business.

3) Industry Research - Build a wall of key influencers, vendors, consultants and research organisations that cover your industry.

4) Customers and Opportunities - Collate the blogs and news pages from your key customers and new opportunities. Track expansion plans, important announcements and leadership changes to identify new opportunities.

5) Partners - Collate information about your current and prospective partners to monitor their progress, collaboration opportunities and coverage of your services and products.

Curated Feeds over Algorithms

Social media tools such as LinkedIn are great, but your feed can get a bit random with only a small percentage of posts adding value or feeling relevant. Designing a carefully aggregated feed that is personal to you, your product or organisation can improve efficiency and prevent doom-scrolling.