Taking advantage of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to automate your newsletter campaigns can be a simple way to increase traffic to your blog, especially if you don’t want to pay for a fancy marketing automation tool. During this session we will discuss the basics behind building out automated newsletter campaigns in RSS-compatible email marketing tools such as Mailchimp.

1. Increasing Traffic to your Drupal Blog
with Automated RSS Email Campaigns
Presented by: Hunter Deschepper
Search: Awesome DrupalCamp Atlanta Presentations
More info
DrupalCamp Atlanta Track: Marketing

2. Hunter is a Content Marketing
Specialist at DesignHammer, a Drupal
web development & design agency
based out of Durham, North Carolina.
Her work revolves around creating
internal & client content, including
newsletter campaigns, copywriting,
data analytics consulting, social media
marketing, occasional design work.
Hunter Deschepper
hunter@designhammer.com
linkedin.com/in/hunterdeschepper

3. 02
Configuration
Configuring RSS Feeds in
Drupal 8 Views
01
02 04
RSS Feeds
Services Launch
Really Simple Syndication
Feeds Explained
You can describe the topic of
the section here
Final testing & launch of
RSS newsletter campaign
Our Talking Points Today
03
Design
Designing an RSS email
marketing campaign

4. RSS Feeds
Really Simple Syndication Feeds Explained
01

5. What is an RSS feed?
An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed is an online
file that contains details about every piece of content
a site has published. Each time a site publishes a new
piece of content, details about that content are
automatically generated in the file and displayed in
reverse chronological order.

6. Are RSS Feeds still
Relevant in 2021?
Search the web… I thought RSS feeds were super old school?
Yes! RSS feeds are still relevant however they aren’t as
dominant as they once were due to the rise of the social media
feed. However, RSS-to-email campaigns are still very prevalent
in the marketing industry today

7. What information does
an RSS feed provide?
RSS Feeds are generated in XML
The contents of an RSS feed are
split into items. Each item will
include whatever article
information the RSS feed has
been configured to display.
The content that is typically
configured to display in an RSS
feed is the article Title,
Description, Link to Content,
Date Published, and Author.

8. Two ways RSS Feeds can be used
RSS Feed Readers
Fans of specific news sources can keep up to date with every new article
by using a browser add-on program called a feed reader which gathers
and displays RSS feeds according to user-definable parameters.
Marketers can make the process of delivering content to their audience
more efficient by configuring an automated RSS email campaign that
triggers every time a new publication appears on your blog.
Email Marketing Automation

9. Search the web… Popular RSS Feed Readers
Free RSS Feed Readers

10. Search the web… DesignHammer Feedly

11. Search the web… RSS email marketing tools
RSS-Compatible Email Marketing Tools

12. Configuration
Here you can describe the topic of the section
Configuring RSS Feeds in Drupal Views
02

13. There are many Drupal modules available for RSS feed
configuration, but for our purposes we will be using the
second most popular module of all time: Drupal Views
Drupal Views

14. Add new view for RSS Feed Add a “Feed” display within view

15. Assign a path or URL for your new feed view
Something as simple as blog/feed will work fine

16. Identify which content is most important
to display to your audience
Content ID
Link to Content Title
Body
Hero Image
At DesignHammer we mainly care about:
Blog Authors

17. Assign content fields to your new
Blog RSS Feed view
Also give the feed a name

18. Adjust feed fields appropriately
Add “Summary
or trimmed”
formatter to
Body field if you
want to include
just the summary
snippet of an
article in your
campaign.
Create a Custom
text field with a
similar text
configuration if
you want your
RSS email
campaign to
show both the
Hero Image and
the article body
Summary
Override the Hero field output to match the format above
Check box to output the Link to Content URL as text

19. Scroll down to preview new RSS Feed
Feed Display Preview Master* Display Preview

20. Design
Here you can describe the topic of the section
Designing an RSS email marketing campaign
03

21. Automated RSS-to-Email Marketing
WITH

22. Visit Automations
panel in Mailchimp
& select Classic Automation

23. Visit Automations
panel in Mailchimp
& select Classic Automation

24. Select Share blog updates

25. click Begin
Name your campaign and select an audience

26. Configure RSS feed and select campaign schedule
Highly recommend resizing RSS feed images to fit your campaign template
Make sure
the URL
matches
the page
path you
defined in
your feed
settings.
The six steps
required to
setup an RSS
campaign are
displayed at
the bottom of
the window

27. Choose RSS campaign audience
or choose an Audience Segment/Tag/Group

28. Add your email campaign info
Add merge
tags to the
name and
subject line
if desired

29. Choose a template & begin customizing theme

30. Locate the RSS content in the Blocks panel
and drag RSS item list to desired location

31. Choose RSS Items Style
I like to start with Custom
and simply delete the
content I don’t want to
include in the campaign The newsletter preview will now show
a list of RSS merge tags

32. Edit the font
styles
in the page
styles pane
to match
your brand
style guide
Customize RSS content list
Be careful
not to delete
the |RSSITEMS|*
Merge tag & the
*|END:RSSITEMS|*
merge tag
When you are
removing desired
content from list
Edit RSS Items content in the Block itself
*|RSSITEM:TITLE|* = H2
*|RSSITEM:RECENT|* = H3

33. Here is my
reformatted
RSS item list
in the email
design window
Review campaign design in Mailchimp and double check in Preview Mode
PROTIP:
Put a horizontal
line before
*|END:RSSITEMS|*
if you want it to
repeat between
every article

34. Click here for a full list
*|FEEDITEMS:[$count=x, $constrain_rss_img=Y]|*
A linked list of your blog posts, with optional settings for number shown and content type. $content=full displays the post's full
content. Leave it blank to display the post's summary instead. $constrain_rss_img=Y resizes the images in your feed.
Related RSS tag: <item>
*|FEEDITEM:COMMENTS_URL|*
A text link to the comments section of the RSS item, which can be displayed as text or used in a hyperlink.
Related RSS tag: <comments>
*|FEEDITEM:CATEGORIES|*
A comma-separated list of the RSS item's categories (e.g., tags or "posted in" notes).
Related RSS tag: <categories>
*|FEEDITEM:IMAGE|*
In certain feed set-ups, this tag displays the image defined in the <media:content> tag. Child elements like height, width and
source URL aren't editable in Mailchimp, but can be included in the RSS feed on your site.
Related RSS tag: <media:content>

35. Launch
Here you can describe the topic of the section
Final testing & launch of RSS newsletter campaign
04

36. and
check your inbox!
Go ahead and send a test email

37. If it looks good then go ahead and schedule you campaign!

38. Things to remember
You can pause and edit
an RSS campaign,
including the design
and the schedule at
any time.
You don’t have to use a
basic Mailchimp
template for an RSS
campaign. You can also
use pre-built or
custom-coded
templates.
If you want your very first RSS
campaign to show multiple
items from your blog, start
with a monthly schedule,
then edit the schedule after
the first send. Or else your
campaign might only show
the most recent post on your
feed

39. Contact: hunter@designhammer.com
Do you have any questions?
Log