Cashing in with Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers Into Buyers

by David Meerman Scott

In failing to provide visitors with great information content, most of today's Web sites are missing a golden opportunity to create loyal customers-and leaving a fortune in new and repeat business on... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0910965714
• ISBN13: 9780910965712
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Information Today
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Must reading for anyone involved in communicating an organization's message

David Scott has created a treasure that should be must reading for anyone involved in marketing, general management or overall business. The heart of the book is a series of twenty case studies of organizations which utilize content effectively. They are broken into three groups: E-Commerce, Business-to-business, and Educational, Healthcare, Nonprofit and Politics. The case studies are well set-up and include interviews with key executives at each organization. The book concludes by defining a set of twelve best practices, exemplified by the twenty organizations profiled in the case studies. Some of these practices may seem painfully obvious ("If you serve a global market, use global content") but are often ignored by those developing websites. Others take traditional offline practices and reinforce the need to apply them in the online world, such as "Link Content Directly to the Sales Cycle". Each of these best practices are then tied back to the specific case studies which support them. For example, in supporting the sales cycle, the Tourism Toronto website supports those travelers first thinking about visiting Canada, then helps them throughout their trip planning. The site also lets users self-select a path, depending upon whether they are an individual planning a vacation or business trip, a tour group or an organization planning a conference or meeting. Business books are often either too ethereal or focused on practices only the largest organizations can afford. David Scott's Cashing in with Content is neither. It offers a series of straightforward practices, supported by numerous real-world examples, in an enjoyable, quick read format. If you want to be sure that your organization's message is being communicated effectively, buy a copy, read it and put it into practice.

Lays a solid foundation for a successful website

As a user I get frustrated with sites that don't give me information or a reason for visiting the site; as a web designer I get frustrated designing sites around the fact that there IS no content, and hoping the user won't notice. When all is said and done, it is all about the user, not the client (from the designer's perspective)... if the user doesn't find what they are looking for they won't buy the product, end of story. But, that doesn't seem to be where a lot of design teams start from - they start from the client's perspective which isn't necessarily bad, it's just that the user is never considered. This book is great because it is all about the content, and giving users what they want - more than a pretty interface, and content they can sink their teeth into. This in turn builds a strong relationship with the user and leads to more sales and profitability. These are the exact principles I have fought for in my 10 year career as a web designer. I wish every boss, art director and client would read this book - it would make my job a lot easier! I think the book was intelligently organized, well written and over all very readable. I also liked the author's use of screenshots from example websites to reinforce his point. The book was long enough to be thorough, but not so long as to be redundant or boring. There really isn't anything about the book that I would change. Bottom line - if you have any role involving web site creation - web designer, marketer, art director, or client - reading this book will lay the foundation for a successful website.

The Importance Of Internet Content

It would seem that the topic of content should be first and foremost on the minds of web publishers; however, unfortunately such is not the case, as evidenced by many sites that focus on pretty-faced graphics with little information, forgetting that most individuals access the Internet to seek information and are not looking for fancy ads. Some interesting questions are raised when we discuss the subject matter of content. Why, for example, should publishers pay attention to what information their site contains? How should the content be created, managed and deployed in order to support larger business objectives? David Meerman Scott, who is one of the country's preeminent web marketing and blogging experts, makes this timely topic come alive in his recently published book, Cashing In With Content. Scott's web content topics are divided into four parts, E-Commerce, Business-to-Business, Nonprofit organizations, and Putting Content to Work. What the book offers are case histories of twenty successful savy sites dealing with what they have for sale, what is so interesting about their site, why should they be concerned about their content, who are they trying to reach, and how do they cash in from their content. Particularly effective is how Scott turns his insider eyes into the web site workings of many well known profit and non-profit companies such as Tourism Toronto, Sharp HealthCare, CareUSA, Booz Allen, UPS, ServiceWare and others in order to find out what challenges they had to overcome and what makes them successful. As an example, Tourism Toronto was faced with cases of SARS that hit the city in 2003 that led to several deaths. The effect on tourism was shocking, particularly as Toronto was singled out as one of the first locations outside of Asia with a SARS outbreak. The challenge, which seemed to be insurmountable at the time, was met head on with a redesigning of the site that now contains content that acts as an essential educational and informational tool. Another interesting case history is that of Kenyon College located in Gambier Ohio. In 2003 the college's site was rebuilt in order to raise the college's profile, attract more donations, and increase the number and quality of applications for admission. Here again the challenge was not an easy one to overcome, however, as mentioned by the team in charge of redesigning the site, they came to the conclusion that it was essential to bear in mind that the college's personality is centered around the strong sense of community at the college. Subsequently, the site was organized to reflect the many and varied individuals, who make up the college community, permitting these individuals to tell their stories of the college. The last section of the book, entitled Best Practices from Innovative Web Markets, enumerates and briefly sums up twelve common strategies and techniques that are the modus operandi of the sites examined in the book with cross references as to the sites where

A must-read

Kudos to David Scott for getting to the heart of what separates a good website from a great website. Absolute must-read for anyone who, as the subtitle implies, wants to "turn browsers into buyers" Highly recommended and completely worthwhile