Cashing In With Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers into Buyers [Paperback]

David Meerman Scott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2005

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 the table. According to Web marketing expert David Meerman Scott, too many marketers focus on style over substance. While a site may win awards for graphic design, Scott demonstrates that the key to Web marketing success is compelling content, delivered in new and surprising ways. In Cashing in with Content, he interviews 20 of today's most innovative Web marketers, sharing their secrets for using content to turn browsers into buyers, to encourage repeat business, and to unleash the amazing power of viral marketing. The book features a diverse range of content-savvy organizations from the worlds of e-commerce, business to- business, and government/not-for-profit, including the Wall Street Journal Online, CARE USA, Kenyon College, Alcoa, Tourism Toronto, Weyerhaeuser, Booz Allen Hamilton, and United Parcel Service.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Meerman Scott is a writer, consultant, conference speaker and seminar leader specializing in using online content to market and sell products and services to demanding customers worldwide.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Information Today, Inc. (October 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0910965714
• ISBN-13: 978-0910965712
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #862,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My book The New Rules of Marketing & PR opened people's eyes to the new realities of marketing and public relations on the Web. Six months on the BusinessWeek bestseller list and published in more than twenty languages, New Rules is now a modern business classic. My popular blog and hundreds of speaking engagements around the world give me a singular perspective on how businesses are implementing new strategies to reach buyers.

I'm the author of other popular books about marketing including Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History and World Wide Rave: Creating triggers that get millions of people to spread your ideas and share your stories.

I am a recovering VP of marketing for two publicly traded technology companies and was also Asia marketing director for Knight-Ridder, at the time one of the world's largest newspaper and electronic information companies. I've lived and worked in New York, Tokyo, Boston, and Hong Kong and has presented at industry conferences and events in over twenty countries on four continents.

Check out my blog at www.WebInkNow.com

Important note about my Amazon reviews: You may notice all my Amazon reviews are five or four stars. I read (and write) a lot. I'm too busy to read a book I don't like -- there's just so many great books waiting! If a book doesn't capture my interest within a few chapters, I put it down and don't finish. I won't review a book I don't finish, so all my reviews are of books I've enjoyed and get a lot of stars!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a lot of insightful ideas, September 7, 2007

By 

Tom Carpenter "- www.sysedco.com" (Marysville, OH) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cashing In With Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers into Buyers (Paperback)

I'm afraid I have to agree with some of the reviews that suggest there is no real explanation of "how innovative marketers are using digital information to turn browsers into buyers". The book is written in a very journalistic style such that you feel you are reading a collection of newspaper articles. Sadly, the information provided is about as high-level as you would read in a newspaper.

For example, the chapter on Alcoa's website insists that the company is providing supplies for the Apple computer, but it does not specify what kind of content attracted Apple causing them to do business with Alcoa. The chapter mentions an article explaining how aluminum is manufactured, but I'm doubtful that was the cause of the new business.

At least, in the chapter on a small college, the author does suggest that they put a button on their site saying "Give Now" and an article explaining how to put the college in your will. I'm certainly glad the college is doing that, but I have to wonder who wouldn't put such a button or an article on their site. Analogistically, it would be like Amazon allowing you to put things in the cart but never providing a way to buy things.

Like others here, I had purchased the book hoping to get suggestions on how to create and benefit from website content as an author myself and a consultant. I feel that the book was not worth the cost, but more importantly, it wasn't worth my time. And please look at my other reviews. I rarely feel bad enough about a book to give it a low review. Being an author, it's hard for me to do that to another author, but this book just didn't deliver for me.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must reading for anyone involved in communicating an organization's message, October 3, 2005

By 

Barry S. Graubart "b graubart" (Irvington, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cashing In With Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers into Buyers (Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jeff Bezos must've read this book., September 12, 2005

By 

Speechwriter (Nakadaki, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cashing In With Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers into Buyers (Paperback)

David Scott cuts to the heart of the matter: truly effective websites are not about fancy flash graphics. It's content, stupid! Somehow you have to inform, amuse or amaze your audience -- not send them to get some damn plug-in.

Scott makes his case powerfully with incisive case studies across a spectrum of industries.

Amazon certainly gets it -- and they're so smart that here I am creating their content for free. Jeff Bezos must've read this book.

Anyone considering an online commercial presence should do likewise.

John R. Harris