Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(12)
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3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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

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.

Cashing in With Content is about attracting visitors to your website, so that you can sell them something or sign them up as a client, member, subscriber or donor. You attract them not with gimmicky entertainment or self-serving puffery, but with rich, valuable, and constantly updated information that they can't get anywhere else -- and by making that information easy to read, navigate, save, and print.

Most companies "build their websites based on design, rather than content." Instead, you want people to rely on your website as a "trusted resource."

The author presents 20 "case studies" in a wide variety of industries and non-profit orgs, sorted into three categories: (a) e-commerce, (b) business to business, and (c) nonprofit, education, healthcare, and politics. I put the term "case studies" in quotes because they're not true studies in the academic sense -- they're just puff pieces in which the author interviews the website managers without adding any critical analysis, without challenging the interviewees' self-serving claims and opinions, and without trying to verifying data or independently measure effectiveness. Most of the people being interviewed are tooting their own horns.

The penultimate chapter is a summary of 12 best practices that the author drew from the case studies. This is the most valuable part of the book. They include:

** Before you build or rebuild a site, conduct a comprehensive analysis of visitors' needs.
** Use landing pages and blogs to provide specialized content to targeted market segments.
** Make proprietary content freely available (just do it).
** Include interactive content to get user feedback.

Cashing In with Content" is a book I've been eagerly anticipating for a while now -- ever since my colleague David Scott announced he was working on it. I received a review copy a few weeks ago and have not been disappointed.

To write the book, Scott analyzed over 1,000 Web sites; hence, his book features 20 "content-smart" e-commerce, B-to-B, and not-for-profit sites. He explains why Web marketers can't rely on "aesthetics" or "slick, TV-influenced, one-way broadcast messages" to get one's message out. People are looking for information, and they appreciate companies that give them answers to questions they hadn't even thought to ask.

What I like about this book is that Scott discusses why he chose each site for inclusion in the book, and he shows how each company is increasing revenue via its Web content. Alcoa, for example, now supplies the aluminum Apple Computer is using in its new Macintosh computer -- all because Apple found out about Alcoa via its Web site.

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

Cashing In With Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information To Turn Browsers Into Buyers is a solid, example-filled guide to improving one's online sales immediately and turn casual browsers into consumers. The Web is a vastly different world than that of TV - hype loses out to content every time, because consumers have a wide array of choices and price-comparison options literally at their fingertips. So how does one go about improving one's content to the point that consumers will pounce? Cashing In With Content addresses how to deliver great content for business, nonprofit organization, and fundraising websites through interviews with 20 of today's most adaptable and successful marketers. Chapters address how free content can sell subscriptions (as worked for the Wall Street Journal Online), how website content can support a grassroots political movement, basic tips for streamlining the buying process so that online consumers aren't turned away by clumsy, complicated, or error-ridden shopping carts, and much more. A final point-by-point summary of the top practices rounds out this "must-have" web design business guide for the twenty-first century.

First off, I really feel inclined to say this book isn't for people who are looking to get rich off of the Internet. Please do not buy this book if you are just looking for a get rich quick by shoving content online, and hoping that google adwords will pay off. This book will not assist you in this.

What this book does well is describing effective websites, and sharing good points for developing websites that people will want to use and return to for a long time. He uses commerical websites, non commerical ventures, as well as e-commerce websites to demonstrate good techniques. This book will assist in those who are wanting to really work on high qualtity sites.

I think he does a good job of giving solid techniques and ideas on developing websites that will serve the readers well. So if you are looking to develop websites for the long term, and just want to know what best business practices are in terms of websites, I really think this book is ideal in helping with website development.

Web sites have gone through a series of transitions. At the beginning they were very simple with basically text only pages. Then we learned about graphics and it became important to create a page where basically the whole thing was a series of graphics images. Somewhere about then came Flash where you had to wait until the cartoons finished until you could go find what you were looking for. Now if you go to the big sites - Microsoft, Intel, IBM and so on, you see a home page that looks pleasing, but which has a whole bunch of links so that you can get off the home page and get to where you want to go.

This book talks about what the view really wants is to get the information he is seeking, quickly, conveniently and in the depth he wants. One nice thing about the web is its ability to provide an almost limitless amount of space to convey everything that the viewer needs to make a decision. This is the newest trend in web design and I think it's a good one.

This book discusses a series of sites that have the features he thinks are important and tells why. It's a small and easy book, I like it.