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

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A treasure chest of ideas for making your website more interesting and compelling." -- Al & Laura Ries, bestselling authors, The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR, and The Origin of Brands

"Before you embark upon yet another expensive web development project read this book." -- Mike Jensen, Chief Brand Officer, GMAC Insurance/Personal Lines

"Cashing In With Content blasts away the myths about what makes online businesses great." -- Bill Stinnett, author, Think Like Your Customer

"Cashing in with Content is a must-read book..." -- Jonathan Kranz, author, Writing Copy for Dummies

"Chock-full of examples and to-do’s—this one is a must-read for anyone running a website and an enterprise. Ca-ching!" -- Anthea C. Stratigos, Co-founder & CEO, Outsell, Inc.

"Content is the life blood of the information economy…full of ideas to get your heart pumping." -- Alex Hungate, Chief Marketing Officer, Reuters Group

"David M. Scott makes it clear why content is the once and future king of the internet." -- Craig Danuloff, CEO, The Pre-Commerce Group

"This isn't theory or opinion—these are real-life marketing lessons." -- Anne Holland, Publisher, MarketingSherpa

"… compelling in its coverage and its clarity—if you have a web presence, you need to read it." -- Steven Goldstein, CEO, Alacra, Inc.

"…an essential read for any marketer who wants to maximize their website’s power to convert visitors and retain customers." -- Harry J. Gold, CEO, Overdrive Marketing Communications

Product Description

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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Information Today, Inc.; illustrated edition edition (October 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0910965714
• ISBN-13: 978-0910965712
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 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.com Sales Rank: #528,343 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 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 (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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 10 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)

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.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book depending on your needs, June 10, 2006

By	Stephanie Manley (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.