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

Citation

Neville, K. (2008), "Cashing in with Content: How Innovative Marketers Use Digital Information to Turn Browsers into Buyers", Library Review, Vol. 57 No. 5, pp. 403-404. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530810875249

Designed to fill the gap in the neglected area of content management in marketing, this book is a user‐friendly guide to creating improvements in websites content, and it is packed with helpful hints and examples. Cashing in with content is a useful guide to successful website marketing by concentrating on content, and incorporating techniques utilized by successful companies from a variety of business arenas. Author David Meerman Scott (website www.Davidmeermanscott.com) is a consultant, speaker and writer specializing in online marketing, and he explains how content is the most important aspect of websites that serves to entice online visitors to buy or subscribe.

The volume includes interviews with 20 marketers in a variety of areas including well known companies like Alcoa, the Wall Street Journal, the fan site for the band Aerosmith, along with non‐profit organizations like Keyon College and Care, USA. Each chapter is divided into similar headings describing the items to be marketed, highlights of the website, “What's so interesting” and “Why you should care”. Each interview concludes with a section called “cashing in” that describes quantitatively the success of each site in terms of the cost and usage relevant to the website.

Part 4: Putting Content to Work summarizes the 12 “best practices” from internet marketers including tips such as “push content” to users, incorporate images in websites, create a needs analysis and use global content when targeting the global marketplace. While some of the tips are straightforward and obvious, nevertheless the ideas are worth reiterating to web marketers. The final chapter summarizes lessons learned, and each tip concludes with a handy “content cross‐check” that relates the best practice tip back to the organization examples included in the interview section.

While there are many books on designing websites in terms of visual appearance and software issues, few concentrate on website content and the author believes that branding has been “under‐appreciated and misunderstood – until now” (p. 9). The author's theme throughout the book is “content strategy, artfully executed drives action” (p. 240) and the theme is delivered clearly in plain language, easily understood by a novice in marketing or web design. Well set out, easy to read, this volume is illustrated with many real‐life examples from websites. This volume would be useful for a marketing or business studies student. In addition, small business owners as well as those employed by larger companies or non‐profit organizations that are planning to upgrade their websites would benefit from reading this book.