Cashing in with Content

OK, so maybe you do believe that content is the most important element of your website. Knowing what kind of content is most important to your visitors helps you to organize your site and direct your most important visitors to what they want to find. That’s great for someone who comes to your site for the first time—or maybe the second.

But you should also think about repeat visitors. What kind of content will continue to engage them once they’ve performed those initial task(s)? What will keep them coming back for more?

That question is the most important question any organization can ask when it begins building (or rebuilding) a website. It’s fundamental because this kind of content can make a site “sticky”—encourage repeat visits, entice visitors to spend more time on the site once they’re there and, most important of all, excite them about taking action: registering, applying, donating ….

Looking at the best practices of organizations that have made great content the foundation of their websites and have mastered the art of developing great content—and deploying it effectively—can help you make strategic decisions about your own content. That’s the premise of a terrific new book by David Meerman Scott, Cashing in with Content: How Innovative Marketers use Digital Information to Turn Browsers Into Buyers.

Scott’s work revolves around profiles of 20 vastly different organizations that have created content-rich websites that get results. Organizations like Crutchfield, Aerosmith, Wall Street Journal Online; Booz Allen Hamilton; CARE USA; and Dean for America create and deploy content specifically to engage their audiences.

I’d like to come clean here: our work with Kenyon College is included in this book. We helped Kenyon redevelop their “sticky” site, which included information architecture and content development, as well as interface design and CMS implementation.

In his book, Scott analyzes how diverse these organizations generate, maintain, and deploy content. Using information taken from his own site visits, as well as interviews with the chief marketers or web managers in these organizations, he profiles each organization and then, in perhaps the most interesting part of the book, derives 12 best practices from the sites he’s profiled.

Many of the best practices make intuitive sense—but the ways these organizations espouse each of them are surprising and valuable. For example: Best Practice #3 is “Dedicate editorial resources to create consistent and informed content.” How? Scott describes how some sites (like Esurance) have an editorial team dedicated to producing all the site content. CARE USA utilizes content developed by many contributors but has a dedicated team managing its site. The message: Whatever model you choose, it won’t work without people who are focused on making it work.

Perhaps the most interesting best practice to me is #8: Consider making proprietary content freely available. I know that many for-profit organizations struggle with this concept, but even The Wall Street Journal Online has learned the value of exposing some of its proprietary content available for free.

Recognizing that giving away content can lead to action, the publisher of Cashing In with Content is allowing readers to download the chapter about Kenyon.edu here.

And you can order a copy of the book here.