A few weeks ago, we talked about how content marketing can generate leads by getting the doorbell or phone to ring. Now we turn our focus to how content marketing can lead to direct sales. In other words, how can content can get the cash register to ring?
If you Google content marketing and direct sales, you will find blog posts and marketing experts who claim that content marketing is not intended for the purpose of direct sales. I disagree, and a few examples from our experience at Hammock and other great marketers might help you see how content marketing can be a direct sales engine.

Each year about this time, I’m asked by various publications and websites to contribute my predictions on trends in the magazine industry and new media in general. After a couple of decades of constant curiosity about the evolving roles of media focused on helping companies and associations strengthen their relationships with customers and members, I’ve come to this conclusion: In attempting to predict the future, it is far more challenging to predict the “when” than to predict the “what.”
For instance, the people who follow my blog know that I spent years predicting what finally, eight months ago, became the iPad. While I predicted the “what it was going to be” with great accuracy, I was less accurate on the when. In his book, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, author Steven Johnson explains the concept of “adjacent possibilities,” a term coined by scientist Stuart Kauffman. The term is an attempt to capture the essence of a creative process wherein new possibilities are made possible only after the occurrence of some preceding “first order” innovation. For the iPad that means two-decades of innovations were required before the “adjacent possibility” of the iPad could finally arrive — innovations in the areas of networking, mobility, memory, miniaturization, Moore’s law, Metcalfe’s law and lots of laws related to the FCC and telephone carriers.
I can only guess about when the following predictions will occur because some of them may not quite be ready for their prime time. But I’m fairly confident that one day, they will be.

Until they heard of the controversial website WikiLeaks, many people thought the word “wiki” and the website Wikipedia were synonymous.
Today, there are countless wikis, many built using the same approaches and software used by Wikipedia. SmallBusiness.com, a wiki created and managed by Hammock, is one of them. Other wikis use different software, different approaches and are so different looking from Wikipedia, you may not even realize they’re wikis. (Ironically, there’s nothing about the software or approach used by the website WikiLeaks that is a wiki as popularly defined.)

Earlier this year, Hammock began working with 20|20 Research on a project designed to help boost their organic search results and generate leads for its suite of online research products.
Long known for its physical research facilities, the company now boasts impressive online products with a fast-growing user base of research professionals in the United States and Europe. As these new products ramp up, they want to make sure their expanded capabilities and unique online products are receiving the recognition they deserve.
When they reached out to us they were already savvy content marketers and a step ahead of most companies. Not only did they have a well-written and authoritative CEO blog, they also had a strong presence on LinkedIn and Twitter.
However, like many companies, the full plate of duties already being handled by everyone on staff made it difficult for the company to find the time and focus needed to reach the objectives they had for their online efforts.

Hammock provides content marketing services, which includes publishing print and digital magazines customized to meet our clients’ objectives. We study those objectives and work to ensure each issue of a client’s publication meets their specific goals. We accomplish this with expert writing about topics of interest to our clients’ target audience—and compelling design that brings to vivid life our writers’ stories. In the last month, these stories have included everything from historic re-enactors to the U.S. Marine Corps special ops and from the latest in pharmaceutical innovations to how health-care reform will affect supply chain managers. No matter the topic, our storytelling is tailored to the interests and passions of our clients’ customers and members. But we don’t just tell you that’s what we do—we’re always eager to show you. View our latest work for some of the publications we publish for our clients, including American Spirit, Semper Fi, The Source and Pharmaceutical Commerce.

Between stringing lights, wrapping presents and having just one more little piece of pie, Hammock folks plan to also share their blessings with others less fortunate.
Several of us plan to attend the 85th annual Waffle Shop at Nashville’s beautiful and historic Downtown Presbyterian Church on Dec. 2, from 11 to 2. A major fundraiser for the church’s ministry among the homeless, the Waffle Shop has become the holiday power lunch in Nashville. City leaders rub elbows with students at the crowded tables. Get there early, since there is always a line!
Individual plans include:

Last week senior graphic designer Lynne Boyer and I took a couple of hours to shoot Nashville landmarks for a Lena Anthony-penned travel story for American Spirit, the magazine Hammock publishes for the Daughters of the American Revolution. Since the May floods, city leaders and volunteers have been doing their best to entice visitors to Nashville and try to recover economically. We thought the DAR magazine would be a fitting place to promote the city’s restoration–and spotlight the history that few outside the region know.

With Lynne, a native Nashvillian, in the driver’s seat, I jumped out and grabbed shots all around downtown, including at the State Capitol, Ryman Auditorium (Mother Church of Country Music), Fort Nashborough and historic City Cemetery. Caveat: I’m not a great photographer, but I’m building off a class I took a local art college and trying to improve! Check out some of the photos on my flickr page (still in process).

The November-December issue of Semper Fi, The Magazine of the Marine Corps League, celebrates the 235th birthday of the Corps’ founding, as tradition has it, in Tun Tavern in Philadelphia on 10 November 1775. The cover shows a Marine Corps color guard participating in a Sunset Parade at the Marine Barracks at 8th and I in Washington, DC.
If you know a Marine, bid him or her happy birthday!
The Marine Corps starts its 236th year with a new Commandant, General James Amos, who assumed command on 22 October. We present excerpts from his testimony before Congress in this issue.
Marine Corps Special Ops comprise an elite group of warriors chosen from among America’s elite armed service. Relatively new to the SpecOps segment of our military, the Marines have quickly reached the upper echelon of this select group.
In September, the Marine Corps League put on its 30th annual Modern Day Marine Expo, a gathering of Marines and defense industry suppliers held at Marine Corps Base Quantico, VA. Held under looming budget cuts and a drawdown in size, the Expo was the largest yet, with more than 8,500 visitors and 500 exhibits.
The Marine Corps Commandant’s annual birthday message is below. To view it, go here.

Water–or the overabundance of it–has been on my mind a lot this year. After the unprecedented rains of May 1 and 2 caused widespread flooding in Nashville, Tenn., many of us got our hands dirty on volunteer projects to rebuild our city. Six months after the flood, many families in our area are still putting their homes and lives back together. Though the nation’s attention quickly receded with the floodwaters, the economic burdens are far reaching and many people still need assistance. Hands on Nashville and the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee provide numerous ways to pitch in and get our community over these final hurdles.

Not only have lives been lost and homes wrecked, but Middle Tennessee’s natural resources have also taken a beating. This fall, as I’ve paddled down several of the area’s beautiful rivers (weekends have included a clean-up day on Swan Creek, a canoe camping trip down the Buffalo River and day paddles down the Harpeth River and on Center Hill Lake), I’ve witnessed the damaging effects of the flood–hundreds of downed trees, damaged banks and watersheds, piles of debris–on these ecosystems that we all depend upon.

You can help clean up and preserve these natural resources. Find out more by joining the Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association or volunteering at one of the many clean-water events sponsored by the Cumberland River Compact and the Harpeth River Watershed Association.

There are history buffs, and then there are re-enactors. Obsessive about getting every historical detail just right, these dedicated men and women volunteer their time and money to re-enact important events in our nation’s history. Whether it’s a Revolutionary War skirmish or a War of 1812 battle, the re-enactors in the November/December issue of American Spirit, which we publish for the Daughters of the American Revolution, serve as examples of how rewarding this hobby can be.
The DAR Magazine National Chairman, Pamela Marshall, and her family have been dedicated Civil War re-enactors for 15 years. “Our oldest sons took this hobby to a new level and became U.S. Army Artillery Officers,” she says. “One served in Afghanistan and the other in Iraq.”
Ms. Marshall’s sons are two of the brave military service members American Spirit salutes this Veterans Day for sacrificing so much for our freedom and the cause of liberty around the world.