The Hammock Blog

Our eye-catching cover girl for American Spirit’s March/April issue might surprise you--it's a young Martha Washington! Is this really what the very first first lady looked like in her 20s?

By John Lavey, Hammock President & COO

Knowing what you want to accomplish with content marketing requires research. But many marketers don’t spend the time to do the research, or don’t perform it thoughtfully enough to provide real value. Research specific to the exercise of creating content to accomplish business objectives is the foundation of a content marketing plan.

Creating editorial slates or designs in advance of research is merely guessing, and an exercise in competing aesthetic sensibilities. In other words, it’s a waste of time.

Four basic areas of research are required to build out a successful content marketing plan. These areas help fulfill the following critical marketing commandments:

When first launched, Google Plus was not open to company pages, so we suggested individuals log on with their Google accounts and try it out.

Six months later, Google Plus’ public reception is a classic example of a new technology expectation curve called by some, the “hype cycle.” Rex has written about the hype cycle and the idea’s origin in the writings of futurist Paul Saffo. The process goes something like this:

If you're behind on your American Spirit homework, here's a quick recap of the latest three issues of the magazine Hammock publishes for the Daughters of the American Revolution.