Measuring ROI seems to be a hot topic this week, as Bill previously pointed to an article about why it’s important to measure ROI on social media marketing efforts.
A new study by Omniture doesn’t go into why measuring ROI is so important, but it does show that marketers simply aren’t doing it, regardless of online marketing method: “80% believe ROI from online marketing activities is important to measure, but only 31% of marketers can effectively measure it,” according to the 2010 Omniture Online Analytics Benchmark Survey. Further, “86% of respondents think conversion rate from online marketing activities is important to measure, but 25% cannot effectively measure it.”
At Hammock, we do a lot of content marketing for clients, and for each of those clients, we report back on a monthly basis about how our content marketing efforts are working for them. And by “report back” I don’t mean vague statements about how awesome our work is; I mean specific metrics that clearly show how our work is helping our clients achieve their business goals.

The Nashville community has come together in remarkable ways after the devastating Nashville Flood. The tech community, in particular, worked cooperatively over the course of one week to build and add content to an online tool called Donate Nashville. Launched on Saturday, May 8, the Craigslist-like tool helps fill in the gaps as Nashville starts to recover and rebuild from the flood.

Custom publishing has changed significantly since Rex created Hammock Inc. 19 years ago. While the “custom” part remains, “custom content” rather than “custom publishing” is a more accurate way to describe what we do and the work we create for our clients. Custom content is published in print, online, on websites or via social media. The platforms and the methods of distribution and syndication are varied based on the goals of our clients.

The first step in successful content marketing is to ensure your website is set up properly. Good Plum has a list of several common mistakes businesses make with their websites, including:

• A bad domain name: Will you choose one that incorporates important keywords? Or will you go with one that’s catchy? Or both? Spend time researching and testing your domain name, Good Plum says.
• Neglecting traffic generation strategies: Websites that ignore tie-ins to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, fail to research keywords and other Internet marketing tactics, and ignore their rank in organic and paid search will not be as easily discovered as those who utilize those services.
• An ugly website: It might sound harsh, but if your website is difficult to look at (blinking banner ads everywhere, 10 different fonts, 50 different colors, etc.), people won’t stay long. Be kind to your visitors’ eyes and invest time in developing a good design—both visual and navigational—for your website.

While social media can be credited with numerous positive contributions to society, sometimes that sphere can feel impolite and harsh to folks diving in. Applying a little more politeness and a lot more dependability to your content marketing efforts can go a long way toward building trust and ensuring your success. Take a lesson from Grandma.

Click to view a larger version of this panoramic photo by Kelsey Wynns for a sense of what Nashville’s Riverfront looked like on Monday, May 3, 2010.

Thanks to those from around the country who have reached out with concern about how we may have been affected by what will forevermore be known in Nashville as the Flood of 2010. While some infrastructure challenges in our building caused many of us to work virtually on Monday, we are fortunate that no one who works at Hammock-Nashville has been forced out of their homes like so many of our neighbors in the area. As I wrote today on my blog, Nashvillians will pull together to journey through the devastation and loss we’re currently experiencing.
For those who have asked how you can contribute to the flood recovery efforts, let me make two suggestions. While there are many groups that are worthy of your support (a great list of them can be found on this post at Nashvillest.com), there are two groups that many of us at Hammock have worked with personally in the past — and even during the past 24 hours.
Either group will put your contribution to work immediately:
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee: In partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management, the Community Foundation is coordinating contributions to the Metro Nashville Disaster Response Fund and Tennessee Emergency Relief Fund.
This just in: All proceeds from the sale of this T-shirt go to the Community Foundation.
Hands on Nashville: On behalf of the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management, Hands on Nashville is coordinating the volunteer efforts.

Over the weekend, Nashville experienced massive flooding due to unprecedented torrential rain. Our office building’s management is working to address issues related to some flooding in the elevator shafts, so the building is closed for the day. All Hammock employees have the ability to work remotely and you should be able to reach them using their regular direct numbers or through our main number 615-690-3400. All employees are safe, but many have neighbors in need, so we’ll also be reaching out to those friends and neighbors today, as well. Thank you to the many kind expressions of concern over the weekend. And for those who would like to help, please contribute to this fund set up by the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

Facebook is emerging as a very effective part of businesses’ online marketing strategies, but take care not to neglect your own blog—or website—for your interaction on the social networking site.
On SmallBizTrends.com, Lisa Barone discusses the importance of continuing to focus on your own blog “to create your own authority and brand.” She offers 10 reasons, including:

• “Blogging builds your house, not theirs”: Focus on building your site and your authority by placing your original content on your site, not someone else’s. It’s one thing to syndicate content to Facebook—in fact, we encourage that here at Hammock. But don’t give away your content and your audience completely to Facebook.
• Search engine rankings: If you stop posting original, dynamic content to your own blog, it will start to slip in search engine rankings. This not only hurts your authority but can end up hurting your ability to bring in new business.
• “You don’t own Facebook”: Barone reminds us that social networks evolve, change, and can always fade away (remember MySpace and Friendster?). “While it’s never smart to put all your eggs in one basket, it’s especially unwise to do it when you don’t even own the basket,” says Barone.

What do you know about your customers? Besides the fact that they all have at one time used your products or services? Drilling down to more specific information can help you improve your content marketing strategy, says Michael Thompson on btobonline.com.
“Collecting customer preferences allows you to have a better understanding of each customer’s interests,” he says. “This information becomes even more valuable when married with ongoing activity data, giving you a full view of your customers’ buying behavior and what drives them to take action. Collecting and harvesting this information allows you to create more relevant e-mail marketing communications, providing your customers with information they want, when they want it, to drive significantly higher sales conversion rates.”

Lee Odden’s article on content strategy vs. tactics got a lot of attention this week, with more than 40 people in his social network expressing their opinion on the value of social media experimentation.