Rex Hammock, our company’s founder and CEO for 30 years, passed away last Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. Family and friends will celebrate Rex’s life Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, at 2:30 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Over the past few days, many Hammock Inc. team members, clients, alums, and friends have shared special memories of Rex with each other. If you have a memory of Rex to share, please let us know at jlavey@hammock.com.
Here’s more about one of content marketing’s true pioneers:
Harvey Rex Hammock, a visionary entrepreneur and beloved husband, father, and grandfather, passed away peacefully on February 12, 2025, in Nashville, TN, surrounded by his family after a battle with Alzheimer’s. Born on March 29, 1954, in Dothan, AL, to his parents Rev. William Raymond Hammock, Sr. and Mary Frances Wilks Hammock, Rex was the youngest of three brothers.
Rex was a born leader and a pioneer in the field of publishing, media and technology. He attended Samford University in Birmingham, AL, graduating in 1976 and went on to receive a Masters of Divinity from Southern Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. In the early 1980s, he worked as a Congressional aide on Capitol Hill before moving to Nashville in 1984 to work for Buntin Advertising and ultimately run Buntin PR.
Rex’s legacy lives on through Hammock Inc., the company he founded in 1991 and led for over 30 years. As a thought leader in the content marketing industry, he created a positive company culture at Hammock that values teamwork, engagement, communication, and collaboration. He cheered his employees on in professional and personal achievements, celebrated marriages and growing families, and made them laugh more times than they can count. Rex’s impact on the industry was recognized by Forbes, who called him a “leading voice in content marketing.” He was a contrarian who challenged assumptions about the industry and believed in the power of content to help customers accomplish their goals.
He loved to mentor young entrepreneurs in Nashville and beyond, and he had a passion for harnessing technology to help small business owners achieve their goals. In 2000, he founded a second startup, SmallBusiness.com, which grew into a community of small business owners to develop and share ideas and visions.
Rex was a National Advisor for American Business Media, a member of the Downtown Nashville Rotary, served on the boards of the Tennessee Repertory Theater and Walk Bike Nashville, and was a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church, and Belle Meade Country Club.
Rex was also a pioneer and early advocate for expanding bike and greenway access across Nashville. He knew every bike lane in town and loved giving visitors tours and rode his bike to the office almost every day of his life. One of his greatest biking achievements was biking the Natchez Trace in 2019.
An early supporter of the Tennessee Titans who never missed a game, Rex was a fiercely loyal local sports fan. He loved any Vanderbilt sports team and would even support other non-Nashville teams, as long as there was a Nashville connection.
Rex met the love of his life, Ann Knight, in college, and they married soon after. They were together for 48 years and lived in the same house in Nashville for 33 of those years. He was beyond proud of his children, Ann Parker Hammock Weeden (Douglas) and Forrest Knight Hammock (Katie), and adored his granddaughters, Parker, Frances, Caroline, and Walker.
Rex was predeceased by his father, mother, and brother Roy Wilks Hammock. He is survived by his wife, Ann Knight Hammock, children, grandchildren, brother William Raymond Hammock, jr. (Sandra), and nieces and nephews. Rex’s passion for helping small business owners across the country and his dedication to the Nashville community will be long remembered. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him.
A Celebration of Life service will be held in Rex’s memory on Friday, February 21, 2025, at Westminster Presbyterian Church at 2:30pm.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Rex’s memory to any of the following organizations:
• Westminster Presbyterian Church, 3900 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN 37205
• Abe’s Garden, 115 Woodmont Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37205
• Alive Hospice, 1718 Patterson Street, Nashville, TN 27203
• Walk Bike Nashville, 1 South 7th Street, Nashville, TN 37206
By John Lavey, CEO/President
In our work creating content marketing to support clients, we’ve noticed two common challenges for technology companies: 1) effectively communicating their story to buyers who are inundated with other vendors pitching solutions and 2) focusing on what matters most to the buyer.
A recent survey offers insights into what buyers of technology solutions value, as well as what those buyers consider to be deal breakers. The deal breakers contain some interesting results that align with our experience. The most significant deal breaker is:
Lack of transparency into the fulfillment process
Tech companies excel at showcasing product features and benefits. Some are even great at talking about how they can solve key problems for customers. However, many fall short in clearly communicating how they implement or install their solution and how they onboard the client.
Again and again, we see this lack of transparency into how tech providers will implement their platform and serve the customer. Companies whose customers recognize their strength in this area still tend to miss the opportunity to communicate this in sales presentations and marketing discussions.
How well are you communicating the thing that your customer needs to know?
Image: Getty Images
About Hammock Healthcare Idea Email | This post is part of Hammock’s award-winning Idea Email series. Idea Emails are sent every other week and share one insightful marketing idea. Idea Email comes in two flavors: Original and Healthcare. To subscribe to the original Idea Email (general marketing ideas), click here. To subscribe to the Healthcare Idea Email (healthcare marketing ideas), click here.
By John Lavey, CEO/President
When it comes to B2B content marketing, every dollar you spend must have a clear purpose. Your investment isn’t just about creating content for content’s sake—it’s about engaging customers, aligning with other marketing efforts and propelling your brand. Here is what you should expect from your investment in B2B content marketing:
Your investment enables you to:
Ready to make every dollar count in your B2B marketing strategy, but don’t know where to start? Reach out to us today.
Image: Getty Images
About Hammock Healthcare Idea Email | This post is part of Hammock’s award-winning Idea Email series. Idea Emails are sent every other week and share one insightful marketing idea. Idea Email comes in two flavors: Original and Healthcare. To subscribe to the original Idea Email (general marketing ideas), click here. To subscribe to the Healthcare Idea Email (healthcare marketing ideas), click here.
By John Lavey, CEO/President
Going to conferences in your industry can be an incredible opportunity, but what content assets and what kind of approach for using this content might help you derive the most value from your investment for in-person events?
Here are five tips to supercharge your event attendance with content that works. If you are at an event to present and/or attend as an exhibitor, here’s how to enhance your team’s expertise with sales enablement content:
Don’t think about the content you are sharing as a leave-behind. Think about it as helping your customers with their pain points, showing examples of what success looks like, and making it easy for them to continue in their journey to a solution, with you by their side.
Image: Getty Images
About Hammock Healthcare Idea Email | This post is part of Hammock’s award-winning Idea Email series. Idea Emails are sent every other week and share one insightful marketing idea. Idea Email comes in two flavors: Original and Healthcare. To subscribe to the original Idea Email (general marketing ideas), click here. To subscribe to the Healthcare Idea Email (healthcare marketing ideas), click here.
By John Lavey, CEO/President
One word in healthcare marketing seems to be radioactive: retainer.
Historically, healthcare marketing agencies charged retainers and delivered valuable advisory services for that monthly fee, and then charged for time and materials above and beyond the fee for deliverables (design, content, advertising buys, etc.).
The Great Recession, which started in 2007, upended many business models, and was when we started to see traditional marketing transform into what we know think of as digital marketing (2007 was also the same year the first iPhone was introduced). Our company founder, Rex Hammock, framed this revolutionary change as shifting from reliance on other media channels (via ad agencies and PR firms) to taking control of media creation for direct customer outreach.
With traditional agencies rocked by slashed marketing budgets and a whole new paradigm for reaching customers possible with digital marketing, the idea of charging retainers came under pressure. Plus, the labor market was full of former journalists and marketers who could work freelance for healthcare companies to accomplish their marketing needs.
Plenty of agencies still charge retainers. But many healthcare companies began paying for specific deliverables rather than retaining agencies, especially in content marketing and specialized digital marketing. Retainer became a negative word.
While retainers in the old days may have implied money that wasn’t accountable, there is an increased need today for balancing the delivery of assets with the guidance and expertise (and outside perspective) that come from working with a content agency, not just buying a certain amount of content. I’m curious to know how you view this issue. Feel free to let me know!
Image: Getty Images
About Hammock Healthcare Idea Email | This post is part of Hammock’s award-winning Idea Email series. Idea Emails are sent every other week and share one insightful marketing idea. Idea Email comes in two flavors: Original and Healthcare. To subscribe to the original Idea Email (general marketing ideas), click here. To subscribe to the Healthcare Idea Email (healthcare marketing ideas), click here
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By Jeff Walter, Senior Editor and Writer
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Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines evergreen, in the non-botanical sense, as “retaining freshness or interest: perennial” and “universally and continually relevant: not limited in applicability to a particular event or date.” As a noun, an evergreen can be “something that retains its freshness, interest, or popularity.”
You probably have a lot of evergreens in your marketing arsenal … or forest (to stick with the metaphor). Time-tested wisdom never goes out of style, and it’s always in demand.
If you’re continually struggling to generate fresh new content, maybe you’re putting too much pressure on yourself. Consider whether it might make sense to revisit some of the information, observations and insights your organization has shared in the past. If it has been a while, it might be time to dust them off, update or otherwise adapt them if appropriate, and share them again with a receptive audience.
Your newer customers, and potential ones, might never have been exposed to these ideas and would benefit from them—especially if they fall into the category of thought leadership, education or inspiration, as opposed to pure sales.
Another option is to repurpose materials. A blog post from a few years ago might be distilled into an arresting infographic, for example, or a dated PowerPoint presentation might be converted into an entertaining and current video. It’s possible that you’re too close to the subject and could benefit from a fresh set of eyes that can see new possibilities in existing content—and can help you discover new ways to keep it relevant.
The ongoing creation of new content will always be critical, of course, but the “evergreen” approach can supplement and round out what you do.
Image: Getty Images
About Hammock Healthcare Idea Email | This post is part of Hammock’s award-winning Idea Email series. Idea Emails are sent every other week and share one insightful marketing idea. Idea Email comes in two flavors: Original and Healthcare. To subscribe to the original Idea Email (general marketing ideas), click here. To subscribe to the Healthcare Idea Email (healthcare marketing ideas), click here.
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By Jeff Walter, Senior Editor and Writer
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Regardless of your industry, your organization is brimming with knowledge on a range of topics. The best, brightest and most experienced of these might well be considered subject matter experts (SMEs). What intelligence and insights they might share! But are they doing so?
We’re not suggesting that you give away any trade secrets. But useful facts and astute observations from your people, whether that information is recently acquired or from the “vaults,” may be a hidden asset that your organization has yet to exploit to its full potential. You might use it, for example, to establish your industry credentials, arouse consumer (or B2B) interest in your brand and potentially drive traffic to your proverbial door, or keep existing customers engaged and tuned in to your brand and what it’s been up to lately. Your SMEs can play an important role in fostering loyalty over the long haul.
E-books, white papers, blog posts, videos, webinars, social media, virtual events, infographics and other content culled from your experiences can educate and inform without being overtly sales-oriented. This content can target as broad or narrow a base as you desire to reach.
Your SMEs’ wisdom—your institutional knowledge—is a resource you can tap to produce compelling content that shines a bright light on your brand, without explicitly angling for the sale. When you share what you know, others can draw useful lessons from it that will increase your long-term value to them and help you nurture lasting relationships.
About Hammock Healthcare Idea Email | This post is part of Hammock’s award-winning Idea Email series. Idea Emails are sent every other week and share one insightful marketing idea. Idea Email comes in two flavors: Original and Healthcare. To subscribe to the original Idea Email (general marketing ideas), click here. To subscribe to the Healthcare Idea Email (healthcare marketing ideas), click here.
By Jeff Walter, Senior Healthcare Editor and Writer
One of the most pressing challenges in today’s healthcare environment is access. That one simple concept touches practically every area of what hospitals, clinics, health systems, health plans, home health agencies, provider groups and other healthcare organizations do every day.
There’s access, first and foremost, to care. There’s access to insurance coverage, to specialists, to reliable information (including one’s own records), to assistance in navigating the whole complicated system. The needs are great and the resources, unfortunately, limited. Outsourcing and partnerships can be valuable allies in providing the best care.
The same often proves true in healthcare marketing. How easy are you making it for your patients/customers (and potential ones) to access the information and messages that your organization wants to communicate to them?
Today’s most successful healthcare marketers realize the importance of engaging with consumers across a range of media and platforms. Personalization means reaching people “where they are,” giving them access to useful information at their convenience, on their timetable and on their terms, through their preferred channel(s). From text and email campaigns to blog posts, from e-books to whitepapers, from infographics to videos, from case studies to social media, the methods of reaching your target audience are practically as limitless as your imagination.
There may be limits, however, to the time and other resources that your in-house staff has available to effectively and efficiently craft and curate this content. Whether your team is directly involved in patient care, or it plays a supporting role as a vendor or service provider, consider whether you are content with your content. Might you benefit from access to marketing specialists who can provide critical services as needed? Most companies find such content too specialized and too expensive to create in house.
At Hammock, we have a demonstrated track record of helping healthcare companies market themselves through carefully created content that their varied audiences can actually use. Our experienced researchers, strategists, writers, editors and designers can help your organization forge deeper and longer-lasting relationships with customers—helping instead of hyping, all in the interest of everyone’s good health.
Image: Getty Images
About Hammock Healthcare Idea Email | This post is part of Hammock’s award-winning Idea Email series. Idea Emails are sent every other week and share one insightful marketing idea. Idea Email comes in two flavors: Original and Healthcare. To subscribe to the original Idea Email (general marketing ideas), click here. To subscribe to the Healthcare Idea Email (healthcare marketing ideas), click here
One trend that influences the solutions we bring is the evolving marketing operations we see with our clients. I’ve been seeing more and more companies develop a leaner marketing team, perhaps even led by a fractional CMO, supported by a team of key outside partners.
That model makes sense, and here are what I see as the five factors that go into making that a successful operation, supporting your growth and communication goals.
Changing marketing operations structures are the new reality. The principles above can guide your approach and help you succeed. Where are you with your marketing operations?
About Hammock Healthcare Idea Email | This post is part of Hammock’s award-winning Idea Email series. Idea Emails are sent every other week and share one insightful marketing idea. Idea Email comes in two flavors: Original and Healthcare. To subscribe to the original Idea Email (general marketing ideas), click here. To subscribe to the Healthcare Idea Email (healthcare marketing ideas), click here.
By John Lavey, President and CEO
Helping customers be more successful at solving a problem or pursuing a passion is good marketing. Being able to share information that no one else has access to, or hasn’t taken the time to aggregate in a meaningful way, is particularly powerful.
Some of our clients have access to large data sets that can be mined to share trends, like payer trends related to claims reimbursement. Others have packaged publicly available information in a way that is specifically helpful, such as a monthly update on the status of every state’s CMS waiver.
It’s a valuable asset to be able to inform insights with data sets that can help guide a customer’s decision making, and help them be more informed and more successful. When that data is shared in an engaging format, it positions you as a leader, with real authority in your industry. In some instances, healthcare companies have such valuable information, the communication of that data and those insights can become its own product, and it creates a revenue stream.
For other companies, the key might be focusing on the insights at the core of your expertise. Is there publicly available data you can organize in a way that creates value to your customers? Or do you have access to data that you can share on a recurring basis to capture trends?
If you are focused on establishing yourself as a thought leader in your part of the healthcare industry, or providing helpful content to your customers, consider the golden opportunity provided by data-supported insights.
Image: Getty Images
About Hammock Healthcare Idea Email | This post is part of Hammock’s award-winning Idea Email series. Idea Emails are sent every other week and share one insightful marketing idea. Idea Email comes in two flavors: Original and Healthcare. To subscribe to the original Idea Email (general marketing ideas), click here. To subscribe to the Healthcare Idea Email (healthcare marketing ideas), click here