Follow me on Twitter:   @andydalg. Ever since I was invited to join The Network of Aspiring Women (Birmingham Group), I’ve felt more in touch with my feminine side ( see post here ). Perhaps that’s why my interest was piqued by a recent discussion on the B-to-B Marketing LinkedIn Group. Kate Bishop, Marketing Co-ordinator at Custom Fluidpower, has a dilemma. To use, or not to use, promotional girls at a trade show stand? Her boss is insistent but she has concerns. I share them. First, let’s be clear about exactly what a “promotional girl” is. The clue is in the name. They vet prospects. MORE >>

Connect with Andrew on Twitter or Google+. Every year B2B Marketing Magazine, in partnership with Circle Research , ranks the UK’s top 50 B2B marketing communications agencies based on their revenues. The League and lots of other juicy information is published in a Benchmarking Report.  We’re giving away copies to the first 50 new subscribers to this blog.  Get your copy here  - subscribe. Highlights. As the vast majority of specialist B2B agencies participate in the League and their financial data is verified, this is a strong measure of the sector’s health.  Some benchmarks. MORE >>

Connect with Andrew on Twitter or Google+. Warning.  Market research can be bad for your health. It can actively hurt business performance by drawing misleading conclusions.  Conclusions which fail to consider the full picture, which focus on the obvious rather than delving deep or which are simply based on faulty information.  The result is bad decisions. Research can also passively hurt business performance by not driving action.  The conclusions are sound, but sit on a shelf gathering dust.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  Research can also be very, very powerful.  Kingmakers’ are critical.  MORE >>

Connect with Andrew on Twitter or Google+. People matter. marketer’s our raison d’etre is to understand people and influence their behaviour.  And for the majority of agencies supporting marketers, people are essentially what they’re selling – their time, their expertise and the experience they create for clients. . So if you’re building a marketing team or running an agency, motivating and retaining the best people is critical. But what’s the secret? recent survey undertaken by Circle Research and Vodafone provides some valuable pointers. . First by a significant margin is salary.  MORE >>

Connect with Andrew on Twitter or Google+. What you see isn’t always what you get. Horse meat in our Findus Crispy Pancakes.  Sub-prime mortgages hidden within bundles of triple-A rated loans.  Dodgy surveys parading as fact. This deception – whether intentional or accidental – has far-reaching repercussions.  In the case of faulty research it can lead to sub-optimal decisions and missed opportunities.  And it’s an easy mistake to make.  Statistics carry a sense of authority and it seems counter-intuitive to challenge the statement that ‘customers told us’.  But challenge we should. MORE >>