What We're Thinking

Why “Fit” is so critical when choosing a B2B marketing agency

Posted on April 10, 2018November 19, 2020 by Ken Ross

Having worked agency and client-side during my marketing career, I’ve seen a wide variety of briefs for agencies ranging from Financial PR and Annual Report provision through to consumer facing web design and exhibition stand builds. Yet despite the diversity of the projects – in terms of budgets, deliverables and the profiles of client organisations, […]

Is your marketing department redundant?

Posted on March 11, 2018January 11, 2019 by Ken Ross

Isn’t it exciting when all the rules change every day and no one’s really sure about what they should be doing anymore? We’ve noticed this in the B2B marketing we do recently. Maybe it’s not happening everywhere, but we’re pretty glad it’s happening on our patch. The defining lines between product development, B2B marketing and […]

Why we mothballed the Learning Technologies exit poll

Posted on May 5, 2023May 5, 2023 by Ken Ross

The Learning Technologies exit poll quickly became one of our most popular campaigns, so why did we can it? We’ve had lots of people asking where the Learning Technologies Exit Poll is again this year. For twelve years (until the 2022 show), we questioned LT’s visitors as they left the building, crunched all the numbers […]

5 and a half things to try after you’ve exhausted all your list blogging options

Posted on October 3, 2017July 11, 2019 by Ken Ross

We’ve been addicted to lists ever since Moses published the “Top 10 things thou shalt or shalt not do” post, and for busy copywriters on multiple deadlines, they’ve been a Godsend ever since. Lists posts, or “listicles”, are the bloggers’ get out of jail card. They work because they promise something really specific in the headline: […]

Learning Technologies Exit Poll 2017

Posted on February 3, 2017September 6, 2017 by Ken Ross

Look, up in the Hammersmith sky. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope… it’s a Growth Engineering Superhero! Assembling at #LT17UK to save the L&D industry from dull online learning, Growth Engineering’s mighty avengers win top five places in four of our most wanted #LTexitpoll categories this year. Welcome to the Learning Texhnologies […]

5 ground rules for B2B marketers planning for Learning Technologies

Posted on April 29, 2022May 6, 2022 by Diana Stanislavova

Hundreds of companies, promoting thousands of products and services. It’s a lot for the average L&D professional to take in during the annual Learning Technologies treasure hunt – so what is it that actually makes a great company or a new offer stand out from the crowd at Britain’s favourite L&D event? Over the past […]

Top 100 best websites in L&D (#LT17UK special edition)

Posted on January 25, 2017September 6, 2017 by Ken Ross

Are the most visible exhibitors at next week’s Learning Technologies exhibition also the most visible companies on the the internet? Our special edition top 100 best websites in L&D chart serves up the answer. See the chart How’s it done? We’ve been using our analytical know-how to run the top 100 best websites in L&D […]

Why is Uber promoting services that don’t work?

Posted on October 21, 2016September 7, 2017 by Ken Ross

Last month Uber generated world-scale, earth shattering publicity by putting driverless cars on the road in downtown Pittsburgh. They don’t work. They can’t even do a right turn at a junction. Uber passengers using these cars find themselves Uber Pooling. There’s a human driver at the front who takes the wheel every time the car’s […]

Can you replace bad sales people with great marketing?

Posted on June 29, 2016September 7, 2017 by Ken Ross

This week, as we were deep in the midst of one of these sparkly presentations that B2B marketers tend to do for large clients, one particularly hard nosed business person in our audience piped up with an idea: “Couldn’t all of this marketing automation, analytics driven, demand generation stuff actually help us single out bad […]

The relationship between sales & marketing needs to change

Posted on June 22, 2016December 19, 2018 by Ken Ross

Marketing Automation’s role is to navigate prospects through the sales pipeline and pass well qualified, high definition leads over to the sales team, but you can’t just bolt sophisticated web based demand generation tactics onto the existing sales process and expect things to work. The relationship between sales and marketing needs to change. Change 1 […]

Will’s Website Wisdom: Shakey’s top 5 tips list for B2B marketers

Posted on April 22, 2016January 7, 2019 by Ken Ross

“What a piece of work is a website” – William Shakespeare Act 1 Scene 1: We’re slap bang in the middle of a client meeting earlier this month when the business development expert in the room starts quoting Shakespeare. He’s not trying to show off and go all Patrick Stewart on us, it’s just that […]

Scrumdiddlyumptious – Post Easter Scrum Retrospective

Posted on March 29, 2016September 6, 2017 by Caroline Sangster

That’s what you get when you combine ScrumMaster certification with Easter. I am now a Certified ScrumMaster. This achievement involved attending the two day course, absorbing a massive amount of well delivered theory, actively demonstrating Scrum method within teams, and passing a multiple choice exam when I got home (although I did have 60 days […]

Winning Without Spinning: Why it’s always B2B Award Season with #NoFluff marketing

Posted on February 26, 2016September 6, 2017 by Caroline Sangster

It is finally Leo’s moment. One of the internet’s best loved memes reached peak velocity this week. With five nominations and no wins, Leo DiCaprio was the world’s most celebrated Oscar underdog. With an epic and varied catalogue of work behind him, some said it was only a matter of time – this sixth nomination for his role in a Best […]

Learning Technologies Exit Poll 2016

Posted on February 5, 2016January 11, 2019 by Ken Ross

To our squad of relentless pollsters who just kept on questioning; To the event organisers who simmered down the gents on security when they wanted to frog march us off the premises; And to the hundreds of enlightened LT16 visitors who stopped to tell us all about their visit, We thank you. The LT exit […]

Out-now: The Learning Technologies marketing support pack

Posted on November 24, 2015January 11, 2019 by Caroline Sangster

From the B2B marketing agency that brings you the Learning Tech show exit poll; say hello to our new learning technologies marketing support pack for trade show exhibitors. Why we did it If you’re the business that’s been questioning hundreds of trade show visitors as they exit the L&D industry’s landmark event for the past […]

Announcing our great new team-up with LPI

Posted on August 21, 2015September 7, 2017 by Ken Ross

Great content marketing needs high definition channel to really deliver the lead nurturing, new biz gen opportunities we’re all looking for right? That’s why we’re chuffed this August, to announce our new team-up with the Learning and Performance Institute. As you’d expect from any decent B2B marketing agency, there’s reams of colourful copy to come, […]

How to become a confident B2B marketer in five days or less: Day 5

Posted on August 14, 2015September 6, 2017 by Caroline Sangster

Day 5: the finale Today I pack up my desk, take my tea mug back to the kitchen and return my visitor pass to reception. So here are my Big Three recommendations if you’re looking to fill my space in a marketing internship: 1. Go somewhere with a Kanban board Monday morning, just as I was […]

How to become a confident B2B marketer in five days or less: Day 4

Posted on August 13, 2015September 7, 2017 by Caroline Sangster

Day 4: B2B goes big screen As the trendy marketing company NowComms is – and following the idea of a client’s Video Selfie project – we decided it was time to jump on and get the Camcorder out. For the purpose of this project, substitute Camcorder for my iPhone placed on a carefully constructed pile […]

How to become a confident B2B marketer in five days or less: Day 3

Posted on August 12, 2015September 6, 2017 by Caroline Sangster

Day 3: the long and short of successful B2B marketing Yesterday our Instagram (Now_Comms) went live, Twitter was inundated with links to the first blog, and another widely anticipated post went up. But did it make a difference? Today is the day to evaluate the success of this blog and increased social media in the B2B marketing world […]

How to become a confident B2B marketer in five days or less: Day 1

Posted on August 10, 2015September 7, 2017 by Caroline Sangster

Day 1: trending and amending Marketing internships are more searched in the UK than media, journalism and BBC internships according to Google trends. Therefore I realise I’m lucky in starting my first of a five-day placement – a marketing internship – with B2B marketing company, Now Communications. This is the first piece of work I’ve been […]

Is Net Promoter Score any good?

Posted on July 17, 2015January 11, 2019 by Ken Ross

Anyone who knows us knows that we’re pretty analytical here at Now Comms. We think that B2B marketing needs to be evidential if it’s ever going to support really effective lead nurturing campaigns. This reputation for data based decision making means we’re often asked about the Net Promoter Score System. Usually the discussion goes along […]

How to support L&D output with marketing that doesn’t stink

Posted on July 9, 2015January 11, 2019 by Ken Ross

The L&D industry’s best eLearning courses and resources are supported by some of the lamest marketing strategies we’ve ever seen. OK, so we’re a B2B marketing agency and our work is focused on marketing deliverables that bring new sales opportunities into the pipeline. We don’t usually get involved in the marketing activities that help L&D […]

Digital bastards like Kayvon Beykpour make our blood boil

Posted on March 27, 2015January 11, 2019 by Caroline Sangster

Digital bastards like Kayvon Beykpour make your blood boil don’t they? He sells his first start-up to learning business Blackboard for $4 mil before he’s even 21 and now, at the tender age of 27, he’s just banked $120 mil from Twitter for his latest brainwave Periscope, which he describes as being “like a mobile teleportation […]

Easy squeezy: how to get more from your B2B marketing budget

Posted on March 10, 2015January 11, 2019 by Caroline Sangster

There’s no shortage of statistical evidence to help out the B2B marketer who decides that now is the right time to pitch the board for a budget increase, and certainly many of the arguments we’ve read are incredibly well made (In their book “Sexy Little Numbers”, Dimitri Maex & Paul B. Brown make the strongest case […]

Our blazingly simple backlinking strategy

Posted on March 1, 2015September 7, 2017 by Ken Ross

Backlinking is probably the most important tool in the SEO toolbox these days. Sure, optimising everything you publish on your own site helps you get found, but having other quality sites link to yours: well that’s what Google really loves. These days Google’s algorithm is clever enough to sniff out sites using cheap SEO tactics […]

How do charities beat spambots?

Posted on January 2, 2015September 7, 2017 by Ken Ross

Here’s the backstory: Learning tech charity Learn Appeal got in touch this Christmas to see if we might be able to help them raise some funds. They had two free passes for this month’s Learning Technologies conference, worth £1,099 each, to give away and they wanted everyone in the L&D industry to know that. L&D […]

Now Special Reports: World of Learning 2014

Posted on October 16, 2014September 7, 2017 by Caroline Sangster

Fiercely independent, always investigative and entirely unofficial, our special World of Learning exhibitors report is out now. What’s the skinny? If you’ve not seen our special event reports for B2B marketers in L&D before, then here’s how they work. First we use our vast database of L&D contacts to track down exhibitors at this year’s […]

10 most popular marketing tools & tactics in L&D today

Posted on October 13, 2014June 16, 2022 by Caroline Sangster

Well stop all the clocks! The company website is officially the number one marketing channel of choice for L&D professionals today according to the findings in our all new Marketing Spending Review for L&D report. Yea, we get it. You kinda knew that already right? Well hold it right there fella. We don’t do these big complex […]

Is it OK to blow the whistle on your competitors?

Posted on September 11, 2014September 6, 2017 by Caroline Sangster

Last year, 70,000 users of international phone cards were left out in the cold when one major SIM card supplier allegedly went bust without warning. The new Wembley stadium houses some of the most advanced ticketing and security systems in the world – but according to some of the major players in the sports business, […]

LearningLive: the inside story as told by 77% of last year’s exhibitors

Posted on July 25, 2014January 11, 2019 by Ken Ross

A couple of years ago our exit polling at Birmingham’s World of Learning identified LearningLive as the “significant other” event that most L&D professionals were likely to go to. Since then, every time we’ve asked L&D professionals to tell us about the trade shows and conferences they’re really getting excited about. So if LearningLive is emerging as […]

L&D marketing spending review – infographic

Posted on May 16, 2014July 13, 2022 by Caroline Sangster

The all new L&D Marketing Spending Review is out now. Get the highlights in our infographic below then download the full report to see what B2B marketers in L&D will be spending budget on over the next 18 months. Download this infographic on a pdf Want to see how we did it? Download the full report

Free newswires: The good, the bad and the ugly

Posted on May 12, 2014January 11, 2019 by Caroline Sangster

The constantly growing crop of free newswires springing up across the web is raising more questions than answers for many of the B2B marketing folks we talk to these days: “Do these sites work?”, “What’s the catch?”, “Should I bother using them and, if so, then which ones are worth the effort?” are amongst the […]

L&D industry loves mobile learning but hates mobile marketing

Posted on February 19, 2014January 11, 2019 by Caroline Sangster

How come the vast majority of the 100 highest ranking websites in eLearning still have websites that don’t work well on mobile? Despite usage patterns trending out the roof for mobile web access, less than 4 in 10 of the biggest players in the L&D industry have mobile marketing strategies that use responsive websites (websites that render […]

Not everyone likes our top 100 best L&D companies chart

Posted on October 20, 2013January 7, 2019 by Ken Ross

Since going live with the Top 100 best L&D companies chart, we’ve had flame mail from hard working marketing folks across the L&D industry. They’re keen to criticize because their company has not made the hotlist. Other calls come in from businesses ranked at the lower end of the chart who think they should be higher […]

World of Learning Vs learning Technologies

Posted on September 9, 2013January 11, 2019 by Ken Ross

Over the past few months our Learning Technologies vs World of Learning project has been asking B2B marketers in L&D to rate the two events that traditionally dominate the UK trade show calendar. The results? Well it’s bad bad news for World of Learning as the findings of our tradeshow showdown survey puts the Birmingham […]

London Olympics 2012: What on earth does that have to do with e-learning?

Posted on June 18, 2012September 7, 2017 by Ken Ross

Rebooting the Eurozone economy, the environment and corporate responsibility, work / life balance and even the London 2012 Olympic Games: the impact that learning technologies has on the workplace can influence every major milestone on the business agenda, so why do most e-learning marketers bore business leaders with tech-centric training talk? Take this year’s World Earth […]

Top 20 most influential tweeters in learning technology

Posted on March 9, 2012January 11, 2019 by Ken Ross

The all-new, updated and revised edition of our most influential tweeters in learning technology chart is out now. It’s the only chart in the business that actually asks real marketing people in learning technology to vote for the tweeters they really like to follow, so we don’t think we’re exaggerating too much when we say […]

Another PowerPoint presentation: wake me when it is over

Posted on April 3, 2011September 7, 2017 by Ken Ross

Are you one of the estimated 300 million PowerPoint users contributing to the 30 million plus bank of slideshows that try the patience of long toothed executives somewhere on the planet each day (bank holidays excepted)? Thought so! It’s like Greggs the bakers at lunchtime, stopping off at Tesco’s on the way home or nipping […]

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