In B2B marketing, the free ride is over. That’s the unnerving upshot of a report issued earlier this year by Unica. Metrics demonstrating a connection between social network advertising and sales are the rule of the day. And hence, the need to align social network metrics against sales data means that free tools tied to particular programs are falling out of favor. Pressure to measure up internally isn’t the only thing driving B2B marketers. Consumers increasingly have the upper hand, and are making contact, with sellers. Capitalizing on in-bound marketing has become critical.

It's tempting to try to research your way into a strategy. But, as Andrea Fishman points out in a ClickZ article, research can be misleading. Unlike Andrea, I don't think this is a problem with poor research. I think it's a problem with all research. And the solution is not to get better at research. Instead, I suggest we try something else.

Often those in the industry (graphic designers even!) think a designer’s job is to do that and only that—design. That is, the job is supposed to be to create a design that visually communicates the brand strategy and receive the “thumbs up” from the client. Check. Check out . . . well, not quite.