Transactions vs actions

Everybody is talking about Conversational Marketing. Not many brands have done anything about it.

Why?

Marketing values transactions. They are the holy grail of each marketing plan. How many products are you going to sell because of your marketing? What's the ROI of each marketing tactic? Business Schools train future marketers to focus on transactions.

In the last few years we've started to learn that relevant engagement can be as valuable as transactions. Engagement allows for a more holistic understanding of actions people take. Relevant engagement is as valuable as transactions because engagement allows for influencing others.

Conversational Marketing in itself might not be the easiest sell to clients. Relevant engagement is the first step to a real conversational campaign.

Clearly, there's always a place for transactional marketing. Doubleclick/Google and aQuantive/Microsoft point into the future of advertising based on algorithms.
But the other half of the marketing pie will be reserved for conversational marketing. We just have to understand that this form of marketing can't be bought. It has to be earned.