A Rant on Engagement

• 24th August 2012
• Jason Hekl

• Demand Creation Strategies

I’ve got a gripe with the term engagement. I think it’s misleading. What most marketers are calling engagement is really content consumption. The content may be presented contextually; it may be presented dynamically by industry or role; it may be specific to a prospect’s buying cycle stage. Ultimately you’re serving up content for someone to consume. Personally, when I read an e-book, attend a webinar or watch a video, I don’t consider myself engaged. I’m consuming. For me, engagement requires a back-and-forth between two parties, an authentic conversation that can’t be fully scripted. There is no better mechanism for engagement than the phone. Many people frown on phone work, but consider this – as a former head of marketing, my contact info was never hard to find. I would get my fair share of cold calls every day. However, those paled in volume to the spam I received. True, I did not answer most calls, and most voicemails were hardly worth listening to. But, and this is important, if calls are relevant, or voicemails are specific to me, your likelihood of success in engaging me is much higher via phone than via email.