Driving marketing outcomes through social media-based customer engagement

Firms recognize the increasing potential of digital services to enhance customer engagement behaviors. Drawing on customer engagement and user gratification theory, two studies were conducted among Chinese consumers: an online survey and a field study. The results reveal varying effects of content types on customer engagement and underline a mediating role of engagement between content types and marketing outcomes. It is worth noting that the relational content type displays greater mediating effects compared to other content types. The findings provide new insights for development of digital content marketing strategies to enhance customer engagement and thereby generate marketing outcomes.