Online customer engagement: a practical exploration of antecedents and metrics for new content marketers

Abstract

The ability of new content marketing companies and marketing practitioners to engage customers online depends on their understanding of the impact of antecedents on critical online customer engagement metrics. However, there has been little scholarly research exploring online customer engagement in the context of complex, real-world environments that could guide the strategies of new brands and start-up companies seeking to establish an online presence. This paper identifies the antecedents and metrics required for identifying an appropriate online customer engagement (OCE) strategy in the context of a start-up content marketing company called ABC Investments (a pseudonym) and of more established social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram. Eleven OCE antecedents and six metrics were originally proposed but on completion of the research, twelve antecedents- including one new one (human face)- were determined to have impacted OCE metrics. Finally, this paper shows how antecedent and metric research can be used to develop OCE strategies.