How Content Marketing Managers Drive Engagement and Conversions

There are more and more companies realize the importance of content marketing. Google introduces a research project, Zero Moment of Truth in 2011 (Lecinski, 2014). It investigates the way customers search for information, how information influence consumer behavior and what decisions they made about brands. It discovers that consumers search through double the amount of content online that resulting in purchasing decision compared to previous year. 

From 2010 to 2011, the number of contents viewed by average consumers goes up from five pieces to ten pieces. In the trend of content marketing, organizations must ensure they have effective content marketing practices or else they will be eliminated by consumers. Besides, user-generated content encourage users to engage in crowdsourcing, contribute ideas to brands and provides useful information to other users (Neiburger, 2010). Consumers refer to 

online products reviews during buying process because they believe in what other existing consumers think of the brands. Thus marketers begin to learn how online reviews are generated. Many brands make an effort in stimulating more users to interact with each other and subscribe to one another for the purpose of collecting more reviews to the website (Goes, Mingfeng & Ching-man Au, 2014). Another advantage of content marketing strategy is giving 

Companies an opportunity to position

their products. Positioning is based on firm’s reputation in the market and its quality of goods and services. Marketers create and publish effective content which can help them to reinforce company’s positioning. Who would have ever guessed that the future of marketing is, in fact, not marketing at all, but publishing (Gagnon, 2014). Customers will not be satisfied with exaggeration or marketing gimmicks. Appropriate, valuable and rich content is needed to 

trigger purchasing behavior and influence buying habits.Brands will now accomplish their marketing goals, not mainly through interruptive media, but by creating and distributing the most valuable information on the planet for that particular niche. Content marketing has been introduced long time ago, however not many organizations engage in it back then. 

Nevertheless, it is becoming the new trend in marketing world lately due to the shift in consumer behaviors and technological aspects. Customers realize the power of knowledge and information can lead to better purchasing decisions. Thus they start to demand for more information. Moreover, they are getting smarter and smarter so marketers have no choice but to produce accurate and great contents because manipulation of information does not work 

This digital age A few features need 

to be taken into consideration to achieve effective content marketing. The significance of localization in message raises the success rate of reaching target audience. Using one single message globally is risky due to the cultural differences and customers’ expectation varies. Next, it is better to have contents personalized because consumers demand for individualistic. They wish to feel special and respected as individuals. Customers are more likely to form 

deeper relationships with a brand when the message is personalized and contains strong emotions. On the other hand, it is best if contents are prepared in diversified routines: hire out, partner up and use voice. Different ways of conveying message can gain the interest of audience. Cooperation between marketers and customers in generating information makes 

the contents fun and trustworthy. Consumers believe that user-generated contents are far more trustable because they are not paid to spread positive word of mouth about certain brands. Lastly, it is crucial for firms to be ethical and honest with public. Public hates to be deceived and manipulated. Hence, content marketers must make sure that the contents are 

Real and transparent to build trust

and maintain customer loyalty. Marketing trend is evolving in a way that publishing is replacing marketingThe digital revolution is currently transforming entire industries and the overall competitive landscape. Established business models are challenged by changing customer expectations and behaviors, as well as new and rapidly growing market entrants with disruptive digital business ideas (Verhoef et al., 2019). A representative example for 

these changing market dynamics includes, for instance, digital streaming services, which redefined customers' way of listening to music and watching movies (e.g., Spotify or Netflix). Another example is sharing ventures, which grant access to products and services without requiring formal ownership (e.g., Uber or Airbnb). Significant challenges are also observable 

inside of firms, as digital technologies change the way products are produced and the way employees work and collaborate (Schwarzmüller, Brosi, Duman, & Welpe, 2018). In order to keep up with the development and remain successful, firms need to adjust and respond to these changing realities. The term ‘digital transformation,’ which Verhoef et al. (2019) define as ‘a change in how a firm employs digital technologies, to develop a new digital business 

Conclusion

model that helps to create and appropriate more value for the firm’ (p.1), reflects and emphasizes the implications at the firm-level.1 For top managers, who are considered as firms' key decision-makers (Finkelstein & Hambrick, 1996; Hambrick & Mason, 1984), the digital transformation means an altered decision-making context and unprecedented challenges. In fact, given the novelty of the digital transformation, top managers cannot rely 

to develop tailored responses. Despite the decisive role of top managers for strategic decisionmaking in firms and the growing awareness regarding the digital transformation in practice, our empirical understanding of top managers' role therein is very limited. The role of top managers in corporate environments has mainly been discussed within upper echelons 

theory (Hambrick & Mason, 1984) or strategic leadership research (Finkelstein, Hambrick, & Cannella, 2009). Even though a large volume of studies has contributed toward a comprehensive understanding of top managers' role in and influence on firms, only very few studies in this research area addressed digital aspects. Nevertheless, extant studies provide 

initial indications pointing toward the leading position that top managers assume in firms' digital transformation processes. In fact, prior research found significant relationships between top managers and firms'commitment to the status quo (Hambrick, Geletkanycz, & Fredrickson, 1993) and corporate strategic change (Wiersema & Bantel, 1992). Besides