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Planning a goal-oriented B2B content marketing strategy
Article in Marketing Intelligence & Planning · May 2020
DOI: 10.1108/MIP-11-2019-0559
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Shahrzad Yaghtin
ESDES School of Business and Management
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Mehdi Karimi Zand
Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch
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3. such as LinkedIn and Instagram as the B2B content marketing platforms. Therefore, this
study executed to help the organizations in determining the valuable types of content to meet
the informational needs of B2B audiences and to relate with them on Instagram and then to
comprehend the relationships between the main pillars of CM to plan a DCM strategy in line
with the organizations’ main marketing objectives. Thus, we make the key contributions to the
DCM literature and to content marketing practitioners using Instagram in the B2B sector.
In this paper, first we provide an overview on DCM and DCM platforms. Second, we
discuss the academic debate on using DCM strategy in a B2B context. Third, the research
setting and methodology are also outlined and analyzed. Forth, we present findings and
discuss the implications of the findings, summarized in an experiential model. Finally, we
conclude with the limitations and some potential areas for future works.
2. Literature review
2.1 B2B content marketing
The increasing importance of Internet to B2B customer purchasing decisions has encouraged
corporates to publish digital content that leads potential buyers to interact with the
corporates (Jarvinen and Taiminen, 2016). CM in a B2B context is different from other
marketing approaches. Unlike advertising-centric marketing, it does not aim to encourage
customers of the specific advantages of the corporates’ products. While advertising places
ads in media to convince the customers of the benefits, the audiences or customers come into
contact with the content which is valued in its own right (Wang et al., 2019). Communicating
useful and relevant information cuts through the clutter (Pulizzi, 2014) and provides the
answers that the B2B buyers and prospects are searching for; this helps the firms to develop
their customer relationship and have desirable impact on customer loyalty (Hristova, 2013).
During the past decade, practitioners’ studies have shown how purchase decisions are
impressed by B2B digital content and online conversations. Thought leadership advocates
believe that B2B marketers should boost their online communities to disseminate and spread
the relevant and helpful content for its superior insights. By persuading this new customer
mindset, marketers can achieve a valuable competitive advantage from CM approach. But
such arguments have rarely been examined in academic research (Barry and Gironda, 2019).
The reason to study specifically different social media channels and blogs is that they present
fast and personalized interactions between customers and businesses and therefore build
stronger relationships.
2.2 Digital content marketing platforms
Today, being present effectively on digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
has become more important for the firms for a variety of reasons; some of these reasons
constitute to promote their brand, their products or for general publicity (Ashley and Tutenn,
2015; Schreiner et al., 2019). Instagram, as a photo-based social network, started to work in
October 2010 and have combined the photo capture and photo editing functions (Hu et al.,
2014). Hunt and Langstedt (2014) believe more recent entrants into the social media market
have successfully prioritized the role of images in communication, with Pinterest, Instagram
and Snapchat offering comparatively few text-based features while emphasizing images. The
results of various researches uncovered the fast development of video sharing services,
especially in terms of how online users do their online works on social network applications
such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram (Hu et al., 2014; Jia et al., 2016). Image- and video-
centered social media platforms, such as Instagram have had quick B2B market adoption
rates (Munoz and Towner, 2017). This is because they perform functional purposes for public
approval, attention and recognition by the comments and communication on shared photos
among users (Malik et al., 2016; Dhir, 2016).
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4. 3. Theoretical framework
3.1 Content marketing pillars
After analyzing nine studies, Rancati and Gordini (2015) identified three pillars of CM as
follows: 1) content; 2) customer engagement and 3) goal. In the B2B sector, content, as the key
element of DCM, is composed of valuable information through which B2B marketers can help
customers result in building customer relationships (Holliman and Rowley, 2014; Wang et al.,
2019). There are times when the content does not even have much to do with the products that
a company sells. Holliman and Rowley (2014) believe that customers actively seek out a brand
because it provides them with relevant, engaging content which educates or entertains them.
In relation to the second pillar of CM, a number of researchers suggest that customer
engagement can develop the customer brand relationship quality and increase the purchase
intention toward the brand (Hsieh and Chang, 2016; Parihar et al., 2019).
Finally, about the goal as the third pillar of CM, Rancatti and Gordini (2015) among top
goals of CM, identify brand awareness (86%), customer acquisition (84%), sales (82%) and
other goals are customer retention/loyalty (65%), lead generation and lead management/
nurturing (respectively 63 and 51%), online traffic (60%) and thought leaders (46%). Using
social media channels can increase the customers’ trust beliefs in the integrity, ability and
benevolence of salespeople, and consequently it can lead to improving the customer loyalty.
Moreover, customers’ trust belief in benevolence can result in reducing purchase risk
perception and indirectly increasing customer loyalty (Zhang and Li, 2019), which is in line
with the firms’ customer retention/acquisition objectives. Saxena and Saxena’s (2013)
demonstrate the effect of social media as a useful tool for lead generation and lead
management although this effect seems to be indirect according to Veldeman et al. (2015)’s
study. Pitt et al. (2019) believe marketers are keenly interested in brand engagement in social
media as brand engagement has strong and direct relations to brand equity. Brand equity has
to do with the customer’s awareness of brands’ features and associations, which in turn link
to the brand perceptions. Hall (2013) proposes to add training customers to the mentioned list,
which is in line with the firm’s customer service goals. In terms of getting more online traffic,
Luo and Zhang (2013) demonstrate that online traffic which is aimed by the firms has a direct
relationship with the firms’ performance; moreover it can build the foundation for buzz to
positively impress on firm performance. Also, the result of the study of Farook and
Abeysekara (2016) shows that content type of posts exerts a great effect on customer online
engagement and online traffic.
Some of the mentioned objectives are not much different from the purposes of other means
of marketing communications, but the importance of them is different because most kinds of
marketing communication are mainly used to grow the sales in a short term, but DCM
concentrates on other factors that hopefully lead to great sales numbers and long-lasting
customer interactions.
3.2 Other considerations in planning a goal-oriented DCM
Rancati and Gordini (2015) believe CM managers should abandon the idea of the CM as
merely being a simple tactic to publish and share content; they also should plan CM strategies
purposely, using human resources dedicated specially to this activity. Holliman and Rowley
(2014) suggest DCM practitioners in a B2B context to do the following: (1) acknowledge DCM
from selling to helping the customer (2) adopt a strategic approach CM that views (3) align
their CM objectives with prioritizing building a trusted brand status over, for example, short-
term sales or lead generation objectives, (4) promoting the knowledge of how businesses can
take benefit from DCM to help their other marketing activities (5) to recognize what is
valuable and useful for the target audience (6) an understanding of customer information
needs at different points in time and at different points in their buying/relationship process.
Goal-oriented
B2B content
marketing
strategy
5. (7) develop an understanding of the role and effectiveness of different types of content for
different audiences. (8) develop metrics and measurement techniques in line with DCM
purposes. One of the most valuable studies in regard to using CM techniques more effectively
is attributed to Didner’s research. Didner (2014) believes that CM cycle includes plan, produce,
promote and perfect stages. It is noteworthy to mention that the stages overlap and
simultaneously tightly integrate to the entity. These stages help presenting CM in a
structured and a clear way.
4. Research questions
Based on the previously discussed literature and theoretical framework, the following
research questions were developed:
(1) What are the main goals considered by the selected corporates to create the content in
the B2B sector?
(2) Which content types and content classes comply more with the B2B audiences’ needs/
interests/values?
(3) What are the most efficient content types to persuade B2B audiences to participate in
conversations?
5. Methods
5.1 Research methodology
In this study, we have selected Instagram as one of the most widely used digital platforms in
the B2B sector. Content analysis method was served to analyze the Instagram pages of 24 top-
ranked corporates (Fortune, 2018) from three different industries. Content analysis method
can be applied to all kinds of written text such as speeches, letters or articles whether digital
or in print, as well as text in the form of pictures, video, film or other visual media. Content
analysis can be used to analyze both the manifest and the latent textual content. Manifest
content refers to the visible, countable components of the message and latent content refers to
the meaning that may lie behind the manifest content (Rose et al., 2015). Content analysis can
be used with both qualitative and quantitative data; furthermore, it may be used in an
inductive or deductive approach. As there is little understanding about the subject of the
study, the inductive method has been chosen to content analysis processing. The process of
content analyzing involves open coding, creating categories and abstraction. In the
preparation stage, selection of the unit of analysis is done (Guthrie et al., 2004). In this study,
the unit of analysis was each individual photo posted on Instagram. The codebook variables
were derived from the literature review, also review of each corporate’s 30 last Instagram
posts, then each photo was categorized regarding its main content and description of the
photo. Using engagement as a key metric, dividing engagement into different phases, starting
with clicking and liking, continuing with commenting, following, retweeting and
hashtagging and finally evolving into advocacy were followed (Jaakonm€
aki et al., 2017).
The number of likes was used as the major variable to measure audiences’ interest in each
content type, and the number of comments was used to evaluate the users’ engagement in
conversations about each content type. After selecting the top-ranked eight corporates from
each industry, the content analysis was implemented on their Instagram posts. Among the
investigated corporates, some of them are relatively new to Instagram and/or have not been
distinctively active in the way they interact on the platform, so we chose other corporates
from the top list until in each industry the number of corporates reached to eightcorporates. In
order to perform the uniform sample selection process, with the equal number of posts from
all corporates, we analyzed the 30 last posts of each corporate’s Instagram account; in overall
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6. we have analyzed 720 posts and their related descriptions in 11 days from February 13, 2019
to February 24, 2019. In order to have the initial data analysis about the photos and videos’
content, Amazon Rekonition software was utilized. The reports of this software helped the
coders to obtain an overall view and a sense of a whole about the content classes which in turn
facilitated the content type identification and the coding process.
5.2 Coders and reliability
Two coders, with PhDs in marketing and extensive backgrounds of consulting experiences in
the three selected industries, underwent coder training process in order to code the photos
and videos considering their content, sense and related descriptions. To establish reliability,
each coder independently coded 180 posts or 25% of the total sample of 720 photos (Geurin-
Eagleman and Burch, 2016). Cohen’s Kappa was calculated in SPSS version 22 to ascertain
about the intercoder reliability. The Cohen’s Kappa figures ranged from 0.87 in terms of
content types and their relevant marketing goals to 0.94 in case of content classes. These
figures were above acceptable range of 0.7 of Wimmer and Dominick (2006). Following the
intercoder reliability test, the remaining 540 posts were divided and coded independently.
5.3 Data analysis
The number of likes was used to evaluate how much users’ interest in each content type was,
and the number of comments was used to indicate the users’ engagement in conversations for
each content type. SPSS version 22 was used to analyze the significant difference levels. To
test the normality of samples’ distribution, we used the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test (K–S test
or KS test). The test’s results indicated that the data distribution is not normal. Therefore,
Kruskal–Wallis test was utilized as a suitable statistical test to determine whether significant
differences existed in engagement levels or not.
6. Findings
Table 1 indicates the content classes, content types and the main marketing goals which were
identified through content analysis method on the Instagram pages of selected corporates.
Content classes Identified content types
Number of related
posts Identified main goals
Task-oriented Products and Services 119 Lead management
Innovation and
Technology
17 Lead management
HSE/CSR Performance 79 Customer acquisition/
retention
Emotion-oriented Feelings and Family 69 Customer acquisition/
retention
Art and nature 83 Customer acquisition/
retention
Motivational 90 Customer acquisition/
retention
Adventurous 51 Get more traffic on Instagram
Interaction-oriented Questions and puzzles 24 Get more traffic on Instagram
Training 16 Customer Service
Events and ceremonies 74 Brand Awareness
Advertising-
Oriented
Celebrities 20 Get more traffic on Instagram
Fashions and Styles 78 Get more traffic on Instagram
Table 1.
Identified content
classes, content types
and the corporates’
main goals
Goal-oriented
B2B content
marketing
strategy
7. According to the indicated data, the most widely used content type among the corporates is
corporates’ products and services (n 5 119) among the total number of 720 posts. The next
ranks belong to motivational (n 5 90), art and nature (n 5 83) and HSE/CSR performance
(n 5 79) content types. Other identified content types are shown in Table 1.
The first question of the research is about the main marketing goals which are considered
by the selected corporates in producing the content. As outlined in Table 1, the major goals
followed by the corporates in creating the content include customer acquisition/retention
(42.80%), get more traffic on Instagram (27.07%), lead management (18.13%), brand
awareness (9.87%) and customer service (2.13%).
Based on the results on Table 2, the top ranks of content types are different among the
three investigated B2B markets. While the most widely used content types in oil and gas
industry are products and services and HSE/CSR performance, in the paint and coating
Industry, fashion and style and emotion and family content types are more used by the
corporates. Finally, in tire industry, the posts which are associated to corporates’ products
and services and adventures are the most common content types.
The second question of study is about identifying the content types those are valued more
by the B2B audiences. The results of Kruskal–Wallis test (K–W test or KW test) in terms of
the rate of likes are shown for the collected data of each industry in Table 3. The results of
K–W test revealed the significant effect of content type on the rate of likes in all three selected
industries. According to the results, in oil and gas industry, the content type has a significant
effect on number of likes [H 5 33.03, df 5 11, p 5 0.01] at 0.05 level. In paint and coating
industry, the result of K–W test revealed significant effect of content types on number of likes
[H 5 27.08, df 5 11, p 5 0.04] at 0.05 level. Also, according to the results of tire industry, the
content type has a significant effect on number of likes [H 5 51.05, df 5 11, p 5 0.00] at
0.05 level.
Based on the indicated findings in Table 3, in oil and gas industry, the first and the second
places of mean ranks in case of audiences’ interest, respectively belong to products and
services (M 5 77.50) and events and ceremonies (M 5 67.31) content types, which are
respectively categorized under task-oriented and interaction-oriented content classes.
Based on the presented data in Table 3, in paint and coating industry, the posts related to
the art and nature (M 5 73.50) and feelings and family (M 5 65.88) have the top ranks among
the mean ranks of likes. Both of these content types are classified under the category of
emotion-oriented content class.
Content type
Number of posts related to each content type
Oil and gas industry Paint and coating industry Tire industry
Motivational 30 31 29
Adventurous 9 2 40
Innovation and Technology 11 2 4
Events and ceremonies 36 16 22
Products and Services 64 13 42
HSE/CSR Performance 53 25 1
Art and nature 19 32 32
Emotions and family 5 40 24
Training 10 5 1
Questions and puzzles 1 13 16
Celebrities 0 7 7
Fashions and styles 2 54 22
Total numbers 240 240 240
Table 2.
Rate of each content
type usage in the
different Industries
MIP
8. And the presented data in Table 3 illustrated that in tire industry the highest mean ranks of
likes respectively belong to adventurous (M 5 81.13) content type which is classified in the
category of emotion-oriented and the products and services (M 5 79.50) content type which is
categorized as the task-oriented class.
Finally, in terms of the most efficient content types in persuading audiences to engage in
conversions, the results of K–W test revealed the significant effect of content type on the rate
of comments in all three selected industries (Table 4). In oil and gas industry, significant
differences were found between content types and number of comments at 0.05 level
[H 5 34.80, df 5 11, p 5 0.00]. In paint and coating industry, the result of K–W test revealed
the significant effect of content types on number of comments [H 5 23.97, df 5 11, p 5 0.013]
at 0.05 level, and finally, in relation to tire industry, the result of K–W test revealed the
significant effect of content types on number of comments [H 5 45.442, df 5 11, p 5 0.00] at
0.05 level. In terms of the top mean ranks of comments, interestingly the results are the same
as the mean ranks of likes in all three industries (Table 4).
Content classes Content types
Mean ranks of likes
Oil and gas
industry
Paint and coating
industry
Tire
industry
Task-oriented Products and services 77.50 55.25 79.50
Innovation and
technology
54.19 32.25 28.25
HSE/CSR performance 65.56 32.88 23.63
Emotion-oriented Feelings and family 38.94 65.88 42.63
Art and nature 54.00 73.50 63.00
Motivational 48.75 53.13 61.13
Adventurous 38.75 31.38 81.13
Interaction-
oriented
Questions and puzzles 32.05 57.38 37.13
Events and ceremonies 67.31 54.75 57.25
Training 43.31 37.50 23.75
Advertising-
oriented
Celebrities 26.50 33.00 32.00
Fashions and styles 35.13 55.13 52.63
Content classes Content types
Mean ranks of comments
Oil and gas
industry
Paint and coating
industry
Tire
industry
Task-oriented Products and services 77.94 52.88 73.88
Innovation and
technology
55.44 31.94 29.50
HSE/CSR performance 66.81 35.75 22.50
Emotion-oriented Feelings and family 40.25 64.94 42.81
Art and nature 51.06 65.00 64.06
Motivational 51.88 54.25 57.44
Adventurous 35.69 32.88 78.06
Interaction-
oriented
Questions and puzzles 35.81 64.00 35.25
Events and ceremonies 67.50 53.75 64.19
Training 37.06 36.38 25.81
Advertising-
oriented
Celebrities 27.50 34.63 37.13
Fashions and styles 35.06 55.63 51.38
Table 3.
Mean Ranks of likes for
each content type
Table 4.
Mean ranks of
comments for each
content type
Goal-oriented
B2B content
marketing
strategy
9. 7. Discussion
The first major finding of this study is the identification of twelve different content types
commonly used by the corporates from the three selected industries (Table 1). The results of
content analysis uncovered the corporates’ main marketing objectives in producing these
content types. These main objectives respectively involve customer acquisition/retention, get
more traffic on Instagram posts, lead management, brand awareness and customer service.
This finding aligns with Rakic et al.’s (2014) study, who state the firms execute DCM to
support the implementation of multiple business objectives, such as brand awareness,
attraction of customers, along with creating the leads, maintaining of customer relationships/
loyalty etc. Development of the customer online cognitive and affective trust is of great
importance to achieve a competitive advantage (Punyatoya, 2019), in line with the
acquisition/retention marketing goals. Recently, there has been increasing interest in the
potential of digital marketing in which the buyers and prospects keenly seek out the brands
which provide helpful and compelling content that is associated with their relatedness needs
(Pagani and Malacarne, 2017). The result of qualitative in-depth interview by Veldeman et al.
(2015) suggests lead generation/management is an implicit goal which is followed by the
companies in the B2B sector. According to their findings, the businesses in the B2B sector
rarely implement social media purposefully as direct sales channels to existing customers
and prospects. However, the companies’ primary goal in order to guide the prospects down
the sales funnel is to provide them with the relevant content, and this content could be more
probably related to the companies’ main products and services. Luo and Zhang (2013)
demonstrate that online traffic, which is aimed by the firms, has a direct relationship with the
firms’ performance; moreover it can build the foundation for buzz to positively impress on
firm performance. However, it should be considered that when the content is compelling
enough to gain the attention of targeted audiences, this may lead to the online traffic, but only
if the content is produced in line with the customers’ needs and interests, they may repost it,
and this content feeds with a stamp of approval from someone who other audiences know and
trust (Barry, 2015).
The notable differences in top ranks of content types among the three investigated B2B
industries imply the difference in the main purposes which are aimed to achieve. Scott (2011)
believes that an important characteristic of organizations’ content publishers is that they
carefully identify and define target audiences and consider what content is required to meet
organization’s needs. In other words, content publishers try to produce the content which is
consistent with their industries’ special characteristics and definitely the companies’ main
marketing goals.
Based on our findings, the identified content types can be categorized under the four main
content classes including task-oriented, emotion-oriented, interaction-oriented and
advertising-oriented. Kim et al. (2015) suggest that social media content can be classified
into three categories as follows: task-oriented, interaction-oriented and self-orientation. In our
study, task-oriented content is about corporates’ products/services/resources information or
a new product or service announcement or corporates’ HSE/CSR-related activities.
Interaction-oriented content is a picture, image or video which is not directly related to the
brand or corporates’ products/services. Emotion-oriented content is a picture, image, text or
video which influences the audiences and make them comprehend deeply the concept of the
produced content. Finally, the advertising-oriented content is a picture, image, text or video
published with the main purpose of directly promoting the corporates’ brands or the products
and is the closest content class to the traditional advertising method.
Based on the study’s results, task-oriented and emotion-oriented content classes are the
most valuable and/or interesting ones among the four identified content classes. And
interestingly, the posts which are related to the corporates’ product and services are the most
popular ones in B2B audiences’ point of views. The content types under the categories of
MIP
10. task-oriented and emotion-oriented classes are mostly the ones which are created in
accordance with the customer acquisition/retention and lead management goals. Audiences’
interest about art and nature and motivational posts, which are both classified under the
emotion-oriented content class, adheres to Pulizzi’s (2014) viewpoint who suggests that CM
attracts customers using interesting and interactive content which enhances a company’s
online findability. Hristova (2013) also believes CM is the marketing of attraction. Besides, our
findings revealed the difference in popularity of content types among the audiences from the
different industries, which is probably emanated from the different needs, interests and
preferences of B2B audiences of dissimilar industries.
In terms of audiences’ engagement in conversations, the highest ranks of comments are
the same as the mean ranks of likes in all three industries. In other words, the most interesting
and valuable content types are also the most efficient content types in persuading audiences
to participate in conversations. Van Doorn et al. (2010) suggest that customer engagement
results in financials and reputation among customers for the organizations, and naturally,
positive engagement strengthens these factors whereas negative engagement weakens.
Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick (2012) state that the weakness of CM is that marketers have less
control on the results compared to traditional marketing where the media channel and target
group can usually be indeed carefully planned. Our findings also support their idea as in some
cases especially when the environmental concerns exist, some audiences try to involve in
conversations to show their dissatisfaction about organizations’ previous or undergoing
actions and to start the challenging conversations in this regard. Sometimes it becomes
difficult for the organizations to handle these controversial debates. The practical
implications of this finding highlight the importance of using a responsive manner in
mutual conversations and specially to take benefit from the audiences’ valuable feedbacks in
the implementation of DCM strategy.
The conceptual model of DCM in the B2B sector is proposed in this paper (Figure 1). The
relationship between the main pillars of CM, including content, customer engagement and
corporate’s marketing goals and their subfactors are illustrated in this goal-oriented model. In
this conceptual model, appropriate digital content as the key pillar of DCM is published by
considering the B2B audiences’ needs/ values/ interests and in accordance with the
corporate’s main marketing goals. The 4Ps from Didner’s model are used in this model as the
facilitators to enhance the efficiency of CM strategy and to help the process of ongoing
perfection as well.
8. Conclusions and limitations
8.1 Conclusions
This empirical study sheds some light on the ambiguous facets of DCM in the B2B sector, and
its findings can be useful for the scholars who intend to investigate the various aspects of
DCM and for the practitioners who work in the related fields. In this paper, DCM as the
marketing strategy which is responsible for development of customer relationships and
contribution to the firm performance was studied (Kakkar, 2017; Hollebeek and Macky, 2019).
Besides, this paper contributes to understanding the key elements in implementation of goal-
oriented DCM strategy. By using inductive content analysis method, 12 content types in 4
classes of the content were identified in line with the 5 main marketing objectives. Providing
the relevant and engaging information in accordance with the customers’ different
informational needs helps the corporates to build the awareness and loyalty which results
in achieving their main marketing objectives including customer acquisition/retention, more
online traffic and lead management. According to the results, task-oriented and emotion-
oriented content classes are the most valuable ones from the audiences’ view points and the
most efficient content classes in persuading audiences to participate in conversations.
Goal-oriented
B2B content
marketing
strategy
12. At content production stage, it is highly recommended to consider the audiences’ different
informational needs to create more helpful content. Following the dissemination of the
content at the promotion stage, collecting the audiences’ feedbacks should be done during the
perfection stage. Consequently, using the conceptual model of goal-oriented DCM can lead to
the continuous improvement of DCM strategy in line with the corporate’s main marketing
objectives (Figure 1).
8.2 Theoretical and practical implications
This research offers a novel contribution to using Instagram as a business platform to
implement a goal-oriented DCM strategy. In terms of theoretical implications, a conceptual
DCM model is proposed which illustrates the relationship between the main pillars of CM,
including content, customer engagement and corporate’s main marketing goals and their
subfactors. In this conceptual model, valuable content as the key pillar of DCM is produced by
considering the B2B audiences’ informational needs and in consistence with the corporate’s
marketing objectives.
As the different kinds of content are required to meet the various audiences’ informational
needs, therefore, the different characteristics of the helpful content including being
compelling, engaging and relevant should be considered while creating the different
content types. Utilizing the appropriate digital platform for distributing the content and using
the audiences’ feedback to improve the process of content creation and dissemination are of
great importance. Finally, in line with all the strategic implications for planning DCM
strategy in a B2B context, it is highly recommended to consider the main role of helping
approach instead of selling approach in producing the valuable content for the target
audiences (Holliman and Rowley, 2014; Jarvinen and Taiminen, 2016).
8.3 Limitations and future research directions
This research offers number of insights to implement DCM strategy in the B2B sector;
however, it is not without its limitations. First, this study was exploratory in nature, and the
findings were largely descriptive and set the foundation for future works on this topic.
Second, the analysis of the study does have some limitations, mostly due to data restrictions.
The primary data were gathered from the Instagram pages of 24 corporates from three
industries, and the content analysis of more corporates’ Instagram pages from other
industries shall be done in order to generalizing the findings to whole B2B sector, especially in
case of identified content classes and content types. Third, this research was conducted on a
single social media platform. For reaching more reliable findings, it is needed to repeat the
similar investigations on other widely used digital platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and
the corporates’ websites. Therefore, we encourage further research that empirically tests and
validates the research conceptual model. Investigation about implementing the DCM strategy
within the result of Instagram usage in other industries and the evaluation of different digital
platforms for achieving the DCM purposes in the B2B sector are recommended as well.
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About the authors
Shahrzad Yaghtin is a PhD candidate in business administration and marketing, with a demonstrated
history of working as a marketing expert, head of marketing and consultant in industrial sector since
April 2008. Her research focus includes B2B marketing, digital marketing, inbound marketing, content
marketing and marketing strategies. Her dissertation is about investigating different factors in
implementing effective content marketing to communicate to audiences in the B2B sector. She has
started her works as an instructor in Azad university- Shahre Qods branch since October 2019.
Dr Hossein Safarzadeh is an assistant professor at department of Business Administration of Islamic
Azad University Central Tehran Branch. He is also a business consultant experienced with a
demonstrated history of working in various industries including electronics, chemicals and energy.
Hossein Safarzadeh is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: hr.safarzadeh@gmail.com
Dr Mehdi Karimi zand is an assistant professor at department of business administration of Islamic
Azad University’s Central Tehran branch. His main fields of studies include digital marketing and social
marketing. His teaching focus is on research methods, digital marketing and inbound marketing.
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