Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Digital Content Marketing among Consumers in Malaysian SME Food and Beverage Businesses

Digital content marketing has become an essential strategic tool for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia’s food and beverage (F&B) sector, enabling businesses to enhance consumer interaction, strengthen brand visibility, and improve market competitiveness through digital platforms. Despite the increasing adoption of digital marketing practices, limited empirical studies have examined the factors influencing digital content marketing effectiveness from the consumer perspective, particularly within Malaysian SME F&B businesses. Therefore, this study investigates the influence of brand awareness, word-of-mouth (WOM), consumer engagement, and conversion on the effectiveness of digital content marketing among consumers in the Malaysian SME F&B sector.
A quantitative research design was employed, and data were collected from 386 consumers through a structured questionnaire using convenience sampling. The collected data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), including descriptive analysis, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The findings indicate that brand awareness, WOM, and consumer engagement significantly influence digital content marketing effectiveness, with brand awareness emerging as the strongest predictor. Conversely, conversion did not demonstrate a significant direct influence on digital content marketing effectiveness. The results suggest that consumer familiarity with brands, positive online recommendations, and active engagement with digital content are critical determinants of effective digital marketing performance within SME F&B businesses.
This study contributes to the digital marketing and consumer behaviour literature by providing empirical evidence on the factors influencing digital content marketing effectiveness in the Malaysian SME context. The findings offer practical insights for SME owners, digital marketers, and policymakers in developing consumer-orientated digital marketing strategies that enhance brand competitiveness, customer relationships, and long-term business sustainability.

Digital Content Marketing Effectiveness, Brand Awareness

1. Aaker, D. A. (1996). Measuring brand equity across products and markets. California Management Review, 38(3), 102–120. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. Abdul-Ghani, E., Hyde, K. F., & Marshall, R. (2019). Conceptualizing engagement in a consumer-to-consumer context. Australasian Marketing Journal, 27(1), 2–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2018.11.001 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Ahmad, F., Kee, C. P., Mustaffa, N., Ibrahim, F., & Mahmud, W. A. W. (2012). Information propagation and the forces of social media in Malaysia. Asian Social Science, 8(5), 71–76. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v8n5p71 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. Akturan, U., & Tezcan, N. (2012). Mobile banking adoption of the youth market: Perceptions and intentions. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 30(4), 444–459. https://doi.org/10.1108/02634501211231928 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. Albarracín, D., & Wyer, R. S. (2000). The cognitive impact of past behavior: Influences on beliefs, attitudes, and future behavioral decisions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.1.5 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

6. Andreassen, T. W., & Streukens, S. (2009). Service innovation and electronic word-of-mouth: Is it worth listening to? Managing Service Quality, 19(3), 249–265. https://doi.org/10.1108/09604520910955376 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

7. Appel, G., Grewal, L., Hadi, R., & Stephen, A. T. (2019). The future of social media in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48(1), 79–95. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00695-1 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

8. Atwong, C. T. (2015). A social media practicum: An action-learning approach to social media marketing and analytics. Marketing Education Review, 25(1), 27–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/10528008.2014.999600 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

9. Azmi, I. A. G., Basir, A., Muwazir, M. R., Hashim, R. C., & Mohamed, H. A. (2014, June). Motivation of Muslim women entrepreneurs in Malaysian SMEs. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Management (pp. 1–11). [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

10. Baltes, L. P. (2015). Content marketing: The fundamental tool of digital marketing. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov, Series V: Economic Sciences, 8(57), 111–118. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

11. Becker, L., & Jaakkola, E. (2020). Customer experience: Fundamental premises and implications for research. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48, 630–648. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00718-x [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

12. Bhandari, P. (2020). An introduction to quantitative research. Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/quantitative-research/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

13. Bhatnagar, A., & Ghose, S. (2004). A latent class segmentation analysis of e-shoppers. Journal of Business Research, 57(7), 758–767. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0148-2963(02)00373-0 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

14. Bishop, C. (2020). Customer engagement guide: Definition, strategies, and tips. Zendesk. https://www.zendesk.com/blog/customer-engagement-actually-means/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

15. Brodie, R. J., Ilic, A., Juric, B., & Hollebeek, L. (2013). Consumer engagement in a virtual brand community: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Business Research, 66(1), 105–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.07.029 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

16. Brown, J., Broderick, A. J., & Lee, N. (2007). Word of mouth communication within online communities: Conceptualizing the online social network. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 21(3), 2–20. https://doi.org/10.1002/dir.20082 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

17. Calder, B. J., Malthouse, E. C., & Schaedel, U. (2009). An experimental study of the relationship between online engagement and advertising effectiveness. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23(4), 321–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2009.07.002 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

18. Castells, M. (2010). Globalisation, networking, urbanisation: Reflections on the spatial dynamics of the information age. Urban Studies, 47(13), 2737–2745. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098010377365 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

19. Chaffey, D., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2019). Digital marketing: Strategy, implementation and practice (7th ed.). Pearson. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

20. Cheung, C. M., & Thadani, D. R. (2012). The impact of electronic word-of-mouth communication: A literature analysis and integrative model. Decision Support Systems, 54(1), 461–470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2012.06.008 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

21. Dessart, L., Veloutsou, C., & Morgan-Thomas, A. (2015). Consumer engagement in online brand communities: A social media perspective. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 24(1), 28–42. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-06-2014-0635 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

22. Duffett, R. G. (2015). Facebook advertising’s influence on intention-to-purchase and purchase amongst Millennials. Internet Research, 25(4), 498–526. https://doi.org/10.1108/IntR-01-2014-0020 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

23. Dwivedi, Y. K., Ismagilova, E., Hughes, D. L., & Carlson, J. (2021). Setting the future of digital and social media marketing research: Perspectives and research propositions. International Journal of Information Management, 59, 102168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102168 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

24. Evans, C., & Erkan, I. (2014). The impacts of electronic word of mouth in social media on consumers’ purchase intentions. In Proceedings of Digital Marketing Conference 2014 (pp. 9–14).. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

25. Godes, D., & Mayzlin, D. (2004). Using online conversations to study word-of-mouth communication. Marketing Science, 23(4), 545–560. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1040.0071 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

26. Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2022). Multivariate data analysis (9th ed.). Cengage Learning. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

27. Halligan, B., & Shah, D. (2009). Inbound marketing: Get found using Google, social media, and blogs. John Wiley & Sons. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

28. Hennig-Thurau, T., Gwinner, K. P., Walsh, G., & Gremler, D. D. (2004). Electronic word-of-mouth via consumer-opinion platforms: What motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the Internet? Journal of Interactive Marketing, 18(1), 38–52. https://doi.org/10.1002/dir.10073 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

29. Hoffman, D. L., & Fodor, M. (2010). Can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing? MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(1), 41–49. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

30. Keller, K. L. (1993). Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity. Journal of Marketing, 57(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299305700101 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

31. Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R., & Richard, M. O. (2013). To be or not to be in social media: How brand loyalty is affected by social media? International Journal of Information Management, 33(1), 76–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2012.07.003 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

32. Li, J., Kim, W. G., & Choi, H. M. (2019). Effectiveness of social media marketing on enhancing performance: Evidence from a casual-dining restaurant setting. Tourism Economics, 27(1), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354816619867807 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

33. Malthouse, E. C., Calder, B. J., Kim, S. J., & Vandenbosch, M. (2016). Evidence that user-generated content that produces engagement increases purchase behaviours. Journal of Marketing Management, 32(5–6), 427–444. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2015.1136273 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

34. Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2019). Research methods for business students (8th ed.). Pearson Education Limited. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

35. Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2020). Research methods for business: A skill-building approach (8th ed.). Wiley. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

36. Severi, E., Ling, K. C., & Nasermoadeli, A. (2014). The impacts of electronic word of mouth on brand equity in the context of social media. International Journal of Business and Management, 9(8), 84–96. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v9n8p84 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

37. Steffes, E. M., & Burgee, L. E. (2009). Social ties and online word of mouth. Internet Research, 19(1), 42–59. https://doi.org/10.1108/10662240910927812 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

38. Trusov, M., Bucklin, R. E., & Pauwels, K. (2009). Effects of word-of-mouth versus traditional marketing: Findings from an internet social networking site. Journal of Marketing, 73(5), 90–102. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.73.5.90 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

39. Uyanık, G., & Güler, N. (2013). A study on multiple linear regression analysis. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 106, 234–240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.027 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

40. Wang, H., Ma, B., & Bai, R. (2019). How does green product knowledge effectively promote green purchase intention? Sustainability, 11(4), 1193. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041193 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• Assessment of the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Repositioning TVET for Economic Development in Nigeria
• Teachers’ Use of Assure Model Instructional Design on Learners’ Problem Solving Efficacy in Secondary Schools in Bungoma County, Kenya
• “E-Booksan Ang Kaalaman”: Development, Validation, and Utilization of Electronic Book in Academic Performance of Grade 9 Students in Social Studies
• Analyzing EFL University Students’ Academic Speaking Skills Through Self-Recorded Video Presentation
• Major Findings of The Study on Total Quality Management in Teachers’ Education Institutions (TEIs) In Assam – An Evaluative Study