Examining the Impact of Social Media Marketing Strategies on Customer Acquisition and Brand Equity for Digital-Native Startups

Abstract

In today's competitive digital era, the majority of digital-native startups leverage social media sites to engage consumers and create competitive brand images in highly contested digital environments. But there are few empirical studies addressing how social media marketing strategies influence customer acquisition and brand equity within entrepreneurial ecosystems simultaneously. This study aims to investigate the effect of social media marketing strategies on customer acquisition and brand equity among digital-native startups by testing the mediating effect of customer acquisition. In this research, the methodology chosen is Quantitative Cross-Sectional Survey Approach, wherein data were gathered from 312 founders, marketing executives and senior-level officers of digital native startups operating in sectors such as e-commerce, Software as a Service (SaaS), FinTech, EdTech, HealthTech, and digital services industries, where data on social media marketing strategy were collected considering 5 core elements of social media marketing; these include quality content, customer engagement, influencer marketing, social media advertising and community management. From the above results, it can be deduced that the marketing strategies with the use of social media make a tremendous contribution towards both customer acquisition (β = 0.721, p < 0.001) and brand equity (β = 0.438, p < 0.001). Besides, customer acquisition is vital in fostering brand equity (β = 0.487, p < 0.001). Furthermore, from the mediation procedure, it can be found that customer acquisition acts as a mediator to the link between social media marketing strategies and brand equity, making a partial mediation effect of β = 0.351 (p < 0.001). The existing model is capable of explaining 52.0% of the variation in customer acquisition (R² = 0.520) and 69.4% of the variation in brand equity (R² = 0.694). In conclusion, it can be noted that effective social media marketing strategies are important for the development of customer acquisition and brand equity among native digital startups. It is possible to attract customers using their engagement, high-quality content, influencer marketing, advertising, and communities. Thus, it is possible to increase the performance of the market and obtain sustainable growth.