Second, this study is the first to demonstrate how content marketing
strategies can be integrated with selling processes through the use of
marketing automation in a way that creates business benefits. Although
the phenomenon understudy was investigated in a B2B context, the
same principles of combining content marketing and marketing automation
presumably apply to a B2C context, especially in terms of behavioral
targeting and content personalization. However, the empirical
framework (i.e., the marketing and sales funnel) is constrained to industries
characterized by high-involvement product categories and relatively
long-lasting purchase decision cycles (e.g., the car industry). In
line with Long et al. (2007)