The Vantage Buzz - January 2025 - Vantage Search Marketing

Happy 2025 from the Vantage team!
Here are some New Year’s marketing resolutions for your e-commerce brand…

Clarify your KPI objectives.
Boost your content strategy with more video.
Reevaluate your target audience—has it evolved due to the current economic climate?
Engage with your customers more effectively through personalized communication.
Stay informed about market trends in your industry and monitor your competition—how are they approaching digital advertising?
Adopt AI and automation—they’re here for the long haul!
Implement privacy-first marketing: As consumers become more protective of their data, brands must prioritize transparency and respect.
Promote environmentally and socially responsible products, services, and practices through sustainable marketing—something consumers are increasingly supporting.

Your monthly ad-Vantage reading below:

Business:

Let’s talk about your brand’s origin story. A video that tells your origin story is one of the most powerful tools for selling your product.

An origin story humanizes the brand and creates an emotional connection with customers, employees, and other stakeholders. Here’s why:

Builds Trust and Credibility

When consumers understand the journey and motivations behind the brand, they’re more likely to trust the company.

Differentiates the Brand

In a crowded marketplace, an origin story helps a business stand out. It highlights what makes the company unique.

Engages Emotionally

People connect with stories. A well-crafted origin story taps into emotions. When people feel emotionally engaged with a brand, they are more likely to support it, recommend it, and become repeat customers.

Creates a Sense of Belonging

A shared connection to a company’s origin story builds loyalty and strengthens the community around the brand, turning customers into passionate advocates.

Inspires and Motivates

The story behind a business—especially one that involves overcoming challenges or working toward a big vision—can serve as a source of motivation.

Helps With Branding and Marketing

An origin story serves as a foundational element of branding and marketing efforts Sharing the story through social media, advertising, and PR can make a brand feel more relatable and authentic.

Humanizes the Business

Especially in an age where many interactions are digital, an origin story adds a personal touch. It reminds people that behind every product or service, there are real people with passions and dreams, not just faceless corporations. This human connection is increasingly important in today’s marketplace.

HERE’S a great example of a company’s origin story, supported by Shopify!

The recent TikTok ban serves as a wake-up call for marketers to reassess strategies that are overly reliant on any single platform. It’s a reminder to build systems and processes that allow for flexibility and to create marketing strategies that can adapt and evolve with changing consumer behaviours.

What actions can brands take now to be proactive in case TikTok goes dark again?

Backup performance data

Document audience demographics

Save videos you can’t afford to lose

Evaluate TikTok’s role in your media strategy

Research and find alternatives to TikTok

Here’s a GUIDE on what marketers can do with the back-and-forth of TikTok. “If anything, the real takeaway here is to embrace uncertainty: preparation isn’t optional, it’s essential. Plan for the worst-case scenario, but an eye out for the best.” – Krystal Scanlon, Digiday

E-commerce:

Are you tracking your company’s KPIs? Are you measuring profitability to gauge your brand’s success? Focusing on overall profit in relation to your ads is a more reliable indicator of long-term success than just relying on ROAS within an ad network.

Specifically, profitable growth should be highlighted – a business strategy focused on driving revenue growth while maintaining or enhancing profit margins. It allows a company to scale effectively without compromising profitability.

Shopify shares some great strategies to help you achieve profitable growth in e-commerce:

💰 Refine your product offering

💰 Boost your average order value

💰 Lower customer acquisition costs

💰 Maximize customer lifetime value

💰 Reduce operational expenses

Does your brand have great product experience? First of all, what is product experience? It describes the entire journey a customer has with a product, from first discovering and purchasing it to using it over time. It includes all the emotions, impressions, and thoughts they have throughout the product’s lifecycle.