Ramadan is understandably, one of the most propitious times in the yearly calendar for any marketer focusing on Qatar and MENA region markets. With an increasing trend of the residents perusing internet and social media in their spare time, it is an open opportunity for the marketers to reach out to this highly engaged audience and let their brand interact with them and bond stronger.
The question is, how to make the most of this opportunity? How to plan a campaign targeting the month of Ramadan and unlock the rewards of running a successful marketing campaign? So, here are some steps you can follow to ensure that your brand launches a successful marketing campaign to reap maximum business benefit from Ramadan:
1. Know what importance Ramadan holds in your target market
You must know what is the relevance of this holy month for your target audience to begin with. Once you know the ‘why’ of your goal, the ‘how’ will fall in place on its own. On learning about the lifestyle changes and the online buying behavior of your audience, you will come to know that the offerings in the categories such as electronics, apparels and accessories (specially the jewelry) and the eatables enjoy a striking surge in sales. By developing an in-depth understanding at all levels in your organization about the market and the opportunity, you can ensure that you are navigated in the right direction.
2. Plan-ahead for a specifically targeted marketing campaign
Why we advise you to plan before-hand is because all the marketers you are competing with are already doing so. So, to stay competitive in your target market, either you must plan ahead and allocate a specific budget to your Ramadan targeted campaign or simply watch the lost opportunities of sales slipping into the pockets of your better aware and actively marketing competitors. For example, your business can increase its marketing and advertising budget by a certain percentage (just as you deem reasonable) just for this one month’s time.
3. Integrate your marketing plan across all marketing channels
Once you have developed the concept of your marketing campaign based on the key driving factors of sales, you can execute your plan in an integrated manner across all channels of marketing. So, spare some time to think of all the possibilities, brainstorm with your team and come up with an integrated marketing campaign to utilize every channel to the fullest such as social media, search engine marketing, email marketing, micro-blogging, blogging, story-telling through pictures and videos and more.
4. Reinforce religious reverence with your campaign
The religious and cultural factors do come into the picture when it comes to designing a campaign specific to a religious time such as Ramadan. So, as you endeavor to get creative with your marketing campaign, the least you can do is to maintain respect for the religion of your target audience. And if, through your creative campaign, you are somehow able to underscore the importance of the rituals specific to the festivities and reinforce respect for the religion, your campaign is going to strike a chord with them in a way you intend it to.
5. Link your campaign with the religious factor
With effective, creative and interesting use of the religious symbols such as mosques, religious dates, stars and the crescent moon in your campaign creatives, you can not only establish a direct link of your campaign with the occasion but you will also be able to develop a sense of belonging among the audience and bond stronger with them.
6. Keep up with the spirit of giving of this auspicious time
As you must be aware by now that the holy month of Quran, Ramadan is all about the spirit of giving and the most important time of the year for Muslims to offer prayers to ‘Allah’, with your marketing campaigns you can inspire them with the ultimate goal of building a strong brand recall for yourself. So, your campaigns can as well revolve around the concepts such as giving more and offering prayers to help your audience connect with your brand at a different level.
7. Make the most of the Digital Marketing Tools at your disposal
The last but not the least, you should leave no stone unturned when it comes to utilizing the different channels and marketing on different devices and media, once you are set to roll out your marketing campaign. To make the most out of your campaign, promoting and advertising it all across, holds equal importance as the very process of planning and designing it. So, looking at the current scenario, when mobile devices are the devices of choice for everyone, your campaign should also take a mobile-first approach to enjoy the expected visibility and response.
Wish you a happy & prolific month of Ramadan!
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