By Tariq Shalabi, partnerships manager – influencer marketing, Vamp.
The changes in our day-to-day and purchasing behaviour throughout Ramadan create a number of sales opportunities for brands. From planning food for family gatherings to buying new clothes for social occasions, buying luxury goods and booking travel, there are usually uplifts across a number of verticals.
With everyone focused on eating – or not eating – food and cooking are key areas of interest. In the month before Ramadan, 33 per cent of people in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt said there would be an increase in their grocery shopping, according to research from Facebook and Kantar. 24 per cent also buy household appliances during this time.
Want to know more about how brands and consumers will be spending their money and time this Ramadan? Join our Ramadan webinar on 7 April.
Fashion is important during Ramadan too. Brands create special Ramadan collections and even in 2020, when celebrations were disrupted by the pandemic, Islamic goods and fashion items remained high on Ramadan shopper’s lists.
So how can brands make the most of this opportunity and connect with their customers through social media?
- Understand your audience – and their challenges
Ramadan 2021 is the second to take place in the shadow of the pandemic, making the traditional family gatherings and shopping trips that are so synonymous with the celebration difficult. Understanding these restrictions and how they impact your customers will help you to deliver sensitive and relevant content.
Consider what your audience wants to hear from you. For many brands, the clues are in the data. Google says that YouTube cooking videos increase one month before Ramadan, peaking 30 per cent higher than average in the first week of the Holy Month.
With continuing restrictions, online content and virtual events will be even more important, both in providing connection and entertainment. Prove you understand your customers with content formats and themes that add value to their lives.
And don’t overlook the obvious. Your customers may well be hungry or sleep-deprived! Use clear calls to action that make it easy and point them in the right direction.
Tell an inclusive story
You can personalise your marketing campaigns further by engaging Muslim influencers. Storytelling is the most authentic way to prove you understand the intricacies of Ramadan and influencers are expert storytellers. They will be able to share your products with their audiences using their own experiences and expertise.
Vamp’s platform has connected brands with influencers for a number of Ramadan-focused campaigns which prove their versatility. Dole Food Company used influencers to raise awareness of their products as a healthy treat for the family during the Ramadan and Eid period. Beauty brand Laneige took a similar approach, using influencers to share their Ramadan kits through high-quality images and videos which went out to a social audience of over 1M.
Influencers are also a great way for brands to generate engaging video content. TikTok asked Vamp creators to share their Ramadan moments and drive their followers to the platform in campaign that generated almost 99k clicks. Meanwhile, Honor invited creators to Live broadcast on their Instagram account to showcase their 9X phone, Magic Watch and Earbuds.
This persuasive and relatable content helps brands effectively breakthrough to their customers during a time in which they are inundated by content.
Adopt social commerce
During Ramadan, people spend even more time on social media. Facebook’s managing director for the Middle East and North Africa, Ramez Shehadi, confirmed: “consumption and time spent on our platforms increases” during this time.
Later nights and more downtime means there’s a 5 per cent increased use of Facebook’s platforms. It may sound small, but that translates to nearly 58 million additional hours. Instagram also reported 16 million uses of the word Ramadan on its platform during the 2019 celebration.
Your customers will be using social media for connection and entertainment – but also for product discovery and shopping. Make the most of this captive audience by adopting social commerce features that drive your customers to shop, the moment inspiration strikes.
Try tagging shoppable products in your feed posts and Stories with shoppable tags, and give your customers the option to make an on the spot purchase. Or if you’re already investing in influencer content, consider boosting it. Boosted posts allow you to target influencer content at your customers with precision and add a clear call to action, driving them directly to an e-commerce site.
