As Ramadan 2024 approaches, businesses are gearing up to capitalize on the festive spirit with innovative Ramadan sales strategies. The holy month is not just a time for spiritual reflection and community; it’s also a golden opportunity for brands to connect with their audience meaningfully. In this blog, we’ll explore a five-step strategy that encompasses visual commerce and design, email marketing, online catalogs, social media prowess with Instagram and Facebook, and the smart use of AdWords.
First, let’s take a quick look at some advertising trends that have emerged over the past few years. According to Viden, these are the top requirements consumers are looking for:
- Personalization – businesses can build deeper consumer relationships by genuinely understanding their needs and aspirations.
- Highlighting product sustainability – 83% of consumers prefer retailers or brands that provide environmentally friendly choices. Businesses must factor this trend into their advertising strategies, emphasizing sustainability.
- Mobile-friendly advertising – during Ramadan, 73% of consumers use smartphones over other devices to shop online, and 64% browse through social media apps.
- Video content – video advertising — including short videos, live streams, and YouTube ads — has gained popularity, which makes it a powerful tool for Ramadan advertising. Watching online cooking clips and gift ideas is increasing, with 78% of consumers opting to get inspiration from videos rather than static media.
Step 1: visual commerce and design tips for Ramadan 2024
Based on the above data, there are two very important things to remember when creating your Ramadan visual media: video and authenticity!
Your website and social media platforms should reflect the Ramadan spirit through thematic visuals and designs. Consider integrating elements such as moons, stars, lanterns, and traditional Arabic patterns into your website banners, landing pages, and product imagery.
When creating your design, choose a few strong graphics and use them throughout to ensure brand recognition and consumer engagement. These can be designed at the beginning and then reused to create templates.
Use a platform such as Canva with hundreds of graphics and photos preloaded.
Example of graphics available on Canva.
Step 2: Ramadan email marketing examples and ideas
Creating an email series that resonates with the traditions of Ramadan can significantly enhance your engagement with consumers during this holy month. Revinate has some lovely examples of their hospitality clients’ Ramadan emails if you want visual inspiration.
We suggest focusing on the core traditions celebrated during Ramadan, such as charity, Iftar, and family visits, and having your content follow these traditions in a series of emails over the period. Your campaign should strike a chord of relevance and empathy. Here are some examples of how you can expand on these ideas:
Email 1: Welcoming Ramadan: “Embrace the Spirit: Welcome to Ramadan 2024”
Content: Start with a warm welcome to the holy month, explaining the significance of Ramadan for your brand, employees, and consumers and what your series will cover. This email sets the tone for the series, introducing the themes of charity, Iftar, and family.
Email 2: The importance of giving: “The Gift of Giving: How You Can Make a Difference This Ramadan”
Content: Focus on the tradition of Zakat (charity) during Ramadan. Highlight how your brand contributes to charitable causes and encourage readers to participate. Include stories of how contributions can make a significant impact, possibly integrating interactive features like a donation tracker or featuring a different charity each week.
Example:
“Join us in supporting [Charity Name] to provide meals for families in need. Every purchase/donation this Ramadan brings us closer to our goal of feeding [number] families. Track our progress and see the difference we’re making together!”
Email 3: Celebrating Iftar: “Breaking the Fast: Discover Our Special Ramadan Recipes”
Content: Share special recipes or products ideal for Iftar, possibly partnering with a popular chef or influencer for exclusive content. Offer tips for hosting Iftar gatherings and how your products can enhance these moments.
Example:
“Tonight’s Iftar Special: A Unique Recipe for [Dish Name] by Chef [Name]. Simplify your Ramadan evenings with our special edition [Product/Service], perfect for your Iftar table.”
Tips for your Ramadan email series:
- Consistency in design: Use a recognizable template, theme, and subject lines for your series to build familiarity.
- Personalization: Segment your email list to tailor messages based on previous interactions, ensuring relevancy.
- Engagement: Encourage interaction by inviting subscribers to share their Ramadan stories or participate in charity initiatives through your platform.
Example of an email for Ramadan that visually inspires, highlights promotions, and celebrates the tradition.
Step 3: Creating an engaging Ramadan online catalog
Transform your traditional online catalog into an interactive experience for Ramadan that allows consumers to engage with your products in an inspirational setting and takes them on a journey to celebrate Ramadan traditions. Use video, GIFs, slideshows, and even audio to allow consumers to experience products and inspire click-throughs to your website.
As an example of how to encourage engagement, you could create an interactive catalog that allows customers to click on a product to see how it can be used for their Ramadan or Eid celebrations, complete with user-generated content such as customer reviews and photos.
You could also include DIY tips, videos, and downloadable content to help your consumers get better value from your products.
Home Centre’s online catalog brings the traditions of Ramadan to their consumers in a visually inspiring way.
Online catalogs are a versatile way to approach seasonal campaigns; you can create an inspirational and personalized Ramadan-specific catalog, schedule it, and have it live for just that period. You can also view the performance through analytics and measure success.
Based on the data shared below in Step 4, 82% of social media viewers engage with cooking and recipe content during Ramadan. The online catalog format is great for this type of content as it allows you to include lots of rich, interactive media such as GIFs, videos, and slideshows. People can also download the catalog as a PDF and print it for easy use in the kitchen or to share with family and friends.
Using online catalogs to add value to your consumers during Ramadan is a good way to foster customer relationships.
Home Centre’s online catalog for Ramadan recipes.
Step 4: Using Instagram and Facebook for Ramadan video content
During Ramadan, over 90% of consumers engage with social media, predominantly spending time on Facebook and WhatsApp. Research conducted by Arab News revealed a 30% surge in social media activity within Saudi Arabia throughout the holy month, with individuals dedicating an average of eight hours daily to different platforms.
According to findings from TGM Research, a significant 81% of shoppers prefer to access content via mobile devices, with social media (74%), messaging applications (70%), and online video viewing (64%) closely following in popularity. WhatsApp, YouTube, and Facebook emerged as the leading platforms of choice during this period.
Data from Viden
What are good strategies to focus on when planning your Facebook and Instagram campaigns? Based on the trend data above, video is where you put your energy. You don’t need expensive equipment to create product videos or video-style recipes — these can easily be created on Canva.
The golden rule for video content is to keep it short and ensure that it always adds value to the viewer. Ramadan has some great topics perfect for the video medium; follow the how-to style video, gift ideas, DIY, and cooking clips to achieve success. Adobe has shared a very helpful article on creating successful cooking videos.
Image from eternitymarketing.com
Step 5: Using AdWords to create a targeted Ramadan keywords campaign
Use Google AdWords to target specific Ramadan-related keywords. Google AdWords or Paid Search is great because you can get good exposure and awareness immediately, making it the perfect platform for a seasonal campaign; medium.com has done a good job summarizing the key things to consider when creating your campaign.
Valuable terms to include could be; “Ramadan gifts,” “Eid decoration ideas,” or “Ramadan special offers.” The key thing to remember when choosing your keywords is to look at search volume, ensure they are long tail as they will be less competitive and expensive, and also make sure to use phrase or exact match to avoid wasted spend. Another tip is to pair your keyword with a location — this reduces cost as competition can be lower, but relevancy is also higher, increasing your quality score — an example would be something like “Ramadan Dubai.”
The potential of Ramadan
The holy month of Ramadan is filled with immense potential for businesses to grow their brand and connect with customers on a deeper level. You can ensure your brand stands out by employing a comprehensive Ramadan sales strategy that includes visually appealing designs, personalized email campaigns, interactive online catalogs, engaging social media activities, and targeted AdWords campaigns.
Embrace these creative ideas to make your Ramadan 2024 sales strategy successful and truly memorable for your customers.
If you want to test out online catalogs in your strategy this year, why not sign up for a free trial?
