Enterprise Brand Unlocking Ramadan Marketing Success With Offline and Online Data

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Editor’s Note: In 2023, we spoke to several B2C marketers about Ramadan marketing campaigns and how different industries try to maximize engagement this time of the year.

Back by popular demand from marketers (and product owners), we’re continuing Ramadan Bytes 2.0  in 2024!

Our guest for this edition is Mohamed Sayed Abd Elsalam, Group Head of CRM Marketing, Loyalty & Customer Insights at Magrabi. In our deep dive, Sayed highlights the importance of Ramadan for marketers and explains how brands with both physical and digital presence can leverage these channels to their benefit.

In this blog, we’ll try to distill his insights into bite-sized, consumable content for all marketers (and product owners) to emulate this Ramadan season!

Brief Introduction About Mohamed Sayed 

Sayed is a customer marketing professional with 14 years of experience in customer retention and acquisition strategies. He has worked in luxury retail companies like MAGRABi, telecommunications MNOs like Orange, and NGOs like The British Council.

How Brands Can Better Plan for Occasions Like Ramadan

As per Sayed, Ramadan is an important season for the Middle Eastern market for a lot of industries. This is when brands invest a lot of money in marketing campaigns to capture as many transactions as possible and have a brand presence in consumers minds. There is usually an uplift in different categories. 

During Ramadan, different shopping and browsing behaviors by customers are observed. This is when marketers should invest in a lot of A/B testing to understand the correct engagement moment. 

Brands Leveraging Physical and Digital Presence Proven to Maximize Conversions During Ramadan

Brands combining physical and digital presence can unlock lots of opportunities in the customer journey, states Sayed.

He further suggests that both channels can complement each other, where customer can start their browsing journey online at the awareness and consideration stage and then make their first purchase at the store. Another good use case for this is the BOPIS model – Buy Online, Pick Up in Store.

Having the combination of both channels can also give more convenience to customers. Ramadan can be a tough month for customers, especially those who fast, so giving the customer the space to shop and to initiate and end his journey at any channel is a much-needed convenience, especially during peak and crowded times around Eid.

Stitching Offline and Online Data Together to Build a Unified Customer View

Sayed emphasizes the importance of stitching data for brands. He says that brands want to gather all the available information about their customers as it’d help them personalize experiences and build a good relationship.

A good example of data that can be used to build a unified customer view or 360 view is the customer’s online browsing behavior and transactional data (offline). A few other insights brands can look at are: 

• Interests on social media 
• Interaction across channels like WhatsApp, SMS, and Emails 
• Other basic data like demographics, birthdate, etc.

These insights combined together can help brands understand their customer better.

At the same time, there are so many ways to gather information from both channels and merge them together. One of the efficient ways of doing it is through an engagement platform like MoEngage.

2 Cents for Marketers Building Ramadan Campaign

Sayed has the following advice for budding CRM Managers and Growth Managers:

• Have a variation of attractive offers across the month, considering that offers have to get more attractive closer to Eid
• Give customers convenient options to complete their transactions on different channels. For example, free delivery offers or store pick-up options 
• Review historical campaigns from the previous Ramadan to understand the right timing through the day to send the campaigns.

Download your exclusive Ramadan Calendar here.

Ready to Win Big This Ramadan?

As consumer behaviors evolve and become more digitally focused, the integration of physical and digital channels will be paramount for brands seeking to maximize conversions during Ramadan. By leveraging both channels effectively, brands can provide a seamless and convenient customer experience, catering to the needs of customers during this busy and important time. 

The importance of data collection and analysis will also continue to grow as brands strive to understand their customers on a deeper level. With the right strategies in place, brands can capitalize on the opportunities presented by Ramadan, improve customer relationships, and drive business growth in the future.

Readers, you can connect with M Abdelsalam for more tips and advice on customer engagement during Ramadan and how to stay on top of customer’s minds.

What to Read Next:

1. How Super Apps Build Their Ramadan Marketing Strategies
2. Driving Engagement During Ramadan with Sustainability
3. Marketing During and Post-Ramadan: Insights From Apparel Group
4. Decoding Hyper-personalization in Retail Marketing with Sharad Harjai
5. Customer Retention Strategies for E-commerce and Retail Brands [Marketer Spotlight]