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Editor’s note: ‘MoCuan di Bulan Ramadan’ is an initiative by MoEngage. In these articles, we talk to our customers to understand their customer growth strategy, engagement tactics, and best practices across product and marketing during Ramadan.

Please share a brief overview of your background and your role at JULO.

Sure! JULO is a financial technology company that is working on a financial super app. We started off with the lending arm and have excelled at it. Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians now use JULO apps to get access to decent credit products. It’s our mission to help millions of Indonesians get a better life. That’s how we’ll build a company future generations will be proud of. We have just closed our Series B round and are now tapping into other financial territories to provide a one-stop financial solution to all Indonesians eventually.

My role at Julo as a digital marketing manager includes generating organic traffic to the web and our apps. More specifically, to onboard consumers and enable them to register with us. 

I also manage JULO’s CRM tools, empowering financial disbursement for first-time customers as well as existing customers.

When do you start planning for Ramadan campaigns?

Here at JULO, we start observing and analyzing data well before the Ramadan season kicks off! Most brands plan their strategies around one month before Ramadan. However, we start planning 3 months ahead, enabling us to analyze the best possible data and uncover the best insights. This helps maximize our research and understanding of customer behavior and preferences. 

We use these insights to discover what kinds of Ramadan campaigns we can run for the 3 stages:

1. Pre-Ramadan
2. During Ramadan
3. Post-Ramadan

Using the data and leveraging the insights we derive, we are able to have a clear picture in terms of forecasting the impact and results.

What trends do you see among brands running customer-centric Ramadan campaigns?

One observation was the difference in customer behavior and preferences during Ramadan 2023 and 2022 for our audience. It essentially changed our target demographic altogether! We’ve discovered that customers during Ramadan 2023 are much more flexible with respect to spending, lifestyle, investing, and business transactions.

We also uncovered that trending campaigns do not last very long, 1 week or maybe 2 weeks at most.  That’s generally the timeframe for potential customers to be pushed down the funnel. If we see no progress, we ignore the non-engaging audience. This is a cost-effective strategy for us to engage younger generations this Ramadan.

How important are hyper-personalized campaigns in humanizing your brand?

Personalization is extremely important for us at JULO, especially this Ramadan. We take it very seriously because we like to walk the talk when it comes to customer-centricity! For the new product(s) we develop, we use segmentation to group our audiences into different cohorts based on their affinities. We then send hyper-personalized campaigns to each individual, helping us reach the right customers based on their customer experience and needs.

What advice would you give brands to run impactful campaigns for Ramadan?

One observation I’m reiterating again is that the Ramadan buyer preferences and behavior for 2023 are totally different from the past two years. So comparing the insights from before COVID and after COVID is one significant suggestion I’d advise to professionals planning and running Ramadan campaigns. 

Last but not least, don’t forget to use segmentation and hyper-personalization to deliver the right message to the right target audience!

Actionable Insights for Consumer Brands to Win Big During Ramadan

The start of Ramadan brings with it fresh opportunities for businesses to benefit from the increase in consumer spending patterns.

With digital transformation underway, consumers prefer shopping for goods online; a trend brands should be paying attention to.

Here are actionable insights consumer brands can utilize to drive amazing results during Ramadan:

1. Brands should start with data analysis much ahead of Ramadan, about 3 months. This will enable teams to analyze data better and draw out the best insights, which will ultimately improve customer understanding in terms of behavior and preferences. This clarity in understanding would allow brands to predict impact and results better. Brands can then decide on the type of customer-centric and personalized campaigns that can be executed during, during, and after Ramadan.
2. Brands and marketers need to be aware of the change in consumer preferences when it comes to Ramadan 2023 compared to previous years. After a few years of frugal spending, we are looking at more flexible spending across lifestyle, shopping, and finance this year. Market understanding suggests trending campaigns last for 2 weeks max. That is where most consumers can be pushed down the conversion funnel. Marketers should focus on converting cohorts and optimizing spending to maintain a positive ROI.
3. It goes without saying that personalized experiences are going to be super critical this Ramadan season. Consumer brands might want to segment audiences and run streamlined and personalized communications to reach the right cohort at the right time.
4. Consumer preferences have changed; brands should compare insights to ensure they reach and engage the right audience.

Are you gearing up for yet another exciting Ramadan? Let our insightful trends and actionable strategies guide you!