We are all aware that religion is the core element in all concepts of culture. Notably, the religion of Islam gives room to all types’ transactions. For example, Muslims are free to buy and sell, form a company, trade, or rent. All this is to make daily life easier for Muslim consumers. But, that trade becomes unlawful when it harms both parties.
The Muslim community is diverse in economic, political, and legal systems. Besides, we see the thriving accessibility of halal goods and services.
They are the second-largest religion with a total population of 1.8 billion people.
Moreover, the Muslim market size is currently at 2.11 billion U.S dollars. That is to say, by the year 2023, the market value will be around three billion dollars.
With this in mind, it’s evident that the halal market, which means lawful, is growing fast. Thus, it’s a requisite to fathom the Muslim world and do an effective marketing strategy. Today you’ll learn marketing, a formulation that caters to Muslim consumers.
Keep scrolling to the end.
Muslim consumer’s background
In the first place, the Holy Quran and Sunnah are the principal sources of teaching for Muslims. In other words, they form a constitution that guides all Muslims.
Islam has five main pillars.
- The testimony (Shahadah)
- Prayer (Salat)
- Giving to the needy (Zakat)
- Fasting (Siyam)
- Pilgrimage (Hajj)
Usually, the Islamic religion sets out structures that form ethical behaviour for all Muslims. We have two ways in which the Quran identifies a Muslim adherent. The First one is halal, which means legal or lawful. The second one is Haram, which means illegal and unlawful. With this in mind, your brand should adhere to halal principles or face a boycott.
Truthfulness in business dealing
When doing business with Muslims, you should be truthful and show a clear description. If your product has any defect, then you have to tell the truth. The recommended business practice revolves around being:
- Fair dealings
- Being tolerant
- Courteous
- Not making a hard sell
Marketing in the Muslim world
According to Brenkert, marketing envelopes us and thus permeates our daily lives. Most importantly, marketing forms the core of any business organization. But, unlike other organization strategies, marketing revolves around customers.
Islamic marketing follows the guidelines and principles of the Quran and Sunnah. It is to maximize the value based on equity and justice for consumers.
Apply ethical behaviour
By all means, you should put in place ethical behaviour, which will lead to customer credibility. Again, they will have confidence in you and give you a higher percentage of the trust.
Moreover, your marketing mix should protect customer decisions from coercion. The Islamic teachings put it clear that unethical marketing practices constitute injustices.
Adherence to Islamic ethical framework
The Islamic marketing viewpoint provides room for equity and justice. For one thing, to guarantee the dignity and freedom of users’ minds. So, retailers should not only serve their enterprise but also offer effective transactions.
In general, if you are a Muslim marketer, you should embrace high ethical values and norms. In summary, Key areas you should watch involves:
Needs
The Quran mentions two basic needs that involve Islamic marketing. First, it talks about the physiological needs of water, clothing, and food. The second, the need for security. (Quran, 20:118-119:17:29).
SEO marketing in Sydney
According to a recent census, Muslims make up 2.6% of the total Australian population. In Sydney, SEO Rankglider defines Muslim consumers around this place by the:
· Dietary
· Lifestyle
· Financial rules of the Islamic faith
Besides, they speak a distinct language, eat other foods, and wear discrete clothing styles. For example, in Sydney, we have Bangladesh, Turkish, Kurdish, Pakistani Muslims, and others.
SEO continues to evolve, with no exception to the Muslim world. As a new business looking to concur with Muslim consumers, you need an effective SEO strategy. Our research shows that organic search results yield lucrative traffic.
So, how do you go about it?
On-page optimization
Usually, we have on-page optimization and off-page optimization attempt you can manage. On-page SEO is the real work you can do on your website to manipulate search results. Here, you’ll be able to understand your industry, website blueprint, and keywords research. Usually, all these on-page SEO techniques are entirely under your dominance.
When targeting Muslim consumers, make it known to search engines from the start. You need to learn good use of:
· Keyword research and development
· URL
· Meta tags
· Internal linking
In a word, once your web pages are 100 per cent fully optimized, you’ll improve your ranking. Finally, more and more Muslim consumers will search for your products and find them.
Keyword research
The more you’ll learn about SEO, the more you’ll appreciate the need for keyword research. Notably, the best deal is to discover high traffic with less competition. Less competitive keywords will be easy to rank for your website.
Meta tags
Meta tags are a variety of labels that help search engines get a grip on your website theme. To put it in another way, they are a short description of your pages. They influence SERPs and click-through rates to your website.
URL
URL plays a vital role in overall SEO. Even though we have thousands of factors Google considers in the ranking, you need a friendly URL. A friendly URL can be one with keyword phrases.
Internal linking
Another strong on-page SEO chance to capitalize is to make use of internal linking. In particular, it involves linking to other pages on your website. Internal linking ensures you pass link juice to pages lower in the hierarchy.
Off-page optimization
Off-page optimization is also crucial for your website existence. Most of the traffic will result from off-page optimization for your website.
It refers to what you do outside your website to improve search results. The common practice here includes gaining a quality authority link to your website.
Market
Usually, a Muslim market in all sectors complies with Sharia principles. Take note that non Halal products do not abide by Sharia principles in Muslim countries. An example of such products includes alcohol and pork. So, if you want to attract Muslim consumers, you need to be pork-free and more.
Good conduct
In the first place, for you to attract more Muslim consumers, you should have good conduct. Ethical behaviour is one of the core elements of the Islamic religion. Likewise, it would be best if you were pure, lawful, and offers beneficial products. (Quran, 2; 172, 2:168)
Trade by mutual consent
The Prophet Muhammad said that trade by mutual consent is indispensable in any business. In brief, mutual consent means practising the free and fair will of all parties.
Ethical advertising
Advertising today is facing a lot of criticism because some marketers stretch too far. For example, some ads are targeting kids with inappropriate content.
But in Sydney, we believe Muslim ads should adhere to Islamic principles. In other words, the ads should not be deceptive, misleading, and cheating. (Al-Imran, 3:77).
Islamic market mix
Once you have a marketing strategy ready, you can begin the journey of the marketing mix. The marketing mix entails the use of a marketing tool for your target audience. Typically; we have the conventional four Ps of marketing, and they are:
- Product
- Price
- Place
- Promotion
However, the Islamic marketing mix elements are a little bit different based on Muslim consumers. In most cases, these elements derive their ideology from the Quran, Muhammad, and Muslim research. Some of the Islamic market mixes include:
- Product. Must be Shariah-compliant and use the name of Allah in branding or labelling.
- Price. Here, there should be no cheating or maximizing profit. Again, avoid hoarding.
- Place. In particular, you should not create a channel that burden consumer. Also, your product should not cause any harm to customers or coercion.
- Promotion. Most importantly, you should not use a woman in any form to lure your target customers. Again, you should avoid using women in advertising. Your ads should have no sex appeal or obscene in any way.
- People. Notably, you should be polite, friendly, and honest. Above, abide by Shariah (law).
- Process. Here, you need to provide the correct marketing information and avoid complex sale.
Summary
As shown above, the Islamic religion plays a crucial role in the Muslim’s buying journey. Usually, the Quran paves the way for exemplary ethical behaviour. If you plan to do marketing to Muslims, then you should adhere to Quran principles.
