Arabic Marketing Services
Looking to expand your business in the MENA (Middle East-North Africa) region? IstiZada specializes in Arabic marketing services to help you grow your business across borders. Check out the following article to learn more about what we can do for your business in the Arab world.
Why Market in Arabic?
Designing marketing content in Arabic allows you to diversify and grow your audience. Many countries in the MENA region like Oman, UAE, KSA, Kuwait and Qatar are huge global business hubs, thanks in large part to high GDPs and great foreign investment incentives. Despite how globally connected these countries are, it’s important not to overlook the value of appealing to local culture and national identity: if you truly reach these markets, you’ll have to speak their language. Only producing a copy in English can only get you so far.
The Arabic Market
With 25 countries worldwide claiming Arabic as their main or co-main language, the Arabic business market is bigger than you may think. In addition, as many countries in MENA are rapidly growing in global business relevance, they are often expat hubs with largely young populations: the median age across the MENA region is around 26 years old, significantly lower than the global average, and more than half of the population of most of the Gulf countries is comprised of expats. These factors contribute to making business in the MENA region an auspicious prospect.
Finally, Arabs are technologically savvy, and MENA countries have relatively high internet penetration that is on the rise, reaching rates of over 90% in all of the Gulf countries and consistently improving throughout the rest of the region. Smartphone penetration rates in the Middle East are also some of the highest in the world, as the large youth demographic quickly adopts new forms of technology and social media. Digital marketing is your best friend in this region.
Common Issues with Arabic Marketing
There are two main issues that businesses have with Arabic Marketing Services. The first is language. Arabic is not a simple language to learn, speak or write. First of all, nearly each Arabic-speaking country has it’s own unique dialect, and depending on your geographical scale you can’t necessarily assume that one dialect will be mutually intelligible with another. Moreover, Arabic grammar is complicated and the language is rife with cultural and religious terminologies that vary from country to country. Google translate and other AI translation technologies that are rapidly emerging can be tempting when it comes to creating Arabic content for a marketing campaign, but these simply will not work when producing Arabic copy. Collaborating with an Arabic speaker is essential when marketing your product in Arabic, as Arabs can absolutely tell the difference between well-written content and machine-translated content.
The second main issue is cultural awareness. Having culturally appropriate and culturally fluent ads, and knowing the correct audience for your ads that will drive real leads, is more complicated than it looks. There are many nuances in Arabic culture that a westerner won’t necessarily understand. Knowing these nuances is key to producing ads and marketing strategies that will truly drive results and build, not weaken, your reputation in Arabic speaking countries. As with the language component, consulting with a native speaker or expert here is crucial because many countries in the Middle East practice conservative online censorship. This could be detrimental to your campaign if it includes content that is deemed inappropriate in any way.
With these potential issues in mind, you are ready to focus on the vast opportunities offered by the flourishing Middle East online market.
IstiZada offers a number of Arabic Marketing Services to help you market to an Arab audience. Read more about these services below.
Ad-Copy Services
Ad-copy services help to ensure that the copy itself in your ad is engaging, relevant, and most importantly, correct. Our translators produce careful and accurate translations that flow well in the Arabic language (hint: you can’t tell it’s been translated!) What’s more, they can help you tailor your copy to the specific audience that you’re targeting with their knowledge of Arabic demographics and trends. Our knowledge of Arabic audiences can help you get your ad seen and heard by large audiences. Our copy writing services can also be used for targeted cold email campaigns in Arabic.
PPC and Programmatic Advertising
IstiZada can help you perfect your PPC and Programmatic Advertising in Arabic. Our consultants have both the technical knowledge to work with you on your algorithms and bids for ad space, as well as the cultural knowledge to know advertising where and to who is going to get you the best results. Even though these processes are largely automated after you’ve set them up, IsitiZada can help you make the set up as efficient as possible to make the most out of an Arabic-speaking audience.
Content Marketing
Social media trends are different in every region. Where Facebook has largely gone out of style in the west, it has retained its influence throughout the Middle East. In addition to Facebook, sites like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are more than just ways to connect with friends in the Middle East: Arabs use these platforms for everything from reading the news to shopping around for new products. Sharing your content across channels can get you seen and talked about across larger audiences. IstiZada can help you make appropriate and effective content as well as help you distribute it across appropriate channels in Arabic. IstiZada can also help with Arabic backlinking.
No matter your business goals in the Middle East, IstiZada has the technical, linguistic and cultural know-how to help you achieve your business dreams in the Arab world. Contact us to find out more!
