The Middle East is considered highly adaptive to technology, innovation, and internet in comparison to the world. According to Ipsos, a leader in market research and insights, the internet penetration in this region is 39% and steadily increasing, making the UAE the most active online. Smartphones sales has drastically increased in the MENA region making 75% of the population access the internet through mobile.
In the past, marketing strategies revolved around consumers pushing them to buy from brands. However, with the emergence of social media and the increase in internet activity, brands now have to be more strategic in getting consumers to buy. How? Content! Content in our business is gold. When we talk content, we are talking about articles, videos, and images. People are mostly visual and are attracted to imagery. Based on facts, Saudi Arabia is considered most active on YouTube, there are 258 million daily views on YouTube, 90 million of them are from KSA.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is an approach that emphasizes on the creation of creative content to attract new customers. An understanding of the customer buying journey is set to be the initial phase of the strategy then designing a content plan that would engage the target audience and drive them to buy and be part of your business’ community.
Catering to your target market is very important! If your target market is the Arabic community then you NEED to create Arabic content. You have a massive amount of Arabic users coming from the Middle East, people that interact in Arabic and those that interact in English and other languages. It all depends to the country and your business’ target market. Let’s take Lebanon and Saudi Arabia as examples. If you were to target the Lebanese market you might have to set up a content strategy in English, French, and mildly in Arabic. As for Saudi Arabia, primarily Arabic language should be your ultimate focus.
So to answer the above question, should you have an Arabic content strategy to tap the Middle East Market, Yes you do. Need to know more?