Introduction
There is no doubt that Britain is one of the most generous nations in the world but, for the last few years Muslims charitable giving also taking quite a limelight in UK. As per charity commission reports, every Ramadan, Muslims in UK donate more than £100 million-this is like £38 per second giving. So much so that retail sector in UK has taking Ramadan as their 3rd most important season after Christmas and Easter. Tesco, Asda, Morrison and Sainsbury’s all have now dedicated Asian aisles with direct marketing campaigns during festive season.
Looking at the census of 2011, where Muslim accounted for 2.7 million of Britain population and recent estimate shows, this figure has surpassed to 3.3 million & this community have huge buying power. Since the majority of Muslim came to Britain as economic emigrants, it is noted that children from these communities generally do well in education. South Asians , which account almost half of Muslim population, tend of be early adaptors of technology. They are also more brand conscious than their white counter parts.
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Path to donate online
Primary motivation to give in Ramadan is obligatory fund Zakat and getting most rewards as per Muslim’s belief. Compassion for other, overall ummah concept, global emergencies, and drive to give towards various funds like Orphans, Water, Education & Health also attract different segment of online donors. The only complexity giving online is that donor journey is not straight forward, relationship between offline vs online media touch points, change in devices for example from mobile to desktop and above all path to click and to finally donate. It is not the first click that matters, it is a combination of clicks which creates donor online path. For example, donor came across web banner of charity appeal but did not click, but then later on he/she search for Zakat fund and click to search ad (PPC ad) then finally end up by visiting and donating by charity’s organic link on Google search results page. Attribution modelling can help charities to see and analysis this journey and then allocate marketing budgets to get best ROI per channel.
Example of conversion path
Organic>Paid>Display>Email>Direct>Paid (Successful Donation)
Phases in Ramadan
During Ramadan, online donor journey also have phases right from exploratory phase which start from beginning or in some case few weeks before Ramadan to visiting various websites, reading content (case studies) and then decide to donate. As per Google trends report, search volume for term “When is Ramadan” and “Ramadan timetable” saw massive increase 2-3 weeks before Ramada and similar tendency is for Zakat. Even there is a giving trend as per different days in Ramadan. Each 10 days response varies. Historically, online income significantly increases in the last 10 days where charities can take as much as half of their Ramadna income.
Impact of Technology
As the technology has rapidly changed so as the giving pattern ,Muslims prefer to give more through digital mediums. In recent years ,other marketing channels for example ,call centre or post ,saw considerable drop in donor’s response. This has posed pressure to many charities to adapt new business models. Traditional ways to fundraise has no good returns ,which in results, declining in charities annual income. New ideas and platforms has also emerged. Muslim giving (equivalent to just giving a crowdfunding site), Launch good (popular in North America) and my ten nights are now considered one of the must for marketing mix during Ramadan campaigns. So much so recently leading Islamic charity, Islamic Relief has launched its first ever virtual reality app which has got plenty of media attention. Based on 2011 census, where more than 45% of Muslim population is under the age of 25 ,it is imperative to engage this younger audience, make them loyal to charity and take them to journey. Use of mobile App’s also increased during this season for example: App’s like Hadith of the day, Quran and Salah related content has seen more usage. YouTube viewership for certain type of videos & channels like Nasheed content and Islamic lectures saw upwards trends in recent years.
Donor’s Insights & Online Journey
- Average donation takes at least 5 to 7 touch points before someone donate online.
- Muslims do shop around and look at several charities’ website before they decide to donate so there is upstream/downstream flow of traffic.
- Ease of donation is of the key considerations in Ramadan.
- Online marketing played major role to introduce charity during Ramadan.
- At least 20+ charities now do some kind of online marketing.
- Transparency and admin cost have implications on overall giving. In Ramadan more than 65% traffic now comes from mobile devices.
- Cost per click for keyword like Zakat can increase up to £18 per click
- Very few charities have mobile strategy.
- Majority of charities use in-house staff which either has limited experience or no formal digital marketing qualifications (CIM & IDM).
- Videos ads/YouTube is not on agenda.
- Few charities have digital centric approach with 3 to 5 years digital strategy in place.
- Search is the key online channel which brings best ROI
- Display advertising can’t be disregarded from conversion funnel but need to use cleverly.
- Average donation value ranges from £75 to £125.
- Age group 25 to 45 years old are most active online.
- Male gives more in comparison of females and there is slight disparity in their average donation values as well.
- Majority of the charities has not fully implemented any kind of analytics.
- Very few integrate offline data with online data to map donor journey.
- There is a trend of impulse giving in Ramadan.
- Last few years, mainstream charities like Water Aid, Save the Children and UNICEF have done Ramadan Appeals to attract more professionals Muslims in UK.
Conclusion
Since digital is so agile field, online fundraises and marketers within charities needs to familiarise with new technologies/platforms, adapt best practices, see online trends and above all know their online audience through data. This is the only way to survive and grow in years to come.
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