Roberto Popolizio, interviewed Alwi Suleiman, Marketing Lead at
Muslim Ad Network, the largest online advertising platform to target muslim consumers.
After looking at the story of Muslim AD Network, we got some expert insights on the most recent trends in the industry and tips on the best marketing tools on the market (hint:
email marketing tools are his favorite!)
Please Present Muslim Ad Network To Our Audience. What Services Do You Offer?
The Halal economy is worth $3 Trillion!
Yet, reaching Muslim consumers online has traditionally been complex, expensive, and time-consuming. The frustration is also felt on the consumer side as Muslims feel like they are not heard and, if heard, not understood.
We provide an opportunity for your advertising to reach the highly coveted Muslim online consumer. One single platform to reach millions of Muslim consumers wherever they are browsing online, including the internet’s most popular websites, social media platforms, mobile apps, and more.
Only through Muslim Ad Network (MAN) can a brand effectively target ads to Muslim consumers instantly across thousands of websites and apps. We offer one single platform that gives you access to over 250 million Muslim consumers every month.
What Is Your Story And Mission?
In 2009, before Muslim Ad Network, the existing advertising options for publishers were not very good at filtering questionable ads from being shown to Muslim audiences. Muslim consumers have certain sensitivities where even “brand-safe” ads sometimes aren’t appropriate for them, and Muslim website owners can’t feel right earning money by showing “non-permissible” ads.
Advertisers, on the other hand, struggled with being able to target Muslim consumers online.
They had to make one-on-one deals with individual sites for placements and were frustrated with Google Ads, Facebook, Twitter, and the likes. It was all time-consuming and expensive. Leads weren’t qualified and Cost Per Acquisition was too high.
With the creation of Muslim Ad Network, advertisers now had the ability to reach millions of Muslims through a single central platform. No longer did they have to work out separate deals with multiple websites or get reporting from various sources just for a single marketing campaign. No longer did they have to find round-about ways to get their messages in front of Muslim consumers.
Our mission is to help organizations connect with Muslim consumers online, efficiently. This should lead to our vision which is being at the forefront of Muslim advertising and creating long-term partnerships.
What Are The Common Problems That Your Customers Are Facing When They Come To You?
Our clients come to us having tried many avenues to engage Muslim consumers online. They feel that they have spent too much money and time without achieving the proper results. They look up to us to help them reach Muslims online in the midst of all the noise and clutter without overspending.
It is not only traditionally Muslim brands that come to us with this problem. We have worked with the likes of UNHCR and Air Canada to help them reach Muslim consumers online and the results were quite satisfactory. Please view the UNHCR case study.
What’s Your Process To Help Them Solve Those Issues, And What Makes You Stand Out?
We take a personalized approach to each and every client as there is no one-size-fits-all solution. With our unmatched demographic data, we’re able to target ads to Muslim consumers in a variety of ways. We have exclusive partnerships with leading publishers with Muslim audiences. Our product includes serving ads to Muslim consumers based on their email addresses and more.
Although the technology we mention above is not groundbreaking, what is groundbreaking is the ability to do this to target Muslim audiences, something that we are yet to see other companies do.
What Tools And Technologies Would You Suggest To Anyone Starting An Online Business Right Now, And Why?
If you are starting out know one thing! Your email list is the lifeline of your business. Social media platforms keep changing algorithms and cancel accounts for the right and sometimes wrong reasons. Your email list cannot be taken away from you. It is also an audience of customers and warm leads, so it is worth a lot more than a social media audience. Not to say that social media is not useful; however, what you own is worth more than what you borrow and a social media audience is borrowed.
A great email tool can save you time and money. Take SendGrid for example, it provides a comprehensive suite of email marketing services, many of which are user-friendly for both newcomers and seasoned email marketers.
As a newcomer, you should also consider your content creation tools such as graphic tools that can make your brands stand out from the crowd. Think of Canva, or alternatives like Creatopy, which give you the ability to create social media post images, blog banners, infographics, videos, and an array of other creatives.
How Do You Think Ai Will Impact Your Industry, And How Do You Plan To Use It?
While answering these questions, ChatGPT has entered the spotlight, and everyone is discussing its awesomeness. We certainly concur. This technology could potentially become the next breakthrough since sliced bread. However, brands should exercise caution to avoid compromising their uniqueness by relying excessively on AI-generated content.
At Muslim Ad Network, we want to explore a more streamlined process for answering customer questions when we are not available online and using conversational AI chatbots is the only solution we see in 2023.
What Else Do You See In The Future Of Advertising?
Advertising will have a prominent position in gaming and the metaverse, despite the hype on the latter cooling down a little lately. We also see audio advertising getting stronger in the future. This will especially hold true as the lines between AI and IoT get even more blurry, as we have seen them come together before to create the likes of Siri and Alexa. We believe that knowing how to target Muslim audiences on these platforms before anyone else can be a huge business advantage.
BIO
Alwi Suleiman has been in marketing since 2006 and has helped several businesses build their marketing strategies. He is the Lead Marketer at Muslim Ad Network, Co-Author of the Muslim Consumer Guide, and the owner of Content Market King. He is passionate about helping small businesses thrive through online marketing strategies.
