15 Facebook Mistakes Ecommerce Businesses Make During Ramadan

Ramadan is one of the biggest cultural moments across the globe. It is both the holiest, and trendiest month on the Muslim calendar. As we come close to the Ramadan month, consumer behavior starts to change and adapt to this particular season. Every year we see big brands like Mcdonald’s running campaigns that really connects with the Ramadan season  but we rarely see small ecommerce businesses take full advantage of the trends during Ramadan. Here are 15 mistakes that ecommerce businesses make during Ramadan season.

Not having an ecommerce website

Having a website for your business allows you to capture visitors and their behavior. This is something that you cannot do when just selling through your Facebook page or marketplace. Facebook provides what is called a Facebook Pixel that will capture some information about your visitors. The Facebook pixel must be placed in the backend of your website. Merchants using EasyStore to run their ecommerce business can easily copy & paste their Facebook Pixel code through the Facebook Pixel App without the help of a developer.

Not targeting mobile users

During Ramadan, 19M people in Malaysia access Facebook on mobile and 4 in 5 online purchases on Facebook was on mobile (Facebook internal data, Malaysia, Apr-Jul 2016). This increase in mobile usage is because people are using their mobile devices during Ramadan to past by time, keep up with events, and follow Islam practices on Ramadan. Increase in mobile usage gives businesses more opportunity to reach out to their target audience. But make sure that your business have a mobile-friendly website so that customers can make purchases straight from their mobile devices.

Not starting Ramadan or Eid campaigns early

There are three phases of Ramadan that businesses should focus on, pre-Ramadan, Ramadan, and post-Ramadan. Ramadan conversations on Facebook starts as early as one month before. Beat your competitors by getting to the minds of your audience first with tips, products, and services when they are starting to plan.

Stopping campaigns after Ramadan ends

Many online sellers completely stop their business operations due to the holiday. But even after Ramadan, online purchasing doesn’t stop. People are still in the lookout for products for another month of Eid celebration. You don’t necessary have to run full force but you can take pre-orders and ship out your products after the holidays. This way you can still get sales even while you are on holiday.

Not building awareness on the new seasonal campaign

Stay in the mind of your audience through Reach objective campaigns and using video to tell your story. With the reach objective campaign, you can reach out to more people in your audience and you can control the frequency of your ads. With Facebook Pixel installed in your website, you can exclude those that already visited your site so that you can continue to reach new people.

Not targeting women

Women will be the busiest during Ramadan, especially mothers. They will stress out about keeping a tidy home, preparing meals, entertaining friends and family, dressing well, and also being a parent. Their mobile becomes a perfect partner. Women will use Facebook to find inspiration, solutions, and to connect with family and friends despite busy schedules.

Not targeting strategic seasonal audiences

Advertisers need to take into account the behavioral changes during this season. The great thing is that Facebook offers smart targeting tools that allows you to target audiences with certain behaviors. You can target mothers who are looking for inspiration in prepping meals or those that are surveying new gadgets for when they get their bonuses

Not taking advantage of ads scheduling option

Small businesses may not have the marketing budget to advertise on tv, but nowadays, people watch tv with their mobile phones in their hands. This is definitely great news for small businesses. You can get the same effect as tv commercials by scheduling your ads to appear during the time period your audience is watching tv.

Not being a problem solver

I mentioned earlier about women being stressed out during Ramadan for many reasons. Try being a problem solver and provide products that can help them out. What problems does your product solve for your target audience during Ramadan?

Not incorporating emotions in your ads

There are lots of emotions during this season. Ramadan is about thankfulness, reconnecting with family and friends, and lots of performing good deeds. Emotions drive behavior and action. Make sure you hit their emotions to get more engagement and get them to take a certain action.

Only advertising to the top of the funnel

It usually takes more than one touches for people to actually buy from you. That’s why you shouldn’t stop at getting people to take action on your ads once. Keep reminding them why they should choose you and get them down the funnel through retargeting ads. The Facebook Pixel that you installed in your ecommerce website can capture visitors as an audience. You can then run a special campaign specifically for those that visited your site but did not make a purchase. Try using elements of social proof to build trust. Related: 5 Facebook hacks that will help increase your ecommerce store sales

Not using Facebook Dynamic Ads

Retargeting is great but it can be quite complex if you want to retarget base on the products that they viewed or add to cart. For example those that viewed product A but didn’t purchase, will see retargeting ads asking if they are still interested in product A. This is ok if you have a total of 2 products, but imagine if you have over 100 products. That’s where Facebook Dynamic Ads come in. The keyword here is “dynamic” which means that the ad will use variables so that you only need to set up one ad instead of an ad for every product. Facebook will show the products that the visitors viewed before, automatically. It’s really easy to set up Facebook Dynamic ads when you’re using EasyStore. EasyStore will generate a product feed link of products in your store and you just have to paste that product feed link when creating a product catalog in Facebook.

Measuring the wrong KPI (or not measuring at all)

Success of campaigns shouldn't be measured with the same metrics. If you measure the success of a brand awareness campaign using sales number, you will probably cry. Think about the objective of the campaign. Do you want to reach out to as many people as you can? Are you trying to acquire new customers? or are you trying to encourage more repeat purchases? Then think about how you define the success for each objective.

Not doing any good deeds

Ramadan is a season of giving. Win the hearts of the community by giving back to them. Take part in community events for a good cause or donate to charity for the goodwill of your business.

Not taking the time to understand consumer behaviors during Ramadan

Consumer behavior changes through the season. Your current strategy will not work the same way during a major cultural season like Ramadan. Take the time to understand and predict how the behavior of your target audience will change during pre-Ramadan, Ramadan, and post-Ramadan. Then make necessary changes to your strategy to cater for these behavioral changes. This will put you one step ahead and give your business a boost. How are you preparing for the Ramadan season?