If you are a brand that targets Muslim audiences, you should consider advertising to Muslims through audio ads. As mentioned in a previous article, ad revenue in the audio digital channel is expected to reach $7.9 billion by 2025.

However, knowing how to advertise to Muslim audiences using audio is vital and it all starts with having a recognizable and consistent sonic brand.

Understanding Sonic Branding

A brand’s utilization of sound across all appropriate touchpoints is referred to as sonic branding. A sonic brand includes audio jingles, soundbites, logos, and sonic trademarks, all of which are brief bursts of sound that can help customers recall companies and interactions with brands.

Apple is a great example of a sonic brand because not only do they have a unique sonic emblem, but they also incorporate sound into every aspect of their products, from Siri’s voice to how their touchpads sound when you use them. 

Sonic branding can also be used as a thought leadership tool to drive recognition through audiobooks and other mediums. Such a holistic approach is also known as a sonic signature.

“Two major functions are relevant to highlight when seeking to understand how a sound logo works in the wild: One is namely of a ‘heraldic’ function: drawing the listener’s attention to whatever the logo is a logo for, whether a company, product, organization, service, radio/TV, et cetera, and the other one is regarding identity: Aurally expressing the values of the brand in question.”

Source: UNMUTE, “Sonic Logos on the Rise”

Benefits of Having a Muslim-friendly Sonic Brand

Many benefits of sonic branding are connected to how we as human beings react to sound. Also, the fact that the digital world is moving more and more toward audio content consumption contributes immensely to the benefits brands can reap with sonic branding.

In CMO´s article,” Everything marketers need to know about sonic branding in 2022”, Nadia Cameron states that “86 percent of our decision to engage (or avoid) an associated experience” is impacted by sound.

Starting to use or optimize your sonic brand today will give you an enormous head start against other brands that want to target Muslims. Why? Because voice assistants and smart speakers are on their way to becoming the dominant interaction for businesses instead of the screen. Statista confirms that smart speaker deliveries will reach 400 million in 2025.

You are already creating an entire audio environment that represents your company as a brand. This ecosystem can have no strategy, no ability to own it, and no recall, or it can just be noise. Alternatively, it can evolve into a customized, carefully selected, and musically designed soundscape for you.

Proven benefits of sonic branding according to Harvard Business Review, Millward Brown, University of Leicester, Goldsmiths University of London, and University of Groningen:

• Enhances brand recognition
• Positively influences perception
• Enhances emotional recall
• Creates brand consistency 
• Aids in differentiation
• Can result in cost and time savings.

Your company’s sonic branding sounds carry a lot of emotional weight. The right sonic branding tune sets the tone for every interaction your customers have with your company. Because sonic branding connects on a more emotional level with your customers, it can be an effective way to communicate your values and brand purpose.

Sound evokes emotion, so it can convey difficult concepts in a way that your audience can understand. The right sonic logo or audio identity can convey your company’s values and help you communicate more effectively with your Muslim audience.

Despite its utility, digital media lacks the intimacy of face-to-face communication. Because people respond to sound faster than any other form of media (0.146 seconds), the proper acoustic identity could help to deepen your online presence so that you don’t come across as just another faceless corporation trying to capitalize on the enormous growth of the Muslim market.

Strategizing and Creating Your Muslim-friendly Sonic Brand

You should include some critical elements in your sonic branding construction. This strategy should begin by considering the core components of your brand, from the values that you share with the Muslim audience to your tone of voice. Your goal should be about translating these qualities into audio material that interacts with your target audience. Beyond audio logos, sonic branding encompasses a wide range of sounds that represent your company in a variety of contexts, including podcasts, video intros, and advertisements.

Start With a Sonic Brand Audit

You must first determine where you are in order to determine where you want to go with your sonic identity. Sonic brands are the same as traditional brands. Whether or not you are actively developing it, you most likely already have the foundation of a sonic identity in place. For example, it could be the chime you play in the background of your podcasts or the closing remarks you make at the end of each video blog.

Look for any indications of a sonic logo or identity throughout your brand and content assets. Consider the sounds that are already associated with your brand and consider how you may condense the essence of your business into a few seconds of sound.

Define Your Sonic Brand’s Style

Not all, but most Muslims come from cultures that have very strong family ties. Depending on the type of product you offer, you must have some level of consideration that your sonic signature elements are family-friendly. A tune originally from a heavy metal band, for example, would not do well in such an environment.

There are also many Muslims, if not the majority, who prefer not to listen to musical instruments as this goes against their beliefs. For sure the overwhelming majority would also not be comfortable with sexually suggestive tones and sounds.

Two very important articles that you must read before defining your Muslim-friendly sonic brand style are:

1. “The Complexity of Advertising to Muslim Consumers Simplified”
2. “What You Must Know About Islamic Advertising Principles”

A healthy tip for designing your sonic signatures for your sonic branding: Avoid everyday common sounds like a starting engine as you cannot attain copyright for them. Also, many well-known tunes are already owned by other companies. It’s best to start from scratch.

Define all Possible Touchpoints for Sound Signatures

From the early days of overhead music in stores soothing shoppers as they moved from one aisle to the next, to the bleep of a card machine after a successful transaction, the intentional use of sound cultivates an immersive experience for consumers. Aural cues may replace the physical act of handing over cash in exchange for an item. The “ding” that occurs when a banking app processes a transaction is part of a larger sonic strategy that informs customers that your brand is present even if it is not.

“…sonic branding must be embedded into every possible touchpoint with the consumer.”

Source: Forbes, “Sonic Branding: Why Every Brand Needs It Today”

It is critical to consider all potential locations and times when your brand may be heard by Muslim consumers. As smart speakers become more popular and voice-activated technology permeates more aspects of our daily lives, there are more opportunities than ever to contact listeners through sound. Sound, more than any other form of media, has the ability to activate previously unengaged areas of consumer life.

Conclusion

Audio is overtaking the screen as the most favorable way for consumers to engage with brands. Ad revenue for audio ads is skyrocketing. The Muslim consumer market is potentially the biggest untapped global market with a mammoth growth rate. All of these factors and more show that every brand needs to create a sonic presence that suits the Muslim consumer’s pallet.

Find out all you need to know about advertising to Muslims or contact Muslim Ad Network today for possible partnerships.

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Sonic Branding for Muslim Audiences appeared first on Muslim Ad Network.

In a previous article, “Targeting Muslim Consumers? Audio Advertising Offers High Conversion and Recall Rate”, we introduced you to audio ads for Muslim targeting. In this article, we dig a little deeper and furnish you with several research facts about audio advertising that are relevant for brands and marketers advertising to Muslims. We then go into detail on how to create an engaging audio ad for your Muslim audience.

Let’s jump right in:

Audio Advertising Stats

1. Ad revenue in the audio digital channel has skyrocketed, with ad spending reaching $5.6 billion in 2021 and expected to reach $7.9 billion in 2025, outpacing growth rates in video, social media, search, and display. Source: eMarketer
2. For many users, mobile accounts for more than half of their streaming audio listening time. Source: Inside Radio

“The home is becoming the dominant environment where streaming audio is consumed. It’s really turbo-charged the streaming experience, and the possibilities for advertisers.” — David Wiesenfeld, TransUnion

3. The proportion of the US population aged 12 and up, who listen to online audio, is expected to reach an all-time high of 73% in 2022. Source:  Edison Research
4. Only 7% of the US population owned a smart speaker in 2017, but by 2022, an estimated 35%, or approximately 117 million people, will own one. Source: Edison Research
5. In 2022, 59% of households with smart speakers own two or more devices. Source: Edison Research
6. Weekly podcast listeners listened to an average of eight podcasts. Source: Edison Research

“Audio as a channel combines the online and offline worlds, so there’s a constant effort to make sure full value is captured.” — Mike Kropko, Ad Results Media

Creating Audio Ads for Muslim Audiences

To ensure the greatest success with audio advertising, we encourage you to establish the approach the ad will take. Remember to keep the Islamic Advertising Principles in mind at all times.

Maintain a conversational tone in the script that matches the “voice” of your brand, whilst keeping ads simple and no more than 30 seconds long.

Your audio ads must create emotionally relatable narratives based on your product or service. An example of this would be a Hajj agency mimicking the emotions people feel when they see the Kaaba in Makkah for the first time in its audio ad.

Your audio ad must also have a well-executed sonic logo (a chime, like Mcdonald’s “I’m lovin’ it”) that complements the messaging of the ad script, and avoid prolonged periods of silence at the start and end of the ad.

Include clear, specific, and direct calls to action, ideally with the value proposition clearly stated within the first 10 seconds. This will serve as a hook to keep the audience’s interest and persuade them to visit brand websites or make purchases.

Create a special landing page for your Muslim audience if your goal is to get them to visit your site. Create a promo code for your product if you want them to get a discount. This will also enable you to assess the effectiveness of your audio advertisement.

While the script is important in audio ads, it will only work if the voice actor delivers it in a relatable and compelling manner. So make sure you recruit wisely. Whatever the case, avoid AI-generated voiceovers.

Decide on where you want your ads to be promoted. According to Forbes: “Traditional radio currently still outpaces digital audio in audience, reaching about 217 million to digital audio’s 169 million last year”. While radio has a larger reach, podcasts attract niche audiences that are extremely strong evangelists, and, as we stated earlier, digital audio ad spend is rising and will reach $7.9 billion in 2025.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re undoubtedly interested in reaching out to and engaging Muslim consumers. If that’s the case, let us assist you in achieving your goal in the most efficient way possible. If you have any questions, please contact Muslim Ad Network.

The post How to Create Audio Ads for Your Muslim Audience appeared first on Muslim Ad Network.

Voice is the New Extension

If you are old enough, you may remember your first experience using the mouse for your computer. With the mouse in your hand, you no longer need to keep pressing the “enter/return” button over and over again.

And although the first mouse felt like you were holding a brick in your hand, it eventually became an extension of your arm. Today you are probably one of those brands that use tools like HotJar or Mouseflow to monitor how consumers move with mice on their websites and where they click.

This is a great way to optimize the user experience and help your Muslim consumers with their customer journeys.

That’s how we need to think about voice search and voice-controlled devices today. Voice is going to be the main controlling function of our interaction with computers and other devices in the near future.

…voice will soon be a primary way consumers connect with the digital world, and a primary way that digital marketers will connect with consumers…

Source: Jon Stine, Executive Director, Open Voice Network

Voice for Muslim Consumers

Today, and right now is the time we need to be thinking about how we can strategize for voice to give Muslim consumers a better customer experience.

Voice is already playing a major role in many of our lives. Think about it!

You can sit on your couch and turn on the television, turn the volume up and down and adjust the thermostat among other things.

Here are some amazing statistics about voice search from Findstack you will find interesting:

• About 33% of Americans use voice search features.
• 71% of consumers choose to conduct voice queries over typing.
• 75% of US households will own at least one smart speaker this year (2022).
• More than 50% of smart speaker owners use their devices daily.

If you are thinking that voice is probably more popular among younger consumers you might want to rethink.

According to the Voice Consumer Index Report, 2021 voice assistant usage is consistent across all age groups. The opportunity to leverage voice is not just for brands with younger audiences.

Using Voice for Brand Continuity

Now is the time to start thinking about the continuity and the sounds of your brand. You need to start strategizing for this new dimension of voice and start creating a solid “sonic identity” of your brand for Muslim customers. 

By continuity, we mean using voice to get your customers through your front door and how you use voice to engage them once they are there. As a brand, you need to think of whether or not your Muslim customer is having an optimal experience in their buyer journey.

From podcasts and audio ads to the voice on the other side of the phone line, ask yourself: “Are they getting that consistency in sound?”

Maintaining brand continuity across channels not only visually but audibly is key to successful brand strategy.

Source: Sean King, SVP, Commercial Services, Veritone

Voice Consumer Journey and Business Opportunities

The voice consumer journey is similar to a regular inbound consumer journey with awareness, consideration, validation, and decision stages.

Consumers start by asking search engines very general questions through phones and other smart devices. A good example is someone driving down the highway and asking a smart device connected to his car where the nearest gas station, restaurant, or parking garage is.

This particular scenario would be an opportunity for brick and mortar businesses to optimize their business profiles on Google Maps and Google My Business. Looking at the larger picture though, you might be asking yourself what role do you play as a brand in all this.

The good news is that apart from these very generic queries that consumers make with voice search they actually look for products and services and even add items into shopping carts using voice.

Over 70% of voice users today are already searching for information about products and services. They are searching for local information… they are actually going on and finding out information about specific brands. That’s where the idea of these custom voices and sonic experiences begin to merge with this overwhelming trend that we are seeing in the world of voice search.

Source: James Poulter, Founder & CEO of Vixen Labs

Reach More Muslim Customers with Voice Search Optimization

Let’s now look at two of the most effective tactics to optimize your content to reach Muslim consumers who use voice search.

Optimize for Rich Answers

The following rich answer formats may require you to get some help from a technical SEO expert (for example to implement Schema markup on your site) but they are worth the hassle. These types of search engine result page answers get picked up by voice search very frequently:

Knowledge Graph – Indexes and presents facts about people, places, and things. See how to appear on the knowledge graph.

Knowledge Panel – Appears on the right side of the search results whenever we search for a business on Google. This information is derived from the knowledge graph.

Knowledge Box – Factual information coming from the knowledge graph but appearing just like a regular search result.

Featured Snippet – Appears on top of organic results above the ads with attribution to the original source; it provides users with quick and concise answers. Here’s all you need to know about featured/rich snippets.

Create Conversational Content

Voice search is a lot more conversational than traditional search. This means that you must start thinking carefully about restructuring your content in a layout that is more conversational.

A good example of conversational content is Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Including this format of content on your product pages and blogs is impactful because FAQs include question keywords. 

Answers to FAQs are also relatively short. Both question keywords and short answers are prerequisites for voice search ranking. Also, the FAQ-style format is easy for Google to pull content from your website and display it as a rich snippet.

Another voice search best practice that you can try is using pointers to break your content into small fragments. 

Creating conversational content is a pillar of voice search and you need to understand:

• The type of question keywords your Muslim audience is using.
• Your Muslim audience’s conversational style.
• The type of questions that they ask the most.
• The type of answers that best match their queries

Conclusion

More and more consumers are using voice to not only make life’s day-to-day chores easier but also to look for products and services you may be offering. It would be a mistake to think that this does not include Muslim consumers.
Don’t get left behind. Get the best out of your brand and product content by optimizing it for voice search. Most importantly, stay tuned to ground-breaking articles that will give you the edge over your competition. Sign up for the weekly Muslim Ad Network newsletter.

The post Muslim Consumers and Voice Search – What You Need to Know appeared first on Muslim Ad Network.

Audio advertising is a new rising star of online advertising that every brand that’s targeting Muslim consumers must consider very strongly.

Since 2020 there has been a 42% rise in global podcast listening. This has largely contributed to the rise in audio advertising.

According to the U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study for 2020, U.S. podcast ad revenues grew 19% YoY in 2020 and are set to exceed $2B by 2023.

Understanding Audio Advertising

Many people, including Muslims, today consume audio on the go. Take for instance someone who is listening to their favorite podcast during a commute; they will probably be fully immersed. This is a great time to offer surgically accurate targeted ads to the consumer as you have their full attention.

Audio advertising is the delivery of ads in audio format through online streaming platforms like podcasts or other streaming apps.

Here are some examples of the top podcast platforms:

• Buzzsprout
• Podbean
• Transistor
• Captivate
• Blubrry
• Libsyn
• Castos
• Simplecast

Here are some examples from the many popular Muslim podcasts:

• Saad Tasleem Podcast
• IIm Feed Podcast
• The Muslim in the Room Podcast
• Coffee with Karim Podcast
• The Young n Muslim Podcast
• The Deenspiration Podcast
• The Mad Mamluks Podcast

Running Audio Ads

Audio ads are for the most part programmatic and are run similarly to programmatic video ads. You can set the target audience, budget, and parameters for each of your campaigns.

You can place audio ads on audio streams in the same way you run video ads on video streams. Your ad placements can be: 

• pre-roll, 
• mid-roll, or 
• post-roll. 

This means your ad can be played before, during, or after a streaming session. These ads should typically be 15, 30, or 60 seconds long with no visuals of course.

Just like its video counterpart, audio pre-roll and mid-roll ads can be run as skippable ads. This is a good option for you if you want to experiment with your content and observe listener behavior and interests.

You can also use sequencing to tell your story through multiple ads over time. This is ideal for creating brand awareness. You can then end the sequence with a compelling call to action.

Interactive Audio Ads

Interactive audio ads grab the attention of podcast listeners during ad breaks. But they also entice listeners to engage with ads by clicking their screen or talking back.

In January 2022, Spotify presented an interactive audio ad format with call-to-action cards that appear on the app when a podcast ad starts playing. The same ads recur when the listener has the app open. 

These are unlike traditional audio ads where the listener needs to remember a promo code or a vanity URL. Instead, these interactive ads prompt listeners to click through to the website of the brand they’re hearing about in real-time.

“With voice, you get a real-time signal around whether the creative is resonating.”

Source: Chris Record, SVP at SXM Media

Running Audio Ads on Smart Speakers

Smart speakers offer you another opportunity to experiment with interactive audio ads.

Alexa–enabled devices allow listeners to respond to ads they hear by asking the voice assistant for more information about the product being mentioned in an audio ad. Listeners even have the option of asking Alexa to add the product to their cart.

Smart-speaker makers don’t typically offer an option to run ads directly on their devices. However, the voice apps that are integrated into the smart speakers, for example, Skills on Alexa, do.

Interacting with an audio ad essentially offers real-time information about what creative is most effective and when it’s most effective. 

If listeners are engaging most in the evenings on a certain day, you may want to increase your media spend for that moment. 

Core Benefits of Audio Advertising

Superior Return on Ad Spend: Remember that person listening to a podcast while commuting? You can use audio advertising to reach people like them who are listening to a podcast about a consumer pain that your brand offers a solution to. Such granular targeting offers you a better Return On Ad Spend.

Excellent Recall Rate: Spotify states that audio ads have a 24% higher recall rate than traditional display ads. Also, a survey by Midroll found that 60% of listeners made purchases from podcast ads.

Accurate Attribution on Spend: As an advertiser, you can attribute actual listening sessions to your ad spend. Audio ads can provide you with in-depth data insights. This will help you make better sense of your campaign performance. 

No Ad Blocker: Audio advertising remains one of the last forms of commercial communication that has not suffered from ad block interference. The listener naturally accepts a form of compromise between the content they want to listen to and targeted adverts. Saving you from the costs of ad blocking.

Conclusion

Brands are becoming increasingly aware of the potential of audio advertising. Advertisers expect to pour more money into it. The benefits are straightforward and the playing field is level. The trend is even catching the imagination of smart speaker voice apps.

Do you want to learn more about the latest advertising trends? Join the MAN weekly newsletter so you can be the first to know.

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