67% of Middle East consumers could switch to digital channels to engage with top brands, according to a report by MoEngage.
Young and digitally savvy
MoEngage, an insights-led customer engagement platform, reports that 67% of Middle East consumers are switching to digital channels to engage with brands. Based upon the report, consumer brands in the Middle East should prioritise digitalisation in order to thrive in the hyper-competitive space. COVID-19 is thought to have heavily influenced this shift. The report highlighted that personalisation and digitisation will become key to engage with customers in the Middle East.
The Middle East Asian market is one of the fastest-growing regions, marked by a young population (half of it sub-25) that is also digitally savvy. At the current pace of growth, the UAE will have an internet penetration of 96% by 2025. Online retail sales are poised to grow by 20% in 2022, outpacing brick-and-mortar sales, according to MoEngage. All these figures support the fact that consumers in the region are ready to switch to digital channels.
Study highlights
MoEngage listed several highlights from the study:
● Personalised emails had an OR of 19.34% compared to 7.91 % of broadcast emails
● 28.63% increase in click-through rates (CTR) for broadcast emails from 1.44%, when email communication was personalised
● An 8.45% conversion rate when emails were personalised compared to 4.08% for email broadcasts.
● Push notifications showed a CTR of 7.73%, compared to 8.17% for personalised messages
● CTR jumped to 21.12% from 5.58% with personalisation of push notifications
Whether the communication is about transactions, education, notifications or suggestions, personalisation helps boost engagement metrics, according to MoEngage. “The most frustrating experience for consumers is when brands don’t ‘get them’ and end up sending irrelevant messages. This frustration snowballs into reduced engagement and eventually a decline in LTV. To avoid this, marketers need to embrace an insights-led approach to engagement by strengthening their analytics and intelligence capabilities,” said Raviteja Dodda, CEO and Co-Founder, MoEngage.
Reaching the correct audience
Knowing which customer cohort needs to be engaged with the right message sent at the right time on the right communication channel will make or break engagement efforts, according to MoEngage. But doing this manually at scale for millions of users with billions of preferences is not feasible and is set to become even more difficult as consumers continue to switch to digital channels. “This is where technology steps in. Coupled with AI, MoEngage’s Dynamic Product Messaging automates personalisation at scale on communication channels like Emails and Push Notifications, helping marketers create relevant, delightful, and memorable experiences for their customers,” points out Mangesh Chaudhari, Director of Growth and Strategy (MENA), MoEngage.
