Your ABC to Arabic copywriting

30 Nov 2022
Writefully

Being in marketing is all about building a powerful relationship between the brand that you’re promoting – and the audience you’re targeting. You want to grasp their attention in a charming, detail-oriented way – after all, we live in a global world where everything is connected, reachable and accessible within seconds. 

Being a business expert requires constantly staying informed of the types of targeted audiences – and how to speak to them.

Knowing the Arabic language

Here comes the importance of copywriting…you see, it’s not just fitting a service or a product into a specific culture or language. Copywriting is knowing your audience’s language, their interests and their mentality for the purpose of marketing – and ultimately to sell. When we speak about Arabic copywriting, we are targeting 22 countries with more than 450 millions of people who speak one Arabic language – with multiple accents from east to west, making it the fifth most-spoken language in the world. Now that blows our minds! 

To set up your business in the Arab world, it means addressing the Arabs with admiration – speaking their language and having face-to-face communication. Each country in the Arab world has its own business culture, etiquette protocols, terminology and negotiating practices. As an entrepreneur, you have to be well acknowledged about all of these factors. It’s essential when helping you choose the most convenient way to engage with a targeted audience.

It’s true that the two most-spoken languages in the MEA region are Arabic and English, yet some Arabic countries exclusively rely on the Arabic language as an inherited aspect of their Arab cultural identity. Most Arab communities preserve their cultural and historical heritage through their adherence to their mother-tongue language.

Saudi Arabia, a population of more than 35 million, is committed to communicating firstly through Arabic language. Why? Because the Arabic language is one that they’ve been taught since birth – it is who they are. Saudis rely widely on social media to communicate, accessing mainly Twitter and Facebook using Arabic language to tweet, connect and reach out.

Speaking about the UAE, Arabic language is the symbol of the Emiratis identity. It’s the preferred language of conversation, and key in preserving a deep connection with the country – in spite of having the English language as a competitor due to being a cosmopolitan society. This principle applies also to many GCC countries such as Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman. There’s a real importance of associating the Arabic language in creating Arabic-first creative content on several social media platforms to show your targeted Arab audience that you care about their priorities, and what matters to them.

How to be an amazing Arabic copywriter

To be an Arabic copywriting expert means you need a field of knowledge that’s topped by three skills: a talent for communications, creative thinking and advanced writing skills. An Arabic copywriter has to be a native speaker – aiming to deliver customised clear and accurate messages to the Arab world, and capable of receiving well understandable information – whether that’s verbal, non-verbal or written. Talking about effective communication and creative thinking, an Arabic copywriter should be equipped with master skills such as: sincerity, attention to details, the ability to deliver exceptional content – plus an awareness of the geography and the culture that they’re addressing. To exchange ideas, expertise and knowledge with the Arab world is to use their Arabic language expressions, and nurture them.

It’s essential to know your Arabian audience, master their language and create that spark to really reach your business goals and targets. Forming a bond demands advanced writing techniques and being fully acknowledged about how the Arab world receives information – and equally how it reacts back.