Role
Brand Strategy & Identity, Creative Direction, Social Media & Content Marketing strategy, Web design.

Credits
Photography Wong Way Studio

Makeup Artist Tina Matti

Rapt Digital was approached by Isnam Modesty last year to help turn an idea into a brand. I managed the whole project and helped the founders get the idea off the ground.

Isnam Modesty is an online women’s e-commerce store that provides modest clothing such as hijabs, jilbaabs and accessories to Muslim women who want to dress stylishly without compromising their religious values. They required fresh branding and customised marketing, which meant they needed a new strategy to help them enter the Islamic Modest Fashion industry. They reached out to a few agencies prior, but none of them would work with a small brand. Finally, they found Rapt Digital, which could understand their needs and create a campaign that resonated with their target audience.

This project included collaborations with photographers and makeup artists to help showcase Isnam Modesty’s product collection.

Everyone is born Muslim according to Islamic belief. That’s why Muslims use the term “revert” instead of “convert” when referring to people who have chosen to follow Islam later in life.

The term convert implies that someone has changed their religion when in reality they are returning to the religion that feels like home to them.

There are many reasons why people may choose to revert back to Islam later in life. For some, it is a gradual process that happens over time as they learn more about the religion and come to understand its teachings. For others, it may be a sudden realisation that this is the path they are meant to be on. Whatever the reason, reverting to Islam is a personal journey that can be deeply fulfilling.

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I was tasked with helping design the Jilaabs and provided some sketches to help communicate with the founder’s suppliers. The goal was to create a stylish and modest Jilbaab, without compromising on either aspect. Not many people would take on the product’s actual fashion design, but I wanted to ensure that the quality was up to par with what was already out there. The client sent samples of a competitor’s garment to the supplier with a list of improvements they wanted to see improved.

SWOT Analysis of modest fashion industry

Strengths

Weaknesses

  • Lack of diversity in representation for non-Arab Muslim women.
  • The industry is still young and immature, lacking established brands and designers.
  • There is a lack of awareness of modest fashion among non-Muslims.
  • It may be seen as pricy when compared to regular fashion.
  • It can be viewed as a money grab by some in the Muslim community who believe religion should not be commercialised.

Opportunities

  • Modest fashion is no longer just for Muslim women, with more and more non-Muslim women embracing the style.
  • The industry is still relatively untapped, especially in Western countries.
  • The rise of user-generated content has made it easier and cheaper than ever to market your product on social media, lowering expenses such as hiring photographers.

Threats

  • Some Muslims may feel that the industry is not meeting their needs in terms of modesty and may choose to boycott it altogether.
  • Fast fashion brands such as Shein are starting to enter the modest fashion market, which could threaten the growth of the industry.
  • Islamophobia is on the rise globally, which could negatively impact the modest fashion industry.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the global economy, which could lead to a slowdown in the growth of the modest fashion industry due to the increase in unemployment and reduction in disposable incomes.

Jilbaab photoshoot results

Marketing Strategy

SEO, SEM, Social media marketing, Influencer marketing, email marketing, content marketing, paid ads & media.

For the marketing strategy, we’re focusing on building an online community through educational, inspirational and impactful content that would be of interest to our target market. This not only helps us to build a rapport with our customers but also helps to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to our website.

The Isnam Modesty Marketing Strategy Explained

Since the brand wanted to draw reverts, I knew that we had to create a social media strategy with content that would be appealing and interesting to them. I also wanted to ensure that the imagery reflected the diversity within the Muslim community, which is why we featured models from various backgrounds in our shoots.

Customer persona 1:

Name: Aisha
Age: 24
Location: Sydney, Australia

Profession: Social media influencer

Aisha is a young 25-year-old Muslim woman who reverted to Islam about 2 years ago. She is of Vietnamese descent and grew up in a Catholic household. Aisha is extremely active on social media, with over 10,000 followers across her platforms. She is frustrated with feeling like she has to catch up with her friends who have been Muslim their whole lives and is always on the lookout for new and interesting Islamic content, whether it be fashion, lifestyle or anything else. She is motivated to keep learning and find her place within the Muslim community.

Customer persona 2:

Name: Fatima
Age: 28
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Profession: Teacher

Fatima is a 28-year-old Muslim woman who was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia. She comes from a large family of six siblings, and her parents are originally from Pakistan. Fatima is a qualified teacher and has always been interested in fashion. She is now more confident in her Islamic identity and loves experimenting with different modest fashion styles. She is always on the lookout for ethical brands that align with her values.

Customer persona 3:

Name: Stephanie
Age: 30
Location: Sydney, Australia
Profession: Business Consultant

Stephanie is a 30-year-old revert who originally comes from London, England. She converted to Islam about 5 years ago and has never looked back since. Stephanie is extremely confident in her Islamic identity and loves to help other Muslims, especially reverts, in their journey. She is extremely active on social media and often shares her favourite Islamic content with her followers. Stephanie is also a business consultant and loves to help other Muslim entrepreneurs grow their businesses. She enjoys reading, going for walks and spending time with her family in her spare time.

These 3 customer personas are just a snapshot of the type of women that Isnam Modesty is targeting. As you can see, each woman has her own unique story, but they all share a common interest in modest fashion and Islamic lifestyle content. We created customer personas by conducting market research to identify trends and target audiences. We used a combination of online research, surveys and interviews to come up with these customer personas. We wanted to make sure that we understood the needs and wants of our target market so that we could create content and products that they would love.

Content Direction

Now that we have a better understanding of our target market, let’s look at the 3 main types of content we will be creating for them.

Type 1: Modest fashion inspiration

One of the most popular types of content on Isnam Modesty’s social media platforms is modest fashion inspiration. We regularly put together collages of our favourite modest looks, featuring different styles and outfit ideas for our followers to try out. This type of content is not only visually appealing, but it also helps our followers to see that modest fashion can be stylish and chic.

Type 2: Islamic lifestyle tips

Another popular type of content on our platform is Islamic lifestyle tips. This could include anything from how to pray properly, to what to do during Ramadan, to advice on dealing with difficult situations in life. Our goal with this type of content is to provide our followers with useful and practical Islamic guidance that they can apply to their everyday lives.

Type 3: Dispelling misconceptions about Islam

Sadly, there are a lot of misconceptions about Islam in the world today. One of our goals at Isnam Modesty is to help dispel these misconceptions by providing accurate and positive information about Islam. We do this through a variety of content, videos, infographics and more. We hope that by providing this type of content, we can help to create a better understanding of Islam among our followers and beyond.

Type 4: Relatable Revert Content

We understand that many of our followers are reverts to Islam, so we make sure to create content that is relevant to them. This could include tips on dealing with family and friends who don’t understand your decision to convert, to advice on how to live a Muslim life in a non-Muslim country. We want our revert followers to know that they are not alone in their journey and that we are here to support them every step of the way. This type of content tends to be reshared a lot, as it is something that many people can relate to.

As you can see, the content we create is designed to appeal to our target market and to provide them with value. We want our followers to feel like they are part of a community and that they can rely on us for Islamic guidance and inspiration. Having no direction with your content will only result in low engagement and, eventually people unfollowing you, so making sure it resonates with the target market is key.

Personal thoughts

A significant problem the modest fashion industry face is the lack of diversity in representation for non-Arab Muslim women, particularly in Western countries. Although I am a designer from a Lebanese-Australian Muslim background, I understand that Arab Muslims comprise only 15% of the estimated worldwide Muslim population of 1.8 billion people.

When it comes to Islamic modesty fashion, the industry definitely has a long way to go in terms of inclusion and diversity. There is no way Isnam Modesty will be successful if it applied a copy-and-paste approach to its image. As the famous saying goes, if you want to be different, look at what everyone else is doing and do the opposite.

Since the brand was founded by reverts to Islam, the founders and I felt it was important to focus on inclusivity from the start. This meant working with models from diverse backgrounds and cultures, with a focus on south-east Asian and African women who are often underrepresented in the media.

Main challenge

I think the biggest challenge for the modest fashion industry right now is to move away from the stereotype that all Muslim women are oppressed and forced to dress a certain way. This couldn’t be further from the truth! In Islam, modesty is a choice that every woman makes for herself. It is a personal decision that should be respected, regardless of whether or not you agree with it.

As the industry continues to grow, I hope to see more brands and businesses taking this approach. It is the only way we will be able to truly show the world that modest fashion is for everyone, no matter what your background or culture.

One of the most important things we wanted to communicate through our content is that modesty is not about conforming to a specific aesthetic – it is about inner beauty and confidence. We want our followers to feel good about themselves and to know that they can be stylish and modest at the same time.

Solution

In Islam, Muslims are taught to be supportive towards reverts, as they are often going through a difficult time during their transition. Just by browsing TikTok or Instagram, you can easily find reverts who document their journey and share their experiences with the world. Searching the #revert hashtag leads you to a number of personal accounts, many of which have thousands or even millions of followers.

Clearly, there is a demand for content from and about reverts, but very few brands are catering to this market. This is where Isnam Modesty comes in. A brand for Muslim women, by Muslim women, that understands the challenges that come with converting to Islam.

Engaging with revert influencers

I instructed the founders to engage with these reverts like this.

1. Establish a relationship: Before you start sending them products or asking for favours, take some time to get to know them and build a rapport. This can be as simple as leaving thoughtful comments on their posts or sending them a DM to chat.

2. Offer value: Once you’ve established a relationship, think about what you can offer them that would be of value to them. It could be something as simple as promoting their content on your own platform, or offering to collaborate on a project.

3. Don’t be pushy: When it comes to asking for favours, always remember to be respectful and humble. The last thing you want is to come across as entitled or pushy.

4. Be patient: Good things come to those who wait. Don’t expect overnight results, and be prepared to play the long game.

5. Tell your story: Share your revert story and what Isnam is about with them. If they resonate with your message, they’re more likely to want to help you out.

 

By reaching out to these reverts via DM or email, and just initiating conversation, we found that most reverts find solace in meeting like-minded women who have gone through or are currently going through the same thing.

As a result of our efforts, we have been able to form partnerships with a number of revert influencers who are passionate about promoting the Isnam brand and spreading our message of inclusivity. Sometimes all it took was sending them a free Jilbaab($35 cost price). We only paid an influencer once, and we saw immediate results with an ROI of 300% in 30 days.

This strategy has been extremely successful in building up their brand awareness and getting our name out there whilst keeping expenses low. It has also helped us to connect with a community of Muslim women who share our core values.

Video Script Toolkit

I developed a script for the influencers to follow, which instructed them on record their UGC(User Generated Content) in an authentic way. The direction was to mostly to record testimonials about their experience with the Jilbaab, and follow the following the Problem, Agitate, Solution, Call to Action framework.

The video toolkit included:

  •  A step-by-step guide on how to film a high-quality testimonial
  • Example content to help them get started
  • A list of questions to answer in their testimonial
  • Tips on how to make their videos more engaging

However, I made the mistake of thinking that they have done something like this before, and I didn’t give them much direction on how to deliver their lines authentically. This resulted in a lot of the videos feeling scripted and unnatural and required a lot of post-production work to fix by editing together multiple audio bites to create a more natural flow. Despite this, the videos were still very effective in promoting the Isnam brand and helping to increase sales. And we received a lot of positive feedback from the women who appeared in them.

In the future, I would recommend spending more time directing the influencers on how to deliver their lines authentically, rather than just giving them a script to follow. This will result in higher-quality videos that require less post-production work. So I simplified the toolkit to an easy-to-digest one-page guide.

Paid ads strategy A/B testing

I also ran a number of paid ads on Facebook and Instagram to promote the Isnam brand and increase sales. I tested a variety of different ad copy, images, and targeting options to see what would work best

Some of the ads performed the best featured photos of real Muslim women wearing our products, with a short caption explaining what Isnam is all about. The ads that performed the worst were those that featured models or stock photos.

I also found that it was important to target Muslim women specifically in my ads, as they were much more likely to be interested in our products than other groups. I would like to go into detail in the future regarding this, but for now, I’d like to share a A/B creative test I conducted.

I created two versions of an ad in the style of UGC(User-Generated Content) that follows the Problem, Agitate, Solution, CTA framework. I then ran both ads with the same targeting and budget for a period of two weeks.

The first ad (Version A) followed this sequence:

  1. State the problem
  2. Agitate the problem
  3. Introduce Isnam as the solution
  4. Call to action (tell viewers to visit our website to learn more)

The second ad(Version B)followed this sequence:

  1. Introduce Isnam as the solution
  2. State the problem
  3. Agitate the problem
  4. Call to action (tell viewers to visit our website to learn more)

 

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Version A

Play Video

Version B

Results from test

Version B had significantly more engagement and clicks than Version A, costing 75% less at $1.9925 AUD per result compared to the $7.98 AUD spent on results for Version A.

This experiment led me to the conclusion that it is more effective to introduce the solution first, before agitating the problem. I would like to continue testing different ad copy and sequences in the future to further optimise our results. But for now, I believe that this is the most effective way to run our paid ads.

Collaborating with influencers that had our ideal target audience produced drastic results

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ROI in September
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Organic Social Media Impressions
@hernamesnadia Obsoutely in love with this jilbab 😍 thank you so much @isnam.modesty 🤍www.isnammodesty.com use code “NADIA10” for discount 🤗 #foryoupage #jilbab #revert #muslim #muslimah ♬ original sound - Nadia
@hernamesnadia Thank you so much for the beautiful jilbab 😍 use code “NADIA10” for discount 🤍 #foryoupage #jilbab #muslim #revert ♬ Bridget made this - TikToker 🫧
@hernamesnadia Replying to @🤯 this is the 3 different ways that i know how to tie the jilbab up in 😊 Insha’Allah everyone has a beautiful weekend 🤍 #foryoupage #jilbab #revert #muslimah #koreanrevert ♬ original sound - Nadia

Final Thoughts 

I also want to note that the client preferred to focus on influencer marketing rather than paid ads. In the future, I would like to focus on creating more ad sequences and tests to optimise our results further. With more testing, we can find an even more effective way to run our ads and increase sales.

Overall, I’m thrilled with the results of our marketing campaign. We were able to generate a lot of interest in Isnam and increase sales significantly. This brand is a work in process, and I’m excited to see how it grows in the future!

Next Steps:

  • Creating more ad sequences and tests to optimise our results further
  • Focusing on creating more content before we continue with paid ads.
  • Finding more ways to increase brand awareness and reach more Muslim women.
  • Using paid ads to their full potential to increase sales even further.
  • Researching more into influencer marketing to find the most effective way to utilise it for Isnam.
  • Experimenting with different social media platforms to reach a wider audience.
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