Al Baraka Islamic Bank, Digital Marketing Strategy

• About AlBaraka Islamic Bank
• Purpose of the document/Blog
• Research (Advertising/Organic etc.)
  • Competitive analysis
  • Traffic & Domain Analysis:
    • Organic Search
      • Organic Search: Top keywords
      • Organic Search: Keyword Position Distribution
      • Organic Search: Top Competitors
      • Organic Search: Competitive Position Map
      • Organic Branded Search 6 Branded vs. Non-Branded
      • Organic Search: Branded Traffic Trend
    • Paid Search
      • Paid Search: Top Keywords
      • Paid Search: Ad Copy Position Distribution
      • Paid Search: Top Competitors
      • Paid Search: Competitive Positioning Map
    • Display advertising
      • Display Advertising: Recent Sites
      • Display Advertising: Landing Pages
      • Display Advertising: Sample Text Ads
      • Display Advertising: Sample Image Ads
• Recommendations
• Conclusion

About Al Baraka Islamic Bank

Al Baraka Islamic Bank (“AIB” or “the Bank”) is one of the leading financial institutions in the Islamic banking sector.

• The Bank has played a prominent role in building the infrastructure of the Islamic finance industry
• The authorized capital of ABG is 1.5 billion US Dollars, while total equity amounts to around 2.5 billion Dollars

Purpose of this blog

We will audit the digital activities of the bank and further analyze as of how Digital marketing can add value, i.e. will primarily focus on the analysis of the website & company’s current marketing activities (external) i.e. what the bank is doing. Identifying the GAP AREAS i.e. what are the areas of improvement and then strategize what can be done to achieve their objective. The bank needs a better digital marketing strategy which can enhance the current customer retention and promise a sustainable new customer acquisition for the bank in the market of Bahrain i.e. Prospecting plus Client Acquisition.

Technical Website Audit of Al Baraka Islamic Bank

The website audit report consists of duplicate contents which do not help in SEO and also the page performance can be improved better by loading the page informative content and image optimization.

Research (Advertising/Organic etc.)

Organic Competitive Analysis of Al Baraka Islamic Bank

Below are some of the top competitors in the region.

“We can infer that organic traffic is too less and traffic via marketing (ads) is NIL”*Advertising data (display ads ) is not accurate in the table, many banks are spending on both search and display, for accurate metrics please visit the specific bank research webpage (we will provide the links under the blog to all the banks)

Traffic & Domain Analysis of Al Baraka Islamic Bank

Let’s audit where they are standing in terms of the current traffic and the strongest channels because this will create the base of their DM strategy.

“The external analysis shows mostly traffic is coming via “Direct visit to the website” & Search “which is dominated by branded” keywords, Social and Paid traffic sources are nil , as we will progress in this research we will get to know that most banks are ahead in terms of traffic & Acquisition strategy.

But from below metrics we can see that traffic is increasing since June 2018 (metrics cannot be accurate as we cannot find any analytical tags on their website), they might have been engaged in offline and Outdoor marketing activities which might have increased “Direct and Branded Keyword” traffic on the website.

“Some more research led us to their history, they have recently updated their website (in May 2019) with new URL structure as all old URLs are 301 redirected towards new urls, they have adopted a more organized url structure but we are confused why “/en-gb” in Bahrain, they might be having their own reasons. (Snapshot of old website detected on May 3rd 2019), this could be one of the reasons of spike in the organic traffic.

“Organically they are receiving the most traffic from brand keywords, Paid ads are nil and they are also not running any display ads

Organic Search

Below are some of the top organic keywords, we can infer that mostly the traffic is coming via “Brand Keywords”

“Organic keyword positioning (below) is mostly concentrated from the 11th-50th position on Google meaning a considerable amount of traffic is lost which can be regained by some SEO tweaks on the website and creating a structured content strategy.”

On the top queries related to banking/financial services, other banks are performing well; again everything boils down to a structured content strategy to keep “Organic” presence alive.

“Search Engine keywords (below) of other banks are way ahead i.e. 1.7k @ BISB and 1.3k @ Alsalambank, whereas AIB has only 143 keywords which is contributing to the organic traffic of the website “A Structured Content Strategy is needed to elevate thought leadership.

Below chart shows us the competition of organic keywords in all 6 domains compared basically 1.5k keywords are intersecting and accordingly GAP areas can be identified to optimize the rankings and get better position/traffic via detailed analysis on fruitful keywords.

“Below is chart of “ORGANIC TRAFFIC coming via Google, most banks are leading in terms of traffic in which AlSalam Bank and BISB are leading.

For Al Baraka Islamic Bank we could see that it has a Drastic split between branded and non-branded, a detailed keyword audit will help us identify lucrative keywords which are driving organic traffic (on pages) which can be used to create a strategy in order to get maximum output from “ongoing offers” of the bank, basically hybrid approach has to be constituted.

“Branded 79% and Non Branded 20%, so the bank needs to work on a strategy to increase non branded i.e. content based traffic, as discussed above other banks are leading in terms of non branded organic traffic

Below shows a healthy sign of increased traffic via branded keywords which is good.

Paid Search

“Al Baraka Islamic Bank is not running any paid campaigns, which is absolutely needed if they want to increase their share in Bahrain Market. A comprehensive keyword audit will help in identifying the “Keyword Groups” which can benefit the bank directly in terms of acquiring new customers.

Competitive Positioning Map

Display inventory is close to nil i.e. they are not focused on “Media Buying” or “Display Marketing” which currently covers more than 50% of Marketing inventory due to the customer drift towards “Digital” and “Mobiles”

Recommendations

• It is a hyper-competitive market and hence research over the marketing model plus product offerings of competitors like BisB & CitiBank, identifying future disruption model plus growth hacking techniques & incremental product innovation is required.
• Paid Campaigns are required for specific offers and products or else bank will lose big time on client acquisition
• Objective oriented DM plan is needed i.e. XXX marketing budget allocated to DM. E.g. 10% on content, 10% SEO, 35% media buying(SM/DM), 20% Branding, 15% (news jacking/events) 10% (email/SMS etc.),
• Work on conversion optimization i.e. multiple funnels as per CDJ. The website needs to be optimized for better SEO/SEM (i.e. Content marketing via blog) is required.
• Credible Content Marketing (integrated with PR) is needed in paid campaigns i.e. Campaign targeting
• As per the audit, SEO & Website needs some good work to be at the optimum level of performance. and credible content as the long-term conversion strategy.
• Product and Service Message i.e. content communication strategy should be clear & focused on Display & SOCIAL MEDIA, following the thumb rules which create better engagement on social media. [Process needs to be developed following the brand guidelines and value statement]

Conclusions

“Small tweaks in current efforts and structured plan for the future is needed to take Al Baraka Islamic bank altogether to the next level. Both micro and macro level strategies need a revisit and instant optimization is currently needed badly. I am pretty sure that they lack “Digital Expertise” on the client side; hence they need an agency which is an expert in “Financial Domain” to help them in long term marketing campaigns.