National Bank of Bahrain, Digital Marketing Strategy
- About NBB
- 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
- Organic Search
- Recommendations
- Conclusion
About NBB
National bank of Bahrain is Bahrain’s first locally owned bank, established in 1957.
- December 2018 marked by a 14.8% rise in net profit, which reached a record BHD 70.0 million
- The bank is owned 44.99% by private and institutional shareholders, mainly Bahrainis
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 NBB
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. To access complete website audit of NBB click here
Research (Advertising/Organic etc.)
Organic Competitive Analysis of NBB
Below are some of the top competitors in the region. On a bird’s eye view, we can infer that Organic traffic is stable but commercial Ads traffic is comparatively less when compared to the other competitors.
Traffic & Domain Analysis of NBB
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.
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 is mostly concentrated from the 11th-30th 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 bankings/financial services, other banks are performing well, again everything boils down to a structured content strategy to keep “Organic” presence alive.
Below chart shows us the competition of organic keywords in all 6 domains compared basically 2k 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.
For NBB we could see that it has a healthy 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.
Below shows a healthy sign of increased traffic via branded keywords which is good.
Paid Search
NBB is running ads on hand-picked keywords mostly branded, a comprehensive keyword audit will help in identifying the “Keyword Groups” which can benefit the bank directly in terms of acquiring new customers.
| Keyword | Pos. | Volume | CPC (BHD) | Traffic, % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| بنك البحرين الوطني | 1(1) | 6,600 | 0.20 | 44.92 |
| بنك البحرين الوطني | 1(1) | 6,600 | 0.20 | 44.92 |
| اوقات عمل بنك البحرين الوطني | 1(1) | 720 | 0.29 | 4.78 |
| nbb online banking | 1(1) | 320 | 0.17 | 2.17 |
| رقم بنك البحرين الوطني | 1(1) | 260 | 0.14 | 1.73 |
Competitive Positioning Map
Display inventory is close to nill 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”
Display Advertising
At this given time they are only focussing on “Loans” that to marketing is not organized and messaging can be a lot better.
Display Advertising: Sample Image Ads
If you will have a look on ads below, we can clearly see the messaging doesn’t highlight the USP i.e. say a current prospect who has a need of a loan is considering 5 banks, now why should he/she select NBB over other banks, they need quality campaigns with structured media planning to get desired results
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.
- 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 Sevice 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 NBB 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 Expertize” on the client side, hence they need an agency which is an expert in “Financial Domain” to help them in long term marketing campaigns.
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