Al Hilal Group's Arabian Business Community (ABC) Bahrain, the kingdom's busiest and most successful market place, has generated a record 1.2 million referrals to businesses by the end of the third quarter this year.

The ABC Business portal (www.abc-bahrain.com), which has established itself as the leading business reference resource for anyone looking for companies in the kingdom, has continued its year-on-year growth with an increase of 9.7 per cent in visitor numbers in 2018.

The growth of ABC has positioned it as the highest ranked information resource in Bahrain on Google.

"In today’s challenging market, businesses are looking for an edge on their competitors. ABC Bahrain provides that competitive advantage by generating quantifiable business referrals to their corporate profiles on the portal," said Kamal Al Yousif, the sales manager for ABC Bahrain.

Al Hilal Group, the originator of the ABC community concept, have rolled out ABC portals across the GCC countries. The total business referrals across all 14 sites are on course to exceed 5 million in 2018.

Al Hilal has recorded a 32 per cent increase in the number of Bahrain companies joining the community this year.

"This increase is due to companies seeing the value that ABC- Bahrain provides as a unique platform for companies to promote themselves to potential buyers of their products and services. When searching for information about companies in Bahrain you will see that search engines like Google rank ABC highly and in many cases above an individual company’s social media platforms including LinkedIn and Instagram," added Al Yousif.

"Today ABC represents the most cost-effective marketing tool any company can use. For as little as BD195 ($515) per month a company can join the community as a Premium Partner providing them with a range of benefits including “Top of Mind” positioning for their business activities, enhanced profile pages, free email campaigns, free classified advertising on the site and promotional exposure not just on ABC but across Al Hilal’s range of publications and social media sites including the GDN and the group’s market leading trade media such as Gulf Construction, Gulf Industry, Travel & Tourism News and Oil & Gas News.

"Our message is that if you are in business in Bahrain, make sure you are on ABC Bahrain," added Al Yousif.-TradeArabia News Service