Digital Marketing Strategy for HSBC Sri Lanka

Running head: DIGITAL STRATEGY
Digital Strategy
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Task 2: Digital Marketing Strategy
Answer (a)
HSBC Holdings plc, established in 1865 as “The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank”, is
the 7th largest banking and financial organization of the world in terms of the net annual
revenue that it generates (Hsbc.lk 2018). The organization is known for the various kinds of
banking and financial services that it offers to the customers from the different countries of
the world. The organization is currently operational in more than 67 different nations of the
world and has more than 3.900 business centers in different nations (Hsbc.lk 2018). The
organization established its first business in the nation of Sri Lanka in 1892 and since then it
has formed an integral part of the financial network of the concerned nation (Hsbc.lk 2018).
The organization offers various kinds of financial services in the concerned nation like
different kinds of loans, credit cards, debit cards, savings accounts and others (Hsbc.lk 2018).
The organization has currently more than 1700 employees within the nation and in the past
century has emerged as one of the largest private banks of the concerned nation (Hsbc.lk
2018).
The organization currently in the nation of Sri Lanka is facing various kinds of issues
which are adversely affecting the business fortunes of the concerned nation. The majority of
these issues are related to the online financial services that the concerned organization offers
to the customers. Thus, in order to overcome these issues or problems the organization has
decided to come up with marketing objectives with the help of which it intends to overcome
these issues and also to earn a higher amount of revenue as well.

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Figure 1: RACE Digital Marketing Tool
Source: Kaufman and Horton 2014
The organization for the achievement of this digital marketing objective can take the
help of the RACE digital marketing tool which comprises of five stages. The five stages
which the organizations are required to take into effective consideration for the use of this
tool are-
 Opportunity identification
 Review of insights
 Planning
 Implementation
 Review of improvement
The organization at the very beginning would have to identify the business opportunities
that the use of this digital marketing objective is likely to offer to the organization. The likely
benefits that the use of this tool is going to offer to the organization are the enhancement of

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the customer base of the concerned organization, increase in the revenue earned by the
organization and others. The second stage would be the review of different options that is
available to the organization. On the basis of this analysis the organization has identified two
digital marketing objectives that are likely to improve the prospects of the organization under
discussion here. The third stage would be the stage of planning in which the concerned
organization would be required to plan for the effective utilization of these digital marketing
objectives. The next stage would be the stage of implementation wherein the concerned
organization would be required to implement the digital marketing objectives that it has
formulated. The final stage would be the stage of review wherein the organization would be
required to review the progress that the organization has made through the use of the
concerned digital marketing objectives.
As opined by Tiago and Veríssimo (2014), one of the most important trends, which is
noticed within the framework of the contemporary business is the fact that the buying
behavior of the customers has changed in a substantial manner in comparison to the
customers of the earlier times. For example, the present day customers tend to get influenced
by the reviews or the comments offered by the other existing customers of the same
organizations (Baltes 2015).
Järvinen and Karjaluoto (2015) are of the viewpoint that these reviews offered by the
customers regarding the products or the services and their experience influence the decision
of the potential customers in a substantial manner. The net result of this is the fact that rather
than analyzing the quality of the products or the services offered by an organization the
modern customers opt for the products or services on the basis of their online reviews
(Kingsnorth 2016). However, when the business services as well as the operations of the
organization under discussion here is analyzed it becomes clear that the organization does not
have an online space wherein the customers can leave their comments or reviews regarding

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the financial services offered by them. Thus, it is likely that the organization would be able to
improve its business prospects in the nation of Sri Lanka in an effective manner through the
development of this marketing objective. This would require the organization to create a
section within their online website wherein the customers would be able to write reviews or
comments (Patrutiu-Baltes 2016). Furthermore, this objective would not only help in the
effective marketing as well as promotion of financial services offered by the concerned
organization but would at the same time help in the enhancement of the net revenue earned
by it as well.
As stated by Ryan (2016), the contemporary customers unlike the customers of the
earlier times like to stay updated regarding the services or products offered by the
organizations whose services they are opting for. More importantly, the effective use of this
strategy not only helps the organizations to promote as well as market the services that it is
already offering to the customers but also the ones that it would be launching in the future
times (Kannan 2017). In this regard, the tool of promotional or content emails is an important
one through which the organizations can send relevant information to the customers
regarding the services or products that they are currently offering to the customers but also
the ones which would be launched by them in future times (Kaufman and Horton 2014). The
organization, thus, taking the help of this objective would be able to enhance their existing
customer base and thereby their revenue as well since through the use of this method the
concerned organization would be able to enhance its customer conversion rate. For the
attainment of this objective, the concerned organization would have to create a section on
their website wherein the customers would be able to provide their email address so as to
receive promotional emails regarding the financial services offered by the organization
(Royle and Laing 2014).

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Answer (b)
Holliman and Rowley (2014) are of the viewpoint that the different kinds of digital
marketing strategies are increasing become important within the framework of the
contemporary business because of the advantages that they offer over the traditional
marketing theories. As opined by Baker and Saren (2016), one of the major advantages of the
digital marketing strategies is the fact that they help the organization to reach out to a much
larger customer base and that too in a very cost effective manner. The organization, HSBC
Sri Lanka, for the effective achievement of the two above mentioned marketing objectives
can take the help of digital marketing strategies.
The organization under discussion here can take the help of the digital marketing
strategies of content marketing and email marketing for the effective achievement of the
digital marketing objectives that they have formulated. For example, the strategy of content
marketing will enable the concerned organization to optimize the content that had been
written regarding it over the online platforms (Baker 2014). This is especially important for
the attainment of the first marketing objective which the concerned organization has
formulated. It is likely that through the effective use of this digital marketing strategy the
concerned organization would be able to mitigate the threats posed by the negative comments
or reviews which has been posted related to them and only keep the positive ones (Taiminen
and Karjaluoto 2015). However, for the effective utilization of this strategy, the concerned
organization would have to take the help of the process of SEO and insert positive reviews
related to the organization in the directory of their official website (Saura, Palos-Sánchez and
Cerdá Suárez 2017). More importantly, they would at the same time on a proactive basis need
to not only address the negative comments which had been posed regarding them but have to
remove them not only from their official website but also from other online sources as well
(Zerr, Albert and Forster 2017). This is likely to help the concerned organization to improve