HCL Technologies: Pushing the Billion-Dollar Website

Case note

Yu Chun Cheng / YXC180059

1. In your opinion, how does the website help HCL-Tech increase leads for the sales
funnel? How does this method differ from traditional approaches? Discuss the
efforts taken by the company in using the website to generate leads.

First, HCL improved the functionality and aesthetics of the website. People
are visual beings, they like beautiful things and things that please their eyes;
therefore, a pretty and simple website interface would encourage visitor to stay on
the website longer and to further explore the website. Furthermore, the website
now has multiple functions. In the past, websites only serve as information delivering
purpose but with the new functions, such as contact us, HCL could gather more
information on the visitor and to exploit the information they collected.

Second, HCL add germen to their website, this result in 1794% growth in
germen visitors. Same as easy and simple interface, a familiar language would
improve user experience.

Third, as smart phones become more common, a mobile-responsive website

ensure HCL won’t miss out on the opportunities coming from visitors that search
relative information through mobile device.

Forth, HCL introduce personalize content to the website. When surfing the
internet, people tend to keep using it when information that they are interested in
keeps popping up. With personalize content, HCL could keep the visitors on the
website longer and make sure they are getting what they are looking for instead of
having them looking at irrelevant content.

2. Can the website be used effectively for brand building? What is the role of the
website in integrating branding, marketing, and sales efforts?

HCL optimized the user experience on the website so that visitors could go to
their website and get all the answers they want and perform all the task they need
to such as placing an order or get contact information. This saves the visitors a lot of
time and effort to get things done and also improve HCL’s brand image at the same
time. On HCL website visitors could learn all about HCL’s value, learn about HCL’s
product and service and be able to get in contact with the sales force to get what
they need. This is how HCL integrated branding, marketing and sales on their
website. It serves as the top of the funnel when providing information, and the
bottom of the funnel when providing call to action function.

3. In your opinion, how do the initiatives for thought leadership help the company?
How can these initiatives be further leveraged? Also, assess the effectiveness and
usefulness of the social media campaign and deliberate on its potential for brand
building and sales efforts.

Being a thought leader means you are the first to come up with new ideas
and you are the on that people know could make the idea happen. It helps HCL to be
perceived as the company that could make impossible or amazing thing happen. If
HCL can keep being a thought leader they will always be on the top and companies
would ask to work with them instead of the other way around.

Social media could not only serve as a platform for marketing but also for
delivering information and creating brand image. As people start to spend more time
on social medias, they will look for and gather information instead of simply using
them to connect with friends. Having well designed social media accounts could
improve awareness and brand image and also lead the visitors back to the
homepage where they can lean more about you, gather more information and
finally, improve the conversion rate.

4. How can the digital marketing team put together a plan to meet its “lead funnel”
target of $1.5 billion for FY 2015/16? Suggest a proportional reallocation of the
budget, with justification.
 In my opinion, there are several aspects that the company should focus on to
accomplish their goal for FY 2015/16.

Website – mobile/geo-sensitivity/enhance website/decrease load time: 35%

First, People started to spend more time on their mobile device during that time
period. Improving the website’s mobile capacity would improve user experience and
make sure that the consumers that are browsing the website through mobile devices
would stay on the website longer. Second, in 2014, HCL increased added germen to
their website and they gain 1794% more visitors from Germany; imagine how many
more visitors they would gain if they could add Mandarin, Spanish, Japanese and
Korean to the website. Third, in business, people like things to be faster and better. If
HCL could improve user experience by decreasing load time, it would improve the
brand image, and the consumers would be more likely to finish a forum or complete
other call to action moves.

Remarketing: 20%

As HCL are trying to increase leads, it is important to make sure the leads go through
the bottom of the funnel. Using lead score method to put each lead in different
group and perform appropriate remarking strategy on each group to make sure they
don’t miss out on any qualified leads.

SEO – paid search: 17%

HCL made sure that when people are searching relative answers through google, the
top few results would be the Q&A section on HCL homepage. This helped fulfilled
the most important purpose of online marketing which is guiding visitors to their
homepage. HCL could keep working on that and at the same time utilize paid search
to increase awareness.

Social media marketing: 10%

Same as the usage of mobile device, the usage of social media is growing fast as well.
Social Media Platforms are places where you can demonstrate who you are and what
you stand for to your audience. It is on of the fastest way to increase awareness and
improve brand image. With social media account, not only could the company
advertise their product or service, that could also show their audience about their
social outreach activities such as charity or any act of goodness toward the
neighborhood to demonstrate their value.