Hispanics Online – Can You Afford To Ignore 33.5 Million Users?

While marketers are rushing to attack a market that is seeing exponential growth in the online realm, brands must ask themselves if they are backing their initiatives with the research they need. Learning to talk to an audience is just as important as knowing who they are. In 2014, brands are finally discovering that just translating an ad is not the key to effective results and when you are talking to a community that is predicted to have an online purchasing power of $1.5B in 2015, mistakes can lead to missing out big time. So, if you think you have a service that could help people in the Hispanic community, take a couple of steps to make effective calls to action:

1. Do your research: Research, research, research, if you don’t do anything else, do at least this. Before you tell someone that a product is going to help them, figure out who they are in the first place. Someone that has recently moved to the U.S. may have very different perceptions than someone who was born here but still considers themselves Hispanic and this can play a big role in deciding to make your ads in Spanish or English.
2. Find a resource you can trust: When we say resource we don’t just mean a good book about “Hispanics Online” we also mean a real person. The key to communicating effectively to Hispanics is to have someone who can provide the insights you may not think of first-hand and who could have good connections in the community to get you started. Also, make sure the person has the credentials that prove they are fluent in Spanish if you are looking to do ads in Spanish. You will see a big loss of credibility if your communication is in spanglish or dictionary translations rather than real conversational Spanish.
3. Do some tests: before you go deep into the online Hispanic world, run some testing and figure out which markets, which message, and which demographics are most effective for your product. The beauty of the internet world is that nothing is permanent.
4. Don’t overlook social media: 80% of adult Hispanics in the United States use social media and after doing your research you will see that referrals and word-of-mouth are the most effective ways to gain access to the Hispanic market – Facebook and Twitter may just be the perfect tools for spreading the word.
5. Reward loyalty: Hispanics are huge advocates for a brand they trust, so featuring them on your website, showing them you are still thinking about them, or even rewarding them with special incentives go a long way to keep that relationship solid.

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