The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
April 2006, Volume 5, Issue 4

Search Engine Marketing & The Hispanic-American Consumer

by Kathleen Thompson, Marketing Manager, iProspect

Remember the day you moved into your dorm and met your roommate for the first time? If you chose a large university like I did the probability that your roommate came from a different cultural and ethnic background was actually pretty high.

My former roommate is 2nd generation Hispanic-American and I am 1st generation British-American. We were as different as night and day. Don’t get me wrong, we got along great and learned a lot from each other, but we were very different. We dressed, shopped, partied, and studied differently. So it made complete sense that she would use the Internet differently than I did.

As a marketer reading this article, why should you care about my old roommate?

Market Growth

The Hispanic-American population is the fastest growing in the U.S. According to JupiterResearch, the Hispanic-American online population is expected to increase to 15 million households in 2011 from the current 12 million households. And this growth is not just from recent immigration, but also includes 2nd and 3rd generation Hispanics going online that hold the same mores and values as their parents. In addition, more Hispanic-Americans are visiting the Web today because Internet access is increasingly more available. Today Hispanic-Americans are the largest minority group online.

Spending Power

According to Forrester Research, Hispanic-Americans currently harness a spending power of $575 billion, and in coming years that number will certainly increase. Online marketers need to focus more attention on this group, their cultural characteristics, and buying patterns, in order to tap into this burgeoning market.

Spanish Language Sites

To attract Hispanic-American visitors, it always helps to have a Spanish version of your website. To attract this group, your Spanish language site must be both linguistically and culturally accurate. Simply translating your English page into Spanish is not enough. Try developing Hispanic personas for the sight, or hold focus groups to become more familiar with this community.

Hispanic-Americans have different priorities. For example, many send money back to their country of origin. Banking websites would need to know this in order to create a user friendly website that references that activity. And marketers must keep search engine marketing in mind when creating their meta data and content. Hispanic-Americans search differently. They use different syntax and use more than just the three major search engines. They also use portals such as terra.com and univsion.com. Learning about those sites and what they offer is a must for marketers hoping to do business within this market.

Online Entertainment

Hispanic-Americans visit entertainment sites, as a percentage of their population, more than any other online ethnic group. If your brand has nothing to do with entertainment you may want to consider adding an entertainment element to your site – or advertising your site on an entertainment site frequented by these consumers.

Big Picture

There’s a very good reason that the folks who produce the many Search Engine Strategies conferences around the world each year are holding one in Miami in July this year that will focus on the Hispanic marketplace. They recognize the monetary potential that exists for marketers within that ethnic and cultural community. They also realize that very few marketers are poised to capitalize on that potential.

Learn the nuances of the Hispanic-American market, like I learned about all the really cool differences about my old roommate. Be one of those marketers whose products or services flourish within that market by providing Web content that is understandable, culturally relevant, and easily found by that community.

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The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: April 2006, Volume 5, Issue 4

Search Engine Marketing & The Hispanic-American Consumer

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
April 2006, Volume 5, Issue 4