Hispanics and the General Market
Posted July 25, 2010 9:52 AM

There are a projected 48 million Hispanics residing currently in the United States. By 2020, that number is expected to grow to 60 million, according to the U.S. Census. There are over 12 million Hispanic households that have wielded purchasing power of a predicted $1.2 trillion by 2011, according to the University of Georgia’s Center for Economic Growth. The growth of Hispanic purchasing power has grown 80% more, from 2000 to 2007, than the rest of the population. Businesses are seeking a way to capitalize on the economic growth of the Hispanic community.

Each year 7.6 million Hispanics purchase items on the web. An average of $1200 is spent per Hispanic shopper on the web each year. The Hispanic community is a frequent user of the internet. Online Hispanic users shop for financial products, share photos, and files, according to Forrester Research. The Hispanic population increased their shopping online by 6.9 percent in 2009. Given these statistics, the Hispanic market is a potential group for growth.

Hispanics as a Majority in some States

Thirty one states in America do not possess a community with a majority Hispanic population. However, there are some communities in California, Arizona, and Texas that are majority Hispanic. San Antonio, TX is the largest city in the United States with a Hispanic majority. El Paso, Texas has the highest percentage of any major United States city at 76%. The small city of Huron, California is 98.27% Hispanic. Both Los Angeles, California and Houston, Texas have a large Hispanic population. However, neither boasts a majority.

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Importance of Hiring Hispanics to Cater to Hispanic Market

Businesses launching marketing campaigns should be aware of the markets that wield purchasing power and market products to those communities. Targeted marketing allows businesses to maximize their marketing dollars. Marketing to groups that are more likely to purchase will increase a business’s return on investment. Hispanic marketing is wise since this group wields nearly $1.2 trillion collectively.

Hispanics still primarily speak their native language. Nearly 56% of the Hispanic community speaks only Spanish at home. Another 26% speak both Spanish and English at home on an equal basis. Hispanics focus on family and heritage. They also focus on sports, as well as, celebrity figures with charismatic personalities. Therefore, businesses should hire individuals who are bilingual and can relate to the community.

Should Marketing Agencies have Hispanic Market Capabilities?

Agencies that possess Hispanic marketing will be more likely to capture the spending power of the Hispanic population. However, despite language barriers Hispanics are still purchasing products. Hispanics are more likely to relate to ads focused on family values. Spokespeople from the Hispanic community may also encourage Hispanics to spend more on various products in the United States. Marketing agencies with a specialization in the Hispanic community will be more likely to encourage Hispanics to spend their money.

Hispanic marketing is a growing business. Businesses market online to obtain access to millions of users worldwide. Since the Hispanic community comprises a large portion of online purchasing, marketing agencies may want to expand to include marketing campaigns that cater to Hispanics.

Related blogs:
* US Hispanics, History and Growth of the Internet
* Hispanic Culture, Community and Commerce
 

Save Time, Build Links, Spanish Directory Submission Service
 

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Tags: Hispanic market, hispanic community, marketing to latinos, marketing to hispanics, marketing campaigns, hispanic marketing, hispanic market advisors, marketing agencies

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Spanish SEO Helps BuscaTuFranquicia.com Grow Among Bilingual Hispanics
Posted July 05, 2010 2:39 PM

BuscaTuFranquicia.com, the only lead generation and advertising franchise portal for bilingual Hispanics and Latinos, today announced two new franchasing partners as the company is marking a strong momentum in the growth of its Spanish-language portal among the affluent Hispanic business community.

From May to June 2010, the number of pageviews has increased by 13%. During the same period, the number of visits has increased by 24% from 7,434 to 9,198, and the number of leads has also seen a boost by 43% to 522 (see graphic below).

This growth has been stunning!

To view the entire report with other statistics, please request it here.

These metrics show how effective a Spanish SEO campaign can be when done correctly. For a Spanish SEO campaign to be done correctly—and effectively—means finding the clients’ targeted audience wherever they are (qualified traffic) and persuasively invite them to interact with the clients’ portals in a way so that these web visitors can find the information they are looking for.

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Executing a comprehensive online strategy that allows bilingual Hispanics and Latinos to find the portal through various paths, marks the beginning of a successful Spanish SEO campaign. Those bilingual Hispanics looking for the right franchise in the United States cannot only find BuscaTuFranquicia.com by searching for a specific keywork in their preferred search engine (such as “franquicias en Estados Unidos”), but also while reading theme-based blog posts, watching industry-relevant videos, and interacting in social networks and business forums. The easier for these qualified web visitors to find BuscaTuFranquicia.com the better it is for all parties involved. This is called a win-win proposition!

 

 

 

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Tags: Spanish SEO, BuscaTuFranquicia.com, Bilingual Hispanics, lead generation, Hispanic advertising

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Key Influencers in the Hispanic Market
Posted June 13, 2010 9:58 PM

Business has long been aware of the importance of key influencers. Joe Girard, “the world’s best car salesman” in his book “How to Sell Anything to Anybody”, gave many examples from his career selling Chevrolets in Detroit. Giving one of the local union leaders an exceptional “deal” on a new car was always a good move because the union leader was a key influencer within Girard’s working class clientele. Joe made his money on volume as a direct result of referral business.

There are key influencers in any market, and the marketer’s challenge is to identify them. Within the Hispanic market, a cultural understanding is paramount to identifying these key influencers and enlisting them in the marketing process.

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Family - The single biggest influence to Hispanic buyers in general is family. Extended family can be highly influential in buying decisions, and referral marketing tactics may be especially effective within this market segment.

Personality - Another key influencer is the local Spanish media personality. In contrast to other ethnic groups, who assimilate through English radio and television, Hispanics prefer Spanish media. In larger markets, Hispanic customers may be reached by event marketing (concert, festival, etc.) featuring these local celebrities.

Sports - Finally, the last external influencer is the local sports personality. Sports are an important part of Hispanic culture, and a local Spanish sports personality can be an effective spokesperson in reaching this market.

Circles of Influence Effectiveness

Within these three circles of influence, community leaders can be identified and targeted as highly desirable and significant prospects.

The circles can also overlap, multiplying their effectiveness exponentially. A festival event can have activities for all ages. Or a marketing presence may be established by sponsoring youth sports, especially soccer. These can be seen as one-two combinations supporting both strong family values and a love of sports.

While there may be local (non-Spanish) celebrities that can have some influence, the most effective spokesperson will be Hispanic, not just someone who happens to speak the language.

There are influencers within the family as well. However, it is especially important to understand Hispanic culture in targeting the immediate family. While buying decisions in Afro-American or Caucasian homes are largely made by the wife, the husband usually makes the buying decisions within the Hispanic family. Nevertheless, since many Latinas are active users of social networks, and repeat buyers of virtual goods and services, smart business owners should craft a marketing strategy that includes this sought-after demographic.

Also, the children in the Hispanic family may play a large role in the buying process, due to the fact that they may be the only family members who speak English.

Finally, it may be important for the marketer to remember that, despite the common language, there are actually three separate cultures beneath the umbrella we call “Hispanic”. The majority of Hispanics in the U.S.—63%--are of Mexican descent. The next largest group is Cuban; the remainder is a combination from Caribbean and Central American countries.

Furthermore, the median age of most Hispanics is significantly lower than other ethnic groups, which may also be a factor in marketing to this segment.

The key influencer can open doors to your marketing message—and the sales will surely follow.

Hispanic Market Advisors helps you reach the Hispanic market

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Tags: Hispanic market, hispanics, latinos, spanish, key influencers, hispanic marketing

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Hispanic Culture, Community and Commerce
Posted May 14, 2010 5:31 PM

A small business owner does not have small dreams or small goals, even though he or she may have a small budget for outreach and marketing. Hispanics are part of a rich culture. How would you like to expand your business into your Hispanic community, and cultivate your Hispanic clientele organically, forming lasting relationships with your Hispanic customers?

At the risk of stating the obvious, the first step towards reaching out to Hispanic customers is to identify and familiarize yourself with this client base as it relates to your business. All of mankind is most comfortable in familiar surroundings. Do more than simply translate your English website into Spanish. Create a website that is as comfortable to Latinos as their own home, their own community. As a business owner, you would not conduct business with an organization that you do not trust. Appreciate that the same holds true for your customers, and create an atmosphere of warmth and trust throughout your corporate culture.

Second, ensure that your website is relevant and accessible to your market. No one founds his own business with short-term goals. Growing your business requires that you take the time to cultivate a long-term relationship with your Hispanic customers. This slow, organic growth of your loyal client base is far more profitable for you and for your business than the one-time impulse shopper. Learn about your customers’ needs, preferences, and purchasing trends so that you can strategically situate your company’s information where they are most likely to find it, and find it often.

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And finally, as important as your web presence is to the success of your business, never forget that your customers are people. You cannot hide behind a computer screen if you want to organically cultivate long-term relationships with your Hispanic customers. It is human nature to want to put a face with a name. Politicians know this, sales people know this, and successful small and medium sized business owners know this. Time invested in building off-line bridges within the Hispanic community is time well spent. Not only will it give you a greater understanding of your customers; it will ensure that your business is the first thing that comes to mind when they want to research a product, purchase a service, or simply ask a question. Invite your customers and potential customers to make your website their home where they can chat with you or other customers, seek and offer advice, and find promotions on the products they need from a business they trust.

Related blogs:
* US Hispanics, History and Growth of the Internet
* The Importance of Hispanics in the Social Media Age

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Tags: Hispanic culture, Hispanic community, commerce, Hispanic customers, organic growth, hispanic marketing, hispanic market

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Hispanics and Social Networking
Posted May 02, 2010 7:58 PM

In a society where Social Networking is highly popular, the trend reaches those of every ethnicity and group. However, Hispanics, particularly those in the United States, are the largest group visiting sites like MySpace and Facebook. According to a recent survey from the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communications, with the support of DMS Research, English-speaking Hispanics are the largest group of individuals who responded to the survey as visiting Social Networking sites regularly, with 44-percent of english-preferring hispanics visiting MySpace and 18-percent visiting Facebook.

In addition, spanish-preferring Hispanics also frequent the two sites, with 35-percent of those surveyed visiting MySpace and 13-percent visiting Facebook. The largest group of Hispanics visiting those sites are age 18 to 27, the group currently most targeted by advertisers hoping to capitalize on advertising on social media sites.

The age factor, as well as cultural tendencies and the fact that all Hispanic families, including US Hispanics rely on other members of the group to help with decisions. When the family is spread throughout the United States or in different countries, that means a resource like a social networking site become more convenient and necessary to the individuals.

Social Media sites specifically created for US Hispanics include EIHood.com and Vostu.com. However, the two sites, while created around habits and interests of Latinos in the US, are not receiving the same amount of attention as MySpace and Facebook and therefore are not drawing the same amount of traffic.

 

Latinos in the US and current trends

A significant factor in these individuals visiting sites is the age group they belong to; those under the age of 35 are more likely to be technology-savvy and regular users of Social Media. Latinos in the US are also more likely to be following the current trends of online activity, including watching videos and commenting on blogs.

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This is most likely an extension of their community-oriented culture. Communication and interaction are significant priorities to Hispanic culture. Also, emotional interaction is more intense with Hispanic culture than other cultures.

For those trying to reach a target audience, the use of MySpace and Facebook could be beneficial. Once the company opts to try to sell to Latinos in the US, for example, the next step is determining what the group uses Social Networking sites for, whether it be to communicate with family or enjoy music. The next step would be to form the advertising campaign to fit the target audience's interests and draw their interest, followed by success.

Related blogs:
* Hispanic Social Networking Activities Continue to Thrive
* The Importance of Hispanics in the Social Media Age

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Tags: social media, social networking, latinos in the US, US Hispanics, Hispanic culture, MySpace and Facebook, English-speaking Hispanics, Spanish-speaking Hispanics, hispanic market

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An Innovative Website Approach to Help Your Hispanic Customers Make Decisions
Posted April 24, 2010 11:01 PM

 

A well-planned Spanish website knows and understands its core audience. It makes the Hispanic customer feel important by offering them an interactive and personalized experience. Imagine having an innovative edge with your small business customers. Rather than just offering that standard list of goods and services, it will offer them the ability to make well-informed and profitable decisions.

How can this be achieved? First, it is necessary to have adequate access to your website's audience. This is where individual concerns and needs are expressed. When these are specifically addressed, a true understanding of the customer can be realized. What do they want to know? What businesses are they interested in? What research, goods, or knowledge do they need and want access to?

 

Developing trust with your Hispanic audience

Finding the real identity of the Spanish customer is vital to the success of the website. Offer the opportunity for Hispanic customers to provide feedback. Review your analytics. Doing so will provide you with a wealth of information, such as: what pages your customers find the most useful, and what keywords they search for most frequently. It will help you identify what the greatest barrier is to your customer in purchasing your product or service. When you address concerns, you develop trust with your Hispanic audience. If you carefully consider feedback and review your analytics, you are on the way to formulating your website content.

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Facilitate the decision making process of your Hispanic audience
 

Once you have identified the needs and goals of your audience, make sure that your content reflects their desires. Not only should your content be helpful and logical, but it should be readily accessible. It should be in a place where your Hispanic customer is looking for it. Next, review the overall logistics of your website. Is your internal search maximized? Can your customers quickly find what they need through your internal search? Are the navigation tools on your website clear and concise? Do they point and guide customers to the right area? Perform an audit of your website, making sure that your content is current, relevant and accessible. Insure that customers are led to the content through a wide variety of sources, such as: maximized internal searches and well-executed navigation prompts. All of these techniques are subtle ways in which you facilitate the decision making process of your Hispanic audience.
 

Becoming a one-stop shop for all of his small business needs

As an added bonus, offer a live chat option on your website. The live chat option is another great example of tailored customer service which is invaluable to any small business owner. The individual service will lead customers to express any of the last minute concerns they have before purchasing the goods or services. In essence, it facilitates the decision making process even further. By providing customer service at the pivotal moment of sale, you are maximizing your profitability and furthering your rapport with clients.

The core of your success with your Hispanic customer is in gaining his trust, and becoming a one-stop shop for all of his small business needs. By thoroughly researching his needs and desires, you will be providing goods and services that are both current and relevant. When you allow him the chance to voice his concerns or hesitations in purchasing and address them; you will be facilitating the decision-making process of the small business owner. In today's busy times, your website's ease of use will become an invaluable resource for your Hispanic audience.

Related blogs:
* Look At Your Spanish Website Through The Customer's Eyes
* How Can Your Website Compete Successfully in the Latino Market?

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Tags: Hispanic audience, Hispanic consumers, Hispanic customer, Spanish customer, Spanish website, small business owner, website content, website approach, hispanic market

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Look At Your Spanish Website Through The Customer's Eyes
Posted April 13, 2010 9:21 PM

Running a Spanish language website for a small business is a smart choice to increase revenue and broaden possible customer bases for the business. However, simply having the Spanish language website does not guarantee that any benefits will happen, and in fact, an improperly made site can drive away customers rather than attract them. Looking at the website through the eyes of the customers is the best way to guarantee that the site will function positively for the small business.

Operating a Spanish language website that is accurate, relevant and engaging

First of all, the most important component is accuracy in the Spanish languages. Inconsistencies in spelling or grammar will be obvious to a native speaker, and could cause them to develop a negative opinion of the small business in question. An excess of formal speech can have the same effect, sounding stuffy or even pretentious. Mistakes in translation can result in cultural gaps, which won't correctly get the message across about what the business or product is all about. Depending on the nature of the business, consulting a bilingual speaker as a source is one of the wisest choices to check the appropriate politeness level and the natural flow of the Spanish on the website.

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The content on the website must also be relevant to Spanish speaking customers. Providing plenty of information is a great idea, but including emotional anecdotes or other attention grabbing words can 'hook' in an online viewer into becoming an actual customer rather than just browsing the site. An effective website will inform the customer, interest the customer, and persuade the customer to take action and contact the business. Keeping this in mind when reviewing or creating Spanish language content will help steer website viewers into taking action and purchasing.  

Being operationally ready to support Spanish customers

Operating a Spanish language website for a small business is a useful tool in increasing a customer base, but that might not happen if the business isn't operationally ready to handle Spanish speaking customers in sales and support. Keep in mind the importance of having Spanish speaking staff on phone lines or working in stores in order to satisfy the needs of such customers. Turning away a customer after attracting them through the website hurts the quality of the website and the reputation of the business.

Keeping a Spanish language site in good operational standing and making sure the content is correct, relevant, and engaging is the key to success with Spanish speaking customers. In doing so, the website becomes a tool in helping the customers to make the decision to use the small business' services or products, rather than just something to look at online.

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Tags: Spanish language, Spanish website, Spanish speaking customers, Operating a Spanish website, Spanish language content, Spanish site

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How Can Your Website Compete Successfully in the Latino Market?
Posted April 03, 2010 5:41 PM

According to a Netcraft Web Server Survey, as of December 2009 there were 233,848,493 websites on the internet. That, of course, has already grown exponentially. Millions, if not tens of millions of these, are business sites attempting to capture customers from the fastest growing demographic in the country—Latinos in the US. How can a small or medium-sized business possibly compete successfully in Hispanic marketing against these odds?

Naturally, language is a fundamental issue. The more your site can communicate in the potential customer’s language, the easier it will be to move that customer to take action. You want both English and Spanish-language landing pages, for example. But that’s something your competitors in this market are probably aware of. It’s a threshold requirement—you have to have it—but by itself, it’s just not enough.

Getting your bilingual website recognized by the search engines

Using search engines is how buyers manage to navigate through the hundreds of millions of websites demanding their attention, so that they can find what they want. The real key to success in Hispanic marketing lies in getting search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, as well as the less known ones, to actually prefer your website over the others. The design of your site and its content should be irresistible to those particular searches, within your product and market arenas. That way, when a potential Hispanic customer carries out a search, whether in Spanish or English, your bilingual site shows up at the top or as close to the top of the list of results as possible. That’s the one they’ll click on. That’s Hispanic search engine optimization.

Conversion funnel optimization for Hispanic marketing

From then on, the issue becomes conversion funnel optimization. You want your bilingual site to function as a reliable lead funnel for the opportunities the search engines send your way. You certainly don’t want to miss any of them. You’ve got their attention, now how do you move them to take action whether that is to complete a contact form, dial a 1-800 number or buy products and services?

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It takes fully optimized bilingual content to create the kind of Hispanic marketing that quickly has them to buy. “Fully optimized” means that what you offer, in the way it’s presented on your website, is engaging and seamlessly driving customers to wanting to take action. Funnel optimization makes the most of the opportunities. The potential customer’s search is converted to a purchase. If you aren’t optimized in this way, your customers may not act, even if they do find you.

Search engine and funnel optimization require a partnership between what you have to offer as a business and the expertise that transforms your bilingual site so that it meets the criteria search engines mine for. Once this is solidly in place, you are in the game with the odds in your favor.

Related topic: Tracking and measuring results in your Hispanic marketing strategy

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Tags: Conversion funnel optimization, Spanish seo, Hispanic marketing, bilingual website, search engines, search marketing, Latino Market, US Hispanics, hispanic market

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Tracking and measuring results in your Hispanic marketing strategy
Posted March 26, 2010 10:58 PM

Is your Hispanic marketing strategy working? In order to get the best return on investment (ROI), tracking and measuring results is an essential part of one’s overall marketing campaign.

A number of tools are available that make the job of measuring the effectiveness of one’s Hispanic marketing strategy much easier. Probably the best known tracking tool is Google Analytics, a free service offered by the search engine giant that allows in-depth analysis of one’s website traffic. For sites that also use Google AdSense and/or AdWords, the Analytics tool also allows easy tracking of conversions (sales/clicks).

Google Analytics and similar site statistic tools provide information on the number of unique visitors to one’s web site, the sources from which these visitors came, the keywords used to find websites, and other highly relevant data. By knowing where your visitors are coming from, and especially the visitors that end up buying a product, one can test which Latino marketing efforts are working and which are not.

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Other ways of tracking and measuring the results of your Hispanic marketing strategy include using contact forms on your website, and if you have a toll-free number, using the reports provided by your phone service for that number. The flow of responses measured in phone calls or completed contact forms gives web owners an idea of whether a specific marketing campaign has created an uptick in traffic or not.

Setting benchmarks for your Latino marketing efforts

After measuring and tracking results for a period of time, you can establish average rates of traffic, conversions, etc., and then set benchmarks for your Latino marketing efforts. For example, a web site may be getting large amounts of traffic and unique visitors, but for some reason visitors are not buying or clicking on ads once they reach the site. With web measurement tools, one can experiment with different types of presentations, sales pitches and the like to see what works best, and thus improve one’s site performance.

Since measurement tools allow one to know precise dates, times, landing pages and other relevant information, one can easily detect whether a press release, blog, article or other publicity event has created a buzz. If you are placing advertisements on other sites, services like Google Analytics allow you see how much traffic you are receiving from those sites and how many of those visitors are converting into sales or clicks. With such information website owners can determine whether they are getting sufficient ROI from any specific site to justify continuing the campaign at that web location. In addition, you can study each traffic source and analyze their average time on site. The referring sites with higher averages, for instance, may indicate more quailified visitors.

Because the internet world changes so rapidly, companies must maintain vigilant monitoring of their Hispanic marketing strategy efforts, if they hope to get the best use of their money, to avoid unpleasant surprises, and to focus on those market channels that work best.

Related topics: How to measure the ROI for Spanish-language sites

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Tags: Tracking, measuring, strategy, Hispanic marketing, benchmarks, latino marketing, latinos, us hispanics, hispanic market

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US Hispanics Attitudes Regarding Legal Services
Posted March 06, 2010 1:33 AM

Like many immigrant groups in the United States, US Hispanics may not be entirely familiar with legal services. They may underestimate the value of the right attorney for both routine and special proceedings within the legal system. While Latino communities are frequently served by local paralegal services, attorneys and firms devoted to immigration, potential clients may not be aware of the broader services available even within their particular community or neighborhood.

Analyses of their buying patterns shows that US Hispanics are highly web savvy in searching for goods and services. Does your law firm target this audience? If not, why not?

The US Hispanic Online Audience

More than half of the 23 million US Hispanics are Internet users, on average spending an hour more per week online than their non-Hispanic counterparts. Latinos are avid users of search tools, tending to type their queries in English. But given the choice, more than 80% say they prefer sites with Spanish language content.

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Tags: legal services, us hispanic, latinos in the us, latino buying patterns, online hispanics, hispanic consumers

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