Content Marketing Is King with Hispanics
The race to create and produce a constant flow of engaging content, across a plethora of touchpoints is a daunting task for any brand and its agencies. So how likely is it that they will ever replicate those efforts, let alone the investments, so they can reach Latinos? As likely as this guy getting his truck back.
We know from a recent article in the NY Times that even though Latinos comprise 16% of the total US population (25% in LA, 35%Chi and 50% SA) only 1% of marketing dollars go to Hispanic marketing. They blame it on risk adverse clients and agencies that don't understand how to sell "Hispanic Digital" to clients. GM agencies don't get Hispanic and HISPANIC agencies don't get digital. But if we accept that by marketing "content" we mean anything from a TV spot to a blog post, which makes it clear that brands now have to act as Pubishers, then blogs, posts, CTAs, White Papers, e-books, SEM ads, Tweets, webinars, videos, all need to be part of the marketing arsenal for any company. That's a lot of content to produce in English, let alone in Spanish. The good news is that, unlike TV spots, much of that content that has been created in English, can easily be leveraged in Hispanic Inbound marketing efforts.
The fact that Hispanics over-index in just about any possitive online marketing measure, from higher click through rates on desketop and mobile, better email response, more ad clicking, Social Media participation, etc, a little investment on the part of the Brand or GM agency, could go a long, long way with new customer acquisition objectives. First of all, the stuff just needs to be translated. That's not very expensive. Second, the cost per keyword in Spanish compared to English is three or more times cheaper, which makes PPC campaigns still very affordable and all Inbound marketing efforts, from social meda, email, video or any type of content publishing to attract customers, nurture leads and convert Hispanics very appealing.
Third, there is a ton of content that the client already has and which can be transcreated and adapted into Spanish by a Creative and Strategic consultant-not a whole Hispanic Agency. To be sure, not all of the content will be relevant or adaptable, but a lot it will, specially the types of content that make inbound marketing so efficient, such as blogs, posts, CTA's and Landing pages. Also, rather than just translating the relevant content, I'd be more strategic about it and also translate/adapt the keyword strategy, do additional keyword research directly in Spanish and infuse it within the content of the site and the social media.
Yet, trying to convince clients and agencies to embrace this Hispanic Content Strategy has proven to be a big, bad ugly King Kong of a monster. But I will keep trying.