Why Keywords, not TV spots are the new point of the arrow in Hispanic Marketing Trends

Hispanic Marketing Strategy. How we’ve gone from TV to SEO as the leading tactic to target Hispanic Consumers. 

Taking into consideration that Hispanics in the US will compose 30% of the Population by 2050, bilingual digital marketing is one of the most affordable ways to reach this burgeoning market.

Why is Hispanic Bilingual Inbound marketing so cost effective? 

Traditional Hispanic Marketing Campaigns geared toward Hispanics can often fall into a familiar trap, relying too heavily on overused tropes such as a love for soccer, cars and the importance of family. Which are all true but spent as codices for marketing purposes.

You've probably heard that Hispanics tend to cook from scratch more often than other demographics. But that came from thousands of focus groups in which participants are more interested making the other participants believe is true, but ethnographic studies reveal that they have as much instant, microwaveable junk food as pretty much anyone else?

For example, from a creative stand point, nostalgia of all things old country is not burned out, but it doesn’t (and never has) appealed to all Hispanics equally. But, when your only channels of communications are TV, Radio and some Print advertising, nostalgia may seem a safe bet.  But what about millennials, who are not watching tv, radio or print.

What if their target audience is online? Millenials are one of the most multicultural groups out there, with 42% of the 75 million millennials in the U.S. identifying as multicultural. On top of that, millennials make up 40% of the Hispanic population -- which means that if advertisers are truly serious about targeting Hispanics, they should also be tailoring their message to appeal to the millennials amongst them.

Having these generic or focus-group-driven insights will no longer cut it in the digital world -- instead, in order to create a truly effective marketing campaign targeting US Hispanics, one must think digitally and, more importantly, one must think of Spanish and Bilingual SEO.

However, complex the Hispanic consumer may be, Hispanics shop, browse, search online the same way everyone else does. Their activity (Read: Search Queries) can be tracked online through keyword research and social media monitoring. So the tactics to find them (or make yourself “finable” online, are exactly the same you already (or should already) use for your General Market Campaigns. Studies have shown that even those who use Spanish as their dominant language of communication tend to use English when conducting online searches or consuming content.  Hispanics spend more time per week (nearly 10.5 hours) using the internet on their smartphones than the rest of the population (8.4 hours), and generally stream more videos on their devices than non-Hispanics.

 So, how do you apply Hispanic Insights to target Hispanics Online? First, know your stereotypes, don’t fall for them, next, think of this, Hispanics don’t wake up in the morning thinking, “today, I want to be a better Hispanic” … No, they most likely wake up and think, “today I want to be a better coder, pianist, cook, mother, boxer, doctor, etc.”

Therefore, when targeting Hispanic audiences with Content Marketing, you must find out how they search for their particular passion points instead starting with the most general elements of Hispanic culture- those you use when it’s time to develop the creative, but after you’ve hit their passion point.

Then next, not so as expensive, but clearly increasingly expensive alternative is Paid Search or Search Engine Marketing in Spanish.  Beware of this method, because while it can be efficient driving people to your site quickly, it also burns budgets quickly. And, if your site is not optimized to make the most of the traffic, then it’s most likely money thrown away. 

My approach has always been to start with as solid, keyword research driven Hispanic Digital Marketing Strategy,

Make sure my clients have a Spanish SEO optimized site and a solid and visible social footprint (including social media and listing services)

And that there is a budget and the resources to deliver on a content plan and publishing schedule. This way, you would attract Hispanic Consumers Organically within weeks (a lot of brands are too lazy to Optimize their sites and create content in English, much less in English and Spanish). So, chances are, you are have an advantage by starting this way.

Once you have optimized, valuable content on your site and social streams, PPC campaigns will be a lot cheaper than if you were to start your Hispanic Digital Marketing Campaign with PPC and have no valuable content to engage your prospects.

At Big Bite Marketers we specialize in Hispanic Digital Marketing and provide content marketing in Spanish for our clients when they need it in both languages.