In Targeting Hispanic Users, SEMs Wearing Blinders
|
Written By Reprise Media | April 5, 2006 | Share This
|
|
Writing in the Search Engine Watch Blog, Barry Schwartz points to a report prepared by Marketingprofs.com and iHispanic.com that finds that online marketing efforts are largely failing to target the fast-growing Hispanic demographic that currently makes up 15 percent of the US population.
iHispanic CEO Ignacio “Nacho” Hernandez writes that only 16 percent of the 1026 companies surveyed for the study used separate Spanish web sites to try to reach Hispanic comsumers. While acknowledging that “translation is a cost,” Hernandez suggests approaching a Spanish site “as an asset rather than an expense.” Another snip:
“59% of all respondents said their organization does or plans to design marketing efforts specifically for Hispanics; that number increases to 64% when considering respondents with headquarters in the United States. That is, the other 41% or 36%, respectively, may reach Hispanics but do not have specific marketing programs designed to attract this market.”
As a related article on Marketing Medios points out, 12 million US Hispanics have ‘net access at home, and 6 million can surf from work. And Hernandez reminds us that 1 million US children are born to Hispanic mothers each year, outpacing Latino immigration. Particularly when 33 percent of respondents say their plans to approach the Hispanic market (which includes folks from many different nationalities and cultural backgrounds) are embodied by a “one size fits all” ethos, it’s probably past time SEMs worked to intelligently and effectively relate to Hispanic users.
Topics: SEM: Paid Search |