4 Ways Hispanic Marketing is Making Major Strides in 2020
Maya Rector • Jul 01, 2020
2020 has been shaping up to be a huge year for Hispanic marketing. As a growing population making massive gains in buying power, cultural influence, and media representation, the time for reaching U.S. Hispanic consumers is now. Keep reading to discover four ways Hispanic marketing is making strides in 2020 and beyond - and learn some helpful tips to get started.
1. How Big of an Impact do U.S. Hispanic Consumers have?
In previous years, brands and businesses had a tendency to overlook marketing to the Hispanic population due to the belief that these consumers didn’t have as much spending power as the general market, that there weren’t enough Hispanics in the U.S. to make marketing to them worth it, or that understanding this market was too complicated in general. However, many brands and businesses are waking up to the reality that Hispanics are here to stay - and their influence as consumers is massive. For instance, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia, U.S. Hispanic consumers possess a total of $1.5 trillion in buying power, which is up 212% this decade.
To put these figures into perspective, Hispanics account for one out of every six Americans, and their aggregate buying power is larger than the GDP of Australia. So what’s been contributing to this massive growth? Relative to the overall U.S. market, Latinos have faster population growth, a high labor-force participation rate, and the increased ability to spend as consumers. In less than a decade, product and services consumption among U.S. Latinos increased by 42% – which is a whopping 72% faster compared to non-U.S. Latinos from 2010-2017. That being said, businesses that invest in the Hispanic opportunity now are positioned to receive the long term benefits as this influential population continues to grow and make major financial gains.
2020 has also been a crucial year when it comes to Hispanic voting power
and the U.S. Census. In 2020, the Pew Research Center counted a record 32 million Latinos eligible to vote in 2020, showing a substantial increase from the 27.3 million eligible Latino voters in 2016. Since the supreme court has ruled against a citizenship question on this year’s Census, the 2020 Census count is also expected to grow thanks to a more accurate representation of the U.S. Hispanic population, compared to recent years that may have barely scratched the surface due to the citizenship question requirement.
2. Why is Spanish-language Search becoming More Important in Digital Marketing?
It’s no secret that language plays a crucial role in reaching Hispanic consumers. Despite this known fact, many businesses and general market specialists alike are unfamiliar with Spanish-language campaigns - and they’re definitely missing out. Aside from reaching key Hispanic audiences in their preferred language, Spanish-language keywords can cost up to twenty times less
than keywords in English. While brands and businesses won’t necessarily see as much traffic from keywords in Spanish, they can pay much less for the traffic that they do receive, resulting in huge conversion cost savings. It’s not enough to only use keywords in search campaigns though - Spanish-language content and landing pages will also need to support traffic and conversions to prevent Google from denying keyword usage.
In an example from MediaPost, searching for the keyword “teeth whitening” in Wyoming (using the Spanish “blanqueamiento dental''), resulted in several top search options - with one directing to a local Wyoming dentist and the other listings showing dentists located in Mexico City. Because the Spanish version of the keyword isn’t used as often by dentist websites in the U.S., Hispanic users searching in Spanish see organic search results from dentist offices outside of their location, which is Mexico City in this case. However, if a dentist wanted to target Spanish-speaking audiences in their area, they could purchase specific keywords in relation to their local area - which provides an inexpensive alternative if they want to gain website traffic for that underutilized Spanish keyword (feel free to check out our success cases
that highlight growth thanks to these methods).
Keywords are important, but marketing to Hispanics consists of more than just using a bit of Spanish here and there. For instance, not all U.S. Hispanics prefer Spanish over English, and incorporating diverse ads that acknowledge this audience’s culture can also go a long way regardless of language. Beyond language, culture can differ by country of origin, age, generational differences, etc. Among the many differences in culture within the U.S. Hispanic population is also the difference in how consumers perceive social media and Hispanic digital marketing - with younger U.S. born Hispanics fully embracing social media channels as their older counterparts tend to prefer traditional media such as broadcast TV or radio. Everyone has their preferences, which is why partnering with a Hispanic marketing agency that can understand these nuances means the difference between successful Hispanic marketing campaigns and campaigns that get lost in translation.
3. How do Multicultural Audiences Play a Role in Social Media?
Hispanic digital marketing has taken off in 2020, from everyday users to mega-influencers. With social media usage rates being higher among Latinos, it’s no surprise that the social media world is also seeing an influx of Latino talent. Why the surge in Hispanic social media stars? For starters, 2020 marks the first time that the 17-and-under segment will be a multicultural majority,
and by 2033, the majority of all people under 50 will fall under the multicultural category, signaling one of the many changes in the upcoming minority-majority population shift. With a larger youth population, it makes sense that Latino influencers are making a mark across their favorite digital platforms such as Instagram and YouTube.
While many traditional entertainment categories still struggle to break down years of leaving minority groups out of the process, social media in some ways operates on different terms. In other words, anyone can pick up their phone and create an account to reflect their lives and cultural values - unlike other industries where it would be much harder to get a foot in the door as a minority. For example, according to a 2018 Hollywood Diversity report conducted by UCLA, 93% of TV scripted show creators, 86% of film, and 81% of TV scripted leads are white. Compare these numbers to the 62% of the top 20 Instagram/YouTube vloggers (based on subscribers/followers) who are multicultural - and the difference between these industries varies significantly.
The majority of followers on social media are also multicultural, which contributes to the minority-majority follower market. While younger audiences are more likely to follow influencers outside of their respective group, a large portion of multicultural social media users tend to follow influencers who belong to their own racial or ethnic group. According to a study by the Culture Marketing Council,
only 18% of non-Hispanic African American and 23% of Hispanic favorites were non-Hispanic white influencers. However, non-Hispanic white consumers are also enjoying content created by multicultural influencers, with a sizable 53% of the 13–34 age segment’s social media favorites consisting of non-white influencers. Latino culture is more alive than ever, from the content on social media to songs by Latino artists climbing the music charts - and it’s not going away anytime soon. That being said, engaging these audiences with a targeted social media strategy through Hispanic digital marketing can be an effective way to get your business’ message across on relevant, high-performing platforms.
4. Is Hispanic Marketing going Mainstream?
With a multitude of cities across the country that are Hispanic-dense or Hispanic dominant, the importance of reaching Hispanics through your local marketing strategy is crucial. For instance, half of the population in larger cities like Los Angeles and Miami are composed of Hispanics - making them just as influential as the general market population in these areas. Elaborating upon this idea, close to 10%
of all national sales for several categories were made by the Hispanics living in Florida, Texas, and California alone. As states with large populations that are continuing to grow each year, they no longer regard Hispanics as a small niche category - they consider them to be a significant mainstream audience. To prove this point, Forbes multicultural marketing writer Isaac Mizrahi
pulled MRI-Simmons 2018 data across various verticals. As one example for the electronics category, the results showed a strong correlation between population size and consumption - with Florida, Texas, and California together representing 27% of all TV sets purchased in the past 12 months across the country. Within this 27%, Hispanics comprised 36% of sales.
By treating the U.S. Hispanic demographic as a category that was only relevant in niche markets, businesses and marketers have failed to successfully reach Hispanic audiences in the process. Multicultural segments can oftentimes represent up to 40% of the total target audience universe, yet research
shows that brands typically allocate only 5% of their total media budgets toward multicultural media. In order to close this gap, brands and businesses can do themselves a favor by instead viewing multicultural audiences as an integral component to their overall growth strategy - and embrace the opportunity to reach these consumers who have otherwise been overlooked.
The concept of including a nuanced approach to reaching multicultural consumers such as Hispanics is often met by fear of having to completely change direction and re-think a “total market approach.” Luckily, given the proper guidance of a Hispanic marketing agency, campaigns can see a huge impact while still maintaining consistency across their messaging by making strategic adjustments across components such as language and cultural creative messaging.
How to Get Started with Hispanic Marketing
Now that you’ve learned the facts, you may be wondering why you haven’t implemented a Hispanic marketing strategy yet, especially if you live in a market with a large or growing Hispanic population. Everyone starts somewhere - and luckily you don’t have to go through it alone. Finding a Hispanic digital marketing agency equipped with the knowledge and expertise to reach Hispanic audiences in your area is an important next step. Wondering how to pick the right one? Feel free to check out our article on how to choose a Hispanic marketing agency for your local business.
One noteworthy insight gleaned from recent data is the remarkable tendency of US Hispanics to kickstart product searches on TikTok, more than double compared to their non-Hispanic counterparts. This shows the growing influence of social media platforms, particularly TikTok, in shaping the preferences and purchasing decisions of the Hispanic community.
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