Looking to Delve Into the Flourishing U.S. Hispanic Market?

We all know that the U.S. Hispanic market is experiencing substantial growth. In 2000, the U.S. Census confirmed that in the previous decade the Hispanic population grew more than four times that of the general population. This year’s census is expected to document even more growth, signaling to retailers nationwide that now is the time to break into this flourishing market.

But wait. Many marketers have undoubtedly already begun to expand their campaigns to this up-and-coming market, but our research has uncovered a unique variable in calculating the return on investment of a Hispanic media campaign.

After having successfully launched direct response campaigns in the U.S. Hispanic market for the past 10 years, Omni Direct wanted to determine the buying behavior of the Hispanic consumer. Specifically, does Spanish media drive purchasing across English language sales channels?

Through a recent matchback study, we discovered that although a product’s Hispanic target audience was most effectively reached via Spanish-language campaigns, the majority of internet sales for these products were being sold via the product’s English-language website.

The impact of this is greater than you might think. Many retailers create Hispanic campaigns only to judge the ROI based on sales on their Spanish-language site, not their English-language site. This means many retailers might be in the dark as to how successful their U.S. Hispanic campaigns really are — and many might have abandoned their U.S. Hispanic campaigns too soon.

Determined to confirm this notion and simultaneously find the most effective means of reaching Spanish-speaking audiences while maintaining maximum purchasing results, Omni Direct decided to use two of its branded products, Ellezza and Xtreme Bra, as test products. For a period of 18 months, it ran only Spanish-language television ads for Ellezza, a beauty cream product, and Xtreme Bra, but maintained both products’ English- and Spanish-language search marketing ads and websites.

The findings have altered how Omni Direct approaches this market.

During the 18 months of the study, the percentage of web orders relative to total orders (the rest coming from telemarketing) rose from approximately 10 percent to 25 percent. In looking at web data results over a period of two months, 80 percent of Xtreme Bra and 60 percent of Ellezza’s orders came through the companies’ English-language sites, despite the fact that no English-language television campaigns had been running.

To test the waters further, Omni Direct worked with one client to suspend its English-language campaigns to determine how many orders from its Spanish-language campaign were actually coming via the English website. Within that period of time, the client concluded that 95 percent of online orders generated by the Hispanic media campaign were placed through the English website.

The truth is, there are multiple factors driving Hispanics to non-Spanish-language sites. Much of it simply has to do with internet intricacies, like Google algorithms. Search engine analytics usually place those websites with the greatest volume of traffic first, meaning that if someone views an ad in Spanish and then types the product name into a search engine, the first result will more than likely be the product’s English-language site. Hispanic consumers are also beginning to shift from first-generation Hispanic-Americans, where Spanish is the dominant language, to second-generation, bilingual, bicultural consumers that are viewing and connecting with English-language media on a greater scale.

The fact is that many Spanish-language campaigns today are poorly written with grammatical errors and typos, and don't resonate with Hispanic consumers. Kick-starting a U.S. Hispanic campaign involves more than a quick translation of an English commercial, but many retailers fail to take this into consideration. For Hispanic viewers, oftentimes it's just as simple to visit the product’s English site, type in their name, credit card information and be done with the transaction.

As the Hispanic market continues to thrive, and its population becomes increasingly bilingual, marketers will want to dive in and get a piece of the action. But it's data-driven insights like these that they'll need to take into consideration before implementing, much less calculating the ROI of a Hispanic campaign of their own.

Denira Borrero is vice president of operations at Omni Direct, a direct response marketing services company that specializes in targeting the Hispanic market.