You’ve already read the stats about the explosive growth of the Hispanic population and the importance of reaching out to this market, so we won’t bore you with them again. But you may be wondering about the best way to get in touch with these buyers.
In the most recent issue of the e-newsletter “Hispanic Marketing 101,” Vincent Andaloro makes a case for direct mail as the medium. This isn’t all that surprising: Andaloro, after all, is CEO/founder of Latin-Pak, a Hispanic direct marketing firm. But he cites four compelling reasons:
1) Multiple lists and databases targeting Hispanics are on the market, making it relatively simple to single out prospects that meet your sundry criteria.
2) Direct mail is one of the more measurable media—important when branching out into a new market.
3) Similarly, direct mail is very easily tested—again, a key consideration when entering a new market.
4) Hispanics have far less mailbox clutter than Americans at large. According to Andalaro, they receive only 10%-15% as much mail as U.S. consumers on the whole. So any direct mail that they do receive is more likely to stand out.
If you do decide to go ahead, keep in mind that it is not enough to simply translate your English-language materials word for word into classroom Spanish. Just as British English differs from American English, Mexican Spanish differs from Cuban Spanish. And different areas of the U.S. have different predominant Hispanic populations. While Mexicans heavily populate Los Angeles, for example, Miami is primarily Cuban, and New York is dominantly Puerto Rican.
Another important aspect of determining how to translate — or whether to translate at all — is establishing at what level of acculturation your audience is, Gustavo Grüber, business development manager, emerging markets, at Oak Brook, IL-based Banta Direct Marketing Group told MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT, a sister publication of CHIEF MARKETER. Hispanics come to the U.S. at different times and for different reasons, both of which factor into the mix of how much English and Spanish they understand. For more on direct marketing to Hispanics, see "Speaking to the Hispanic Market" in the August issue of MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT.
