In our previous articles we have provided an overview of the Hispanic online market and illustrated the best practices of in-language and in-culture. Now let’s turn to a more tactical but often overlooked best practice in Hispanic online marketing: access. When we talk about access in the context of the Hispanic online market, we are referring to providing simple and clear access to your Hispanic Websites.
To drive traffic to a Hispanic site, you can of course leverage integrated Hispanic marketing, using both online and offline tactics, to create awareness of your Hispanic online program. In addition, the Hispanic URL strategy—the topic of our next article—is an important factor for branding, search engine optimization, and access. But though you should consider these options for marketing Hispanic sites, first look internally to a cost-effective yet powerful method for generating qualified Hispanic traffic: your general-market Websites.
Your general-market, English-language Website may be your best source of Hispanic traffic. Remember that Hispanics, regardless of language preferences, live in a bilingual world. They are exposed to English-language marketing and advertising and visit English-language sites in large numbers. To wit:
General-Market Website: Hispanic Unique Visitors April 2006
www.microsoft.com: 6.0 million
www.bankofamerica.com: 2.3 million
www.macromedia.com: 2.3 million
www.disney.com: 2.2 million
www.apple.com: 2.1 million
www.target.com: 2.0 million
www.walmart.com: 1.9 million
www.ticketmaster.com: 1.4 million
www.cingular.com: 1.2 million
www.dell.com: 1.2 million
Source: ComScore Media Metrix
To best leverage and capture Hispanic visitors to your general-market site, you must provide clear and intuitive access from the general-market site to a Hispanic site. Consider the following best practices for providing good access from your English-language to your Hispanic Website:
• Access should be prominent and on all pages. Global navigation, with a link on the top, is best.
• If your Hispanic Website is available in Spanish only, use Spanish words to provide access—for instance, labeling the link “En Español” or “Español.”
• If you have a bilingual Hispanic Website or a branded Hispanic online program, consider using the name of the Hispanic online initiative, such as “Comida Kraft.”
• Let Hispanics know that you have a Hispanic site by using promotional announcements and other callouts on your general-market home page.
Hispanic Website Access Examples
www.bankofamerica.com: bottom of home page, “En Español”
www.cingular.com: top global Navigation, “Español”
www.kraftfoods.com: bottom navigation, “Comida Kraft”
www.msn.com: top right of home page, “Español”
Although the argument for prominent access on a general-market sites makes a lot of sense in this context, many companies that have Hispanic Websites do not provide good access to them from their English-language sites. It is important to remember that home page real estate on any Website is very valuable and can be the source of a territorial debate within organizations. As such, we recommend developing a business case for using this valuable real estate to promote Hispanic sites. If you have invested the time and money to develop a Hispanic Website, it should be relatively easy to make the case for providing prominent access to it on your company’s general-market site. In addition, it is critical to track referrals from the general-market site to the Hispanic site in order to measure effectiveness and trends.
Lee Vann is the cofounder of Captura Group, a leading Hispanic interactive services firm. He was recently recognized by the Interactive Advertising Bureau as one of the top 10 Hispanic online pioneers.
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