Monday, December 23, 2013

3 Steps to a Successful Online Hispanic Market Strategy

In the Western economies, the Hispanic community is the fastest growing demographic both in population numbers as well as disposable income. Any business that is looking to build and expand a sustainable customer base in the current business landscape must take the Hispanic community into account.

Below are three steps that every business can take to engage the Hispanic community.

One - Content is king.

Make sure that your website is full of content that is relevant to the local Hispanic population. New consumers must see your brand as an expert within your industry before they will trust you enough to purchase your product.

Even if you do not have the time to create original content, there are many different ways of aggregating data from other websites via RSS. This will also allow your content to come pre-vetted from sites that have already proven their relevance within the Hispanic community.

Not only will keeping up with news help your brand be seen as an expert, but it will also make your site dynamic in nature. Dynamic sites are much more likely to be picked up by the major search engines and maintain their positions within the top search listings.

Two - Keep your websites up to date and dynamic.

Make sure that you publish all relevant material in a timely fashion. In order to be viewed as an expert, you must stay out ahead of the information curve. Ideally, your company will be adding new information to the timeline of your industry. However, if you must aggregate data from other sites, make sure that you are one of the first websites to post the news and information. If you have content in Spanish, you may want to consult with a Spanish SEO agency.

You can ensure exclusivity by cutting deals with news aggregators to distribute news first if your website is popular enough to give them an audience. However, even if your website is just starting out, if you have access to a good copywriter, you can create original content by repurposing articles in a specific voice.

Three - Promote your website through proper distribution.

Once you have solidified your website as a center for information, you can begin to distribute your information outward via social media and tastemakers within your industry. This is where personal relationships come in quite handy.

The more exclusive your information when it is distributed, the more attention it will receive when it is placed on a major social media site such as Facebook or LinkedIn. However, do not gloss over the smaller, more precise social networking sites that are focused directly on your industry. Often, these are the websites that allow you to most directly access the tastemakers of your industry and solidify yourself as an expert in the field. These are also the websites where simply conversing with the clientele will work best rather than a hard sell.

Many companies are investing in a specialized social media employee that does nothing but create a conversation with potential clients and tastemakers online. This is a great way to build positive PR that can eventually send the reputation of your company viral in the Hispanic community.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

LatinVision interview with Sebastian Aroca

This is a LatinVision interview with Sebastian Aroca, Spanish SEO specialist and founder of Hispanic Market Advisors. [published on April 9, 2013]

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Sebastian Aroca, Owner & Founder, Hispanic Market Advisors®

What do you need to be an entrepreneur?
To be an entrepreneur, one needs many virtues and qualities. Among some of the most important for me are (listing four pairs): initiative & commitment, creativity & integrity, determination & focus, and perseverance & assertiveness.

What did inspire you to start your business?
United States is the country of innovation and opportunities, if not here where else to put an idea into motion and start a business? Three things inspired me to start my own business: 1/ the ability to create what I want as a way of self-expression, 2/ the ability to grow at my own pace, 3/ the access to valuable resources for start-ups and small business owners (SBA, Score, Chambers of Commerce, organizations supporting Minority-Owned Businesses, etc)

How did you finance it?
I founded Hispanic Market Advisors ® in 2007. I started translating websites from English to Spanish in the computer labs of Florida International University, in Miami. With a simple desire to grow a niche market by helping brands and small- and medium-sized companies connect with the online Hispanic market.  Six years later, Hispanic Market Advisors ® provides translation and search engine marketing services (Hispanic search engine optimization + paid search engine advertising), to both the private and public sectors, and we remain committed to expanding the company gradually and organically, never sacrificing quality for the sake of profits....
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Read entire interview