Saturday, August 29, 2009

Spanish Website Translation: A Simple Investment with Limitless Rewards

In the increasingly competitive e-Commerce industry, everyone is trying to find a way to stand out. e-Commerce sites enjoy brisk business thanks to the convenience of shopping online from home and the better prices that these companies can offer. However, many e-Commerce sites are missing out on a huge portion of potential customers that they could easily accommodate with one simple and quick solution.

US Hispanics have similar online shopping habits to their non-Hispanic American counterparts. Yet many online retail sites seem to ignore this segment of the population. More than 40 million Americans count Spanish as their native language, and many of them prefer to do their online shopping in Spanish. Making an online purchase from unknown e-Commerce sites can be a little nerve-wracking so it's understandable that most people feel more comfortable conducting business transactions in their native language. Online retail customers tend to pore over every word on the page before clicking "send order" and doing so in a language you don't fully understand can be enough to deter certain customers. This makes website translation into Spanish paramount to serious companies who wish to rise to the top of the market.

Nearly one third of the 40 million US Hispanics conduct searches in Spanish, so a company who fails to utilize website translation is missing quite a significant number of potential clients. That means millions of customers will never see these e-Commerce sites when they are searching for a place to spend their money. This amounts to a huge missed opportunity that may even make or break a company. As the population of US Hispanics continues to grow and many companies are shifting strategies to tap into this lucrative market, those companies who fail to get on board may find themselves going out of business.

Spanish website translation is not very expensive and will ultimately pay for itself over and over with increased revenues. In addition to reaching US Hispanics, it also opens the door to future expansion into Central and South America as well as Spain. Spanish speakers comprise 81.7 million internet users and this valuable market cannot be ignored. Even if entire website translation is not feasible, creating an entry page in Spanish that will show up in search engines can offer a significant advantage over online retail companies that make no effort to accommodate Spanish speakers. As many US Hispanics do speak English, they may stumble upon a site while searching in their preferred Spanish, but if they like what they see they will place an order in English anyway. This means that a Spanish entry page is a fast and inexpensive way to get your foot in the door with the Spanish speaking market while working out a long-term strategy.

These are three of the strategies you can employ when partnering with Hispanic Market Advisors:

Website Translation and Spanish SEO


The Spanish speaking population is simply too significant for serious e-Commerce sites to ignore. Online retail websites that are translated into Spanish are quickly becoming the norm. Even offering a Spanish entry page that shows up in search engines can give your company a big boost. This simple investment will reap great rewards in making your company known to the 81.7 million internet users worldwide who speak Spanish.

Hispanic Market Advisors Contact Form

Bookmark and Share

Add to Technorati Favorites

Saturday, July 25, 2009

US Hispanics, History and Growth of the Internet

There has been an incredibly fast evolution of the Internet from 1995 until the present time. As you can see in the graph below, Internet Users in the World has grown from 16 millions in Dec 2005 to 1,596 millions in Mar, 2009.

However, there’s an important distinction which is the language fabric composition of the Web content. What do we mean by this? Well, in the early ages of the Internet, almost everything was in English because most internet applications started in the United States. Therefore, in the early to mid 90s the search engines were in English as well. Anyone within the US or overseas conducting a Web search had to do it in English, there was no other option. As technology caught up around the world, the Web has become a multilingual platform and foreign Web growth has been astonishing. While in 1996, 75% of all Web searches were conducted in English, today English searches accounts for only 25%. Search engines and directories understood the importance of this non-English segment and today it is becoming easier and easier to find content in your mother tongue.

Reaching the entire spectrum of the US Hispanic community

As one article explains, U.S. Hispanic advertisers have historically lagged behind in moving their budgets online and therefore have provided less of an incentive for U.S. Hispanic publishers to post a wide variety of content online. However, this trend has shifted. Last year alone, the biggest Hispanic surge has been in internet media, up 36.3% in 2007 (according to the Hispanic Fact Pack 08). As a result, more Spanish-language sites/pages based in the U.S. are being optimized for search engines. US Hispanics will increasingly have more search options as Spanish Web content is being propagated over the Web. And since we know that people speaking the same language show an inclination to form their own online community no matter what country they happen to live in, it’s becoming almost imperative for many US businesses to make all or some of their Web content available in Spanish if they want to maximize their reach to the entire spectrum of the US Hispanic community.

For more information, please complete this Hispanic Market Advisors contact form


Bookmark and Share

 

Add to Technorati Favorites

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Marketing to Generation Y In Latin America

We are living in an increasingly global economy. Small business owners can no longer look at marketing their products exclusively to a local community. Immediate profits can be reaped by taking advantage of mobile marketing and online promotion to the Hispanic online market. As emerging markets gain greater access to online communication technology, marketing professionals are investing more effort into reaching generation Y (20 to 28s) in Latin America.

Online marketing to generation Y in Latin America represents a huge untapped opportunity. With low-cost options at just a click of a button, consumers can be empowered to learn about your product, and, with the use of social networking technology, they can even assist you with grassroots promotion of their own. Consumers love to use their social networking accounts to endorse products and deals that they have found online. Often the mobile marketing strategy you employ can even include tools that make the free, grassroots spread of information easier. Marketing professionals are creating more and better ideas for empowering small business owners with fast, attractive ways to spread their product information online each day.

Consumers in generation Y in Latin America are interested in a wide array of products. Whether its buying the best new technology, finding great deals on bulk food items, or purchasing an insurance plan, tech savvy young people are purchasing all kinds of products online from small business owners. The price competition benefits them, while the increase in volume benefits you.

Mobile marketing is one of the most viable channels for quick and powerful spread of consumer choice information. Marketing professionals love how easy and instant the transactions are. It is very easy for a consumer to quickly make a purchase based on information they received through trusted social networking channels on their cell phones. They are also empowered to instantly tell their friends about this great bargain, who can also purchase it quickly in the same way. This is vastly different than the old system of using only complex media that requires traveling across town, or, in some cases, the world, to complete the point of sale.

Generation Y in Latin America has growing purchasing power. Emerging markets have greater access to technology as time passes. As these consumers age, they also gain access to more and more wealth. In this way, an early and active promotion to these consumers is a great long term plan. The earlier you gain access to a critical market, the more consumers will trust you as a quality name. As time passes, these particular markets and consumers will yield more and more business.

Marketing professionals are taking the Hispanic online market very seriously. Small business owners will benefit greatly from targeting generation Y in Latin America. Be sure to stay on the cutting edge of mobile marketing.

For more information, please complete this Hispanic Market Advisors contact form

Related articles you might like:
*The Importance of Hispanics in the Social Media Age
*The Untapped Side Of Hispanic Mobile Marketing
*Capitalizing on the Latin America's Internet Boom


Bookmark and Share


Add to Technorati Favorites