A comprehensive study recently published by the research behemoth, Nielsen, recently reported that Spanish-speakers in the United States are more likely than others to adopt cutting-edge digital media.
This is a surprising find, considering that the “digital gap” has long plagued the Spanish-speaking population. According to Pew Research, 82% of white U.S. adults report owning a desktop or laptop computer, compared to the only 57% of adult U.S. Hispanics who say the same thing. Similarly, 79% of white U.S. adults report that they have broadband internet at home, while only 61% of adult U.S. Hispanics report enjoying broadband. The gap begins to close when we consider smartphones. 82% of white U.S. adults own a smartphone, and adult U.S. Hispanics are right behind them at 79% (source).
This supports the Neilsen study, which reports that “Latinos [Spanish-speakers] adopt smartphones at a higher rate than any other demographic group and watch more hours of videos online and on their mobile phones than the average American.” (source).
This is excellent news for bilingual marketers. For the past few years, search engines have been prioritizing mobile content. If your website or application is not optimized for mobile, you will not show up on the first page of a Google search. As a result, there has been a wide-spread trend of marketers trying to ensure that their site looks good on mobile, even if their leads don’t traditionally come from mobile. This new insight into the Hispanic community tells us that these consumers are spending a lot of time-consuming mobile content, making it more critical than ever for bilingual companies to prioritize their mobile presence.
This can come in the form of a mobile website, social media posting, or investment in podcasts or Youtube ads. Wherever people are spending time on social, that is where your marketing needs to be.
Your consumers are out there waiting – all you have to do is design a message to reach them. Do not miss this opportunity to reach a new market and grow your business in a new and innovative way.
