Marketers often turn to social media to connect with their target audiences, and those looking to market to the Hispanic consumer audience are no different. Social media plays an integral role in most consumers’ lives, as they scroll through apps to be inspired, entertained, and stay up-to-date. And the same is true for Hispanic consumers. In fact, our research shows that Hispanic consumers are 30% more likely to use social media than the general population and that 60% of the Hispanic market gets their news from social media.
The U.S. Hispanic consumer audience is a thriving pulse of American Here is our guide to Hispanic social media marketing—and more importantly, how to include social media in your strategic omnichannel Hispanic advertising campaign. Let’s get started.
Who is the Hispanic consumer audience?
The U.S. Hispanic consumer audience is a thriving pulse of American culture, projected by 74 million people strong with $2.3 trillion in spending power. So if you’re looking to launch your Hispanic social media marketing strategy, where should you begin?
At Refuel Agency, we’ve been executing strategic and targeted campaigns that drive results for brands and agencies looking to influence their Hispanic target audience. In our experience with hundreds of successful campaigns, we’ve found that social media is a crucial piece of a much bigger puzzle: your omnichannel marketing campaign. Here are our top tips for how to both reach the Hispanic market on social media and through print, out-of-home, and radio.
1. Understand language preferences
As we’ve mentioned before, the Hispanic consumer market is diverse and that includes language preferences. According to Refuel Agency Hispanic Explorer Series™, 55% of Hispanic consumers are bilingual, 28% speak only Spanish, and 16% speak only English. Given these percentages, incorporating Spanish into your campaigns or running separate campaigns in Spanish will help you reach your audience.
However, if you choose to advertise in Spanish, it’s only going to be effective if your landing pages are in Spanish, too. Make sure that you align the languages in your campaigns so Hispanic consumers have a consistent experience across channels. Ideally, the Spanish language should carry from you ads all the way to an internal Spanish-speaking team member to answer any customer questions.
Marketing manager Brack Nelson adds that, “The same is true for mobile phone orders and support. For example, pressing ‘Numero Dos’ for Spanish on your phone keypad is helpful only if there is a Spanish-speaking representative on the other end.”
Choosing to incorporate Spanish into your campaigns can help you better reach your target audience—but make sure that the language is consistent across channels to avoid losing them along the way.
Read next: 6 Examples of Brands Who Got Multicultural Marketing Right
2. Incorporate aspects of Hispanic culture—authentically
Research shows that Hispanic consumers respond well to advertisements that feature aspects of their culture—accurately. According to Refuel’s Hispanic Explorer Series, 61% of Hispanic consumers indicated that they pay attention to ads that are relevant to them. Of course, when creating your ads, avoid stereotypes and cliches. Instead, involve the Hispanic community in the creative process to ensure your message will come across as authentic.
Example: AT&T’s “Mobile Movement” campaign. For this campaign, AT&T partnered with Virtue to create a campaign targeting Hispanic millennials. The campaign used a playful tone, Spanglish, and real Hispanic millennials instead of actors. As Spencer Baim of Vice told AdAge, “Rather than have AT&T talk, we have the generation talk to themselves.”
Read next: 6 Ways to Create Authentic and Engaging Hispanic Advertising Campaigns
3. Use the right social media platforms—in the right way
In order to reach Hispanic consumers on social media, you need to know which social media platforms Hispanic consumers are using most often. Our data shows that Facebook still reigns as the most-used social media platform, with 70% of Hispanic consumers using Facebook once a week or more. Instagram comes in as the second most-used social media platform, with 35% of Hispanic consumers using Instagram once a week or more.
Once you determine which social media platforms you will use to connect with your consumers, the next step is to create engaging content that fits the format of your chosen platform. For example, on Facebook, videos are dominating—the average engagement rate for videos is twice Facebook’s overall average, and 100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook every day. But a key thing to note? 85% of Facebook users watch videos with the sound off. That means subtitles are crucial to video performing well on Facebook.
Read next: The Power of Print in Political Advertising
4. Incorporate social media marketing in your omnichannel campaigns
Social media is a powerful way to reach your Hispanic target audience—but it’s even more powerful when strategically integrated into your omnichannel campaigns. Influence Hispanic consumers and drive repeat impressions by implementing a marketing strategy across channels. In particular, print media and multicultural out-of-home marketing campaigns drive strong results in the Hispanic consumer audience—for reasons that our decades of research has uncovered.
Print and local media are highly trusted by members of the Hispanic consumer audience. Our data from Refuel’s Hispanic Explorer Series™ found that 55% of Hispanic consumers are paying attention to print advertisements, and that Hispanic consumers are 18% more likely to be interested in newspapers than the general population.
Additionally, brand-new research from our team uncovered that the percentage of Hispanic consumers that read newspapers every day has increased by 31% since 2019, magazines by 21%, and Hispanic print by 6%. Print media continues to drive strong engagement and results for brands that act strategically.
And finally, we found that the percentage of Hispanic consumers that listen to Hispanic radio has increased by 19% (whereas general market radio consumption has remained consistent on a yearly basis).
A well-rounded, omnichannel Hispanic advertising strategy is your brand’s best bet for successfully influencing the Hispanic consumer audience—and winning loyal customers for years to come.
Read next: 3 Reasons to Include Local Media in Your Multicultural Marketing Strategy
Are you ready to get your Hispanic social media advertising campaigns off the ground? At Refuel Agency, we’ve been crafting strategic Hispanic advertising campaigns for over 30 years, and we’re invested in ensuring your campaigns make an impact. Contact us today to get started.
