13 Million U.S. Hispanics Log On Each Month
By Ana Sanchez, Terra.com. ana.sanchez@chi.leoburnett.com

As the Hispanic market online usage mushrooms, marketing communications pros are recognizing the value of reaching this segment. In an era where return on investment is a must, it is essential that online audience measurement be as thorough as possible. Marketers need to take a step back to evaluate the whole picture before creating the communications plan.

The "at school/university" user represents seven percent or nearly one million Latino Internet users. When combined with the online "at work" Latino usage, the figure shoots up to 40 percent of the Internet audience, or five million Hispanic users. The bottom line -- nearly half of the market is overlooked when we ignore this "at work" and "at school" user, which tends to be younger and more affluent.

The Internet is making it easy for Hispanics to keep in touch with their homeland. The duality of the U.S. Hispanic user is such that they use U.S. sites as well as sites from their country of origin. This behavior represents an excellent opportunity to conduct a very specific segmentation approach in communications campaigns. Trends in online behavior indicate that more than half of U.S. Hispanics online regularly visit sites in their country of origin. Terra.com's network of 15 Latin American in-country portals, for example, offers an excellent opportunity for segmented campaigns.

There are 3.4 million Hispanics (28 percent of the Hispanic population) online who are bilingual and visit sites in Spanish. There is a larger segment of English-preferred Hispanics, 6.5 million or 52 percent, who visit Spanish language sites. Altogether, almost 10 million, or 80 percent of, U.S. Hispanic Internet users are either bilingual or English-preferred.

As this research shows, aside from being one of the fastest growing minority groups, Hispanics have quickly taken their place on the Information Super Highway, which is jam packed with marketing potential. Recognizing the tremendous impact of the differences in Internet usage is key for PR and marketing experts to reach their desired audiences. What is important is to realize how diverse this group is, culturally and linguistically; to understand that by not looking at the bigger picture, a growing segment of U.S. Hispanics goes untouched.