What if you could more effectively reach 43 million US residents? Would that effort generate more revenue for your company?
In most cases, the answer is yes. All too often, marketers don’t seriously focus on this critical demographic.
The Spanish-speaking segment of the US economy represents 13.5% of the total population. More than 43 million people in the United States speak Spanish as their first language. One study suggests that by the year 2050, the United States could have more Spanish speakers than any other country!
The apparent reason for adding Spanish translation to your site is to generate more revenue. Introducing your product or service to a total of 450 million worldwide potential customers could have a profound effect on your bottom line. Spanish can indeed vary by country and region, but a well-translated site that avoids jargon and country-specific terminology will work well across most countries.
Many US-based retailers have embraced a dual language strategy to reach this growing segment of the population. This effort typically starts with translating your website for the most impact in the least amount of time. By closely monitoring the pages that generate the most traffic, you can determine the interests of your target market.
Before translating your entire site, you should complete a review of all the content to determine what makes sense for the Spanish-speaking audience. Depending on your product and geographic reach, you may decide to exclude specific sections of your site. Once you have your completed wish list, you can obtain a fairly accurate estimate for the translation cost. If that fits your budget, you are all set. Or you can pare down the pages for your first release if you’ve hit your budget cap.
If you still have some room in your budget, you should also consider the videos, e-books, and any call-to-action pieces you use on your site. Many marketers will use these devices to draw viewers deeper into their content and increase the likelihood of qualified conversions. A good language service provider can handle video narration, subtitling, and formatted pieces like e-books and brochures.
Creating some content specifically for the Spanish-speaking audience may also generate additional traffic. Make sure to have a discussion with your marketing team regarding SEO before making this decision, as there are a number of different factors related to multilingual SEO that can affect your site’s performance.
Client retention is another excellent reason to add Spanish to your site. Many companies use their website for client education and customer support. Providing these resources in Spanish is an essential aspect of client retention and earning positive feedback. To better serve your customers, you might consider hiring some bilingual support staff or hiring a language service provider to offer a telephonic interpretation.
You should expect bilingual traffic from your published site and plan for who will respond to chat requests, contact us submissions, new orders, and calls.
The bottom line is that the Spanish-speaking market continues to grow in importance. According to a recent article, Hispanics in the US are projected to spend 1.9 trillion dollars by 2024, while the Hispanic population in the US is expected to grow to just under 100 million people by 2050.
This is definitely not a market segment to ignore going forward, and those who take it seriously will be several steps ahead of the competition.