Recognize differences between the online versus overall Hispanic market
Maria Lopez-Knowles, SVP at MRM Worldwide (McCann Worldgroup) and author of the insightful white paper "The Online U.S. Hispanic: First and Second Generation Insights," says that "the online Hispanic is primarily English-language dominant and probably U.S. born. They are more often than not bilingual and bicultural and will remain so for their entire life (migrating through hyper-acculturation and retro-acculturation along the way). Taking a bilingual/bicultural approach to marketing that is culturally, linguistically and intellectually relevant is critical to connection and, quite frankly, to success.
 
"Offline Hispanics tend to be Spanish-language dominant and they are effectively targeted through Spanish language media (e.g. radio, television)," according to Lopez-Knowles. "This group is reached and touched by Spanish language marketing efforts. They are acculturating and/or acculturated, but don't necessarily require bilingual/bicultural efforts. So while cultural, linguistic and intellectual relevance is key, a bilingual/bicultural approach isn't as significant. A monolingual, Spanish-language, in-culture approach makes sense in most cases."

Don't use a "one size fits all" proposition
Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst and author of eMarketer's comprehensive "Hispanic Americans Online: A Fragmented Population" report, says, "Language is only the first of many decisions marketers must make when they create an ad campaign aimed at this rapidly growing population. Because Hispanic people come from many countries and have varying income, age and acculturation levels, marketers must segment their communications to effectively reach the fragmented population.

"This advice is true in the online and offline environments but becomes especially critical when marketing to Hispanic people online," Williamson says. "The online Hispanic population has a patchwork of usage patterns and is not a homogenous population. For example, just 46 percent of the total U.S. Hispanic population will use the internet on a regular basis this year, according to eMarketer's latest estimate. However, English-dominant Hispanics are far more likely to use the internet than those for whom Spanish is the predominant language -- 78 percent of English-dominant Hispanic adults do, versus 42 percent of Spanish-dominant Hispanic adults, according to Pew Hispanic Center."