If there was any doubt in anyone’s mind about the power of Internet marketing to the Latin American Communities in Central and South America, these 2008 statistics should remove that doubt. In South America 33% of the population are Internet users. That’s almost 130 million users which is 31.1% of all users in the Americas. In Central America 19% of the population uses the Internet. That’s almost 29 million users. In the Caribbean 22% of the population uses the Internet or almost 9 million people. That combined total is 168 million people which is an incredible number that keeps growing! There are roughly 581 million people in the Latin American communities in Central and South America, so there is still tremendous growth potential, especially when you consider there are more people in South America than there are in North America.
The opportunity to reach these Hispanic web buyers involves a specific Spanish language marketing plan. An effective Hispanic web buyer marketing plan may include online media, online branding, online sponsorship and the use of mobile and broadband technology, specially when marketing to generation Y in Latin America. A very important point to remember is that 66% of the consumers in Latin America are mobile phone users, which includes text messages and camera use.
Regional versus Local Marketing Approach
In order to develop a cost-effective marketing approach, some marketers choose to treat Hispanic web buyers like they are in one unified region. Rather than developing a multi-country approach, these marketers use a total region approach which usually includes Hispanic web buyers from the top metropolitan areas of the Latin American communities of Central and South America. That means that the return on brand recognition and products can be cultivated collectively, rather than using an individual marketing approach which is not as effective in terms of cost and time, at least not to most small and medium businesses which normally lack the resources to localize their goods and services for every country market.
In short, the Latin American communities in Central and South America may produce higher margins, lower overhead and faster product recognition when they are treated as a unified market, with no borders. Nevertheless, cultural nuances and differences in Latin American countries need to be taken into account when following that regional approach.
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