Hispanic Mobile Marketing Trends: Reaching Smartphone "Super Consumers"

Hispanics are known as mobile “Super Consumers”: the most active smartphone users of any demographic in the U.S. In fact, according to Nielsen, Hispanics spend about 14 hours a week using smartphone apps and searching online on their phones.

As the fastest-growing demographic in the country, it’s so important to find ways to reach this smartphone-savvy audience with evidence-based mobile marketing strategies. If your marketing isn’t optimized to smartphone users, you’re ignoring the Hispanic demographic—period.

Related: Marketing to Hispanics: A Cross-Generational Approach

Hispanic Mobile Usage Trends Are Only Getting Higher

The increase in smartphone usage among the Hispanic demographic vs. non-Hispanics is dramatic, especially when it comes to video consumption.

According to a PwC report, 90% of Hispanic consumers regularly watch videos on their smartphones, while only 80% of non-Hispanics are active mobile streamers. They also stream about 26 hours’ worth of video on their smartphones per month—high compared to the overall average of 19 hours.

Hispanic mobile consumers are searching online, they’re streaming (a LOT of) videos, and—most often—they’re using apps. From Waze (a mobile navigation app) to Linkedin, Hispanics are increasingly in apps with a huge advertising potential.

What’s more, fewer Hispanics than non-Hispanics have a negative view of online advertising. In other words, Hispanics are more likely to trust, read, and click your advertisements.

Why the Trend Toward Mobile?

In today’s world, smartphones are nearly a necessity. Most people have access to a smartphone, but fewer people, Hispanics especially, use home computers as a primary source of internet access.

Most smartphone plans require that you pay for data. When 93% of Hispanic households have one or several smartphones, home Wi-Fi or broadband is just another expense that may seem excessive to a mobile “Super Consumer.”

In most cases, the trends toward mobile have little to do with the availability of Spanish-language programming. In fact, even amongst 1st-generation Hispanics, the demographic tends to enjoy and trust English-language content over Spanish-language content.

What This Means to Healthcare Organizations

When reaching out and marketing to Hispanic media consumers, keep in mind all of the following:

• Hispanics are the fastest growing consumers of content on mobile devices.
• While some Hispanics prefer consuming content on Spanish-language networks (mainly 1st-generation Hispanics), the majority consumes content on English-language networks.
• In fact, Hispanic consumers overall are more likely to purchase a product or book an appointment after seeing an advertisement on an English-language network.

How to Optimize Your Website for Mobile

To test your site for mobile optimization, simply visit your website on a mobile browser. (You can also reduce the browser size on your computer to a mobile-sized window).

Check that the content is the same as with a desktop browser. And that all links and buttons work and lead to the proper pages on your site. Otherwise...

• The site should load in under about 3-5 seconds.
• A collapsible “hamburger” menu in the top corner should make your site easy to navigate from a mobile device.
• It should be possible to translate your site. This means you should always use live text rather than embedding text into images.
• The call number should be easily accessible and clickable.
• It should be simple to fill out a form on your site.

In-App Advertising Opportunities

All in all, Hispanics (and other demographics) are spending most of their time in apps. And these apps are constantly expanding their reach and their advertising opportunities.

Because Hispanics trend toward video consumption, Youtube is an excellent place to start with mobile-forward advertising to Hispanic demographics. In addition, Hispanics spend about 17.2 minutes per visit to Facebook.

The AHAA Hispanic Market guide notes that Hispanic millennials use LinkedIn 49% more than other demographics, making it a great place to search for new employees.

Finally, don’t overlook the mobile community-based navigation app Waze, a great place to catch Hispanics and other demographics as they move from place to place or job to job. Waze advertisements work via branded pins or promoted search, offering a daily reminder to visit the dentist or schedule a checkup at the doctor’s office along their route.

Don’t Forget about Relatives

Finally, when reaching a mobile audience in the healthcare space, don’t forget that your target audience may be different from your target patient demographic. Often, women are the primary breadwinners and decision makers, scheduling appointments for mom, dad, kids, and grandparents.

That means Latina women are also the demographic giving recommendations to their friends, cousins, aunts, and extended family. According to the AHAA Hispanic Marketing guide, Latina women make recommendations on social media 11% more often than average. Consider marketing that doesn’t just reach a single target demographic, but also the women most likely to make decisions in their place.