• by Tanya Gazdik , December 26, 2007

Hispanics welcome e-mail communication from companies they know up to 11 times a month, while non-Hispanic consumers tolerate such e-mails only up to 7.4 times a month, according to new research from Mintel Comperemedia.

"This population is certainly more receptive to marketing and offers," says Carmen Curran, senior e-mail analyst at Chicago-based Mintel Comperemedia. Hispanics tend to spend more time online while at home than the general population (9.2 hours per week versus 8.5 hours), so receiving information and offers through e-mail makes sense to them, she says.

The same holds true regarding receiving e-mails from companies they do not know, Curran tells Marketing Daily. The company has conducted the research regarding e-mail receptivity for two quarters. While the number of Hispanics who are receptive to e-mail marketing increased overall, the number of non-Hispanics who are receptive to e-mail marketing decreased from quarter to quarter, she says.

When a relationship with a company was established, 26% of non-Hispanics said they would never want to receive "new offer notifications" compared to only 17% of Hispanics, she says. The same holds true for "special rewards/incentive opportunities"--23% versus 13%; "newsletters"--25% versus 13%, and "coupons/discounts/special promotions"--21% versus 13%.

Marketers are beginning to pay heed, with more offering Spanish-language options on their Web sites and in other communications. But most of these are verbatim translations of the English versions. Forward-thinking marketers may want to consider new communications targeted specifically to Hispanics, she says.

In addition, the Hispanic population is young, with a median age of 27.2 years compared to the overall population at 36.2 years. Younger consumers gravitate toward Internet-based services and communications like e-mail.

Mintel Comperemedia's recent survey found that younger adults are more open to receiving e-mail communication from companies they know. Adults under 34 want everything from new offer notifications to account alerts to special promotions via e-mail. With the Hispanic population expected to grow 13.3% over the next five years (versus only 2.9% growth for non-Hispanics), the demographic group is ripe for targeting.