The newest
AOL Hispanic CyberStudy includes some great data that has inspired me to share a theory I have about online Hispanics: Most Hispanics
expect Hispanic websites to be poor quality and, as result, use the general market version of a site even if Spanish is their preferred language.
Do you agree?
Hispanics will
scour your website to find mistakes and experience gaps
It's a fact: most Hispanic websites are inferior to their general market counterparts. Hispanic budgets are smaller and
resources more scarce. Most online Hispanics are comfortable enough in both English and Spanish to compare sites, and they do. Online Hispanics will evaluate Hispanic sites to try to find the mistakes
that will invariably be there.
The most common mistakes found on Hispanic websites are language related. Spanish websites are riddled with translation errors, grammatical mistakes, missing
accents, tense inconsistencies and incorrect punctuation. Most disturbing to me is the emergence of machine translation on several high-profile websites such as Recovery.gov. (Perhaps the government
should have hired professional translators to localize Recovery.gov, which would have resulted in a better experience for non-English speakers and even created a few more jobs.)
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Machine
translation is simply not an option for converting websites or any other communication. Even though machine translation services such as Google Translate are free, the negative impact on user
perceptions is simply too high. What's more, if users want to translate a site with a machine, they can do it themselves.
Even high-quality, translated websites can fail to make an
emotional connection
Don't get me wrong, there are many Spanish websites that are impeccable translations of English versions. That said, they are just that -- translations. Online
Hispanics might not find any language mistakes on such a site, but the content may miss the mark because it was intended for the general market and doesn't make a connection with the Hispanic user.
After reading a few sentences, Hispanic users may sniff out the translation and lose interest. It is far better to develop original content for Hispanics or adapt English content so that it
resonates and connects with them.
Online Hispanics know they're missing out
In addition to language issues, Hispanic websites are often not as deep and don't have the
same features and functionality available on the corresponding general market site. This essentially tells Hispanic visitors, "You are not as important to me as the general market." Sadly, Hispanics
have come to expect poor online experiences in Spanish. According to the AOL Study, less than 3% of online Hispanics think that Spanish sites have more useful information than English sites, so they
may just bypass Spanish sites altogether and go straight to the English site.
Develop a great Hispanic website and you will be rewarded
Online marketers are faced
with an interesting challenge and opportunity due to the fact that Hispanics have low expectations when it comes to Hispanic sites. On the one hand, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get
Hispanics to even a visit a Hispanic site due to their prior negative experiences. On the other hand, there's an unmet demand for high-quality, culturally relevant Hispanic websites that provide
comparable value to the corresponding general market site.
Such sites will delight online Hispanics and have a high likelihood of driving marketing objectives. In addition, as I have
discussed previously, Hispanics are extremely engaged with social media and are likely to share a good site
with family and friends.
For the last 10 years, my goal has been to create compelling Hispanic online experiences that change the expectations of online Hispanics.
I invite you to
join me in this pursuit.