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An insider’s guide to small-business marketing.

In my last post, I wrote about the increasing buying power of Hispanics in the United States and explored with Juan Tornoe of Cultural Strategies, how some marketers are reaching this audience.

Below are some dos and don’ts for small businesses. Some of the suggestions are subtle and don’t shift far from mainstream marketing efforts; others require a little more stepping out of the box. And some are simply Marketing 101 refreshers that are especially effective with Hispanic outreach.

• Take time to build relationships before asking for the business. “Latinos interact in a more personal manner,” Mr. Tornoe said. “We want to be recognized as a person. Connect with me on a personal level before you start selling me. When a Latino walks into your business, sends you an e-mail, visits your Web site, is on the phone, be ready not to go into full sales mode.”

According to Kelly McDonald, president of McDonald Marketing and a speaker and author on diversity and multicultural marketing, call centers report that the average handling time for Hispanic callers is significantly longer than for non-Hispanics. She says it’s culturally driven, not language driven. “Hispanics are more relationship-oriented and less transactional. They want to feel comfortable with the sales or customer-service person and feel like they got the time they needed to gather information and get all their questions answered. Their customs and norm is you should be polite and that means spending more time with a customer.”

Many non-Hispanic executives, Ms. McDonald added, are startled by this. She recalled talking to an insurance agent in Florida who relayed the story of a Hispanic colleague who would make just one or two sales calls per hour to prospective Hispanic customers while the other agents were smiling and dialing constantly. This agent initially had an issue with the Hispanic woman’s productivity — until she recognized that the agent had a 100 percent close rate. “It’s not about quantity,” Ms. McDonald said. “It’s about quality. By spending more time on the phone with Hispanics and Spanish-speaking callers, she became one of their most highly producing agents.”

Ruben Navarrette Jr., a syndicated columnist, has written that respect is the single most important aspect to reaching Hispanic hearts and minds. I know this from my own experience growing up in South Texas in a part Hispanic family (Puig, Ortiz and Ochoa are surnames on my branch of the family tree). Respect means listening well, recognizing individuals, learning from them and engaging them in ways that make them comfortable.

• Build your company’s Web site in such a way that it appeals to both the logical and emotional minds. For example, a restaurant or food products site might include a button that says, “Food like your abuela used to fix.” This is an emotional appeal with a Spanish word sprinkled in that conjures warm, home-cooked meals. Is this rocket science? No. But it’s something more of us should incorporate into our marketing, regardless of the market.

• QR codes can be useful tools. About 40 percent of American Latinos own smartphones, but they overindex for talk, text, e-mail and social media. Many Hispanics leapfrogged the land line, the desktop and the laptop, going straight to the smartphone, which is less expensive than those other devices. At my agency, we are not big fans of QR codes, mostly because they take up a lot of marketing real estate. And yet most advertisers use them simply to link to their Web sites instead of delivering a richer, more contextual experience.  But QR codes are being used by Latinos. If you use them in your marketing, be creative. Give the user something of value, something to download — recipes, coupons, a custom ring tone — that rewards the effort of scanning the code.

• Event marketing, on a small or large scale, can be a good strategy for reaching a segment of the Hispanic audience, but you have to be careful. “Not all Latinos are free hot dog eaters, and it’s a mistake to assume they are,” Mr. Tornoe said. “It is perceived nationally that events are one of the best ways to reach the Latino market, but it’s not necessarily true. Not all white folks like basil, right? It’s like soccer. Many people assume, ‘Oh, Latinos like soccer!’ Ask a Puerto Rican if they like soccer? They prefer baseball and basketball.”

• Figure out the composition of the Latino market in your area and learn the holidays and language idioms. While Mexican Americans represent the highest number of Latinos in the United States (65 percent), don’t assume that is the market you are serving. In Austin, Tex., for example, there is a big Honduran population. They celebrate their country’s independence on Sept. 15. If you do business in a Honduran neighborhood, recognize that day with a Honduran flag and a special discount or menu feature.

• Learn some Spanish (hello, Rosetta Stone!) but don’t assume that all Latinos want to be spoken to in Spanish — a mistake I’ve made. This goes for both advertising and personal interactions. Just because people appear to be Latino doesn’t mean they want to be spoken to in Spanish. In fact, making that assumption can offend. If someone is having trouble understanding your English, ask, “Would you be more comfortable speaking in Spanish?” Even though your Spanish may be broken, the customer will feel good because you are making the effort. Come on, es facil, it broadens you as a person and it will broaden your market, too.

• Do some research if you use Hispanic terms in your advertising. In Mexico, a car is a “coche.” In Guatemala, a coche is a pig. So use the term “auto.” Look for terms that are familiar to the largest group of Latinos you can reach and use those.

• In your advertising, use Spanish terms the way McDonald’s does in this general market ad with “me encanta” swapped in for the “I’m lovin’ it” tagline. Or go for it grande the way Pizza Patrón (Pizza Boss) did. A Dallas-based chain of pizza stores started by a Lebanese Italian entrepreneur, Antonio Swad, Pizza Patrón generated international publicity with its Pesos for Pizza campaign in 2007. Return from a trip to Mexico with extra dollars? The chain honored them for pizza purchases. Last year, the chain offered free pies to customers who came in and asked for pizza in Spanish. This promotion also generated a lot of media attention while sparking a lively debate.

Pizza Patrón also noticed that its pizza sales dipped 4 percent during the season of Lent. A large percentage of the chain’s Hispanic customers are Catholics who abstain from meat during Lent. So the chain introduced a Pizza de Cuaresma (Lent) promotion, featuring specials on vegetarian pizzas. Andrew Gamm, brand director for Pizza Patrón, said in a news  release, “Cuaresma is an important time of year for our brand because it gives us the opportunity to demonstrate what makes Pizza Patrón different from other pizza chains, and it allows us to stay close to the heart of our heavily Catholic customer base.”

In my opinion, these guys know what they are doing.

MP Mueller is the founder of Door Number 3, a boutique advertising agency in Austin, Tex. Follow Door Number 3 on Facebook.

Article source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/marketing-tips-for-reaching-hispanic-americans/?partner=rss&emc=rss