August 2006

By Huiping ILER

Some of the most well-known search engine experts (such as Danny Sullivan and Nacho Hernandez) gathered at the Intercontinental Miami to talk about the opportunities in the Hispanic market and tactics to reach it through search engine marketing.

As one of four panelists, I spoke on the “To Translate or to Create” panel to address strategies to create Spanish and Portuguese language content.

A first time public speaker at a professional conference, I knew that I had to make up for lack of experience with an entertaining, informative presentation. So as soon as my speaking spot was confirmed, which was about a month before the conference, I dove into the preparation of my speech.

Finally on July 11th, after being introduced by moderator Danny Sullivan, I delivered my presentation. I got carried away with trying to remember my pre-scripted speech and did not truly "speak" to my audience. But, the content of the presentation was solid enough that afterward, people came over and gave me very positive feedback. I was very flattered when an attendee from Holland asked eagerly, "Do you have another presentation?"

Some of my take-home knowledge from the conference:

• In general, Hispanic people still prefer to search in English over Spanish, possibly due to the lack of content currently available in Spanish.
  
• Many Hispanics have unique search habits. For example, they may type in a Spanish search term but skip the accents because they don't know how to type them on the keyboard. This is important for a search engine marketer to understand.
  
• In Latin America, opportunities and challenges co-exist. The market is huge but the infrastructure for e-commerce is not quite there yet. There is a low penetration of credit cards and people still make most purchases in cash. Broadband is also not as common in comparison to its availability within North America.
  
• Using a phrase coined by iHispanic, "Don't market to Hispanics. Market as Hispanics."
  

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