Regardless of the diversity within the Hispanic and Latino populations, the culture as a whole does share a few common traits that lawyers should consider when trying to effectively communicate with this particular consumer segment.

Language and cultural barriers often prevent many law firms from targeting the Hispanic consumer. If your law firm hopes to compete in this market, you must be willing to "habla español" – at least in your print and online marketing initiatives. In fact, communicating in Spanish is extremely important because even bilingual Hispanics express a preference for making purchasing decisions in their native tongue.

However, try to avoid using automated translation services to convert your marketing messages from English to Spanish. Translation mistakes can embarrass lawyers and result in lost business, not only from the client who initially read the translated information, but also from all the family and friends that person tells. An example of a failed translation is as follows: the translation of "we specialize in white-collar crime" resulted in "we specialize in the white crime of the necklace." Invest in a good translator who specializes in the legal industry--it will be marketing dollars well spent.

As lawyers, it is your job to carefully guard the privacy of your clients. But, when dealing with Hispanic clients, remember that they are extremely family-oriented and do not always value privacy and/or confidentiality in the same manner as you. In addition, these strong bonds often extend beyond the nuclear family to include grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and other family friends. Therefore, it should not be surprising to have a client attend a meeting with several family members in tow and it’s critical to not ignore any of them, as many or all may be involved in the decision making surrounding a legal issue.

Once you understand the unique characteristics of the group you are targeting, the next step is learning how to effectively communicate your legal services to them. As the Hispanic population continues to explode, your potential opportunities will only increase. Those who succeed in tapping into this market will do so because they have developed a marketing strategy that clearly speaks to the Hispanic audience.

Effectively reaching Hispanic consumers does not have to be complicated. In fact, there are a few basic strategies you can implement to help ensure that your marketing messages are heard:

In addition to using print, radio and television to communicate with Hispanic consumers, the Internet also presents another effective means to reach your intended audience.

It is estimated that there are more than 50 million Spanish-speaking people online worldwide. Of the 50 million online, 28 percent live in the U.S. That means that if you are not making Spanish content available on your website, you are missing a tremendous opportunity to connect with your target audience.

The average Spanish-speaking Internet user spends an average of 9.5 hour per week online, which is one hour more than U.S. residents in general. They typically use the same search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, and also tend to use the same queries as their English-speaking counterparts. However, when Hispanics are given a choice between an English or Spanish website, more than 80 percent said they would prefer to visit the Spanish language site. Given this statistic, can you really afford not to update your website with Spanish content?

Once you’re ready to add Spanish content to your site, there’s two methods to consider. One option is to find a translator and translate English content from your site into Spanish. The second option is to write new copy in Spanish. Either option is a fine choice, but the most important thing to understand is that unless the new copy is optimized for search engines in the Spanish language, it may not be found or ranked within search engine results. It’s also important to choose someone who has Spanish legal expertise, search engine marketing experience and someone who understands the online searching habits of the Hispanic population.

With such an impressive number of the Hispanic population online and engaging in e-commerce activities, the next step is determining how to drive them to your law firm’s Web site. To achieve this, you must learn the demographics of the Hispanic community in your area; make sure you understand the issues they are facing; create a culturally relevant marketing strategy; and then position your law firm as an expert in these areas through compelling Spanish language content.

As the Hispanic population continues to grow, law firm marketers will be challenged with finding new ways to effectively communicate with consumers. However, the firms who are willing to devote the time and effort it takes to capture the attention of the Hispanic market will have a significant advantage over the competition.