Why The Online African-American Community Is A Marketer’s Dream!
We’ve all heard it before! "Blacks are the fastest growing minority demographic online!" or "The online African-American community can not be ignored". But, when push comes to shove, this fastest growing minority demographic is being ignored. Obviously, the fact that blacks are coming online in droves is not enough and to be perfectly honest, it shouldn’t be. There are several other compelling aspects regarding this group that makes them an ideal population to target. Namely, increased likeliness to register on websites, increased dependence on search engines and lack of brand loyalty.
Probably the most interesting characteristic of the online African-American community would be that there is an increased likeliness to register on websites. What this means to marketers is that blacks, when visiting websites are more willing to give up valuable contact and demographical data. Because one has the opportunity to gain insight into what their stereotypical visitor looks like, one can than use that information to tweak offerings to make them more attractive, remind potential customers of the current products, follow-up with new goods and/or services, etc. On the flip side, having such information regarding the visitors to your site allows you to sort it and present it to potential advertisers to promote the value of promoting their organization and inventory by advertising on your website.
By really looking at the fact that online African- American community is the fastest growing online demographic, it speaks volumes as to how this population is going act and interact online. Search engines have always been and still rank as the primary method for "surfing the Web". Newer Internet users have even more of a dependence on search engines because they typically and understandably do not know the better sites for performing various tasks. "Fastest growing" means that there are a bunch of newer users. It now becomes crystal clear that a big step towards reaching blacks online can be had by concentrating on placing highly in major search engines.
Additionally, considering the fact that we're dealing with a group that is bringing new people to Internet in large numbers, one can see that there is a large group being formed that doesn't have the same day-to-day web browsing rituals as some of us old-school, been-on-the- net-since-the-early-90's cats have. The brand loyalty to various websites is not going to be there simply because this contingent hasn't been exposed many websites. Decisions regarding where the majority of Internet exploring (no pun intended!) time will be spent hasn't been made yet. This presents an enviable opportunity for websites of all walks of life to make a name for themselves. Large websites can show all they have to offer and back it up with their sheer numbers of visitors/members. Up-and-coming sites can promote what makes them different and in some cases better. Niche websites can show how they've filled voids that were seemingly overlooked by other sites.
It's time some attention was really paid to the online African-American community. Enough with the headlines, let's walk the walk! There are numerous industries that are considered to be saturated yet, these same industries have never really targeted blacks online or blacks as a whole for that matter. Knowing that this populace is growing online by leaps and bounds is one thing but, after understanding how to reach them, it should make the answer to the question as to why marketers need to step up and pay attention fairly simple.
Probably the most interesting characteristic of the online African-American community would be that there is an increased likeliness to register on websites. What this means to marketers is that blacks, when visiting websites are more willing to give up valuable contact and demographical data. Because one has the opportunity to gain insight into what their stereotypical visitor looks like, one can than use that information to tweak offerings to make them more attractive, remind potential customers of the current products, follow-up with new goods and/or services, etc. On the flip side, having such information regarding the visitors to your site allows you to sort it and present it to potential advertisers to promote the value of promoting their organization and inventory by advertising on your website.
By really looking at the fact that online African- American community is the fastest growing online demographic, it speaks volumes as to how this population is going act and interact online. Search engines have always been and still rank as the primary method for "surfing the Web". Newer Internet users have even more of a dependence on search engines because they typically and understandably do not know the better sites for performing various tasks. "Fastest growing" means that there are a bunch of newer users. It now becomes crystal clear that a big step towards reaching blacks online can be had by concentrating on placing highly in major search engines.
Additionally, considering the fact that we're dealing with a group that is bringing new people to Internet in large numbers, one can see that there is a large group being formed that doesn't have the same day-to-day web browsing rituals as some of us old-school, been-on-the- net-since-the-early-90's cats have. The brand loyalty to various websites is not going to be there simply because this contingent hasn't been exposed many websites. Decisions regarding where the majority of Internet exploring (no pun intended!) time will be spent hasn't been made yet. This presents an enviable opportunity for websites of all walks of life to make a name for themselves. Large websites can show all they have to offer and back it up with their sheer numbers of visitors/members. Up-and-coming sites can promote what makes them different and in some cases better. Niche websites can show how they've filled voids that were seemingly overlooked by other sites.
It's time some attention was really paid to the online African-American community. Enough with the headlines, let's walk the walk! There are numerous industries that are considered to be saturated yet, these same industries have never really targeted blacks online or blacks as a whole for that matter. Knowing that this populace is growing online by leaps and bounds is one thing but, after understanding how to reach them, it should make the answer to the question as to why marketers need to step up and pay attention fairly simple.
posted by Daze at 10:41 AM
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