A new report from eMarketer gives more evidence of what we’ve been telling you for a while: Marketers are missing a HUGE opportunity to tap into the Latino market.

They reported that 78%–more than 3 in 4–of US companies said they had not used any social media to attract Hispanics. Here’s the REALLY good news, for those of us who are paying attention: Only 18% said they planned to increase their spending on Hispanic marketing in the next year.

Why is that good news? Because we’re going to show you why you should get into this market, while the competition is low.

Here are some facts you might not realize about the Latino market:

• Hispanic men are about 20% more likely than white men to start businesses.
• Hispanics have the highest labor force participation rates of any racial or ethnic group in the US.
• By 2016, 16% of the labor force is expected to be Hispanic; we’ll have nearly 27 million Hispanics in the US labor force.

So you’re probably thinking,”OK, but can we reach them through social media?  Will blasting out a video or Tweeting to them work?”

The answer is “yes.”

We just put a new report in the MySurveyExpert membership site on the Internet connectivity of Latinos.  That shows that their Internet use is rising faster than that of any other race or ethnic group, reaching 64% by 2008.  Their broadband use has also risen sharply.

Hector Orci, chair of the agency that ran the survey showing the lack of attention to Latinos among US companies, summed it up pretty well:  ”Hispanics are tech-savvy, young trendsetters with incredible spending power.”

Bottom line, we should all be tapping into this market, before the competition really becomes fierce.

Here’s a sneak peek at our new product.

This is the “Quick Start Guide” that everyone will be given, to introduce them to “Turn Surveys Into Cash:” To get this survey creator, go here.

Suppose you could show your customers data that showed that more than 90% of your customers were satisfied, on 7 different measures–real, scientific measures of satisfaction–something like this.

Pretty cool, huh?  Well, you can get those data on an ongoing basis, easily and inexpensively.

And I can pretty much guarantee they’ll have a HUGE impact on your customers and prospects.  In fact, I’d be willing to bet it could double, triple, or even quadruple your profits.

I saw this in action this week, at my daughter’s school.  At their annual Open House, where prospective parents come to tour the school to deside whether they want their children to attend the school.

And featured at the event were survey results that showed that more than 90% of current parents are satisfied, on 7 different measures.

As you can imagine, that was VERY persuasive evidence for these parents.  These data spoke volumes, far more effectively than anything we could say.  One parent was so impressed he wanted to try to move his child into the school right away.

Well, guess what–if you’re running a business, you’re having “Open House” every day, as you compete for customers.

Don’t you want to have evidence like this to CONVERT those prospects–evidence many of your competeitors lack?

Imagine if you could have  a chart like this sitting on your home page or sales page.

Imagine if beside that, you could list literally hundreds of testimonials from satisfied customers, telling these prospects how your products and services transformed their businesses or changed their lives.

Imagine if you could also put case studies on that page, “stories that stick” because they show exactly how your products or services worked.

You can have all that on your home page and sales page, if you put a a satisfaction survey in place for your products and services.

Let us show you how you could have a survey like this in place, in just a few hours.

Wondering whether those Facebook ads have any effect?  Facebook and Nielsen have teamed to give SOME users a way to measure the ROI.

With more than 300 million users, Facebook has provided an attractive advertising venue for quite a while.  The ability to “slice and the dice” the demographics to secure targeted, affordable ads has proved particularly attractive for many users.

As with many other aspects of social media, the tantalizing question remined: “Is it paying off?”

Now Facebook and Nielsen (yes, that’s the polling organization that tracks TV viewing habits) have collaborated to answer that question.

Their new project, dubbed “Brand Lift,” will poll Facebook users to measure recall of the ads, brand awareness, and considerations regarding purchase.

Sounds great?  Here’s the catch:  The new product will reportedly be offered only to Nielsen customers.

Here’s a news flash: Men and women are different.

And although that seems incredibly obvious, many online marketers ignore that fact, missing a HUGE opportunity to ramp up their marketing results.

If you don’t think it’s important to target your messages differently to men and women, then think about some of the differences between men’s and women’s Internet use that have cropped up in recent surveys.

Men represent about 48% of Internet users, according to marketing estimates. And according to eMarketer, there is a “gender gap” not only in use but also in patterns of behavior.

Lisa E. Phillips, a senior analyst at eMarketer, says that “Men spend more time online, conduct more searches on a daily basis and do not mind seeing ads . . . They are as engaged in social media as women are, and are not put off by the companies and brands they find there.”

Gallup data support her claim that men use the Internet more frequently: They estimate that a majority (53%) of men spend more than an hour on the Internet each day, whereas only 42% of women do so.

But data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project suggest that the gender differences in search behavior may be bigger and more complex than Phillips recognizes: Men search more than women for SOME kinds of things, but not others.

The Pew data show that men who use the Internet are more likely than women to get many forms of information online, including weather, news, do-it-yourself, sports, political, and financial information. They search for jobs online at higher rates than women do; download software and music more frequently; use webcams more often; are more likely to rate products, services, and people; and take classes more often.

What do “wired women” do more frequently than their male counterparts? Send and get e-mail, seek out medical and health information (not surprising, given that women are likely to be the health care “point people” in their families), get religious information, and get support to deal with health or personal issues.

And, consistent with the old stereotype that men “won’t ask for directions,” women are more likely than men to get maps and directions online.

But we may see changes in these patterns soon, because the growth rate for women’s use of government websites, watching video or listening to audio clips, and researching products are higher than the growth rates for men.

Think for a minute about how many differences we just identified in what men and women do online.

And these data are in the aggregate; we know that the patterns differ by race and ethnicity, for example, and also by age.

What does this mean for you and your business?

You’ve got to know what % of your target market, your prospects, and your customer base are men vs. women.

You need to segment your list by gender, in almost any niche, so that you can target your messages differently to men and women.

Just another example of why you need to have a segmentation strategy in place and why any type of niche marketing needs to target men and women differently.