As 2014 is quickly drawing to a close, marketers are assessing the success of methods used in the past year and making predictions on trends that will yield returns in 2015.

While some of these predictions reference broader audiences, others are more specifically focused on ethnic groups, such as Hispanics. And according to Lee Vann, who shared his thoughts in a Nov. 13 article for MediaPost, there are several key statistics marketers should keep in mind regarding how Hispanic audiences could shape online marketing efforts next year.

Target Audiences
Not only Hispanics, but Hispanics in a particular age group, should be an important target audience for marketers in 2015.

“Hispennials (that’s Hispanic + Millennials) are poised to emerge as the most sought-after market segment,” Vann writes. In fact, 21% of all American millennials (loosely defined as people born between 1980 and 1995, reaching adulthood around or soon after 2000) are Hispanic.

This is particularly important to note when it comes to marketing, because Hispanics outpace all other groups when it comes to adoption of digital devices, according to The Digital Consumer 2014 report released by Nielsen earlier this year.

Content and Video Marketing
Marketers should take note not only of Hispanics’ use of digital devices, Vann advises, but also the types of media they consume on those devices.

One winning strategy will be content marketing, in which companies promote themselves by providing helpful or entertaining industry information even when not selling a specific product.

“Hispanics are hungry for content that connects with them in a relevant way, in English or Spanish,” Vann writes, “and brands that can deliver the right content, at the right time, across the right channel will reap the benefits of an engaged and connected audience.”

Videos, in particular, are expected to perform strongly among Hispanic viewers. Vann’s conclusions are consistent with those released over the summer by the website Broadcasting and Cable. There, writer Marla Skiko summed up the situation by saying that “the U.S. Hispanic audience has a love affair with online video.”

In general, videos are linked to 267% more than regular posts on social media. And according to a Portada article published earlier this month, Hispanics share content five times more often than their non-Hispanic counterparts.

E-Commerce Trends
It’s also wise for marketers to optimize e-commerce (essentially, online shopping) experiences for growing numbers of Hispanic users.

Hispanics make up around half of all mobile shoppers in the categories of clothing, electronics, music and movies.

Social media interaction is telling in this realm as well. According to a joint study by ShareThis, Unilever and Mindshare, “Hispanic consumers are twice as likely to purchase the kinds of products they share about compared to non-Hispanic consumers.”

Boosting e-commerce efforts is also an easy way to capitalize on digital marketing efforts across platforms. As Vann writes, “As marketers increase investments in Hispanic online marketing, including targeting Hispennials, video, content marketing and influencers, they will increasingly turn to e-commerce to justify those investments.”