by Wagner Dotto
Got a call from us ? If not, I hope you will very soon.
We’re now contacting businesses in the region to invite them to advertise in the 31st. edition of Summer Guide, The Best of Upstate New York.
This is our fun publication. For a minute or two we set aside issues like economic development, manufacturing, large employers, small business and things like that. We’re now concerned with finding the most interesting events in Upstate New York, the most exciting places to go, the best lakes to visit, concerts to attend and trails to hike.
We print and distribute over 40,000 copies of the guide. It’s a glossy, colorful publication with a slick design that’s distributed all over the region.
Last year, the Summer Guide had more than 100 pages, a record for us.
In general, advertising in the Summer Guide makes a great deal of sense — ad rates are relatively low, the design is free and the publication is available all season long. As we tell prospective advertisers, you advertise once, get results all season.
Advertising this time of the year is even more important given the fact that people are eager to go places, do things, be outdoors and enjoy themselves. It’s the time the region gets a big influx of visitors.
Sure, Facebook, Instagram and other online sources are fairly good venues to advertise. But the bottom line is, a hard copy of a nicely designed glossy magazine is hard to beat.
The guide has an estimated readership of over 250,000 readers and its website — www.cnysummer.com — usually gets about 10,000 unique visits per month during the summer months.
Local businesses have had good results from advertising in the publication — and we’re glad they do advertise. Many do so year after year.
Advertisers are the ones who fund the magazine and allow us to print and distribute the publication all over the region at no charge. They get the exposure from the print advertisement plus the exposure from the website. We upload a copy of the guide to www.cnysummer.com and hyperlink all the ads. It means that as viewers skim through the online publication, they can click on any ad and go directly to the advertiser’s website. I love that feature.
One of the reasons the guide has remained popular over three decades —hard to believe we have published this for more than three decades — is that readers love it, and that drives businesses’ interest in advertising. Travelers — and locals — do pick up copies of the guide every time. We replenish our drop off locations two, sometimes three times a month.
If visitors are like me, the first thing they do is to grab some literature with local content, highlighting things to see and do. That still works really well in the digital era.
So, if you haven’t received a call from us, go ahead and call us. We will be happy to come up with some ad design that will get your message across to thousands and thousands of readers. It’s a good way to drum some extra business this time of the year.
Wagner Dotto is the editor and publisher of Oswego County Business Magazine.
