ADVERTISING IN BAJA REAL ESTATE GUIDE

Considering placing an ad in Baja Real Estate Guide? We understand an ad is an investment, and we want you to feel confident about your decision.

Here are the questions we hear the most often.

1. DOES AN AD WORK?

This is the #1 question we hear, and we’re going to be real honest in our answer. Print ads work for some people but not others. It all depends on what it is you want the ad to actually DO.

We expect print ads to produce clear leads in which a caller says, “I saw your ad in Baja Real Estate Guide.” Touchdown. Let’s run another one!

More often than not though, the return on your investment in the ad isn’t so easy to quantify. Meaning you won’t be able to say I earned “x” amount of dollars for investing “y” dollars in the ad. Not everyone is comfortable with making an investment that is hard to measure like that.

Our advertisers continue to place ads, year after year, because they know the ad does more for them than just produce a single call on a single property. They’ve got the bigger picture in mind. Based on real feedback from real advertisers over the past decade, here is what our advertisers expect an ad to do for them.

Target BUYERS:

  • Generate calls from buyers on advertised properties
  • Generate calls from buyers to tour
  • Legitimize their business in front of the US & Canadian buyer
  • Control the perception a buyer has of them & their listings

Target SELLERS:

  • Show sellers they’re investing in marketing
  • Attract new sellers to list with them

Target OTHER AGENTS:

  • Differentiate their listings from the 2700+ on the MLS
  • Fast & effective networking tool in front of our daily changing community of agents
  • Push their listings in front of agents who aren’t actively looking on behalf of a client, but upon seeing the ad, reach out for more information

Baja Real Estate Guide just published its 68th issue and has survived the 2008 market crash, swine flu, Odile and the explosion of digital marketing. Ads work for our advertisers because at the end of the day what they want from the ad is EXPOSURE. Exposure in front of buyers, exposure in front of sellers, exposure in front of other agents and exposure in front of our local community. An ad in Baja Real Estate Guide reaches 35,000 people in 60 days with one single interest: local real estate. That’s Exposure.

2. WHEN IS THE NEXT AD DEADLINE?

Baja Real Estate Guide publishes 5 issues a year. It runs bimonthly during the high season and offers an extended 4 month issue each Summer. Here is the publishing schedule for the upcoming issues. The deadlines noted here are both the date to reserve your ad space and to send in the ad materials.

ISSUE

  • Fall Issue
  • Winter Issue
  • Spring Issue
  • Summer Issue

DEADLINE

  • August 23rd
  • November 8th
  • January 24th
  • April 18th
3. IF I’M GOING TO SPEND MONEY ON AN AD, WHERE IS MY MONEY BEST SPENT?

There are several long running, high quality magazines in our area. Because they’re all different in size, frequency, theme and distribution, it can be tricky trying to compare them to each other to determine which is right for you.

Here are a few tips to help get you started:

1. Ask yourself: What audience am I trying to reach?

In other words, who do I want to see my ad? Think objectively about who is going to pick up each magazine. The prettier magazines will attract the dreamers; the ones who want to see how the other half lives. The general interest magazines will attract a combination of the first-time tourist, repeat visitors and potential buyers which means a smaller percentage of the readership may actually be interested in your ad.

Baja Real Estate Guide uses its format, content and distribution network to target who picks up the magazine. The smaller sizes means it gets picked AND taken home more. The practical articles and monthly cover attract readers who want to know and understand our market better. The single focus on real estate means that every one of the 35,000 readers are interested in local real estate. The distribution network puts the magazine in the direct pathway of tourists, snowbirds, other real estate agents, & our increasingly prosperous local community.

2. What is the reach of the publication? In other words, how many copies does it print?

The print run of a publication should be one of the most public pieces of information a magazine/newspaper offers. In the publishing industry in the US, 3rd party auditing bureaus handle this – that’s how important this question is.

Baja Real Estate Guide prints 35,000 copies every issue.Since January 2007, our strategy has been to saturate the market with as many copies as possible for the sole purpose of increasing the chances of finding you new clients.

3. Where is the magazine distributed?

Where the magazines are distributed is another way of controlling who sees your ad. Yes, you want to see the magazine outside of your real estate office, but more importantly you want to see it on the street in high traffic locations. You’re already in your office. You want your ad to be working for you, 24 hours a day, in corners you can’t reach.

Baja Real Estate Guide supports more than 160 active distribution points that are a combination of real estate offices, highly trafficked street locations & points of interest for locals. The bulk of our network, 68% of it, is in Los Cabos, 14% is in Todos Santos and 9% is in both the East Cape and in La Paz. Your buyer might be staying in Cabo but may pick up the magazine when visiting Art Galleries in Todos Santos. Because you never know where your next lead is coming from, it’s our job to offer the widest distribution network possible.

We fill all the distribution points in Los Cabos 1x a week and the high traffic locations are filled 2x a week. We make weekly visits to Todos Santos during the high season and 2x month visits in the Summer. La Paz and the East Cape are each filled once a month.

Baja Real Estate Guide makes it a priority to protect this large network. In the event of pending tropical storms or hurricanes, we go to the effort of physically bringing the racks back to our warehouse until the storm has passed. This protects both the physical copies of the magazine and ensures you don’t miss 6 weeks of your paid advertising time waiting for a whole new set of racks to be manufactured!4.Who has the cheapest rates?

The only way to compare apples to apples between how much each publication costs is to look at it on a per copy basis. In other words, how much are you paying for each copy? There is a simple formula to figure this out:

Ad rate divided by # of copies printed

For example, an ad rate of $800 and a print run of 35,000 copies (800/35,000) means you’re paying only $.02 cents for every person that sees your ad.

4. WHAT DO YOU NEED FROM ME AND WHEN?

To keep things simple, the closing date for each issue is the date to both confirm your ad space AND to send in your ad material. In general, ad material includes the following:

  • Your headshot
  • Your logo
  • 1 high resolution image for each listing
  • Property description for each listing, including price and MLS
  • Your contact information as you’d like it to appear

We like to talk to advertisers by phone about their ad layouts. Basically,we just want to know what you like and what you don’t like. With that information in hand, it takes us on average 3 days to create a new ad. Once it’s ready, we will send you a pdf via email. You’ll have 1-2 days to review the layout and send back any changes. If you prefer to talk about the proof via phone, we welcome that. Phone conversations tend to flush out much more than the typical email.

After we have a list of your changes, it takes us usually 1-2 to send the updated ad for your 2nd review.We keep repeating this process until you feel good about how the ad looks. We will require an email authorization of the final version prior to going to press.

The entire magazine is built in about 10 business days, so we send lots of reminders to our clients to make sure they get their ad material in on time! If you’re a first-time advertiser, it’s helpful to send the material before the deadline so that yours is one of the first ads we build.

 

WANT TO SPEAK TO A LIVE PERSON?

Paige Wigginton, Publisher
paige@bajarealestateguide.com
Mex Cell: 044-624-129-9739
US/CAN: 917-371-7117