
The good old days
Back in 2004, when I launched my first local magazine, I used to offer some advice to new advertisers.
- Firstly, use your landline, not your mobile. People don’t want to pay to call you.
- Secondly, if you have an email, definitely include it. If you have one setup linked to your business rather than @tiscali.co.uk or @aol.co.uk then you should.
- And maybe you should think about get a website, but it is expensive so don’t worry about it too much.

Times have changed
- Unless you are a professional services business such as a dentist or solicitor, use your mobile number. The caller knows that they are more likely to get straight through rather than to an answer service.
- Don’t even run the advert without an email address. Interested customers want to be able to message you even if it’s the evening or weekend. If you can have a personal one that’s still better than a generic one e.g. editor – at – focus-magazines.co.uk* looks better than focuseditor@gmail.com
- And even if you don’t have a website at least have a Facebook presence with some recent posts. Every potential customer wants to understand a bit more about you and your service before they call. No internet presence? They’ll likely choose your competitor who is a bit more with the times.
*Why have we written our email address like that? Well, all websites can scanned by ‘bots’ looking for valid email addresses they can send lots of spam mail too. By sort of hiding the address in that way, it makes it harder to detect.
Most websites have a contact form rather than a written email address, and now you know why!