Why Your 'Pretty' Emails Are Getting Ignored
I was sitting down with a cabinet maker in Brendale last month. He was frustrated. He’d spent three days—three whole days he could have spent on the tools—trying to design a 'professional' monthly newsletter.
It looked like a David Jones catalogue. It had high-res photos, his logo in three different places, fancy borders, and multiple columns. He sent it out to 400 past clients.
Do you know how many phone calls he got? Zero.
He thought he was doing the right thing. Most business owners do. We’ve been told for years that 'branding' is everything. We think if an email doesn't look like it was designed by an ad agency in Sydney, people won't take us seriously.
But here’s the cold, hard truth: Most of the time, the fancier your email looks, the less money it makes you.
The Great 'Professionalism' Trap
When you open your inbox, what do you see? You see bills, you see spam from big retailers, and you see messages from your mates or your suppliers.
When an email arrives that is packed with graphics, buttons, and layouts, your brain instantly flags it as an 'Ad'. What do you do with ads? You delete them. Or worse, you don't even see them because your email provider (like Gmail or Outlook) has already shoved them into the 'Promotions' tab where emails go to die.
I told my mate in Brendale to try something different. We sent a second email a week later. No pictures. No logo. No fancy formatting. It looked like a message he wrote on his phone while sitting in his ute.
It said: "Hey, I’ve got some offcuts from a high-end kitchen job. If anyone needs a small laundry bench or some shelving done cheap this week, give me a buzz."
His phone rang four times in twenty minutes.
Why Simple Emails Make More Money
There are three reasons why 'plain' emails out-perform the glossy ones every single day for Brisbane small businesses.
1. People actually see them
Google and Microsoft are very smart. They know that a message with ten images and five links is probably a marketing blast. They often filter these away from the main inbox. If you want to stop emails landing in spam, you need to make them look like they were sent by a human, to a human.
When you strip away the heavy coding, your email is much more likely to land right in front of your customer's eyes. You aren't paying for fancy software just to have your messages ignored. If you’re worried about the email platform costs you're currently paying, the first thing to look at is whether those platforms are actually helping you get seen or just making your 'ads' look pretty.
2. They work on every phone
Your customers are busy. They are checking their email while waiting for a coffee in Chermside or sitting in traffic on the Gateway. If your email has a massive graphic that takes ten seconds to load, they are gone.
Plain text (or simple looking) emails load instantly. They don't break. The text doesn't become too small to read. It just works. If a customer has to pinch and zoom to read your offer, you’ve already lost the sale.
3. It feels like a conversation, not a pitch
Small business is built on relationships. People buy from people. When you send a highly designed HTML email, you are creating a wall between you and the customer. You are saying "I am a Big Company talking to a Lead."
When you send a simple email, you are saying "I am a local business owner talking to a valued client."
The Myth of the 'Big Brand' Look
I hear this all the time: "But I want to look professional!"
Let’s define professional. For a local plumber, professional means showing up on time and fixing the leak. For a lawyer in the CBD, professional means giving sound advice that saves the client money.
None of your customers care if your email has a blue gradient background. They care about what’s in it for them. In fact, many people find overly polished emails 'salesy' and untrustworthy. They feel like they are being processed through a system rather than being looked after by a local expert.
When Should You Use Graphics?
I'm not saying you should never use a photo. If you’re a landscaper and you just finished a stunning deck in Paddington, show it off! A picture is worth a thousand words.
But you don't need a 'template' for that. You just drop the photo into the email, write a couple of sentences under it, and hit send.
The rule of thumb is this: If the design is distracting people from the message, get rid of it.
How to Transition (And Save Time)
If you’ve been wasting hours on templates, here is how you stop.
1. Pick one goal: Don't try to tell them your life story, show three products, and link to your Facebook page. Pick one thing. "Do you need your gutters cleaned?" 2. Write like you talk: Imagine you are talking to a regular customer. Use their name. Use "I" and "You". 3. Lose the headers: You don't need your logo at the top. They know who you are—it’s in the 'From' field. 4. One clear instruction: Tell them exactly what to do. "Reply to this email" or "Call me on this number."
By simplifying, you are going to save hours of frustration. You'll also stop wasting money on emails that your customers are just deleting because they look like junk mail.
What Will This Cost Me?
Actually, it will likely cost you less. Most of the expensive email tools charge you for the 'drag and drop' editors and the fancy templates. When you move to a more direct, simple style of communication, you can often use simpler, cheaper tools.
In terms of results, you’ll usually see an immediate jump in people actually replying to you. Not just clicking a link, but actually typing back. That’s where the money is made.
The Bottom Line
Stop trying to be a graphic designer. You’re a business owner. Your job is to solve problems for your customers and get paid for it.
Next time you go to send an update to your client list, don't reach for a template. Just type out a helpful note, keep it simple, and see what happens. I’ve seen this work for dozens of Brisbane businesses—from mechanics to accountants. The ones who stop trying to 'look' like a big corporation are usually the ones who end up making the most profit.
Need help getting your emails to actually drive phone calls instead of just looking pretty? At Local Marketing Group, we focus on the stuff that actually puts money in your bank account.