Why Most Brisbane Business Emails End Up in the Bin
I was sitting down with a landscaper in Chermside last month. He was frustrated. He’d been sending out a monthly newsletter to about 800 past customers, but he wasn't getting any phone calls from it.
"Mate," he said, "I spend two hours every Sunday night writing this thing, and I'm pretty sure everyone just hits delete. It’s a waste of time."
I looked at his email. It was a giant wall of text with one blurry photo of a retaining wall he’d finished in 2019. It looked like a school newsletter from the 90s.
Here is the cold, hard truth: Your customers are busy. They are checking their phones while waiting for a coffee at the local shops or while sitting on the couch after a long day. If your email looks like a chore to read, they won't read it.
If you want people to actually spend money with you, your emails need to do more than just sit there. They need to be something people can do something with. We call this "interactive" marketing, but really, it just means giving people a reason to tap their screen.
The Old Way vs. The New Way: What Actually Makes Money?
Most small businesses in Brisbane fall into the trap of sending "static" emails. These are basically digital flyers. You send a picture, some text, and a link.
There’s nothing wrong with a simple email, but if you want to stand out from the fifty other businesses hitting your customer's inbox, you need to step it up.
Let’s compare the two approaches so you can see where your money is best spent.
Approach 1: The "Digital Flyer" (Static Emails)
This is what 90% of your competitors are doing. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s better than nothing—but only just.What it is: A basic message with a "Click Here" button. The Cost: Very low. You can do this yourself for the price of your email platform costs. The Result: People see it, maybe they read it, and most of the time they forget it ten seconds later. The Problem: It’s passive. It asks the customer to do all the heavy lifting of thinking and deciding.
Approach 2: The "Interactive" Email (The Money Maker)
This is where you give the customer something to play with or a quick way to give you information right inside the email.What it is: Instead of just a link, you might have a little quiz, a gallery of photos they can swipe through, or a button that lets them book a quote without leaving their inbox. The Cost: A bit more time to set up, or a few hundred dollars if you have a pro do it. The Result: People spend more time looking at your business. More importantly, they take the first step toward buying much faster. The Benefit: It feels less like an ad and more like a helpful tool.
Three Simple Ways to Make Your Emails More Profitable
You don't need to be a tech genius to do this. I’ve seen these three specific tactics work for dozens of Brisbane businesses, from hair salons in Paddington to mechanics in Rocklea.
1. The "Tap to Choose" Quiz
Imagine you run a pool cleaning business. Instead of sending an email saying "Book a service," you send one that says: "Is your pool ready for a Brisbane summer?"Inside the email, you have three big buttons: 1. "My pool is green!" 2. "It's okay, but looks a bit cloudy." 3. "It's perfect, I just want a check-up."
When the customer taps one, they go to a page on your site that tells them exactly what they need and gives them a price. This is far more effective than a generic flyer because you aren't guessing what they want. You are letting them tell you. If you want to see which of your messages are actually hitting the mark, you should look at measuring ROI to see where your profit is coming from.
2. The Before-and-After Slider
If you are a tradie—a painter, a tiler, or a deck builder—this is your secret weapon.Instead of two separate photos, some email tools let you put a slider in the email. The customer can drag a bar across the image to see the "Before" (the rotten old deck) and the "After" (the beautiful new spotted gum entertaining area).
I worked with a house painter in Morningside who started doing this. His phone calls from emails went up by 40% because people couldn't stop playing with the slider. It proves you know what you're doing without you having to brag about it.
3. Review and Feedback Buttons
Most businesses wait until the end of the year to ask for reviews. That’s a mistake. You should be asking for feedback the moment a job is done.Instead of a link to Google, put five stars directly in the email. "How did we do today?" The customer taps the 5th star, and then it takes them to your Google page to leave the comment. It’s one less step for them, which means more reviews for you. Local Brisbane customers rely heavily on reviews, so this is a direct path to more bookings.
Is it Worth the Effort?
You might be thinking, "This sounds like a lot of mucking around. Does it actually make me money?"
Look, I get it. You’re busy. You’ve got a business to run, staff to manage, and a life to live. But here is the reality: If you are going to spend any time on marketing, you want it to work.
Sending a boring email is like throwing a handful of business cards off the Story Bridge and hoping one lands in a customer's pocket. Adding interactive elements is like walking up to that customer and handing them the card personally.
In our experience at Local Marketing Group, interactive emails get about twice as many clicks as boring, static ones. If you usually get 5 people clicking your email and now you get 10, that’s double the chances of a sale for the same amount of "send" cost.
What Should You Do First?
Don't try to do everything at once. That's how you get overwhelmed and end up doing nothing.
1. Start with your existing list. You don't need new leads yet. You have a goldmine sitting in your inbox already. We often tell our clients to re-engage old customers first because they already know and trust you. 2. Pick one thing. Maybe it’s a simple poll or a better way to show off your work photos. 3. Make it work on phones. This is non-negotiable. Most of your customers in Brisbane are looking at your emails while they're out and about. If the "interactive" part doesn't work on an iPhone, it’s worse than useless. 4. Watch the results. Don't worry about fancy charts. Just look at your phone. Are more people calling? Are more people replying? That’s the only metric that matters.
The "Waste of Money" Warning
I’ll be blunt: Don't spend thousands of dollars on a fancy "interactive agency." Most of what you read online about this involves high-level coding that small businesses just don't need.
You don't need a 3D rotating model of a kitchen in your email. You just need a way for a busy mum in Carindale to quickly see that you’re the right person for the job and tap a button to talk to you.
Keep it simple. Focus on the outcome (the phone call or the booking) rather than the "cool factor."
Summary for the Busy Owner
If you've scrolled to the bottom because you've got a job to get to, here is the gist:
Boring emails get ignored. Stop sending walls of text. Give them something to do. Use buttons, sliders, or simple polls to get them engaged. It’s about speed. The faster a customer can tell you what they want, the faster you get paid. Focus on your current list. Your old customers are your best source of quick cash.
At Local Marketing Group, we don't care about "awards" or looking fancy. We care about making sure your phone rings. We’ve seen exactly what works for Brisbane businesses and we know how to make your email marketing actually pay for itself (and then some).
Ready to get more from your emails? If you want to stop guessing and start seeing real results from your marketing, let's have a chat. We help Brisbane small businesses grow without the jargon.