How to Get New Customers with Email Without Being a Pest

Why Most Cold Emails Are a Total Waste of Time

I was chatting with a commercial landscaper in Geebung last week. He told me, "I tried sending emails to property managers, but I didn't get a single bite. It just felt like I was shouting into a void and wasting my afternoons."

He showed me what he’d sent. It was a massive, three-paragraph block of text with five high-res photos of his tractor attached. It looked like a brochure. It was also sent from his personal BigPond account to 50 people at once.

No wonder it didn't work. Most of those emails probably ended up in a junk folder before the property manager even sat down for their morning coffee.

Cold email—reaching out to someone who doesn't know you yet—can be the fastest way to grow a business in Brisbane. But if you do it wrong, you aren't just wasting time; you're risking your business's reputation. If Google or Outlook decides you're a spammer, your regular emails to your actual customers might start disappearing too.

Here is how to do it properly so you actually get the phone ringing.

Step 1: Don’t Use Your Main Business Email

This is the biggest mistake I see. If you use john@johnsplumbing.com.au to send 100 cold emails a day and people start clicking "Report Spam," your whole domain gets a bad reputation. Suddenly, when you send a quote to a regular customer, it goes straight to their junk folder.

The Fix: Buy a "lookalike" domain. If your site is johnsplumbing.com.au, buy johnsplumbing.net or workwithjohn.com. Use this secondary email purely for reaching out to new people. If it gets flagged, your main business stays safe.

It costs about $20 for the domain and $10 a month for a basic Google Workspace or Microsoft account. It’s the cheapest insurance policy you’ll ever buy for your business.

Step 2: Stop Sending "Brochures"

Most business owners think they need to show off everything they do in the first email. They include logos, fancy headers, and links to their gallery.

I’ve seen this time and time again: fancy emails are killing sales because they look like advertisements. When you open your inbox, do you click on the email that looks like a Coles catalogue, or the one that looks like a quick note from a mate?

Keep it plain text. No images, no fancy formatting, and definitely no attachments. Attachments are like a red flag to a bull for spam filters. If you want to show your work, send them a link to your website after they reply and ask for it.

Step 3: Write Like a Human, Not a Robot

If you want a business owner in Fortitude Valley or a manager in Brendale to talk to you, you have to sound like a local person, not a marketing machine.

The Wrong Way: "Dear Sir/Madam, we are a premier provider of integrated facility solutions with a 20-year track record of excellence..."

The Right Way: "Hi [Name], I was driving past your warehouse on Sandgate Road yesterday and noticed the signage looks a bit weathered. I do local commercial pressure cleaning and just finished a job for the guys down the street. Would it be helpful if I dropped by to give you a quick quote?"

See the difference? One is a boring lecture. The other is a helpful neighbour offering a specific service. People buy from people.

Step 4: Don't Send Too Many at Once

If you go from sending 5 emails a day to 500 overnight, Google’s alarms will go off. You need to "warm up" your new email address. Start by sending 5 or 10 a day. Over a month, slowly build up.

Also, stop using "free" tools that promise the world. I often tell my clients that understanding email platform costs is vital because the cheap ones often have the worst reputations with Big Tech. If the tool you're using is known for hosting spammers, your emails will be guilty by association.

Step 5: The "One-Sentence" Rule

Your goal with a cold email isn't to get a sale. You can't sell a $5,000 contract in one email to a stranger. Your only goal is to get a reply.

Keep your email under four sentences. 1. Who you are. 2. Why you're emailing them specifically. 3. How you can help them specifically. 4. A simple question (e.g., "Do you have 2 minutes for a quick chat next Tuesday?")

If you make it easy for them to say "yes," they will. If you send them a 500-word essay, they’ll hit delete before they finish the first paragraph.

Step 6: Follow Up (But Don't Be a Stalker)

Most people are busy. They might see your email while they're at a job site or in a meeting, think "that sounds useful," and then completely forget about it.

Send one follow-up three days later. Something like: "Hi [Name], just checking if you saw my note about the signage? No stress if you're flat out, just didn't want it to get lost in the shuffle."

Often, the second email is the one that gets the booking. But if they don't reply to the second one, leave them alone. You want to be a professional, not a pest.

What Is This Going to Cost You?

Setting this up properly isn't expensive, but it does take time. - New Domain: ~$20/year - Email Account: ~$10/month - Your Time: 30 minutes a day to find 10 local businesses and send them a personalised note.

If you do this consistently, you’ll see results. I worked with a cabinet maker in Morningside who started doing this for local builders. He didn't send 1,000 emails. He sent 5 highly researched, personal emails every morning while he had his coffee. Within three weeks, he landed two new builders who now give him regular work worth tens of thousands a year.

What Is a Waste of Money?

- Buying "Email Lists": Never, ever buy a list of 10,000 random emails for $99. These lists are full of "spam traps" designed to get you blocked. You’ll be wasting money on emails that literally nobody will ever see because they'll all go to junk. - Expensive Automation Software: Unless you are sending hundreds of emails a day, you don't need fancy software. Your manual, personal touch will beat an automated robot every single time.

How Long Until You See Results?

This isn't an overnight fix. It takes about two weeks to get your new email address "warmed up" and another week or two of consistent sending before the replies start coming in.

But unlike Facebook ads or Google ads, where you have to pay every time someone clicks, this only costs you a bit of time and a few bucks for the domain. It’s one of the most cost-effective ways to grow a Brisbane business.

Summary Checklist

If you’re too busy running your business to worry about domains and email technicalities, we can help you set up a system that actually gets the phone ringing.

Ready to get more customers? Contact Local Marketing Group today.