Look, I get it. You’re busy.
You’ve got a business to run. You’re probably reading this while grabbing a quick coffee or waiting for a client to show up. The last thing you want to do is sit down and write five hundred individual emails to your customers.
But you also know that those generic, "Dear Customer," blast emails are rubbish. You know the ones. They look like a flyer stuck under a windshield wiper. Most people bin them without a second thought.
I’ve seen it a thousand times at Local Marketing Group. A business owner decides to "do some marketing," sends one big email to everyone on their list about a sale, gets zero phone calls, and decides email doesn't work.
Email works. You just have to stop treating your customers like a giant, faceless blob.
Personalisation sounds like one of those fancy words agencies use to charge you more. It’s not. It just means sending the right message to the right person at the right time. And doing it "at scale" just means doing it for everyone at once without losing your mind.
Let’s break down how to actually make money from this without it becoming a second full-time job.
The "Hey [First Name]" Trap
Most people think personalisation is just putting someone’s name in the subject line.
"Hey Dave, check out our new specials!"
Dave knows you didn’t type that. Dave knows a computer did it. It’s better than nothing, but it’s not going to make Dave pull out his wallet.
Real results come when you talk to Dave about what he actually cares about. If Dave bought a lawnmower from you six months ago, he doesn’t want an email about hair straighteners. He might, however, want an email about mower blades or a winter service.
When you start sending stuff people actually want, your email platform costs actually start to feel like an investment rather than a bill.
Start With What You Know
You already have the info you need. It’s sitting in your invoices, your booking system, or even just your head.
To do this at scale, you need to group your customers. Here’s how I’d do it if I were you:
1. The Newbies: People who just signed up or made their first purchase. They need a warm welcome and a reason to come back. 2. The Regulars: Your best mates. They spend often. They don’t need a discount; they need to feel like VIPs. 3. The Ghosts: People who haven't bought in six months. They need a "we miss you" nudge. 4. The Specifics: People who only buy one type of thing (like the mower guy).
If you try to talk to all four of these groups with the same email, you’re wasting your breath. But if you write one email for each group and set it up to send automatically? That’s where the magic happens.
Stop Overcomplicating the Tech
I see business owners get stuck choosing software for months. They want the one with the most bells and whistles.
Honestly? You don’t need a NASA-grade system. You need something that connects to your customer list and lets you tag people.
If someone buys a pair of boots, tag them "Boots." Next time you have a sale on leather cleaner, you only email the "Boots" tag.
It’s simple, it’s fast, and it stops you from landing in spam because people aren't reporting your irrelevant emails as junk.
The Three-Step Plan to Get Moving
If you want to start seeing more enquiries by next week, do this:
1. Fix your data
Have a look at your list. Is it just a mess of names and emails? Spend an hour tagging them by what they bought or where they live. Even just splitting them into "Residential" and "Commercial" is a massive win for a tradie.2. Write like a human
Forget the corporate talk. Write the email like you’re explaining a deal to a mate at the pub. Short sentences. No jargon. Just: "Hey, saw you haven't been in for a while. We've got a quiet week next week, so if you book in before Friday, I'll give you 10% off. Cheers."3. Check the basics
Nothing kills a sale faster than a link that doesn't work or text so small you need a magnifying glass to read it on a phone. We've seen clients lose sales to broken links more times than I care to admit. Send a test to yourself first. Open it on your phone. If you can't click the button with your thumb, fix it.Is This Worth the Effort?
Look, I’ll be straight with you. Setting this up takes a bit of time upfront. You might spend a Saturday morning getting your groups sorted and your first few emails written.
But once it’s done, it runs while you’re on the tools or out on a job. It’s like having a salesperson who works 24/7 for the price of a few slabs of beer a month.
In my experience, businesses that move from "blasting everyone" to "talking to people" see their bookings double within a few months. It’s not magic; it’s just being relevant.
What Now?
Don't try to over-engineer this. Pick one group of customers—maybe the ones you haven't seen in six months—and send them a short, personal-sounding note today.
If you’re too flat out to even think about tags and templates, that’s what we’re here for. We help Brisbane businesses stop shouting into the void and start actually talking to their customers.
Drop us a line at Local Marketing Group and we can have a chat about how to get your emails making money instead of just making noise.