Why Your Phone is the Most Important Tool in Your Marketing Kit
I was sitting at a cafe in West End last Tuesday, watching a bloke in high-vis trying to read an email on his phone. He was squinting, pinching the screen to zoom in, and scrolling side-to-side just to read a single sentence.
After about ten seconds of struggling, he gave an annoyed huff, locked his phone, and shoved it back in his pocket.
That business just lost a customer.
It didn't matter if they had the best prices in Brisbane or the most reliable service. Because their email was a nightmare to read on a mobile, it went straight to the mental 'too hard' basket.
If you are running a small business—whether you’re a sparky in Chermside, a lawyer in the CBD, or you run a boutique shop in Paddington—your customers are looking at your emails on their phones while they’re waiting for a coffee, sitting on the bus, or lying in bed at night.
If your emails don't work perfectly on that small screen, you are literally throwing money away.
In this guide, I’m going to show you exactly how to make sure your emails get read, get clicked, and—most importantly—bring in more cash for your business. No tech-talk, no fluff. Just what works.
The Reality Check: Most Small Business Emails are Broken
I’ve looked at thousands of email campaigns for local Brisbane businesses. Most of them make the same mistake: they design the email on a big office computer screen, it looks great there, and they hit 'send'.
But 70% of your customers aren't sitting at a desk. They are on an iPhone or an Android.
When a 'desktop-only' email hits a phone, a few things happen—all of them bad: 1. The text is tiny: It looks like legal fine print. Nobody is going to fetch their glasses to read your weekly special. 2. The buttons are impossible to click: If your 'Book Now' button is the size of a grain of rice, people will accidentally click the wrong thing or just give up. 3. Images don't load: If your email is just one giant picture, and the customer has a weak signal, they see a big white box. They aren't going to wait for it to load. 4. It takes too long to get to the point: On a phone, you have about two seconds to grab someone's attention before they swipe left to delete you.
How much is this costing you?
Think about it this way. If you send an email to 1,000 past customers and 700 of them open it on a phone, but the email is broken, you’ve just ignored 70% of your leads. If even 5% of those people would have booked a job worth $200, that’s $7,000 in lost revenue from one single email.
Getting this right isn't just 'nice to have'. It’s the difference between a busy schedule and a quiet week.
Step 1: The "Fat Finger" Rule for Buttons
This is the biggest mistake I see. A business owner sends out a great offer, but the link to 'Claim Offer' is just a tiny underlined bit of text.
Have you ever tried to click a small link while walking or holding a coffee? It’s frustrating.
The Rule: Your buttons need to be big enough for a tradie’s thumb to hit accurately on the first go.
Make it a button, not a link: Don't just use blue underlined text. Use a big, colourful block with white text on it. Give it space: Don't put three buttons right next to each other. People will click the wrong one and get annoyed. The 'Thumb Test': Send a test email to yourself. Try to click the button using only your thumb while holding the phone with one hand. If it’s hard to do, make the button bigger.
When people can easily take the next step, visitors become customers much faster. It removes the friction that kills sales.
Step 2: Write for People Who Are Skimming, Not Reading
When someone opens an email on their phone, they aren't looking for a novel. They are looking for a reason to care.
If they see a massive wall of text, they will close it immediately. I call this the 'Wall of Death'.
How to fix your writing for mobile:
Short Sentences: Keep them punchy. Short Paragraphs: No more than 2-3 sentences per paragraph. It creates white space which makes the email feel 'lighter' and easier to read. Use Bullet Points: Like I’m doing right now. It lets people scan for the info they need (price, date, service). Put the most important info at the top: Don't hide your offer at the bottom. Tell them what you want them to do in the first two sentences.I worked with a landscaper in Morningside who used to write long, flowery emails about the history of his business. No one cared. We changed his emails to: "We have 3 spots left for hedge trimming this Friday. Click here to grab one for $99."
His phone didn't stop ringing for two days.
Step 3: Images are Your Enemy (Sometimes)
We all love a high-quality photo of our work. But a 5MB photo from your iPhone 15 Pro will take forever to load on a customer's phone if they are on a 4G connection in a patchy area like the Samford Valley.
If the image doesn't load in two seconds, the customer is gone.
Practical Tips for Images: 1. Resize them: You don't need a billboard-sized image for a phone screen. Use a free tool to make the file size smaller. 2. Don't put the 'Main Message' in the image: If your image says "50% OFF TODAY" and the image doesn't load, the customer sees nothing. Always write the offer in plain text as well. 3. Use 'Alt Text': This is just a fancy way of saying "the text that shows up if the picture doesn't." If you have a photo of a new kitchen, set the description to "New Kitchen Renovation Brisbane." Even if the photo fails, the message gets through.
Step 4: The Subject Line is Your Shop Front
On a mobile phone, the subject line gets cut off much sooner than on a computer.
You usually have about 30-40 characters before the text disappears into three little dots (...).
Bad Subject Line: "Check out our amazing new spring specials for all our loyal customers in the Brisbane area"
What the customer sees: "Check out our amazing new spring spec..."Good Subject Line: "$50 Off Your Next Service – Ends Friday"
What the customer sees: "$50 Off Your Next Service – Ends Friday"See the difference? The second one tells them exactly what’s in it for them immediately.
Also, pay attention to the "Preview Text." That’s the little snippet of text that shows up under the subject line in your inbox. Use it to support your subject line.
Subject: "Your aircon is dirty." Preview Text: "Book a clean today and save $20 on your power bill."That combination is a winner. It identifies a problem and offers a solution before they even open the email.
Step 5: Don't Waste Money on Complex Tools
You don't need to be a computer programmer to do this. Most email tools have a "Mobile Preview" button. Use it. Every single time.
However, be careful about the "free" tools out there. Often, the free versions of email software make it very hard to customise how things look on a phone, or they slap their own big logo at the bottom which makes you look amateur.
When looking at email platform costs, remember that a tool that costs $30 a month but works perfectly on phones is much cheaper than a free tool that loses you thousands in sales because it looks broken.
Step 6: The "One-Column" Rule
On a computer, you can have a layout with a sidebar, three pictures side-by-side, and a menu.
On a phone, that looks like a mess. Everything gets squished and becomes unreadable.
The Solution: Always use a single-column layout.
One thing after another. Headline, then text, then image, then button. This forces the user to scroll down, which is a natural movement on a phone. It keeps them focused on your message without distracting them with sidebars or cluttered layouts.
Step 7: Testing is Everything
I’ve seen businesses spend $500 on a graphic designer to make a beautiful email, only for it to look like a scrambled egg on an Android phone.
Before you send anything to your whole list, send a test to yourself and at least one other person (maybe your partner or a staff member who has a different type of phone than you).
Check for:
Can I read the text without zooming? Do the links work? Does the button take me to the right page? Does the page it takes me to ALSO work on a phone?That last point is vital. There is no point having a perfect mobile email if it sends people to a website that doesn't work on phones. You need to make sure visitors become customers by having a smooth experience from the email all the way to the booking form.
Real World Example: The Brisbane Mechanic
We worked with a mechanic in Coorparoo. He was sending out monthly reminders for logbook services. He was getting about a 1% response rate.
We looked at his emails. They were full of tiny text, had a big header image that took 10 seconds to load, and the 'Book Now' link was a tiny blue word at the very bottom.
We changed three things: 1. We moved the 'Book Now' button to the top and made it a big red button. 2. We cut the text down from 300 words to about 50. 3. We made the subject line "Time for your [Car Model] service?"
His response rate jumped to 8% in the first month. He didn't spend a cent more on advertising; he just made it easier for people to give him money using their phones.
How Long Until You See Results?
This isn't like SEO where you have to wait six months to see a change. This is instant.
The very next email you send that is properly set up for mobile will get more clicks and more phone calls.
If you have a list of 500 past customers, and you send a mobile-friendly email today, you could have bookings in your calendar by lunch.
What Should You Do First?
1. Open your last three emails on your own phone. Be honest—are they easy to read? Can you click the buttons easily? 2. Simplify your next email. Strip out the fancy borders and the multiple columns. Go for one clear message and one big button. 3. Check your subject lines. Keep them under 40 characters.
Most of what you read online about 'email marketing' is written for big corporations with huge teams. You don't need all that. You just need your message to show up clearly on the device your customer is already holding in their hand.
Summary of the "Mobile-First" Approach
Buttons: Big enough for a thumb. Text: Short, snappy, and easy to scan. Images: Small files, not essential to the message. Layout: One single column. Subject: Short and benefit-driven.Stop overcomplicating it. Your customers are busy. They are on their phones. Make it easy for them to choose you.
If you’re too busy running your business to worry about whether your emails are working or why your phone isn't ringing, that’s where we come in. At Local Marketing Group, we help Brisbane businesses get more out of their marketing without the jargon and the headaches.
Ready to get more bookings from your emails? Contact us today and let’s get your marketing working as hard as you do.