Why Your Emails Are Failing to Reach Customers
Imagine spending hours putting together a weekend special for your landscaping business in Carindale or a discount code for your boutique in Paddington, only for it to vanish. You hit 'send' to 500 customers, but your phone doesn't ring once.
Most Brisbane business owners think that if they pay for an email service, their messages automatically land in the customer's inbox. I’m here to tell you that’s simply not true. In fact, if you haven't ticked a few specific "behind-the-scenes" boxes, there is a very high chance Google and Outlook are throwing your hard work straight into the bin (the spam folder).
When your emails go to spam, you aren't just losing a bit of time; you are losing cold, hard cash. You are paying for software, paying for staff to write the emails, and missing out on the sales those emails should have generated.
In this guide, I’m going to explain—without the nerd-talk—exactly why this happens and how you can fix it so your customers actually see what you have to say.
The Real Cost of the Junk Folder
Let’s look at the numbers. If you have a list of 1,000 past customers and you send them an offer that usually results in $2,000 worth of bookings, what happens if 40% of those emails go to spam? You’ve just lost $800. If you do that once a month, you’ve lost nearly $10,000 by the end of the year.
I’ve seen this happen to a mechanic in Coorparoo who couldn't figure out why his service reminders weren't working. It turned out his "digital reputation" was so bad that even his direct invoices were being flagged as junk.
Before you spend another cent on fancy templates, you need to understand email platform costs and how they impact your bottom line. If the platform you use doesn't help you get into the inbox, it's a waste of money.
The "Digital ID Card": Why Google Blocks You
Think of every email you send as a person trying to enter a private club. The bouncers (Google, BigPond, Outlook) are very strict. They want to see three specific ID cards. If you don't have them, you don't get in.
Most small businesses in Australia set up their email years ago and haven't touched the settings since. Meanwhile, the "bouncers" have become much tougher.
1. The SPF Record (The Permission Slip)
This tells the world that your email provider (like Mailchimp or Hubspot) has your permission to send mail on your behalf. Without this, it looks like a stranger is pretending to be you.2. The DKIM Record (The Digital Seal)
This is like a wax seal on an envelope. It proves that the message hasn't been tampered with while it was travelling across the internet. It proves the email really came from your business.3. The DMARC Policy (The Instruction Manual)
This tells Google what to do if it receives an email that looks like it's from you but fails the first two tests. If you don't have this set up, Google gets suspicious and often chooses the safest option: the spam folder.Setting these up takes about 20 minutes for a professional, but if you don't do it, you are basically shouting into a void. If you want to see emails actually make sales, these three technical settings are the absolute foundation. Without them, everything else is a hobby, not a business strategy.
Your "Sender Reputation": Why Your Past Is Haunting You
Google keeps a "score" on your business. If people often delete your emails without opening them, or worse, click the "Report Spam" button, your score drops. Once your score is low enough, even your most loyal customers won't see your messages.
I recently spoke to a real estate agent in Ascot who was sending 5,000 emails a week to people who hadn't spoken to him in five years. His "score" was so low that Google started blocking his personal emails to his wife!
To keep your reputation high, you must: Clean your list: If someone hasn't opened an email in six months, stop sending to them. They aren't going to buy, and they are hurting your ability to reach people who do want to buy. Make it easy to leave: It sounds counter-intuitive, but you want it to be easy to unsubscribe. If they can't find the "unsubscribe" link, they will hit the "spam" button instead. The spam button kills your business; the unsubscribe link just cleans your list. Don't buy lists: Never, ever buy a list of email addresses. It is the fastest way to get blacklisted in Australia. It’s a total waste of money and will get your domain blocked by Telstra and Optus faster than you can say "marketing."
Content That Triggers the Alarms
Sometimes, it’s not the technical stuff; it’s what you’re writing. The "bouncers" look for certain red flags that scream "scammer."
TOO MANY CAPITAL LETTERS: Writing your subject line like this makes you look like a shonky operator. Too many images: If your email is just one big image with no text, Google can't "read" it. They assume you're hiding something dodgy and send it to junk. Dodgy words: Words like "Free," "Guarantee," "No Cost," and "Act Now" are fine in moderation, but if you overdo it, you’ll trigger the filters. Broken links: Always check your links. If a link in your email goes to a broken page, it looks unprofessional to the customer and suspicious to the email provider.
How to Test if You Have a Problem
You don't need to be a computer genius to see if your emails are working. Here is a simple test you can do right now:
1. The Multi-Device Test: Send your latest marketing email to a personal Gmail account, a BigPond account, and an Outlook account. Don't just check if they arrived—check where* they arrived. Did they go to the "Promotions" tab? The "Junk" folder? Or the main Inbox? 2. Check Your Open Rates: If you usually see 30% of people opening your emails and suddenly it drops to 5%, you have a technical problem. It’s not that your customers suddenly stopped liking you; it’s that they stopped seeing you.
If you find your messages are being hidden, it's time to stop sending emails nobody sees and fix the underlying issues. Most of the time, it's a simple fix that a professional can handle in an afternoon.
What Should You Do First?
If you're worried about your emails, here is the priority list for a Brisbane business owner:
1. Verify your domain: Ask your IT person or your marketing agency: "Are our SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records set up correctly for our email platform?" If they look at you blankly, find someone else to help. 2. Clean your list: Go into your software and delete (or archive) anyone who hasn't opened an email in the last year. You'll likely see your results improve instantly because your reputation will go up. 3. Check your links: Ensure every link in your email works and goes to a secure website (the one with the little padlock icon).
Is it Worth the Effort?
I’ll be blunt: Email is still the most profitable way to market a small business in Australia. It’s cheaper than Facebook ads and more direct than SEO. But it only works if you play by the rules.
We worked with a pool cleaning business in the Western Suburbs that was struggling to fill their winter schedule. They were sending emails, but getting zero bites. After we fixed their technical settings and cleaned their list, their open rates doubled. That resulted in an extra 15 bookings per week—just from fixing the "plumbing" of their email system.
Don't let your marketing budget go down the drain because of a few hidden settings. Get the technical side right, and you'll find that email becomes your favorite way to grow your business.
Ready to get your emails out of the junk folder and into the hands of your customers?
At Local Marketing Group, we help Brisbane businesses stop wasting money on marketing that doesn't work. We can audit your email setup, fix the technical gremlins, and help you send messages that actually turn into phone calls and sales.
Contact Local Marketing Group today to get your email marketing back on track.