Why most Brisbane business owners ignore their email numbers
I’ve sat down with hundreds of business owners from Chermside to Logan, and when I ask, "How are your emails performing?" I usually get one of two answers. Either a blank stare or, "Oh, about 20% of people open them."
Here’s the cold, hard truth: An "open" doesn't pay your commercial rent. A "click" doesn't put fuel in the ute.
Most people look at email numbers like a high school science project—lots of data, but no idea what it means for their bank account. If you’re spending 2 or 3 hours a week putting together a newsletter or paying a staff member to do it, you need to know if that time is actually buying you anything.
If you aren't looking at the right numbers, you are flying blind. You might be sending emails that annoy your best customers, or worse, you might be leaving thousands of dollars on the table because you didn't see a simple pattern in the data.
In this guide, I’m going to strip away the technical fluff and show you the only numbers that matter to a small business owner.
The "Big Three" numbers that equal money
You don't need a degree in statistics to understand your email performance. You just need to focus on three specific things. Think of these like the gauges on your dashboard. If one is in the red, you’ve got a problem.
1. The "Who's Interested" Number (Open Rate)
This tells you how many people actually looked at your subject line and decided it was worth their time. In Brisbane’s competitive market, people are busy. If you’re a sparky sending out a "March Newsletter," nobody cares. If you send "How to save $200 on your next power bill," they’ll open it.If this number is low (under 20%), you are failing at the very first hurdle. You’re shouting into a void. We often see businesses struggle here because they use generic, boring headings that look like spam.
2. The "Who's Buying" Number (Click Rate)
This is the most important number for your daily operations. It tells you how many people saw what you were offering and said, "Yes, I want that."If 100 people open your email but zero people click the button to "Book a Quote" or "Buy Now," your email was a waste of time. It means your message didn't connect, or your offer wasn't sharp enough. When we help clients get customers to buy, we focus entirely on moving this specific number. A tiny 1% increase in this number can often result in thousands of dollars in extra monthly revenue for a local retail shop or service business.
3. The "Unsubscribe" Number (The Quit Rate)
If this number spikes, you’ve done something wrong. You’ve either sent too many emails, or you’ve sent something irrelevant. If you’re a landscaper and you start emailing people about your new pet dog every day, they’ll leave. Keep an eye on this—it’s the quickest way to see if you’re burning your reputation.The hidden cost of "Free" tools
I see a lot of start-ups in Newstead or Milton try to save a few bucks by using free email tools. Look, I’m all for saving money, but "free" usually comes with a massive hidden cost: bad data.
Many free platforms don't give you the granular detail you need to see who is actually spending money. They give you the "fluff" numbers but hide the stuff that helps you grow. Before you commit to a platform, you need to understand the email platform costs involved. Sometimes, paying $50 a month for a proper tool will make you an extra $500 because you can actually see what’s working and do more of it.
How to tell if an email was a success
Let’s look at a real-world scenario. We worked with a boutique gym owner who was sending out weekly tips.
Email A: "Our Latest News" - 15% opened it, 1 person clicked. Total sales: $0. Email B: "3 spots left for our 6-week challenge" - 28% opened it, 12 people clicked. Total sales: $2,400.
On paper, both are "emails." In reality, Email A was a hobby and Email B was a business asset.
To know if your emails are working, you must track revenue per email. Take the total sales that came from that email and divide it by the number of people you sent it to. If you sent an email to 500 people and it made you $500, that email is worth $1 per person. Now you have a benchmark. Next time, try to make it worth $1.10.
Stop guessing and start measuring
If you aren't sure which of your messages are actually hitting the mark, you're just throwing spaghetti at the wall. I’ve seen businesses double their enquiry rate simply by looking at which past emails got the most clicks and just... doing more of that.
It sounds simple because it is. If your customers clicked on a link about "How to maintain your deck" more than "Our new office opening," then stop talking about your office and start sending more maintenance tips. You need to measure email ROI by looking at the actual profit, not just the likes or opens.
Three things to check this week
You don't need to spend hours in spreadsheets. Just do these three things:
1. Check your last 5 emails: Which one had the highest number of people clicking? What was that email about? Do more of that. 2. Look at your "Unsubscribes": Did one specific email cause a bunch of people to leave? If so, never send that type of content again. 3. Check your links: Click the buttons in your own emails on your phone. Do they go to a page that makes it easy to buy? You’d be surprised how many Brisbane businesses lose sales because their "Book Now" button goes to a broken page or a confusing form.
The bottom line
Marketing isn't an art project; it's an investment. If you put $1 into email marketing, you should be getting $5, $10, or $20 back. But you'll never know if that's happening if you don't look at the numbers.
Most business owners find this overwhelming at first, but once you see that "Email B" just paid for your weekend away, you’ll start to love these numbers.
Don't let your email list sit there gathering dust, and don't send emails just for the sake of it. Use the data to give your customers what they actually want, and they’ll reward you with their business.
Want to know exactly how much money your emails are making (or losing)?
At Local Marketing Group, we help Brisbane businesses turn their email lists into predictable sales machines. We don't care about "brand awareness"—we care about your bottom line.
Contact Local Marketing Group today and let’s get your marketing working as hard as you do.