Email marketing still works — here’s why (and how to do it properly)

Email has been around long enough that people sometimes assume it’s “old” marketing - something you send once a month to tick a box. But the numbers tell a different story. Email is still one of the most reliable, controllable and profitable channels for small businesses.

The challenge isn’t “does email work?”
It’s “are you using it properly?”

In this post we’ll cover:

1. Why email is still such a powerful channel

2. The biggest mistakes small businesses make

3. What a good email set-up looks like

4. The emails every business should have

5. How to get started without buying data

1. Why email is still powerful

Unlike social, email is owned - you decide when you talk to your audience. There’s no algorithm deciding who sees your content. If someone has given you their email address, they’ve given you permission to speak to them.

A few reasons it works so well:

• It reaches people where they actually are. People check email every day — often several times a day.

• It’s personal. You can segment, personalise and trigger messages based on behaviour.

• It’s measurable. You can see whether it was opened, clicked and converted.

• It’s cost-effective. Once the strategy and templates are in place, email is one of the cheapest channels to run.

So if email isn’t working right now, it’s usually not the channel — it’s the set-up.

2. Common mistakes small businesses make

Most of the time we see the same problems over and over:

1. Sending “newsletters” with no purpose
A monthly round-up of everything you’ve done is fine — but it’s not a strategy. Each send should have a reason: sell, nurture, educate, reactivate.

2. Designing like it’s a website
Emails don’t behave like websites. Clients are inconsistent, Outlook has its own rules, mobile behaviour is different. If your emails look broken in some inboxes, people stop trusting them.

3. Buying data
Tempting, but risky. You get low engagement, you damage deliverability, and sometimes you breach consent rules. It’s better to grow slower with clean data.

4. Never looking at the numbers
Open, click, and conversion rates will tell you what to do next. If you’re not reviewing them, you’re guessing.

3. What “good” looks like

A solid email marketing set-up usually has three layers:

a) Strategy

• Who are we talking to?

• What do we want them to do?

• How often should we email?

• What value are we providing?

This stops you “sending for the sake of it”.

b) Execution

This is where SendLab lives — copy, design, build and send. A good send should:

• load fast

• look good on mobile

• have one clear action

• be accurate (no broken links, no spelling mistakes)

• be tracked

c) Analysis

After each send, ask:

• Did it get opened?

• Did people click?

• Did the right people click?

• What should we change next time?

Email gets better when you treat it as a cycle — plan → send → review → improve.

4. The five emails every business should have

You don’t have to start with a complicated automation programme. Start with these and you’re already ahead of most small businesses.

1. Welcome email / welcome series
This is your first impression. Tell people who you are, what they can expect, and give them one useful thing straight away (discount, resource, intro guide).

2. Newsletter (but with a purpose)
Not “here are five random things”. Try: “Here’s one thing we’re seeing in your sector and what to do about it.”

3. Promotional / offer email
Clear headline, clear CTA, time-limited. Don’t bury the offer.

4. Reactivation email
For people who haven’t opened in 60–90 days. “We’ve missed you” still works — especially if you give them a reason to come back.

5. Confirmation / transactional emails
These often get ignored — but they have very high open rates. Booking confirmations, receipts, password resets — all of these can still carry brand and tone.

(What you pasted earlier — the Lost City booking confirmation — is a good example of a transactional email done properly: clear, branded, mobile-ready.)

5. How to grow your list (properly)

Please don’t buy lists. Do this instead:

• Add a newsletter / updates form to your website (homepage + footer + blog pages)

• Offer a lead magnet relevant to your audience (email checklist, campaign planner, content ideas)

• Use LinkedIn to drive people to a sign-up page

• Collect emails at point of sale, but be explicit about consent

• Clean your list regularly with a tool like Bouncer to keep deliverability high

A smaller, clean list will outperform a big, messy one.

6. When to get help

You can absolutely DIY email marketing — but there are a few moments when bringing in a specialist saves time and mistakes:

• you need templates that work everywhere

• you want to automate (welcome journey, win-back, cart recovery)

• you want better reporting than “it sent”

• you need to look more professional than a basic platform template

That’s where a full-service setup like SendLab.io earns its keep — you get strategy, copy, design, build, send and analysis in one place, so you don’t have to juggle five different freelancers.

Final thought

Email marketing still works — really well — but only when it’s treated like a channel, not a chore.
Start with the basics, send regularly, measure everything, and keep your data clean. Do that, and email becomes one of the few marketing activities that actually pays for itself.

Want help setting up your email properly?
Drop us a message and tell us what you’re trying to do — we’ll tell you the simplest way to do it.