Ginger Kidd (VP APAC at Sinch) explains why deliverability matters more than ever for small businesses, and how small changes can unlock real revenue.
Email’s death has been predicted for more than a decade, yet inboxes remain busier than ever, and email continues to be one of the most effective digital marketing channels available.
For Australian small businesses, it is important not to discount the power of email marketing. When budgets are tight, owners need channels that are reliable, affordable and within their control. Email reaches people who have opted in, it can be personalised, and it can be automated in ways that save time as teams grow.
The 2026 Sinch Mailgun Email Impact Report, based on more than 400 billion emails sent in 2025 and insights from over 1,200 email senders globally, reinforces this. Over three quarters (78%) of organisations say email is critical to business success, and nearly four in five plan to maintain or increase their investment in it.
AI is already part of this investment. Almost eight in ten senders are using or planning to use AI in their email programs. Yet many are not applying it in the ways that matter most. AI is often handling copywriting while more critical decisions are left to outdated processes, poor segmentation, weak deliverability and limited personalisation.
Ensuring that the message reaches the inbox
For email to succeed, it has to do more than leave the outbox. Its impact depends on landing in the inbox, not spam or a secondary folder that’s rarely checked.
Our research found that nearly 18% of emails sent in 2025 never reached the inbox. Among organisations that track email performance, 60% earn at least $10 USD for every dollar spent on emails that reach the inbox, and more than one in ten see returns as high as $40 USD for every dollar spent. This proves there is real value in an email that lands. So how do you ensure it reaches the inbox?
Inbox providers like Gmail and Outlook use a mix of signals: engagement, open rates, and clicks signal legitimacy, while high bounce rates, sudden volume changes, and past complaints push messages to spam. The content of the email itself, including length, subject line, and layout, further influences where messages land.
For small businesses, deliverability sits directly at the intersection of customer trust, engagement and revenue. This is a reality that Australian proptech platform ActivePipe experienced firsthand. As they scaled their property-matching email platform globally to support over 200,000 customers, they realised that even highly personalised content is lost if it doesn’t bypass spam filters. By prioritising dedicated deliverability tools like Sinch Mailgun to manage their massive sending volumes, they automated domain authentication (DKIM and DMARC) to isolate individual sender reputations. This prevents a few bad actors from blocking emails for everyone. This approach maintained a 99.99% platform uptime to guarantee that critical listing updates reached the inbox. Simultaneously, it halved their operational overhead by automating customer onboarding and freeing engineering teams from constant deliverability firefighting.
Simple deliverability habits that pay off
The good news for small businesses is that you don’t need complex or expensive technology solutions to improve deliverability. Simple habits, supported by smarter use of AI, can lift inbox placement and protect sender reputation:
- Start with a clean, permission-based list. Avoid bought or scraped lists. Focus on people who have actively opted in through your website, store or events. Use double opt-in where possible so you know addresses are valid and engaged.
- Be selective on audience and timing. Poorly timed or irrelevant emails lead to weaker engagement, which over time tells mailbox providers your messages are unwanted. Prioritise recently active subscribers and reduce frequency, or pause sending, to those who have not opened in a while.
- Be consistent with sending patterns. Sudden spikes in volume, or long periods of silence followed by heavy sending, can look risky to mailbox providers. Small businesses are better served by a steady, predictable sending pattern, with occasional well-planned campaigns layered on top.
- Keep content relevant and honest. Overly promotional, image-heavy emails with vague or exaggerated subject lines can trigger spam filters. Stay close to what people signed up for, whether that’s offers, updates or practical advice.
AI can make these habits easier to sustain at scale, flagging early signs of disengagement, suggesting better send times, and surfacing patterns including bounces and complaints before they start to hurt deliverability. Used this way, AI does more than speed up copywriting, it helps small businesses reach the right audience, land in the inbox, and understand what happens next.
Measurement tactics that will support success
An intelligent email strategy needs measurement that small businesses can actually use.
Start by looking beyond opens, and connect email activity to real business outcomes. For product-based businesses, track revenue per email, average order value and campaign performance. For service-based businesses, track link clicks to enquiries, bookings or consultation requests.
Monitor your audience closely, tracking not just the size but how it is changing over time. New sign-ups, unsubscribes, bounces and spam complaints all signal how your audience is responding to your strategy. Regular testing can also help you understand what resonates with them too. Small changes to subject lines, send times and calls to action can meaningfully improve performance.
Email remains one of the most accessible growth channels available. By combining solid deliverability habits with smarter use of AI and clear, outcome-focused measurement, Australian small businesses can ensure their messages reach the right people, at the right time, and deliver value that is both tangible and sustainable.
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