Email marketing still works for Australian businesses, but only if you get three things right: consent under the Spam Act, sender authentication that Gmail and Yahoo now require, and measurement based on revenue rather than opens. Get those foundations in place and segmentation and automation do the rest.
The rules and inbox providers have changed a lot in the past few years. Here is what matters today.
Start with the Spam Act
The Spam Act 2003 applies to commercial emails and SMS with an Australian link. The Australian Communications and Media Authority, the ACMA, enforces it and has issued multi-million dollar penalties, including $3.55 million paid by the Commonwealth Bank in 2023. Every commercial message needs three things.
Consent
You need consent to send a commercial email. It can be express, such as someone ticking a box to join your list, or inferred from an existing relationship where they would reasonably expect to hear from you. Inferred consent is a grey area, so express consent is safer.
You must be able to prove consent. The ACMA recommends keeping records of who gave it, when and how. A message asking someone for consent is itself treated as a commercial message, so you cannot email a cold list to ask permission.
Identify yourself
Every message must clearly identify your business and include accurate contact details. Contact details must stay valid for at least 30 days after sending.
A working unsubscribe
Every commercial message needs a clear, free way to unsubscribe. Requests must be actioned within five working days, and the unsubscribe must keep working for at least 30 days after you send. The ACMA has also taken action against brands that required a login, a password or extra personal details to unsubscribe.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Meet Gmail and Yahoo sender requirements
Since February 2024, Google and Yahoo have required stricter standards from anyone sending to their users, and enforcement has tightened since. If your emails fail these checks, they land in spam or get rejected, no matter how good the content is.
Rules for all senders
Google's guidelines say every sender should authenticate mail with SPF or DKIM, have valid forward and reverse DNS records, send over TLS, and keep the spam complaint rate in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%. Google recommends staying below 0.1%.
Rules for bulk senders
If you send 5,000 or more messages a day to Gmail or Yahoo addresses, the bar is higher. Check each provider's current guidance. You need SPF, DKIM and DMARC, with the From domain aligned to SPF or DKIM. Marketing emails must support one-click unsubscribe through list unsubscribe headers, plus a visible unsubscribe link in the body.
Most good email platforms handle the headers for you. The DNS records are your job. If you have never set up DKIM or DMARC on your domain, fix that before your next campaign. It is a one-off task that protects every email you send.
Segment your list
Sending the same email to everyone is the fastest way to raise complaints and lower sales. Segmentation means sending people content that fits where they are.
Useful segments for most businesses:
- New subscribers who have not bought or enquired yet
- Customers, split by what they bought or which service they use
- Recent buyers versus people who have not bought in a long time
- People who clicked on a specific topic or offer
- Inactive subscribers who have not engaged in months
Start simple. Two or three segments done well beat twenty you cannot keep up with.
Build automation flows
Automated flows send the right message when something happens, not when you remember to send a campaign. Set them up once and they keep working.
- Welcome series: introduce your business, set expectations and give new subscribers a reason to act.
- Enquiry or lead nurture: follow up on a form fill with useful content until they are ready to talk.
- Abandoned cart or browse: for ecommerce, remind people what they left behind.
- Post-purchase: thank customers, help them use the product and ask for a review.
- Win-back: reach out to lapsed customers before they forget you.
- Sunset: stop sending to people who never engage. It protects your sender reputation.
Email works best alongside your other channels. Our guide to digital marketing channels for ecommerce shows how email fits with SEO, PPC and social.
Measure revenue, not opens
Open rates used to be the headline metric. They are no longer reliable. Apple Mail Privacy Protection, introduced in 2021, preloads email content including tracking pixels for users who turn it on. That registers opens whether or not the person read the email. Other privacy tools do similar things.
Treat open rate as a rough health check at best. Focus on numbers that tie to money:
- Click-through rate on the links that matter
- Conversions, such as enquiries, bookings or purchases
- Revenue per email sent and per subscriber
- Unsubscribe and spam complaint rates
To track this properly, tag every link with UTM parameters and make sure your analytics records conversions from email. Then you can see which campaigns and flows actually pay for themselves.
Keep your list clean
A big list full of people who never engage hurts deliverability. Inbox providers watch how recipients react. Run a short re-engagement sequence for inactive subscribers, then remove the ones who still do not respond. Check your spam complaint rate in Google Postmaster Tools every month. If it climbs, look at which segment or campaign caused it and fix that first. Never buy lists. Bought lists rarely carry valid consent, which breaches the Spam Act, and they damage your sender reputation.
Need help making email pay?
If your emails are going out but you cannot see what they earn, start with tracking and authentication. Get in touch and a senior strategist will review your setup.
