"A wake-up call for e-mail marketers," is what e-mail experts are calling Apple's upcoming iOS update, which introduces Mail Privacy Protection. As a user, this prevents the sender from seeing if, where and when an e-mail was opened. Technically, Apple will download all images in emails immediately after they are sent, including the tracking pixel. Therefore, the "Open" that senders register is no longer the same as when the user opens the email themselves. The Open rate, the percentage of users who open an emailing, becomes largely unreliable. It is now an important metric to determine engagement for email campaigns. Apple is also shielding users' real IP addresses in privacy settings.
Impact on your campaigns
Extra Ternair Newsletter in August (subscribe)
What to think about now
Impact on your campaigns
In the United States, 45% of all emails sent are received on an Apple device (iPhone, iPad, iMac). This is expected to be similar in the Netherlands and 80-90% of these users will choose the privacy setting. With that, it will have a big impact on e-mail marketing strategies:
Open rate becomes significantly less reliable as a statistic
Campaign and automation workflows depending on Opens and Non-opens need to be adjusted
Client segments based on engagement, with Opens as a condition need to be adjusted
List hygiene determined based on recentness of or number of Opens needs to be adjusted
IP-based geo-segmentation from email: Becomes useless because the real IP address is no longer shown
Email experts expect that in time other tech giants will follow Apple's lead. As marketers, as always, we will continue to look for the best channels, KPIs, segmentation techniques and automations to determine engagement and behavior, where users get the experience they want.
Extra newsletter Ternair
Everyone involved in email will be affected by Apple's changes. And to quote an old advertising slogan, we can't make it more fun for marketers either, but we can make it easier. In mid-August, we will elaborate on the changes in an additional newsletter, in which we will also let our clients know what percentage of their users open emails on Apple devices. We'll let you know exactly what issues we can help you with in terms of settings and alternatives.For example, we already have a practical Webinar on "Engaging Your Newsletter Base' on the topic of List Hygiene. Be sure to watch this webinar so you can clean up your lists before the new update is rolled out everywhere and thus you can no longer trust the Openrate.Some other tips to prepare:
What you need to think about now
In preparation for the iOS 15 update, it is important to think about new KPIs to measure engagement and behavior of your (email) campaigns. Think about more explicitly assessing bounce and unsubscribe rates
For A/B testing of email subject lines, you may want to switch to measuring clicks. Clicks in emails remain measurable and trackable as before. And in the end, the goal of your campaigns is usually to generate conversions.
Make sure to include inactive contacts in your lists: recipients who don't open emails.
Where you establish customer segments based on engagement, you can no longer factor Open Rate into this. Alternatively, consider clicks, purchases, and customer contacts to expand the criteria. The numbers may get smaller, but it's a good way to keep engagement segments.
Look at new channels again. This is the time to look at channels like SMS and Web Push notifications and incorporate them into your marketing strategy. They are often relatively easy to use, help increase your reach and conversion rates are often higher than you expect. For example, you can send a text message if someone hasn't clicked on an e-mail yet.
This is the time to start measuring your entire e-mail conversion to purchase. Instead of engagement, you then factor in actual purchase behavior.
Summarized
Apple's iOS 15 update is going to be a challenge for email marketing
As a marketer, you need to rethink how you measure customer engagement, creating (personalized) user experiences is becoming increasingly important
Ternair will be coming out with an update in mid-August on what it means for your current metrics, what we're doing, and what we can help you with on campaigns, data and settings
Please start thinking about which KPIs you want to start measuring better, which campaigns you want to convert, and which new (personalized) channels you want to start using, such as SMS
We'll start to see how Apple Mail users actually use the iOS 15 update and how that affects campaigns. But creative marketers, don't wait, prepare ahead!
