Last month, Apple previewed new privacy features in their upcoming in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, and watchOS 8 updates. These are expected to be released sometime between September and November 2021.
The new features, if a user opts-in, protects your clients by preventing all email marketing platforms from collecting specific information on when a user opens an email and where it is opened if the user is on one of the above Apple platforms.
How does this work exactly?
Currently, data from an email, including tracking pixels gets loaded only when the recipient opens the email and downloads the email’s images. With the new Mail Privacy Protection updates, Apple Mail will preload images, content, AND the tracking pixel of emails you send, regardless of whether the email is actually loaded by the recipient and viewed.
If your company uses email marketing, this means your open rates will soar, however this data won’t be reliable. Why? Everyone on one of these platforms will look like they opened the email, even if they really didn’t. Apple iPhone kicked off 2021 as the leader in mobile email with 90% of the mobile clients on their platform. Apple platforms themselves account for 52% of total email client market share according to a recent survey.
What Should You Do?
Most savvy marketers don’t rely solely on open rates to determine if an email campaign is effective. Click rates (how many clicks off an email you get), conversions (how many transactions, such as purchases and downloads, are completed off of an email campaign), and ROI (how much revenue is generated from each dollar spent on email marketing) have long been the gold standard in email marketing performance metrics.
There are a few changes, however, you’ll need to make to certain types of campaigns:
1. Resending to Non-Openers- since you won’t be able to accurately tell who is opening an email as everyone using one of the Apple mail clients listed above will look like they opened it, you should not resend an email campaign based on this information.
2. Automated email campaigns based on opening an email engagement- many marketers will send reminders to someone who opened an email, but didn’t take an action off the email. Since open rates are no longer reliable, it would be better to adjust automated campaigns to work off actions like subscribing to a list, making a purchase, clicking on a link in a particular campaign, or x number of days after receiving an earlier email.
3. Determining engagement by open rates- most marketers will remove those who aren't opening their emails over time. This reduces unsubscribes, keeps the list easier to maintain, and ensures that your emails are more likely being delivered to people who want them. With this change, you'll need to place more emphasis on other engagement factors like clicks, whether or not a customer takes an action (i.e. makes a purchase), or replies to your email for additional info.
As a certified Constant Contact Partner, Silver Tiger Consulting will be covering effective updates you can make to your email marketing strategy in our upcoming 2022 Marketing - A Simple Plan for Success Live Webinar Workshop. Sign up here: