Apple has drawn a clear divide between privacy and marketing strategies. The Open Rate will be outclassed by more important metrics to monitor.
iOS 15 and email marketing are not in conflict. With this new update, Apple has restricted marketers in terms of data tracking.
As a result, the entire email marketing asset has reinvented itself by focusing on new metrics that outperform the open rate – which has always been one of the items that have the most weight in data analysis.
With the advent of iOS 15, the world of email marketing changed, but it doesn’t die. Every marketer and company will be able to rely on metrics such as click-through rate, quality content processing, and elimination of inactive leads.
But specifically, what is the relationship between iOS 15 and email marketing? Simple, users can avoid being tracked, receiving geo-localized advertising, or remarketing of insurance policy number.
Let’s analyze together how to enhance your email marketing strategy, to limit the damage. We leave immediately.
The Topic Of This Post
- 1 What the update to iOS 15 entails
- 2 Mail Privacy Protection and iOS 15
- 3 Apple’s packages to protect privacy
- 4 iOS 15 and email marketing: which metrics to analyze
- 5 iOS 15 and email marketing: boost your communications
- 6 Conclusion
What does the update to iOS 15 entail
Even the most extraordinary features must never come at the expense of privacy.
Apple
iOS 15 is the new Apple update and is available on devices starting last September 20. With the introduction of this update, Apple is leveraging its customers’ awareness by offering them three tangible benefits :
- Shows how the various apps access data;
- Avoid that they collect information without our knowledge;
- Each user chooses how to show the data collected in the Health app.
iOS 15 mainly affects the email marketing sector, which has always been the beating heart of every business. Here are what aspects are “inaccessible” with this update:
- The opening rates;
- The exact location of the user – everyone can disguise their IP through the feature called Privacy Relay ;
- The real email address – any Apple user will be able to purchase the Hide My Email premium service.
Blocking of monitors does not happen automatically. Once Ios 15 has been installed on the device and launched the “Mail” app, the screen that will act as a watershed in the world of marketing will appear:
Mail Privacy Protection and iOS 15
Mail protects your privacy by hiding your IP address so that it cannot be linked to your online activity or used to know your location.
Apple
Mail Privacy Protection is the most shocking news of the entire update. Although Ios 15 brings beneficial updates in the field of vocal search, monitoring of one’s health, and so on …
The MPP brings a real rift that will inspire marketers around the world to create innovative strategies to track customer interest in the email marketing segment.
In detail, Mail Privacy Protection:
- Disguise users’ email addresses;
- Makes the Open Rate metric obsolete and useless;
- Hinders location tracking;
- Neutralize the pixel embedded in emails.
What is the pixel in emails for
The pixel is an invisible code embedded within the emails you send to your list.
The Pixel, like the one you use on your website, gives you access to the holy grail of marketing: data. The goal of every activity – in addition to sales – is to access data, interpret it and use it to enhance the marketing strategy.
With this tool gone, the main marketers see some of the most important metrics slip from their hands, such as:
- Monitoring of user behavior. Each user has a different reaction when opening the email. Some read it thoroughly and interact with the CTA. Some stop halfway and never resumes reading. Instead, it’s not uncommon to find users ignoring emails. As you can see, the scenarios are many and the whole equation is upset when these addends are missing.
- The exchange of data and information between client and server.
- The user’s geolocation – detected through the IP.
The metrics affected by pixel removal
Once the pixel is removed from emails, marketers will have fewer data and tools to use. In practice, here are which marketing strategies will no longer apply to those who use the iPhone as the main device for reading emails:
- Retargeting activities;
- Promotional activities based on geolocation;
- Shipments are divided by geographic timing.
These aspects can also affect small and medium-sized enterprises that have recently crossed national borders.
Apple’s packages to protect privacy
Apple offers several packages to protect the privacy of its customers. Some are free while others require a monthly payment to access advanced features.
- Mail Privacy Protection (Free): this is the basic service that neutralizes geolocation and data exchange between client servers. Being an entry-level service we could say that MPP’s goal is enough to protect data. The revolution of these features is to block the exchange of data with third-party services – such as cookies.
- iCloud + (Paid): is a premium service that offers interesting features such as Hide My Email and Private Relay. Hide My Email allows you to disguise your email address by providing a fake one. The brands are not able to access the actual e-mail address unless the user provides explicit consent. With Private Relay the user can hide their IP address. This tool plays the same role as a VPN.
iOS 15 and email marketing: which metrics to analyze
With iOS 15, the open rate will become an obsolete and groundless metric. I like to define it as a vanity metric, exactly as happens with the number of followers in the main social networks. This metric once made sense and allowed certain influencers to gain prominence in the market niche.
Now, with the passage of time and the transformation of collective influences, more value is given to engagement …
The same principle will affect the email marketing industry. The Open Rate will become a metric that will lose more and more value in data analysis. But what are the metrics that outperform open rates?
- Click-Through rate. This metric represents clicks made on a link embedded in the email. Vitally important: monitor clicks on CTAs.
- Sign up for events, webinars, or other stimulating activities. Also in this case you analyze the clicks on the CTAs and you will be able to monitor the interest of the public on that specific theme.
- Include surveys. You can’t know who opens your emails… But you can know who interacts with them! Questionnaires are the ideal tool to intrigue the user and induce him to interact with the brand. Some surveys may concern the collection of feedback, opinions to create a new product or the simple choice of the topic to be discussed in social networks and webinars.
iOS 15 and email marketing: boost your communications
For your efforts to pay off, you need to make sure you include some valuable tips in your strategy.
- Curate your email marketing lists. The first step is to eliminate users who have not interacted with your emails for more than 6 months. Next, you have to try to segment the lists and divide them by purchasing habits (early bird and lovers of offers, customers with an important lifetime value, customers who buy each product promoted in the backend. Or users who are passionate about a given type of product – as in the case of tech products or a category of books. )
- Incorporates and complies with all directives from the GDPR – if your customers live in Europe. This advice won’t improve interaction with your emails, but it will make the user feel more protected – as well as your company’s finances.
- Optimize the delivery rate – that emails go to the spam box. The first step is to choose a quality email marketing service.
- Immediately remove inactive users who haven’t interacted with your postal content for more than 6 months. This step should be done periodically, even with customers and prospects who use other email services – such as Gmail, Yahoo, etc. Removing users from lists may seem counterintuitive. But think about it for a moment. What’s the point of encouraging inactive users? Nobody. Indeed, you risk altering the data to be analyzed.
Conclusion
iOS 15 and email marketing can successfully coexist. To stem the turmoil caused by this update, the most attentive marketers will be able to rely on some metrics and strategies.
Before even talking about metrics is more, every self-respecting marketer has two tasks: to eliminate inactive users from the mailing list and to segment the remaining lists. Once you’ve done this cleanup, it’s a good idea to make sure your emails are delivered correctly.
In this case, the job of every email marketing expert is to optimize the delivery rate by purchasing a quality service.
To make the relationship between iOS 15 and email marketing work, you need to monitor one metric in particular: the click-through rate. The CTR represents the click on the CTA embedded in the email.
This first step establishes the prospect’s active interest in the product promoted by the brand. It can be a product to buy, new social content, or an invitation to a webinar. Whatever the goal of the CTA, it is good to monitor every click.
And what do you think of iOS 15? Have you suffered any damage from this new update? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
