Skip to main content

Apple's Mail Privacy Protection and email marketing

[PLACEHOLDER]

 

Photo by Mateusz Dach from Pexels

Emails are ubiquitous in our daily lives. We use emails to communicate with our friends, families, learn about new products, get offers and promotions, etc. Consequently as a marketer email marketing plays a pivotal role in acquiring new customers and nurturing existing customers. 


However I personally have experienced a proliferation of emails during the pandemic. During the chronic lockdowns with the physical stores and restaurants being closed many small businesses have revamped their digital presence often adding email marketing to their repertoire of tools to reach their customers and prospects. I have seen my local shops setting up targeted websites (thanks to companies like Wix, Shopify, etc.) and often allowing visitors to subscribe to their newsletters. Email marketing solutions like Mailchimp and Campaign monitor have allowed these small businesses to quickly add email to their marketing channel with an easy pay as you go model. This has often allowed the small businesses to maintain strong engagement with their customer base even when the physical stores and restaurants were closed.


But there is a downside to this. Our inboxes are getting busier than ever and the competition for our attention is increasing at a tremendous pace. This also means that our privacy related to emails are becoming more important. So it was refreshing to see Apple prioritizing our email privacy in their latest iOS 15 update. Apple is well known in leading the pack in rolling out security features and I strongly think other email client providers will follow suit with similar if not stronger privacy features. 


So what is Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection? 


It is important to understand that the privacy protection is not designed to prevent delivery of relevant content to consumers. Instead it’s meant to give the consumer the ability to control the information he/she wants to share with a business. 


Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection is an opt-in feature for iOS, iPadOS and macOS that gives users more control over their inbox and the data shared with the email senders.

 

As per Apple, “In the Mail app, Mail Privacy Protection stops senders from using invisible pixels to collect information about the user. The new feature helps users prevent senders from knowing when they open an email, and masks their IP address so it can’t be linked to other online activity or used to determine their location.”


How will it impact the email marketers? 


  1. The open rates will be skewed. Open rates can no longer be used as an accurate metric for engagement. The open rates will always appear higher than they actually are as Apple will download the invisible pixel regardless of whether the user opens the email or not if Mail Privacy Protection is enabled.  

  2. Any marketing automation using open rates e.g. A/B will no longer be effective

  3. IP address can no longer be accurately used to identify the geolocation or online activity of the user


How should email marketers adapt to accommodate this change?


  1. Must stop relying on open rates as an engagement metric. Instead must focus on link clicks and relevant conversion metrics that drive business outcomes. This includes the number of users who clicked the links in email to subscribe, purchase, create accounts, etc.  

  2. Must use links clicks instead of open rates in A/B testing and retargeting workflows.  

  3. Must stop using geo targeting and optimize delivery time based on IP address. Instead must promote preference centers to get the relevant information like country to better target the audience. 

  4. Must thoughtfully curate email content to have CTA to drive higher engagement. Example, have a relevant blurb at the top of the email highlighting the content and accompanied with a CTA to drive click throughs. 


In conclusion privacy is becoming more and more important to the users and companies are adopting features to allow users select the data they are comfortable sharing with the companies. This can be disruptive for the marketers at the beginning however it provides a great opportunity for the marketers to better target the users by getting their explicit consent and information to better personalize the marketing messaging. This also provides the marketer the opportunity to focus more on the conversion metrics based on the user journey rather than vanity metrics like open rate as it better reflects the business outcomes from the marketing activities.  


References:

https://www.litmus.com/blog/apple-mail-privacy-protection-for-marketers/

https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/apple-mail-privacy-protection-guide/

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/06/apple-advances-its-privacy-leadership-with-ios-15-ipados-15-macos-monterey-and-watchos-8/

https://www.gale.agency/blog-posts/ios-15-and-the-future-of-email

Unknown

Trending posts

Demystifying OKR Scoring

You have probably read that one of the many good things about OKRs is that it provides structure and clarity to work towards common goals. It helps connect company, teams and individuals’ objectives to measurable results.   Photo by Garreth Brown via Pexels In a previous Beolle article, Herak wrote about HOSKR and OKRs. In this iteration we will focus on the OKR scoring. Measuring the “How” The KRs in OKRs are the Key Results. With them we measure the progress towards the Objectives we have set. So how do we score them in a way that makes sense, and measure the success? Few “gotchas” before we start Grades are an indication where you're going. In OKRs, scoring between .6 to .7 is your target. Scores between .8 and 1.0 are rare, meaning they are not the usual. If you find yourself completing all your OKRs within this range then something is not correct, for example, your Objectives are not Ambitious enough, meaning you always knew you (or your company or your team) were going to ach
Read more

AI with great power comes responsibility

Generative AI continues to be front and centre of all topics. Companies continue to make an effort for making sense of the technology, investing in their teams, as well as vendors/providers in order to “crack” those use cases that will give them the advantage in this competitive market, and while we are still in this phase of the “AI revolution” where things are still getting sorted.   Photo by Google DeepMind on Unsplash I bet that Uncle Ben’s advise could go beyond Peter Parker, as many of us can make use of that wisdom due to the many things that are currently happening. AI would not be the exception when using this iconic phrase from one of the best comics out there. Uncle Ben and Peter Parker - Spiderman A short list of products out there in the space of generated AI: Text to image Dall.E-2 Fotor Midjourney NightCafe Adobe Firefly
Read more

What it means to be product led

Many successful organizations including Miro, Figma, Spotify, Atlassian are using products as vehicles to drive customer acquisition and growth. These organizations use their products at the centre of their strategy to win customers and retain them.    Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán via Pexels If you use any of these tools you are aware of the free trials and freemium versions of these products. These organizations use free versions to generate prospects, drive adoption and convert to paying customers. These organizations are always customer focused and drive to provide friction-less customer experience.  Recently I learned about the inner workings of these organizations by taking the course from Mind your Product and Pendo . Currently the course is available for free and I recommend signing up for the course while the offer is available. Please find the details at the end of the post.  I found the course very insightful and I summarized three (3) key pillars of being a product led organ
Read more

Gaming trends: What to expect

Gaming continues with an accelerated evolution and significant business growth. The incredible virtual worlds are receiving thousands of real-time players, becoming another avenue for networking, as well as entertainment. This is just impossible to ignore. The gaming industry is one of the most dynamic and innovative sectors, constantly evolving and adapting to new technologies, consumer preferences, and market opportunities. Photo by Mikhail Nilov via Pexels   Newzoo forecast the game market will grow to $217.9 billion in 2023. Newzoo 2020 Global Game Market Cloud and gaming There was a time, not too long ago, when you would buy your games and play them by inserting them into your console or computer. As more gamers demand access to high-quality games on any device, anywhere, anytime, cloud gaming will become a mainstream option for delivering games over the internet. Games are now becoming available via subscription model. An example of this is the Microsoft Xbox game pass and Xbox L
Read more

This blog uses cookies to improve your browsing experience. Simple analytics might be in place for pageviews purposes. They are harmless and never personally identify you.

Agreed