Those that delve into email marketing know that it’s a very dynamic environment, and there are lots of variables that prompt a change in strategy to get the best results. Perhaps email marketers didn’t think much about iOS 15 being rolled out. After all, the changes in previous versions weren’t massive, and it rarely influenced the email marketing strategy used by most. However, iOS 15 is less of an update and more of a major do-over for the Apple mobile device operating system. A robust email marketing strategy is key to success. For additional insights into evolving email marketing trends and innovations, visit our Email Marketing Innovations page.
The new operating system’s features that focus on data tracking, email privacy, and security overall have the potential to disrupt your email marketing strategy. That’s why we’re exploring the most notable ones and how you should consider updating your approach towards email marketing to make sure you get the best results. After all, iPhone users make up for almost 50% out of all mobile users in the US, and the percentage isn’t much lower for the rest of the world either.
Updates Regarding Email Privacy in iOS 15
The digital world is more and more concerned about data protection and privacy. Ever since GDPR rolled out, the IT giants started to pay a lot more attention to features that improve users’ privacy. And that’s the case for Apple as well through the “Hide My Email” and “Mail Privacy Protection” features built into iOS 15. These two have the potential to cancel some of the email marketing advantages marketeers had on previous iOS versions, and we’re telling you why in the following paragraphs.
Hide My Email
This new iOS feature allows iCloud subscribers to temporarily use anonymous email addresses. Inside the Mail app, users will be able to create these temporary addresses, often called burner addresses, that can be used when registering to various services and not disclose the main email.
The thing with this feature is that there’s not much you can do to work around it. If a user simply decides not to use their main email address to register on your site, it simply is what it is. Just like with eSports betting, for example, you have a 50/50 chance of getting the main email or just a burner email address. Of course, developing a good-looking and functional website and increasing customers’ trust will raise your chances of getting their main email account. Also, assuring visitors that you will never spam them with unnecessary emails and being transparent about why you want to have their contact information will also increase your chances.
Mail Privacy Protection
Read any email marketing guide, and it will surely say that everything’s about metrics. Open rate, bounce rate, click through rate, you name it. Well, this new feature introduced by iOS 15 basically leaves email marketeers blind. Mail Privacy Protection prevents the email sender from using the invisible pixel technique to collect info about the user’s activity. Furthermore, it also hides the IP address so tracking the location or online activity is also impossible.
If you’re already in panic mode, hold on for a couple of minutes more. We prepared a series of actions and email marketing ideas that should help you tackle the new security features developed by Apple. None of these will give you the perfect recipe to reach out to your customers and totally bypass the obstacles presented by iOS 15. As you already know, there are lots of factors that can influence an email marketing campaign’s success. However, it’s a place to start, and all these are strategies that should be applied to all email marketing efforts.
How to Adapt to Apple’s Email Marketing Privacy Updates
While nobody can deny that these new features can seriously disrupt email marketing for those targeting iOS users, there are some strategies that help sweeten the situation a bit. Let’s check out the four main things you can do to keep getting great results.
- Maintain a healthy email list – start by cleaning your email marketing database. Check the number of inactive subscribers and add them to a new list. Sending emails to active subscribers only will improve deliverability and will allow you to track performance easily.
- Use A/B testing – since you won’t be able to get much info about user interaction for your emails, start doing A/B testing to measure the performance of your email marketing campaigns using metrics related to your site and tie them with one campaign or the others. If you’re not sure how to start with A/B testing, find more info and check a few email marketing examples here.
- Focus on trust – as mentioned earlier, trust is an essential factor in your customer interaction. If your site, product, or service are trustworthy, people won’t have a problem sharing personal info or agreeing to receive newsletters and emails from you. Building trust puts you in a unique position where you can even ask some customers to disable the privacy feature and help you out. Always ask them what they would like to receive from you, and always choose open communication every step of the way.
- Add more marketing channels – instead of obsessing on email marketing, how often to send an email, or how to improve your open rate, try adding other marketing channels to your toolbox. Video marketing has been on the rise in recent years, especially combined with social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook. You can use a survey to find out if your current customers and leads would prefer other channels on top of email marketing news.
Final Thoughts on Email Marketing after iOS 15
Now that you’ve seen the main “threats” that iOS 15 brings to your email marketing campaigns, you can start applying the solutions to see what works best for you. The four tips we included in the previous paragraph can be followed by many more ideas depending on your niche, target demographics, and so on. And since email marketing is extremely diverse and vibrant, we invite all our readers that have any experience in the field to share their thoughts and continue adding information to the one we collected already. No matter if you want to add some info or you’re looking for answers, the comments section is the place to be!
