The End Of Open Rate How The Ios 15 Update Will Affect Your Email Marketing
Management Summary
The changes with iOS 15 at a glance
With the iOS 15 update, Apple is building this“Mail Privacy Protection” featurein theApple Mailapp. If users activate this feature, they canopeningsof emails in Apple Mailno longer tracked, and the IP addresses of the recipients can no longer be traced. Apple prevents tracking by interposing a proxy server when sending email campaigns to users.
The openings of an email campaign are tracked via a small, invisible image measuring 1 pixel, which is incorporated into the email. As soon as the recipient opens the email, all images contained in it are downloaded from the sender’s server. This also includes the invisible tracking pixel image, which reports an opening to the reporting of your email marketing tool.
If iOS 15 users activate the “Mail Privacy Protection” feature in Apple Mail, the email with all the media it contains will be automatically loaded onto an Apple proxy server immediately after it has been sent, which is then “interposed” between the sender server and the recipient’s email inbox. Since loading the email onto the Apple Proxy Server loads all images and thus also the invisible tracking pixel image, this triggers the automatic registration of an opening. So in the future will beiOS 15 users,who have “Mail Privacy Protection” activated in Apple Mail, always oneOpen ratefrom100%have.
Moreencryptedthe “Mail Privacy Protection” functionIP addressof the email recipient. So that can alsoGeolocationof the recipientno longer tracedbecome.
Impact on your email marketing
The changes brought about by the new iOS 15 update will have a major impact on all areas of email marketing and, in addition to Apple Mail users with activated Mail Privacy Protection, will also affect your email marketing measures holistically.
Reporting
The opening rate (already a controversial KPI) will no longer be measurable for Apple Mail users with active Mail Privacy Protection. Overall, that means one thingFalsification of your email marketing reports. How much of a problem this corruption is depends on how many Apple Mail users are among your recipients.
Subject lines A/B testing
Since the opening rate is the decisive KPI for subject lines A/B testing, and this can no longer be measured in the future for Apple Mail users with activated privacy protection, this will also be the casestatisticsto a partadulterated. This means that the winning variant can no longer be determined statistically cleanly and reliably.
For more information on how A/B testing works in email campaigns, please readthis blog article.
segmentation
One of the most common characteristics used to segment recipient lists is thisOpening emails. Many email campaigns consist of follow-up or reminder emailsNon-openerbe sent. Openers often receive other content tailored to them. This type of segmentation will no longer be possible for Apple Mail users with Privacy Protection activated.
Also the segmentation byGeolocationwill no longer be possible in the future due to the anonymization of the IP address. This means you can no longer send Apple Mail users emails that are personalized based on their location.
Trigger emails
Trigger emails that are onOpenings basedcan no longer be sent. Apple Mail users with active Mail Privacy Protection would automatically be considered openers, even if they have not opened an email. As a consequence, they may immediately receive a follow-up email and other emails from the entire trigger process that were not actually intended for them.
Reloading dynamic content
All elements of your email thatloaded dynamically when openedand require, for example, the time of opening for correct display, can no longer be sent. Examples of this areCountdowns, which count the remaining days until the end of an offer orStocks, which are displayed to recipients on a daily basis. In the future, Apple Mail recipients would see the stock of an item that was available at the time the email was sent (since the Apple proxy server loaded the email at that time).
What you can do in the short term
Depending on how your email marketing tool works, you can take a few short-term steps to continue generating meaningful reports and conducting reliable A/B tests despite the changes brought about by iOS 15.
Filter iOS 15 users
Although the Mail Privacy Protection function prevents tracking of the openings of your email campaign, recipients who open the email with the iOS 15 operating system will still appear in your reports in the future. So one way to clean up your KPIs is to exclude these users from the report entirely.
Projecting the open rate for iOS 15 users
In the future, the actual opening rate for Apple Mail users with activated privacy protection will no longer be measurable. However, this does not apply to theClick rate. The click behavior of your recipients is measured by your email marketing tool by assigning tracking links in the email sent. That’s why click tracking is part of the new Mail Privacy Protection featurenot affected. By having the correctly calculatedClick-To-Open RateUsing your recipient list without iOS 15 users and the click rate of your iOS 15 users, you can mathematically approximate the opening rate of iOS 15 users with a simple rule of three.
Increasing the size of segments in subject lines A/B tests
After the segments that fall into your A/B test are randomly selected and divided evenly, theApple Mail usersWith privacy protection activated, the opening rates of both segments can be distorted equally, which means that a winning variant can still be determined. So here theseProbability of an equal distributionIf possible, the segments included in the A/B test should be chosen generously (e.g. 30%-40% depending on the number of recipients).
Customization of automated trigger emails
In any case, trigger emails that are based on openings should be adjusted promptly. For example, couldClicks instead of opens as triggerscan be used to send multi-stage emails. If this is not effective, iOS 15 users can be excluded from the trigger emails (depending on how your email marketing tool works).
How big is the problem?
According to a recent study byLitmus LabsThe share of Apple Mail users in the global email client market is estimated at 11% – and the trend has been rising in recent years.
Not to be forgotten is that in the near futurenot allApple Mail users also have the latest operating systemiOS 15will use. In addition, Mail Privacy Protection must be approved by Apple Mail usersbe activated. The function is not set automatically and therefore does not apply to all iOS 15 Apple Mail users.
How impactful the Mail Privacy Protection function is for your company’s email marketing measures depends onhow many Apple Mailor iOS 15UserShein your recipient listhave. In any case, we recommend evaluating this using your email marketing tool before implementing any measures.
Whether the impact on the market in general and for your company specifically is large or small: the fact is thatApplein terms ofPrivacy protectionone early onPioneering rolehas taken. When it comes to blocking 3rd party cookies, most of the market-leading browsers have followed Apple Safari’s example. There is therefore reason to assume that theThere will be stricter measures to track emails in the futurewill affect the marketing industry.
Excursus: We have this on the topic of 3rd party cookies and the effects of cookie death in browsers on online marketingComprehensive and free white paper “The Post-Cookie Era FAQ”written, which you can view and download online.
What you can do in the long run
In the short term, Apple iOS 15 users can be filtered out of email marketing reports and excluded from email campaigns based on open triggers. If other email clients follow Apple’s example, which is entirely plausible given the current data privacy trend on the market, it is advisable to plan for the long term.
Use multiple KPIs in email marketing
Tracking the opens of your email campaigns can easily be prevented by email clients, as the example of Apple iOS shows. However, other KPIs are in the hands of your email marketing and analytics tools. These include, for example,Click rateor theeCommerce conversion rate. Due to the difficulty of precisely determining the opening rate of emails (example: email clients that block the loading of images and thus the tracking pixel), this KPI has been very controversial for years when it comes to deriving measures to optimize email campaigns. It is therefore advisable to use other KPIs in reporting, analyzing key figures and scoring recipients that are under your control to a certain extentmore weightto lend.
Rethink the conception and design of emails
If you rethink email marketing KPIs, email campaigns must also be rethought. If you decide to give more importance to the click rate in the future, your emails must be designed and wordedoptimized for clicksbe.
Do lead nurturing
Users want to reveal less and less about themselves but still want to be addressed in as personalized a way as possible. Since the leading Internet giants are increasingly reacting to concerns about users’ personal data and making tracking more difficult through various measures, the only solution can be hisown (1st party) customer datatostrengthenand by means of modernMachine learningActivate methods. In email marketing, lead nurturing campaigns and preference centers can be used to request additional data such as location, dates of birth, interests or preferred email frequencies. The following applies: Users are quite willing to reveal their own data if they trust your brand and are willing to give you personal dataAdded valueis offered. This added value can include sending personal offers or tailored content.
Choose the right email marketing tool
What functions does your email marketing tool offer? Can you easily react to current market trends? How does your tool provider handle the mail privacy protection function? Some tool providers on the market have already responded to the new privacy protection settings of iOS 15 and, for example, enable automatic correction of open rates or the calculation of optimal segment sizes for subject lines A/B testing. Also sending more effectivelyLead nurturing campaignsYour tool should include as well as customizationdynamic content.
Do you need help?
Which email marketing tool is right for you and will make you and your company fit for a future in which tracking user behavior is becoming more difficult, users want to reveal less and less data about themselves and still expect content tailored to them personally? We review the best email marketing tools on the market based on these and other criteria that are important for your company and support you in selecting a suitable tool.
