What does Apple iOS 15 update mean for email marketers?

Everyone is worried about privacy these days. The global regulatory landscape is only guaranteed to get more demanding soon when it comes to client data privacy. The internet has spoiled marketers. Whenever it comes to tapping into our consumers and contacting them personally with our products or services, digital marketing, social networks, and email marketing provide us with many options.

 As I’m sure you’ve noticed, Apple is set to release iOS 15, which will alter consumers’ privacy protections. While this is likely to please many users and make many consumers feel more secure about their data privacy, it will undoubtedly affect the marketing business, which relies greatly on easily available user data.

Let’s look at everything about this upgrade, including how it will affect the way you promote your business and how you deliver and track email marketing.

Marketers will no longer see email openings for users who have enabled Mail Privacy in iOS 15. However, other users, including those on desktop computers and Android phones, can still be tracked.

In 2021, the majority of emails will be opened on mobile devices. That market is dominated by iOS.

• Hide My Email Address

Hide my Email is the latest Apple feature found in iOS 15, macOS Monterey (which was released earlier this month), and iCloud settings. Customers can sign up for Email offers without using their real email address and using an Apple-generated randomly selected address. The emails are subsequently forwarded to the user’s primary email account. Users can easily erase this new email address, preventing it from spreading over the internet.

Hide My Email raises several problems for marketers. To begin with, determining whether a new email sign-up is a genuine account or a “burner” is difficult. As users can easily delete their Emails, this is likely to trigger deliverability issues, resulting in greater bounces and concerns from ISPs, who may adjust the Email’s deliverability.

 Although, this is wonderful news for Apple users who cherish their privacy. However, it poses a difficulty to email marketers’ typical data collection methods. Specifically, advertisers who now rely on monitoring pixels for data collection.

 The iOS 15 upgrades will transform the current email marketing environment by enabling users of the native Mail app to:

• Allow email senders to stay private about when and where their recipients open their messages.

• Email senders will be unable to see the outcomes of hidden pixels that have been employed to capture crucial data.

• So that their IP address can’t be traced and associated with other online activity, they encrypt it.

• Set iCloud+ email accounts that auto-forward to their primary accounts. 

What Will the iOS 15 Update Bring to the Table?

In simple words, marketers will need to modify the strategy they use for email engagement and personalize email marketing. But, at the same time, other things that depend on open rates will be impacted as well.

They will all be impacted because they focus on open rate engagement, list health, segmentation, and automatic triggers.

How Should Email Marketers Get Ready for iOS 15?

• A greater emphasis on bottom-of-funnel analytics.

Keep in mind that while Email’s upper funnel analytics are expected to suffer due to Apple’s current adjustments, this will create new chances for a greater emphasis on bottom-of-the-funnel metrics such as purchase, conversion, and so on.

• Make use of the tools at your disposal to assess the impact.

To fully discover what part of your database is impacted, use existing technologies (Email on Acid or Litmus).

• The optimization of email acquisition will be crucial.

It’s crucial to look for ways to improve email acquisition and keep track of list growth.

• Create a data structure for first-party data.

In our new world of privacy, driving conversions through targeted marketing is now much more challenging. What is the alternative?

Creating customer profiles over their whole lifecycle using a first-party data structure. 

Bottom Line

In the world of marketing, it might feel as if something puts the industry on fire the moment you get relaxed, altering how you do business and requiring you to be more innovative with your strategy. The upcoming iOS 15 release will bring significant changes to how we do things, but it doesn’t have to be bad. 

On the contrary, this will lead to positive things, such as updated and enhanced marketing plans that prioritize the client. 

We hope that this post will assist you in preparing and ensuring that you do not lose momentum in achieving your objectives this year.