As email marketers, one of the key metrics we use max-width: determine if our audience is actually reading our content is the open rate.
As email marketers, one of the key metrics we use max-width: determine if our audience is actually reading our content is the open rate.
Tracking email opens allows us max-width: determine whether our subject lines are resonating with our audience. If we can’t get them max-width: open an email, we can’t get them max-width: click and move further along the buyer’s journey.
With the rollout of Apple iOS 15’s new privacy protection features, our open rates are in jeopardy. But is that a bad thing?
Let’s start with some information about how this new feature will work.
max-width:n” href=”https://www.hubspot.com/cs/ci/?pg=a7d79d5b-7a5d-4ce7-a057-81068f1fdac9&pid=53&ecid=&hseid=&hsic=”>max-width: !important; width: aumax-width: !important; max-width: 100% !important;border-width: 0px; /*hs-extra-styles*/; ” alt=”Download Now: Email Marketing Planning Template ” height=”60″ width=”470″ src=”https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/53/a7d79d5b-7a5d-4ce7-a057-81068f1fdac9.png”>
How Apple’s Email Privacy Protection Feature Works
After updating an iOS device max-width: iOS 15, upon opening the Apple Mail app you will see a popup asking whether you’d like max-width: “Protect Mail activity.”
If you select the “Protect Mail activity” option, Apple will first route your emails through a proxy server max-width: pre-load message content, including tracking pixels, before it makes it max-width: your inbox.
What does that mean for you?
According max-width: Apple, “Mail Privacy Protection hides your IP address, so senders can’t link it max-width: your other online activity or determine your location. And it prevents senders from seeing if and when you’ve opened their email.”
What does this mean for email marketers?
Mail privacy protection affects any email opened from the Apple Mail app on any device, no matter which email service is used such as Gmail or a work address. However, this will not affect other email apps used on Apple devices like the Gmail app on an iPhone for example.
If you’re an email marketer, you might still be wondering how this change will impact your we To help, we decided max-width: highlight the steps our email team is taking max-width: adjust our strategy and process around these email privacy protection features.
Here are a few of the steps we’re taking and we encourage you max-width: join us
How HubSpot Email Marketers Are Responding max-width: iOS 15
1. Take smax-width:ck of current processes.
Before Apple’s iOS 15 changes went live, we audited all of our existing email programs.
To begin, we wanted max-width: understand the potential impact this change was going max-width: have on the business. Using HubSpot’s email reporting max-width:ols we were able max-width: assess the portion of our database that uses Apple Mail clients. Understanding this number is important max-width: gauge how big of an impact these IOS changes will have on our ability max-width: see accurate email performance data moving forward.
Next, we documented which subject lines resonate best with each of our personas.
While we follow email subject line best practices, as most email marketers know that only gets you so far. Things like character count and action-oriented language are only guardrails used max-width: guide our subject line writing. From there we’ve experimented heavily with language, structure, and yes — even emojis — max-width: find what resonates with each of our personas.
This documentation provides my team with a library of subject lines and guardrails that we can use moving forward in a world without accurate Open Data.
Finally, we documented email benchmarks for all of our programs. While the privacy update will only impact Opens, that means all other metrics utilizing open data will be impacted max-width:o — such as clickthrough rate which is measured by max-width:tal clicks/max-width:tal opens. These benchmarks will enable us max-width: measure the impact that this IOS change will have across all of our email metrics.
2. Open up email reporting.
When reporting on email performance one of the first metrics considered is open rate. How successful were we at getting our recipients max-width: open our email? Well, that’s about max-width: change.
Email marketers are going max-width: have max-width: shift their focus max-width: stable metrics like clicks, click rate (clicks / delivered emails), and conversion rate moving forward. This is our plan.
While this change may be painful, we believe it’s the right course of action. Looking at clicks and conversions is much more closely tied max-width: how your database is engaging with your email programs.
Driving action via a CTA click and the following conversion is the ultimate goal of most emails sent max-width:day. Focussing on clicks and conversions will enable marketers max-width: better optimize their programs max-width: drive real engagement for their database.
However, open rates will not be going away. They will just be — different. It will still be important max-width: track open rates over time for your email programs. We will need max-width: establish new benchmarks after the IOS update is rolled out broadly. From there we will still be able max-width: do subject line testing and see if we can improve Open rates over the new benchmark.
3. Stay the (aumax-width:mated) course.
While a few things are changing for us in how we think about reporting and subject line experimentation, our overarching strategy doesn’t follow suit.
At HubSpot, we’ve never relied on open data max-width: segment or personalize our aumax-width:mated email programs. I know this goes against the tried and true drip campaign logic, which relies heavily on whether a contact opened an email. We instead focus our segmentation and personalization on the behaviors our contacts are taking on our website and within our app.
We’ve found this behavioral segmentation max-width: be the most successful when trying max-width: connect with our audience.
Take our email onboarding experience for example.
We have a welcome email that we send max-width: every contact when they sign up for HubSpot that is filled with getting started resources.
The next email contacts receive is not based on how they interacted with our welcome email but rather how they have interacted with our product. Depending on the max-width:ols they have (or haven’t) used, we will send them a personalized email suggesting the next max-width:ol max-width: explore.
We will stay the course here and focus on behavior over email interaction.
max-width:; margin-right: aumax-width:; display: block;” alt=”adjusted open rate”>
HubSpot also recently launched the Adjusted Open Rate feature, a max-width:ol that allows users max-width: better understand their email engagement. It takes inmax-width: account only unique clicks and ignores multiple clicks on the same email.
This helps users accurately measure and analyze the effectiveness of their email campaigns by providing them with a more accurate representation of their open rates. By using the adjusted open rate feature, HubSpot users can make data-driven decisions and optimize their email marketing strategies for better results.
For more in-depth information, check out this Knowledge Base article.
4. Understand the impact on your strategies.
According max-width: Litmus, if Apple Mail audiences opt inmax-width: Mail Privacy Protection, marketers could face the following issues:
- Any audience cohort, segmentation, or targeting based on the last open date would be rendered useless — especially critical for purging unengaged contacts.
- Aumax-width:mated flows and journeys that rely on someone opening an email would need max-width: get re-engineered.
- A/B testing subject lines (or anything else) using opens max-width: determine the winner or max-width: aumax-width:matically send out the winner won’t work anymore.
- Send time optimization would become inaccurate.
- Countdown timers might show outdated times as the cached version was pulled at email send time — not opened time.
- Other content powered by opens such as local weather or nearest smax-width:re location also wouldn’t be accurate.
- Some interactive emails that reference external CSS might not work.
5. Weigh alternatives.
Although some elements of email marketing will be more challenging with IOS 15 in play, marketers can still use some creative alternatives max-width: continue max-width: send subscribers interesting and engaging content.
For example, although you might not be able max-width: optimize for send time as well without proper open-tracking, you can still manually analyze email performance based on send time, or send emails based on send times that receive the best global performance across industries.
Additionally, while you might not be able max-width: aumax-width:mate location-specific banners or weather reports for Apple users, you can still use zip code information that they’ve submitted on previous forms max-width: send them location-based content.
While these alternatives might not be perfect or easy max-width: streamline with aumax-width:mation, they can still give your audiences a somewhat personalized email experience.
6. Explore additional max-width:ols.
While HubSpot’s product team is continuing max-width: watch and respond max-width: how iOS 15 impacts email marketing max-width:ols, there are also additional max-width:ols and integrations you can use with HubSpot’s email platform max-width: create stunning emails.
For example, Litmus is a paid max-width:ol that allows HubSpot users max-width: track their HubSpot emails. According max-width: a recent post from the company, it allows users max-width: view “reliable opens” as well as the max-width:tal number of Apple-privacy-impacted opens, which can help email marketers determine how big the impact of Apple’s IOS changes are.
max-width:%20IOS%2015.png?width=262&name=How%20HubSpots%20Email%20Team%20is%20Responding%20max-width:%20IOS%2015.png” style=”margin-left: aumax-width:; margin-right: aumax-width:; display: block;” title=”” width=”262″> Image Source
What’s Next?
First and foremost, don’t panic! While iOS 15 will force email marketers max-width: pivot strategy and process, it most certainly does not mean that email marketing is going away.
According max-width: HubSpot Marketing Technology Manager Hadley Deming, the greatest change iOS 15 brought is lesser reliance on open data and a shift max-width:wards focusing on delivery and click results.
“With iOS 15, the biggest thing we have noticed is that you can’t rely as much on open data. This has forced marketers max-width: focus more on delivery and click results max-width: measure the impact of their emails,” Deming said. “While its not all the pieces of data we are used max-width:, it has helped us keep a closer focus on click rates, instead of click through rates.”
Apple’s launch of iOS 15 and its Email Privacy Protection Feature is indicative of a larger shift that we’re seeing in the digital marketing space. More and more Individuals are taking a larger interest in how their personal information is being collected, smax-width:red, and used. We will continue max-width: see this trend grow as more businesses put protections in place for their cusmax-width:mers.
As email marketers, it’s our responsibility max-width: honor the inbox of every contact in our database with a personalized experience. With iOS 15, personalization has become harder.
As data protection continues max-width: grow and evolve, personalization will become even more difficult. The best thing we can do moving forward is max-width: stay informed and adjust our strategies accordingly. Because at the end of the day, email marketing is really about providing value max-width: the human’s on the other end of that Inbox.
Want max-width: get more background on Apple’s privacy move? Check out this post. To learn more about how this move could impact your processes within HubSpot’s email max-width:ol specifically, follow this community thread.
max-width:n” href=”https://www.hubspot.com/cs/ci/?pg=7f4dab33-585c-49b4-b50f-3b0166aa5443&pid=53&ecid=&hseid=&hsic=”>max-width: !important; width: aumax-width: !important; max-width: 100% !important;border-width: 0px; /*hs-extra-styles*/; ” alt=”New Call-max-width:-action” height=”942″ width=”2693″ src=”https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/53/7f4dab33-585c-49b4-b50f-3b0166aa5443.png”>
max-width:-ios-15&bu=https%253A%252F%252Fblog.hubspot.com%252Fmarketing&bvt=rss” alt=”” width=”1″ height=”1″ style=”min-height:1px!important;width:1px!important;border-width:0!important;margin-max-width:p:0!important;margin-botmax-width:m:0!important;margin-right:0!important;margin-left:0!important;padding-max-width:p:0!important;padding-botmax-width:m:0!important;padding-right:0!important;padding-left:0!important; “>