As a result of this change, Apple will automatically give the choice users to “Protect Mail activity” the first time they open the Mail app after upgrading to iOS 15. This does assume that users are using the Apple Mail Client which is significantly less popular than Outlook and Gmail on iPhones and iPads as well as Macs.
It is a fair assumption that the majority of Apple Mail users will upgrade to iOS 15. However, unless they are using the Apple Client and Web Browser engagements will still be tracked. The changes in engagement will be noticeable but we believe not significant. However, we have collated some best practices and things to watch out for.
Change Your Email Engagement and Cleansing Process
Most publishers have implemented an automated or manual email list cleansing process. This is typically based on how long it has been since an email recipient has opened an email. After the iOS email privacy change, subscribers on iOS devices will appear as if they always open your emails. This means you’ll be keeping subscribers on your list that are not actually engaged or opening your emails. This can eventually damage your sender reputation. Publishers should temporarily turn off automated list cleansing processes at the end of August. Then, monitor your key engagement metrics after the launch of iOS 15. Make sure that you understand how the new privacy change impacts your metrics before re-enabling automated or manual list cleansing.
Modify Your Automations
As with engagement, you will also want to audit and modify any other automations you have in place that rely on email open tracking. The iOS change will report false positives, so you’ll need to adjust your automation workflows to account for that change. For example, some publishers have lead nurturing programs and send reports back to advertisers about people who have opened their emails. The automations may trigger additional emails or other steps based on whether someone opens or not.
Design Your Emails to Encourage Clicks
Clicks will become the defining email KPI going forward. Take a close look at the design of your email newsletters and direct emails. Are they optimized to encourage clicks? You’ll need to find the right balance between providing value within the email itself and encouraging people to click back to your site. In this regard, the iOS change is actually going to force publishers to make changes to their email newsletters that they probably should have made long ago.
But as mentioned before, these changes only affect the Apple Mail Client and Safari Web Browser which are not as pervasive as GMail, Outlook and Google Chrome.
ProFundCom does not use images for email tracking so these changes do not apply to our platform.
