It has been more than a month since the release of Apple’s iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and macOS Monterey with the new Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) feature, which strengthens Apple Mail’s privacy.
According to Apple, “Mail Privacy Protection helps protect your privacy by preventing email senders from learning information about your Mail activity. When you turn it on, it hides your IP address so senders can’t link it to your other online activity or determine your location. It also prevents senders from seeing if you’ve opened the email they sent you.”
While adoption of the new software is still underway, many are wary of whether MPP spells the death of open rate and more. How does this affect email marketers and their campaigns? Companies and brands make use of the classic email marketing strategy, but now MPP hides the IP address of the recipients when they open an email. Thus, marketers cannot tell who, when or even where their emails were opened via Apple Mail.
Even though MPP is already here, there are ways to make your email marketing campaigns “privacy proof” and still effective in achieving your goals. In short, don’t panic! Here are some Mail Privacy Protection email marketing tips that companies can do to get around Apple’s latest software update:
Track your click-through rate (CTR)
Since Apple’s MPP mainly affects open rates, it is time to look at other metrics such as the click-through rate (CTR), which shows the engagement of your content. Up your game when it comes to personalisation and calls to action to drive CTRs to your campaign. The more personal your campaign is, the better the engagement. Use dynamic content to display relevant content to every subscriber and keep CTAs above the fold to prevent users from scrolling too much.
Measure other metrics as well
Aside from open rates and click-through rates, it is best to keep an eye on other metrics to make your campaigns better. Track spam, bounce and conversion rates so you have a clear picture of how your email marketing campaigns perform.
Not everyone uses Apple Mail
While Apple’s new Mail Privacy Protection affects iOS and MacOS users, it is important to note that not everyone uses Apple Mail. Thus, it is best to create a reliable list of subscribers using non-Apple Mail clients.
MPP 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 account. However, this doesn’t affect other email apps used on Apple devices like the Gmail app on an iPhone.
Clean up your email list
In line with keeping track of non-Apple Mail clients, constantly updating the email list and cleaning out the duds will increase your email deliverability, reduce your bounce rate and make your KPIs more accurate. Moreover, it keeps your database healthy and reduces your sending costs.
Update any email automations
If you’re running any email automations that rely on the Email Opens trigger, you’ll want to covert those triggers (if possible) to measure clicks instead. For Mail Privacy Protection email marketing, it is safer to update triggers based on click-through rates instead of open rates, as the skewed data may cause some automations to fail. By switching your focus to measure clicks instead of open rates, you are also likely to see increased conversions as your focus changes to refining the CTA for each of your emails.
Since the original Apple announcement in 2021, Cendyn has been busy enhancing our products and technology to provide more accuracy in our email marketing metrics. Now that these changes are live, we can factor in real-time data to see how users are engaging with these new features, and adjust algorithms as needed to account for any skewed data, including booking conversion rate metrics and open rates.
What’s certain is that MPP-related behavioural changes are still shifting as more people download the latest operating system and tinker with settings. Just as we’re keeping a close eye on user behaviour, we recommend doing the same with your email marketing campaigns. Look out for any inconsistencies in your data, so you can respond quickly. An agile, hands-on approach makes succeeding in this brave new world much more effortless.
