Apple’s iOS 15 is arriving this September. You may have heard rumblings that it means the end of email marketing. The warnings needn’t be so dire—but you will need to prepare. Don’t worry. We’ve got a quick overview for you to make sure you are prepared for the switch and have the tools to adapt successfully to the privacy changes that come with iOS 15. So, without any further ado, let’s look at what’s actually changing.
A Quick Look at What’s Changing
- Devices: iOS 15, iPadOS 15, Mac OS Monterey
- Apps: Apple Mail App
- Mail Privacy Protection: The privacy change stops senders from using invisible pixels to collect information about the recipient (eg, when they opened an email, their location).
- Is the Privacy Protection automatic? No. During setup, users will have the choice to protect their email activity.
What iOS 15 Means for Your Email Marketing
Open Rates
Early tests indicate that open rates to recipients on iOS 15 with privacy protection enabled will appear inflated.
Testing
A/B testing based on open rates won’t be reliable because of the inflated open rates. Instead, test on different metrics such as click-through engagements.
Location-Based Personalization
Personalization based on location will become unreliable for iOS users.
…And What You Can Do About It
Understand your audience. Look at your current open rates by operating system and device for a baseline on the percentage of your audience that will be impacted by the changes. If your open rates drop in September, this data will help you evaluate the drop based on historic performance.
Related Article: 5 Must-Know Tips & Tools for Optimizing Email Opens
Establish KPIs beyond open rates. Open rates are important, but they’re not everything. Start evaluating other KPIs such as click-through rate, conversion rate, and MQL and SQL conversions.
Keep your list healthy. Spend the time now to get your email list as healthy as possible before these changes take hold. First-party data has never been more important. Treat it like gold!
Know your metrics. Take a deep dive into your current metrics and create a reporting baseline so you can closely monitor any changes this fall.
Prepare your team. Make sure your team knows what’s coming. Don’t wait to bring up these changes until you have to slide a performance report across the desk to your manager.
Lastly, these changes will impact all email marketing. That includes your in-house email, the email you deploy through media partners, tracking you have via your CRM on email—everything! Remember to set expectations appropriately for the most comfortable transition.