Apple Mail Privacy Update for iOS 15

In June of 2021, Apple announced an Apple Mail feature to be rolled out this fall, 2021. The new feature will be available for anyone using Apple’s Mail app for iPhone, iPad, Mac computers and Apple Watch. Users will be able to self-select if they would like to protect their email data such as when, where and on what device they open marketing emails.

Litmus.com provides a preview of what the prompt to opt-in/out of email tracking may look like for users.

Traditionally, marketing emails contain tracking pixels within an image pixel, sometimes called a hidden image, in an email. These images need to be downloaded, which is typically done automatically on most mobile devices. The pixel downloaded within an image will allow email marketers visibility into when an email was opened, what device it was opened on and in some cases where the user was located when they opened the email. However, now there is a problem. 

Apple’s new privacy policy will download all images and accompanying tracking pixels regardless of whether or not the recipient opened the email. Which, as you can imagine, will heavily skew data retrieved from tracking pixels - making open rate an unreliable performance metric. 

Here’s what might happen

The email marketing landscape is constantly evolving with shifts in user needs, trends and software updates. From our point of view, the new Apple Mail Privacy Policy might not be such a bad thing after all. Let’s dive into a few hot topics that may show a silver lining in all of this. 

Why does it matter if I can’t see who opens an email?

Traditionally, email marketers utilize opens to determine user interest and create personalization journeys based on that data. Having insights into who opens your emails gives visibility into the contact, their interests and future formulation of engaging content. 

Additionally, open rate is a common determining factor when addressing deliverability issues. This will no longer be an option once iOS 15 goes into effect. 

How will not being able to see who opens my emails affect my lead scoring?

Any lead scoring that uses open rates to determine results will no longer hold true. We recommend changing lead scoring metrics to include sessions, page views, CTA clicks and any other gathered information that is relevant to your lead nurture strategy. 

What metrics should I be looking at if I’m not able to report on opens?

At Investis Digital we look at open rates as a “vanity metric.” Vanity metrics have their place in helping evaluate the consumer journey, but ultimately don’t determine success. 

As an alternative to analyzing open rates, an email quality score may be the next best step to analyzing your lead nurture strategy. Litmus.com offers a great base formula you can use to calculate email quality score.

Email Quality Score = ( 1 - [ unsubscribers / responders* ] ) x 100 

This formula can be tweaked depending on your specific lead nurture needs. 

*The number of responders would be the number of unique clicks received

In addition to email quality score, keep in mind that reporting on clicks, sessions, page views and CTA’s are all great metrics to help you analyze your email performance and shift away from using vanity metrics. 

What is the likelihood that someone will opt-in to protect their mail activity?

To tackle this question, we first need to understand how many users are using Apple Mail. According to a recent article on Litmus.com, 11.5% of users open their email via Apple Mail. 

How many of those users will opt in to allowing their email data to be unprotected? Flurry Analytics reports that only 4% of iOS users in the U.S. are opting in to ad tracking, and based on the sample size, we expect a similar opt-in rate for Apple’s Mail Privacy Policy. 

In short, 11.5% of users are using Apple Mail and we expect 96% of those users to opt for protecting their email data. Therefore, we can assume roughly 11.5% of all gathered open rate email data will be skewed and unreliable once iOS 15 rolls out. 

Is there anything else we might lose visibility on or need to prepare for besides open rates in Apple Mail?

While we can guess what will happen, iOS 15 has not been released yet. Unfortunately, because of this there is no way of knowing exactly what will happen and how metrics will be affected. What we can do is familiarize ourselves with Apple’s Mail Privacy Policy, make educated guesses, act accordingly and be prepared for any additional changes that will be needed once iOS 15 is released.

Here’s what we recommend

While it can be easy to feel overwhelmed with the Apple Mail Privacy Policy in the anticipated release of iOS 15, it is important to remember that this is what consumers want. Here’s the silver lining you’ve been waiting for. 

An email marketer's job, among other things, is to learn about the needs of users. Well, our users have spoken and it’s clear they want more privacy and data protection. Take this opportunity to step away from vanity metrics and dive a bit deeper into what consumers are looking for in your emails. 

Here’s our top 4 action items to get your email marketing strategy ready:

1. Identify, document and plan to update all engagement branches in workflows based on email opens

Since this metric will soon become irrelevant, explore changing from opens to clicks in your workflows.

2. Identify current baseline conversion metrics and take note.

If you currently look at vanity metrics (metrics that look good on the outside but don’t paint the full picture *cough cough* open rate), document this to establish your baseline and shift your focus to non-vanity conversion metrics such as CTA clicks, page sessions and replies. The key is to pay attention to metrics that matter.

3. Don't send emails to invalid email addresses

With sender reputation being at risk with inflated open rates, it will be increasingly more important to avoid blasting invalid email addresses. Establish a list hygiene process that makes sense for your business or revisit the process you currently use to make sure it’s doing an adequate job. 

4. Use new data from non-vanity metrics to further increase personalization.

Personalization by name is always a win, but we encourage you to step it up and personalize using CTA clicks, links visited and other helpful identifiers to create a more personalized user experience.

We wish you the best of luck in navigating the Apple Mail Privacy Policy. If you have any additional questions, reach out to us or take our email marketing self evaluation quiz to see how your current strategy stacks up: Email Marketing Self Evaluation