iOS 15 Update & Email Marketing

If you have been using open rates as your main metric to track, now there’s even more reason to stop doing that. Apple’s iOS 15 update was fully released this past Monday, and there’s a lot of uproar because of its effect on email marketing. 

There are a lot of technical terms, but here’s what you really need to know: Apple is blocking a sender from collecting data from the user and therefore emails will be registered as opened, even if the email wasn’t actually opened. As an Apple user, we can be really grateful and excited about this, but as email marketers — well, that's a different story. We hate it because it's scary. 

Here are a few ways to make it a little less scary, and use it to your benefit:

Focus on engagement metrics 

Click through rate 

How many people are actually going through and clicking through what you’re sending? Implementing “read more here” or “learn more here” are great ways to see who is clicking what. And, in general, it’s great practice because it keeps your emails short and readable. 

Reply rate

How many people are replying to your emails? A simple “reach out to us” or you can even say “reply back and the first 10 responses will receive a special branded hoodie.” Make responding fun, and accessible!

Conversion rate

How many people are taking action? In your emails make strong CTAs like “sign up to volunteer today” or “donate here.” Like the two metrics above, having a strong CTA makes your email more readable, digestible and accessible. 

These areas to focus on don’t seem that bad, do they?! They’re not, and they’re really what you should have been focusing on all along. Make these changes and play around with what is working best with your organization! 

Some experts even suggest after a while, if you are not seeing a user engage, just remove them entirely from your lists. There’s no need for them to take up space. Plus, how great would it be for one of the people who were removed to ask why they haven’t been receiving emails anymore? It’s like a fun test! 

Don’t let Apple updates scare you and your email marketing practices — nor your social media practice. There are always workarounds, and great lessons to be learned. They can be a pain, but we always try to see the value in them!