Last month we told you about Apple's new Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), a feature released with iOS15 in mid-September. To recap our earlier blog post on MPP, the new feature disables tracking pixels that make open rates possible and prevents a sender from identifying a recipient's IP address, prohibiting online tracking.
When a user opts in to MPP, Apple will preload every email before sending on to the end-user. That means that for any one of your members who use the Apple mail app—regardless of which email provider they have—your open rates are now skewed.
It's been a few weeks since the release of iOS15, and we've been able to learn a bit more about what these changes mean beyond skewed open rates. Hint: if you're still relying on tracking your members' online activity to draw conclusions about what they need instead of just asking them, then MPP has real consequences that go beyond your open rates. Here are a few things that you'll need to rethink in our post-iOS15 world.
Open Triggers
If you're sending automated email marketing campaigns that use opens as a trigger then it's time to look at other approaches. With MPP, there's no way to tell whether the open was from your member or whether it was "opened" by Apple when it sent your email to its servers before finally sending along to the end user.
PropFuel doesn't use opens to trigger workflow actions; instead, its the members' intentional act of answering a question that triggers workflows and takes the member down a certain path.
Send time data
If you rely on open tracking to gauge when your members are most likely to engage with your emails, then things are about to get a lot harder. Now that Apple will send your emails to its servers before delivering them to the intended recipient, it means your emails will show "open" before they even hit your members' inboxes.
Even with all the new challenges that marketers have uncovered in the weeks after iOS15's release, we still don't think MPP is a bad thing. It's a response to the growing pressure put on BigTech by consumers who are more aware than ever of digital privacy. What it means is that associations will rely even more on technology to help them have the same conversations they would in person, but virtually and at scale.
Ashley Wucher
Ashley Wucher is PropFuel's Director of Client Success, with 8 years of experience in association marketing and membership. Her favorite thing about working with clients is watching them become more confident in using the platform and experimenting with out-of-the-box campaign ideas that drive engagement and provide a better member experience.
Ashley graduated from Baylor University with a degree in Marketing and Communications and has a graduate degree from Michigan State University. She is currently based in Waco, Texas, with her husband, Josh, and 12-year-old Shih Tzu, Sully. In her free time, you can find Ashley at Orange Theory Fitness or listening to records from her ever-growing vinyl collection.
Favorite quote: "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." -Nelson Mandela