How does IOS 15 impact your email statistics?

What exactly is new in iOS 15?

The new feature within iOS 15 is called 'Mail Privacy Protection' and it blocks your tracking pixels. Tracking pixels are 1·1 image pixels hidden in an email to track your customer's activity. A pixel can also be part of a link. When you open an email with a tracking pixel in it, this code returns information to the sender. This includes information such as whether the email was opened, where you clicked, on what device you opened the email and so on. Very important data, especially if you just want to increase your open rate or want to expand your customer profile.

So how does Mail Privacy Protection work?

Mail Privacy Protection from Apple downloads the content of the mail remotely in the background, regardless of whether you have had interaction with the mail. Apple doesn't get any information about the mail, nor does the sender get any information sent back with critical data. You do get to see an IP address that corresponds to the region where your customer is located, but based on this, you cannot enrich your customer's profile or see a proper open rate back. Did you know that you have to enable the Mail Privacy Protection feature yourself first? When you get the update for iOS 15, Apple will ask you to enable it, though. To actually turn it on, you will have to go to the settings of your Apple device. So it's not necessarily the case that someone use iOS 15 will actually use the new feature.

How does this affect the data you get from your newsletters?

In short, it comes down to the fact that you are now missing data from the newsletter you have sent out. This means that your open rate is no longer reliable and that A/B testing with subject lines to increase your open rate is no longer reliable. Somehow, it is not surprising that this step was taken. According to Apple, it is an invasion of privacy that every sender wants to know whether you have opened an email or not. Real marketers like to use tricks to increase the open rate. Admit it: you also like to test which header triggers the opening of the newsletter and which snippet contributes to this. Up to a certain point, this will no longer work.

What is the best way to deal with the pixel block of iOS 15?

Yes, that's the key question for everyone. As a company, you should actually build the relationship with your customers well. Why? After all, you want to know what your customers like to see in your newsletter. In an ideal world, your newsletter content should always match your customer's needs. You need to learn what your customer is interested in so that they always want to open your newsletter. After all, your customer isn't crazy either: they want privacy but at the same time they want personalization. A customer who often buys product A would also like to receive personalized offers about product A. So you should get to know your customers better instead of testing what is relevant to them. For Apple users, the new feature is of course very reassuring, and they feel more secure. For email marketers, the situation is different, because how can you trust your data? We'd like to give you a few tips that might help you out.

1. Not all e-mail readers have this new feature

Although Apple Mail does have 35% of the global market share, fortunately you also have customers who do not use Apple Mail. Think Google, Outlook, Gmail and other email providers. Who knows which company will follow Apple in this trend. For now, you don't have to worry about it.

2. Also look at other KPIs

To only think about your open rate is a classic mistake many email marketers make. Because what exactly does your open rate tell you? Only that your email was opened. Not whether people actually found your content interesting, clicked on something, or even proceeded to purchase it. Also look at the number of clicks, the click-through rate and where exactly you have achieved conversion. A high number of clicks or click-throughs can indicate that your content is very relevant. Your open rate is therefore not a figure that everything should revolve around. You really need to look at the big picture.

3. Adjusting the open rate target

You know that the new iOS feature affects your open rate. But to what point? No one can say. It is therefore important to take a good look at whether your open rate objective is still realistic. Because to measure is to know! Take a look at how many opens you normally get from iOS users. Keep track of this and check it out. Is your target still realistic?

The digital world will always change and that makes it sometimes difficult, but also brings out the creativity in us. You really don't need to change your entire strategy, you should just renew your strategy occasionally. Because you can't stay behind with your strategy anymore, the digital world is changing too fast for that. Although an open rate is a very important pillar in your newsletter figures, it doesn't say everything. You want your newsletter to get customers thinking, to make a purchase, or maybe even to do something else. An open rate doesn't tell you this. There are many other ways to get to know your email subscribers. And that is certainly necessary to get the very best out of your newsletter.