SCOOP 17   JANUARY 04, 2022

iOS 15 EMAIL UPDATE (special SCOOP edition)...

I have been getting asked a lot about how iOS 15 is impacting email marketers since it launched. So as boring as this might be (and it is very boring), I thought I would share what it is that I am seeing in the ‘real world’. [If you have no idea what the whole iOS 15 email thing is all about than check out this article and then you can proceed to the below.... https://digiday.com/marketing/cheat-sheet-why-email-marketers-are-calling-apples-ios-15-update-a-proverbial-nail-in-the-coffin/

iOS 15 EMAIL IS DEAD UPDATE for 2022....WRONG!

(this is my 2 cents – so no need to tell me how dumb I am)

So is iOS 15 the end of email as some thought – NO!

Yes, it is having an impact but not as bad as expected (and not really that bad at all for certain segments)...

First - Here are some overly confusing numbers to digest...

• Apple Email Market share = 46% (source: Litmus)
• As of today, iOS 15 has a 66% adoption rate across all iOS devices (source: Mixpanel).
• And iOS 15 has a 90% opt-in rate for Mail Privacy Protection (source: Campaign Genius).

So, when you crunch all this nonsense it basically means that your email open rate tracking is higher by about 25% right now...Meh!

I say ‘Meh’ for a few reasons...

In terms of knowing how your testing is going (i.e. Subject Lines, Time of Day, etc...) why would you not keep using your open rate tracking metrics as a DIRECTIONAL SOURCE of what is performing? Discount the numbers by 25% and call it a day. Don’t overthink it.

Sure, your marketing automation streams might be messed up a bit. Why you ask? Because if did not adjust your streams and are still sending versions of automated messages to contacts who either did or did not open than obviously you are sending to some people who did not actually open the prior message sent.

Weird/Interesting Trend:

Engagement has actually gone up! Many marketers either are not aware, forgot or don’t care about the iOS 15 changes and left their email marketing automation streams as if nothing has occurred. This means people are getting emails as if they engaged when they actually did not....A funny thing seems to be happening (at least for now) – click-throughs for those contacts are on the rise....

💡October 1st Through December 15th: Click-Through Rates UP 27% from 6-Months Non-Engaged Contacts (non-holiday offer messaging)

Could this be an anomaly or perhaps it means that our marketing automation streams are just over-thought, complex, slightly annoying engagement efforts that the end-user doesn’t actually like...Who knows.

Some other interesting stats to digest is that the iOS 15 Mail Privacy Protection opt-in rate is NOT 90% for all audiences...