Greg Zakowicz
My Reading & Podcast List

Here is my list of recent reads and podcasts I am currently enjoying. Maybe they’ll give you something new to look into and enjoy.

Read more to find what I’ve been digging into lately, including:

  • Building a Story Brand

  • The Power of Geography

  • The Greatest Beer Run Ever. A Crazy Adventure In a Crazy War

  • The Escape Artist. The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

  • Devil in the White City. Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

How iOS 15 Will Kill Email Open Rates—And How Marketers Can Prepare

Picture this: Your company's email campaigns have an average open rate of around 15%. Then one day it suddenly skyrockets to 40%.

Maybe it's just a fluke, you think... until it happens again. And again.

Anyone with marketing chops will know it's not a cause for celebration. Something is just not right.

For companies that send emails, that scenario may play out as early as mid-September. But it won't require much detective work to solve: Apple's forthcoming iOS 15 privacy update will soon render open rates irrelevant, and marketers need to start adapting now.

Keep ThemHow to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales Engaged

Marketing a product or service today is easier than ever before in history. Using platforms like Facebook ads or Google ads, a company can market their product directly to people who perfectly fit the ideal client demographic, at a very low cost. Digital Marketing tools, Pay per Click ads, and email marketing can help a company dramatically increase sales. At the same time, many companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools often see disappointing results.

In this interview series called “How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales”, we are talking to marketers, advertisers, brand consultants, & digital marketing gurus who can share practical ideas from their experience about how to effectively leverage the power of digital marketing, PPC, & email.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Greg Zakowicz.

The Death of the Open Rate: How Email Marketers Can Prepare for iOS 15

Email marketers at e-commerce brands use traditional reporting data such as open, click, and conversion rates to measure email campaign performance. But what happens when you suddenly take away one of those long-established data points?

Buckle up because we’re about to find out.

Apple’s announcement of its upcoming iOS 15 update, which is expected this fall, includes a feature that prevents companies from seeing whether subscribers opened their emails while using the Apple Mail app. Not everyone uses iOS or Apple's email app. But losing even partial data makes the rest unreliable for making informed marketing decisions across your email program.

SMS Marketing Examples

SMS and MMS Marketing Examples

SMS is a must-have marketing channel for ecommerce brands. The reason: everyone texts.

Ecommerce brands sent 58% more SMS sends in 2023 than the year before. Previously, the year-over-year lift was 62% in 2022, and 75% in 2021. As you can see, SMS is growing, and growing fast!

2023 SMS Marketing Statistics (promotional messages):

  • Click rate: 7.6%

  • Conversion rate: 0.13%

2023 SMS Marketing Statistics (automated messages):

  • Click rate:9.4%

  • Conversion rate: 0.28%

Interested in more? Check out the full SMS marketing statistics report.

Just here for examples of SMS marketing? Here are some SMS and MMS examples to draw inspiration from.