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.
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.
Why Traditional Open Rates Will Die
You might be wondering how one tech giant's move could obliterate a metric that marketers have depended on for two decades.
Here's how: Apple users who upgrade to iOS 15 will choose whether they want to activate "Mail Privacy Protection" for any Apple Mail apps they use to read emails. Language in the beta version makes the convincing case that most users will choose to do so, and in that case all emails will be marked "opened"—even if they aren't.
The change is understandably rattling e-commerce merchants, whose clientele is more likely to check their emails via mobile app. But it also matters to B2B businesses, even if just a small portion of their email subscribers fit that profile.
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.
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.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
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.
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.
It’s not all doom and gloom for marketers, even if 61.7 percent of all emails are opened in Apple Mail. I believe it’s quite the opposite. This is an opportunity for e-commerce brands to work on what really matters.
Here are six ways you can prepare your email marketing program for the death of the open rate:
SMS Marketing Examples & Stats
SMS and MMS Marketing Examples
SMS is a must-have marketing channel for ecommerce brands. The reason: everyone texts. It is no longer reserved for younger generations. Brands that fail to utilize SMS marketing are missing out on sales.
SMS Marketing Statistics
SMS marketing continues to grow. Ecommerce brands sent 31% more SMS sends in 2024 than the year before. Previously, the year-over-year lift was 58% in 2023, 62% in 2022, and 75% in 2021.
2024 SMS Marketing Statistics (promotional messages):
Click rate: 5.05%
Conversion rate: 0.11%
2024 SMS Marketing Statistics (automated messages):
Click rate: 12.47%
Conversion rate: 0.24%
Automated SMS accounted for 18% of orders while making up just 9% of sends
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.
I’ve been saying it for years, SMS is a must-have channel in the shopping journey. — Greg Zakowicz, Email & SMS Marketing Epxert
