When it comes to email marketing, one metric that has traditionally been key in measuring success is the open rate. It provides a straightforward insight into how many recipients are engaging with your emails by opening them. However, with Apple’s privacy changes, the reliability of open rates has changed, we take a look at the changes and how to measure email campaign effectiveness.
Understanding Apple & Google’s Privacy Changes
In September 2021, Apple introduced Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) as part of its iOS 15 update. This feature prevents senders from using invisible pixels to collect information about the recipient, masking IP addresses and making it impossible to track if and when an email is opened. This has significant implications on the reliability of open rates to gauge engagement.
Google has also made strides towards enhancing user privacy with updates to Gmail, which impact the tracking of email opens. Gmail now caches images, including tracking pixels, which can distort open rate data by pre-loading images when the email is delivered, similar to Apple’s MPP.
The Impact on Open Rates
With MPP and Google’s image caching, emails sent to Apple Mail and Gmail users may show inflated open rates because these services pre-load email content when the email is delivered, not necessarily when it’s opened by the user. This change has led to a distortion in open rate data, making it less reliable as a standalone metric for measuring engagement.
Shifting Focus to More Reliable Metrics
In light of these changes, it’s essential to adapt email marketing strategies and place greater emphasis on other performance indicators:
- Click-Through Rates (CTR): Measures the percentage of email recipients who clicked on one or more links contained in an email. This metric is more reliable post-privacy changes as it directly indicates engagement and interest in your content.
- Conversion Rates: Tracks the percentage of recipients who completed a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form, providing insight into the effectiveness of your email in driving actual results.
- Engagement Over Time: Monitoring how recipients interact with your emails over time can provide valuable insights. Look at metrics such as the number of emails opened, links clicked, and actions taken over a series of campaigns to gauge ongoing engagement.
- Revenue Per Email (RPE): Calculates the average revenue generated from each email sent, offering a direct measure of the financial impact of your email marketing efforts.
- Bounce Rates and Unsubscribe Rates: Keeping an eye on how many emails fail to deliver and how many recipients opt out of your list can provide insights into the health of your email list and the relevance of your content.
Best Practices Moving Forward
- Enhance Email Content: Focus on creating compelling, high-quality content that encourages recipients to take action beyond just opening the email. Engaging content will naturally lead to higher click-through and conversion rates.
- Personalization and Segmentation: Use data to segment your audience and personalize email content. Tailored messages are more likely to resonate with recipients and drive meaningful engagement.
- A/B Testing: Continuously test different elements of your emails, such as subject lines, call-to-actions, and content formats, to determine what works best for your audience.
- Engage with Non-Clickers: Implement strategies to re-engage recipients who open emails but do not click. This could include follow-up emails, special offers, or personalized content.
- Use Engagement Signals: Leverage other engagement signals like website behavior, purchase history, and social media interactions to supplement your understanding of email performance.
3 ways to leverage Klaviyo for Enhanced Email Marketing
Klaviyo, a powerful email marketing platform, offers advanced tools and analytics that can help marketers navigate the post-Apple privacy change landscape effectively. Here’s how Klaviyo can be instrumental:
- Identifying Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) Opens: Klaviyo allows marketers to identify MPP opens using the Apple Privacy Open flag, which is either True or False for every open event. This differentiation helps you distinguish between MPP-influenced opens and true recipient engagement.
- Advanced Segmentation: Build segments that aren’t inflated by automatic opens by adding a filter where Apple Privacy Open equals False, creating more accurate engaged segments.
Comprehensive Analytics: Track a wide range of metrics beyond open rates, such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and revenue per email, providing a more holistic view of campaign performance. - A/B Testing Capabilities: Experiment with different email elements to identify what resonates best with your audience, optimizing for higher engagement and conversions.
Automated Workflows: Streamline the process of re-engaging non-clickers and nurturing leads through personalized, timely follow-up emails based on user behavior.
Integration with Other Platforms: Klaviyo integrates seamlessly with eCommerce platforms, CRM systems, and other marketing tools, allowing for a cohesive and data-driven approach to email marketing.
Apple’s and Google’s privacy changes have disrupted the traditional reliance on open rates, but they also present an opportunity to adopt a more holistic approach to measuring email success. By focusing on a broader set of metrics and continuously optimising email strategies, you can drive better engagement and achieve your business goals in this new privacy-centric era. Leveraging tools like Klaviyo will enhance your ability to adapt and thrive, ensuring your email marketing efforts remain impactful and data-driven.
