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Recently, Apple released its latest mobile operating system: iOS
15. This update contains major changes to privacy features that will
impact email marketing to Apple product customers. Businesses
should be aware of the changes and adapt their marketing efforts to
fit this new iOS 15 environment.
What changed with email marketing to Apple customers?
iOS 15 includes a suite of privacy protection measures intended
to make it more difficult for third parties to collect and track
consumers’ data. Until the iOS 15 update, businesses could
include data-tracking tools (invisible pixels) in email messages.
These pixels are designed to collect information, including the
consumer’s IP address and the date and time that the consumer
opened an email. This information helps marketers better target
their advertising.
Now, however, email marketing to Apple product customers should
be more difficult to carefully calibrate. Apple’s Mail app can
mask the email recipient’s IP address by filtering it through
several servers before randomly assigning an IP address tied to the
consumer’s general region, without revealing the consumer’s
specific location. The app also effectively neutralizes the
invisible pixels that tell marketers when recipients open email
messages.
One other incidental change is that the Mail app automatically
opens each email and downloads constituent pictures onto
Apple’s servers. It can then “scrub” the images to
remove any invisible pixels if and when the user opens the message.
This process means that a marketer’s “open” rate will
likely be artificially high, because the app opens all emails first
before the user decides whether to open the emails or not.
Why do the changes to email marketing to Apple product
customers matter to your business?
The precise impact of iOS 15 on email marketers will take time
to measure. Based on what we know so far, email marketers may need
to find other ways to fine tune their advertising efforts. These
privacy features make targeting local consumers with ads
considerably more challenging because marketers will have less of
an ability to track consumers’ specific locations. With the open rate statistics rendered less useful,
marketers should find new ways to test their marketing messages,
consumer disengagement and reengagement, along with the user flows
that depend on consumers opening email messages.
Hire experienced email marketing attorneys.
Businesses can rework algorithms, adjust AI platforms, and find
other creative solutions to maximize ad targeting in the wake of
iOS 15’s email updates. With each tweak and new approach to
email marketing, businesses may bump up against state and federal
email marketing and consumer privacy laws. Given the foregoing,
being mindful of how your business’s system updates and email
content edits comport with applicable federal and state laws
will continue to be of paramount importance.
Adjusting to email marketing after iOS 15 presents a host of
challenges for marketers. Hiring experienced email marketing attorneys can help eliminate
frustrating legal issues. The attorneys at Klein Moynihan Turco
have years of experience assisting clients in maintaining
industry-best email marketing practices and procedures, and
defending clients who get drawn into email marketing
litigation.
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The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.
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