9 Popular Email Marketing Strategies to Stop Doing ASAP (+13 to Do Instead)

Every marketing channel is unique. 9 Popular Email Marketing Strategies to Stop Doing ASAP (+13 to Do Instead)

Every marketing channel is unique. The 9 email marketing strategies to stop doing ASAP (+13 to do instead) Each marketing channel is unique. SEO is relatively stable but has to stay focused because of algorithm updates. With all the Google Ads updates and privacy measures, poor PPC can't catch a break. As for email marketing, well, at 43 years old and with a return on investment of 36 cents for every dollar spent, it's been living the good life.

After privacy patrol rolled into town (aka Apple iOS 15 and macOS Monterey) in September, the smooth sailing has gotten rough. There are a number of common email marketing tactics that have become ineffective as a result of the recent privacy-first updates.

The tactics aren't known, but you can still implement them-it's just that you will have inaccurate information to implement and measure the strategy's success, which could send the wrong messages to your audience and tank your ROI. To learn more, read on:

What the iOS update involves
& the impact it has
on strategies
for implementing 13 alternative strategies

What is the iOS 15 update?

Apple's iOS 15 update, released on September 20, 2021, introduces two new privacy features-this time with e-mail. These two features concern marketers:

Hide My Email
Mail Privacy Protection (MPP)

Those two features will be discussed shortly, but let's first look at some broad percentages in terms of who and what will be impacted by the update.

How widespread is the impact of iOS 15 on email?

Initial concerns about iOS 15 were low, since only 33% of emails in the U.S. are opened on iPhones. On October 25, macOS Monterey was released, which includes the same features. Litmus' data from Q1 2021 shows cause for concern.

Apple mail is the most popular email client, capturing 58% of desktop and 90% of mobile emails:

Even so, the number of webmail opens is almost double that of desktop, and mobile is only seven percentage points behind.

Which webmail client is most popular? Chrome. There's no mention of Apple's webmail service (iCloud Mail).

However, with 62.4% of all emails being opened on Apple-dominated smartphones and desktops compared to 36% on Gmail-dominated webmail, there is cause for concern, but not panic. Read on.

Hide My Email

With Hide My Email, users can share a fake email address in forms and registrations, which will route messages to their inbox without revealing the name of the email address. You'll see this option if you're an iCloud+ user or choose "Sign in with Apple".

Hide My Email's impact on (not just) email marketing

First of all, users can create as many proxy/fake email addresses as they want. By changing or deleting their proxy address, a user will inadvertently stop their subscription to whatever service they used it for, leaving the sender with a hard bounce message and no unsubscribe information.

Additionally, email addresses are often used in automation platforms and CRMs as unique identifiers to customize marketing and customer service. If, for example, you send a promotional email about your app to a list of leads and someone on that list signs up for the app using a proxy address, your email automation program won't know to remove that person from the nurture flow. If you continue to send them marketing emails for something they already subscribed to, it will seem like you don't know them, causing them to unsubscribe.

Perhaps they will contact customer service. Providing their real email address will prevent the representative from locating the account.

Steps to take

Admonsters, however, reports that only paid iCloud+ account holders can use Hide My Email in a web form, and less than 20% of people use Safari.

Additionally, these settings are opt-in, and if a user has clicked on your sign-up button, they probably trust you enough to provide their real email address.

As part of your marketing ecosystem, you will want to use an alternative unique identifier.

Mail Privacy Protection (MPP)

In order to understand MPP, you must first realize that email automation platforms collect data about open rates by including a pixel in every email they send. When an email is downloaded (opened), a pixel transmits whether and when the person opened the email, how many times they opened it, and their IP address.

By preventing the pixel from being downloaded on your device, Mail Privacy Protection prevents emailers from viewing your activity or identifying your location.

Apple is once again getting between the user and the third-party tools marketers need to accurately measure-and personalize-their campaigns, just like iOS 14's App Tracking Transparency. Please try these post-iOS update Facebook ad strategies if your ads are still not working after the iOS update.

The impact of Mail Privacy Protection on email marketing

On October 1, 10 days after iOS 15 launched, MPP adoption rate was 20%. A month later, Constant Contact shared in this Litmus post that email open rates remained steady at 17.6% during the month before and after iOS 15. However, MPP adoption rose to 30% by November 17. Another source reports that 60% of Apple users have installed iOS 15, and 97% have adopted MPP. As a result, iOS 15 may have a positive impact on email marketing performance over time.

So what exactly is that impact? Let’s explore…

Inflated open rates

Although you might expect lower open rates because the pixel cannot be downloaded, this is not the case. In emails, pixels will still be present; they will just go to a proxy server first (instead of right to your device) so that the content can be downloaded, which includes the pixels. When you open an email with the Pixel, you will be viewing the cached content instead of downloading the original.

As a result, the email-and therefore the pixel-is downloaded by the proxy server regardless of whether the recipient opens it or not (hence the red underline above), causing inflated open rates.

Email marketing strategies hindered by MPP

IP addresses, devices, and open data that are inaccurate or incomplete make many email marketing strategies ineffective. Here are some examples:

Maintaining list hygiene, such as removing or re-engaging contacts based on when they last viewed the list.
Send the same email a few days later to those in a group who did not open the first email.
The results may be inaccurate.
Test subject lines according to open rates.
Send time optimization (unless your email provider adjusts its algorithm to exclude opens).
The email will display content cached at the time the proxy server opened the email, not at the time the user opens it, to add personalization.
A link to Google Play or the App Store that changes based on the device that opened the email.
Send emails when emails are opened.
Location-based personalization, such as local weather or nearby stores.

Using

Based on the growing impact of Mail Privacy Protection, implement some of the following strategies:

Break up with open rates

Just as click-through rates do not tell the whole story in ad campaigns, open rates do not tell the whole story in emails either. Instead, pay attention to links clicked in your emails, purchases and conversions, bounces, and unsubscribes.

Build new trigger flows and segmentation strategies that focus on clicks instead of purchases for open-based campaign flows. To maintain historical data, you should pause existing campaigns, clone them, and then make adjustments to the clones.
Test body components: Instead of testing subject lines, test out elements in the body of your content. (Head here for newsletter content ideas.)

Keep your lists in shape

Sign up quality leads: As open rates become less reliable, the strategy of collecting as many email addresses as you can and then refining your list and your content based on performance is going to become less effective. To get the most qualified email signups, you need to use the right information and emails calls to action.
Re-permission your readers regularly in order to make sure your content is performing at its best.
Segment by device: Using historical data, segment your Apple users to adjust your strategy or email content.

Employ a mix of marketing strategies

Please don't solely rely on email: Email should not be your only marketing channel! Mix up your marketing strategies so you can achieve multiple goals through multiple channels. By doing so, you will be able to withstand major changes like this.
Data from other channels: Take multi-channel marketing to the next level with cross-channel marketing, where you integrate the channels to create a widespread and consistent online presence, while also using data from one channel to inform your strategies on another. Make data-driven assumptions about the best times and content to send based on insights from your social media, website, and advertising analytics.

Collect zero party data

You can gather insights into your audience by using email engagement (rather than just email opens) and website and purchase activity.
Zero-party data is better: Litmus suggests creating preference centers where subscribers can directly tell you the information you infer from pixels, such as their location, their interests, and how frequently they want to receive emails.

Have a content strategy

You need to build trust by providing valuable content, a solid customer experience, clear copy, and social proof so people will willingly give you their real email address.
Adding value: You can optimize campaigns based on metrics and behaviors, but ultimately, whether or not your content adds value to the reader is what matters. Prioritize this! Make sure you have a content strategy and maybe even a mission statement for your content marketing.
You won't need to rely on testing as heavily if you have great email copywriting or creative newsletters.

Make sure your email marketing strategy is privacy-proof.

It's been around for 43 years! Hence, no, it isn't going away anytime soon, but just as advertisers have had to adapt to iOS 14 privacy updates, email marketers will have to adapt to iOS 15 as well. Mail privacy protection is a much bigger concern than Hide My Email, but if you follow the above strategies, you can ensure continued success well into the future.