SUMMARY
In the recent episode of The Check with Joseki Tech, Dana Carr, Optimove's Director of Email Marketing, highlighted the implications of iOS updates on email marketing strategies.
Historical iOS 15 Changes: A previous iOS update led to lasting effects on email marketing measurements. Inflating open rates necessitated a focus shift from open rates to clicks as primary engagement metrics.
Upcoming iOS 18 Updates: Discussed forthcoming AI-driven changes in Apple's Mail app that will affect email categorization and engagement, emphasizing the importance of adapting marketing strategies to these technological shifts.
Marketing Strategy Adjustments: Carr stressed the need for marketers to focus on holistic engagement metrics rather than just open rates, ensure all images include alt-text, and create text-based emails to promote customer feedback.
I: INTRODUCTION AND OPTIMOVE OVERVIEW
Adam Steidley
Thanks, everyone, for joining us today at The Check with Joseki Tech. I'm Adam Steidley, and today, we have Dana Carr joining us from Optimove. Dana, do you want to introduce yourself?
Dana Carr
Yeah, sure. I am Dana Carr. I am Optimove's Director of Email Marketing. I've been with Optimove for about six years now and come with 25 years of email marketing and deliverability.
Adam Steidley
We worked together with on a joint Optimove client. And for those who aren't aware, do you want to give the two-sentence intro on Optimove?
Dana Carr
So Optimove is a global CDP. We ingest customer data and help our customers find a very efficient and optimized way to target and segment their customer data and provide a very personalized way and relevant way to send marketing messages in a multi-channel fashion using streams, journeys, and recurring campaigns so that you are targeting your users at the right place at the right time, using the best content possible, whether it be email, in-app, sms, or more so that you're more likely to see better engagement, better conversions, etcetera. And that you're retaining customers and bringing back users who were once highly engaged.
Adam Steidley
So this is our second meeting of the day. We had our monthly deliverability meeting with our client, and that client sends tens of millions of emails every week. One of the things that Dana does for them and other customers is watching how their email deliverability is going. How are we doing for blocks? How are we doing for bounces? How are we doing for a reputation score?
I said this before, and I'll say it again now: in working with Optimove, I find Dana as an individual a big part of the value proposition. One of the things you need to do as a big marketer is to make sure your reputation score is good, and if it goes bad, you need someone who's watching it and then can get on the phone with the different postmasters and improve things. She's done that for this client for years, and, knock on wood, we got really good deliverability from it. So we're a big fan of hers from that perspective. So, in today's conversation, we will start talking about iOS.
II: HISTORICAL iOS UPDATES & IMPACT
Adam Steidley
So we all remember the iOS 15 change and how that had a bunch of changes for us -- and we'll talk a little bit about that for historical context -- but we also have iOS 18 changes coming up, and it has some chance to be just as dramatic for us. So, Dana, what were some of our changes back in iOS 15? How did that change our world?
Dana Carr
So, the biggest change marketers saw with iOS 15 was that it essentially made the open rates we had been seeing less credible. It brought up the concept of human opens versus machine-based opens. And while many ESPs are no longer able to credibly stand by open rates or open rates for users who are opening messages in Apple's native mail app, I feel like I have to explain that because, for some clients, it's still a confusing topic. It's nothing to be embarrassed about, either. When I say Apple's native mail app, what I mean is that it's not exclusive to users who have an iCloud or a Mac or a me.com address. It simply means that if you are using an iPhone and opening your messages using that mail icon on your iPhone. You're importing your Outlook, Gmail, and Yahoo emails instead of their native mail apps on your phone; those are the opens we're discussing.
That's the point of engagement. So they're no longer sharing how you engage with the mail apps. What Apple did, and essentially, it was unique and forward-thinking at the time, was trying to protect its users' privacy. Since then, we've seen other ISPs and mailbox platforms take the lead from Apple, but because they needed to send accurate information, we saw some very inflated numbers for email engagement and open rates. So, we started seeing significantly higher open rates for many of our clients starting around mid-September of 2021.
Adam Steidley
We all went from some numbers that were like 10/12/15% to 40/45%. It's like things just tripled.
Dana Carr
While it was amazing for some leadership meetings, it wasn't accurate. And so even today, there's a lot of discussion in the email industry that maybe the open rate is dead, and it shouldn't be considered a main KPI when looking at engagement; it should be combined with other metrics to determine how engaged your subscribers are.
The reality is that many ISPs still consider it part of an engagement chain of KPIs that they use to determine how credible of a sender you are, and they use that to determine your reputation score. So I like to tell clients, don't rest completely on your open rate. Look at it more as part of a trend. So don't compare year-over-year performance. Compare the monthly trends in your open rates and focus more on the trend versus the individual data point.
Adam Steidley
Yeah, with that change, we stopped using the open to indicate whether our customers are engaged with the email, and we're now only relying on the click. So that sort of leaf or acorn falling in 2021 wound up having big thuds a year later and two years later. Because we slowly stopped sending to these customers, if you haven't been engaged in a year, we send less frequently to help our reputation. So, a year after we stopped looking at the opens, we lost millions of customers. Then, when we hit the two-year mark, we lost millions of customers again.
Our chart of how many customers we have has these very clear sawtooth drops, and it's like, "Oh yeah, this is from years ago." So I know I had some interesting conversations wherever I would tell someone who had been at the company for a year and a half, "Oh yeah, this is because of something in 2021. We just had another echo." That was something one year after that last drop. Now, we're seeing some other effects. Those kinds of things have stuck with us for a long time.
III: UPCOMING iOS 18 FEATURES & IMPACT
Adam Steidley
So iOS 18 is rolled out now, and they announced many of these email features, but they're not giving us the email features on our phones until when?
Dana Carr
We don't know when. And part of that is because, with iOS 18, many exciting things have been rolled out, except we haven't seen any of the exciting features yet. After all, they're all dependent on Apple's exclusive AI-based functionality called, well, they're like smart features and referring to it as their AI-led Apple intelligence tool. These native mail app features with iOS 18 depend on the AI functionality they release. But unfortunately, with the September release of iOS 18, we did not see the release of the AI functionality. So, we have to wait for the AI functionality to be released for the native Mail app. So we saw 18.0 released, and many native mail app updates are coming in 18.1 and 18.2, most in 18.2.
But the good news is that while it was the security updates and the security features, even things like hiding my email were a big concern. It allowed users to subscribe to email lists but not use their email addresses, affecting things like bounces, soft bounces, and hard bounces. We don't see any of those kinds of updates. With 18, we're seeing exciting functionality, user experience, and some things that allow marketers to put into practice more relevancy and some best practices that we should have already been doing. But now's the time to do them regarding email builds.
Adam Steidley
One of these features is that they will start doing something more like Gmail's tabs, where you get your primary promotions, updates, and transactions. So, what are we doing today in our approach to emails already so that we understand how to deal with Gmail that might apply to the iOS update?
Dana Carr
So there are four key things to know about what's coming with the native mail app changes in 18 points. Number one, what you're describing is called categorization. It's what they're referring to because, technically, Apple Mail doesn't have a tabs function. So, just like everything in Apple, we will see them as bubbles, more so at the top of our inbox, in the mail app, and on our phones. And they're saying that categorization will be one of the last updates to the native mail app for us to see, more like an 18.2.
They're going to be very basic. It'll be like an inbox, which will be more like your primary tab, something that's more like a commerce or a shopping-based tab, and then something more like a transactional or a prioritized tab based on relevancy and urgency, and so on. So, more to come with that. But we're going to see those things categorized much like Gmail does, except with the added benefit of that AI kind of summarization of the content of the message as well as the basic algorithms that we know today. Who's sending the message, the content itself? Is it text- or image-based? But the big three will be priorities summaries, and smart reply priorities are a bit like categorization, but more so on a campaign-by-campaign basis.
This will help you, the recipient, prioritize what Apple believes is the most important thing for you to see. This will not affect the marketer as much as we might think it would have. I think when we first heard about this, or at least when I first heard about this, I immediately thought much in the way that Google and now Yahoo offer annotations that it's going to use AI somehow and other kinds of spiderable items in your email text to see if there's urgency or some expiration date. That's what it's going to use; what it's going to look for is urgency in using its Apple intelligence. But also, is there some time sensitivity in the message?
It's going to focus more so on flights and other kinds of ticket-based transportation messages. Are they meeting invites? So you can assume that if you have, for example, Outlook being sent to your native mail app for Apple, anything that's a meeting invite will be prioritized. So regardless of when the message was received or when the message was sent, these prioritized emails are going to be up at the very top of your inbox so that when you open your native mail app, you'll see them first and foremost and front and center. So it's not prioritizing by saying this sender is most important. For example, it's more if you've prioritized or made your mother the VIP person on your email list. So, this message and this campaign are prioritized because something within it is important for you to see.
Adam Steidley
For example, confirmations will bubble up or more. This is a reminder about my open table reservation.
Dana Carr
Exactly. It's going to be an open-table reservation. It could be a message about a shipping confirmation letting you know that it is in order. Is it ready to be delivered tomorrow, so you're on the lookout? So a message from FedEx or if you have plane tickets and it's time to confirm your flight, things like that. Those are going to pop up more so than a promotion that's expiring in a week.
Adam Steidley
So it sounds to me like, from a marketer's perspective, a lot of those more transactional-based messages that we have where we do have some ability to add some marketing content in there, that marketing content is going to be bubbling to the top with the rest of that message and it makes the use of that message carry, you know, extra marketing push with it kind of all the more important it is.
Dana Carr
However, Apple is developing its AI functionality and algorithm for prioritization to avoid creating a slowdown or overpopulation of these priorities. So it's, you know, meeting invites and travel arrangements and other true priorities based on urgency with the combination of marketing messages that are urgent because of a fear of missing out.
Adam Steidley
Don't you think those, or don't you think the order of context sneaks in? If I say send out a coupon expiring this week, is that something?
Dana Carr
I don't think those will be prioritized. It will be true urgency, not based on expiration, but urgency based on the event date. That is urgent because you need to see this, not because a brand wants you to see it. Knowing how Apple works and how they are continually trying to protect their users and are always ten steps ahead when it comes to privacy and protection, they will try to put those messages in the shopping tab. Yeah, but it's yet to be seen.
Adam Steidley
So, the auto-reply was something you mentioned.
Dana Carr
Yes, Smart Reply. This is cool. This will be exciting, especially for a parent who gets one-word answers when she emails her teenager. So, the Smart Reply uses AI technology in a way that shows how Apple's AI technology will be configured. It will summarize, which plays into summaries, which is another feature. It's going to summarize and review the content of a message. When you click to reply to that email, it will look at every question in the email that you replied to and prompt based on those questions with replies that make sense.
So if you receive an email, let's say a text-based email, you now click reply. In the email, we'll say, "This is Bob from Optimove. I hope you're having a great day. I'm checking in to see that you're having a great experience. Let me know how you have been enjoying the product. And you know, go through it. Did you know that we launched XYZ this year? Have you used it now?" When you reply, you'll be prompted, "Adam, how are you enjoying Optimove? And you'll automatically use AI technology, you know, be offered. I'm enjoying it a lot and enjoying it that much. I can't stand it." So all you have to do, like multiple choice, is choose your answer, which will automatically go into a draft.
IV: MARKETING IMPLICATIONS & STRATEGIES
Dana Carr
Apple's AI will be put together based on these prompts using the questions asked in the original message. Build a draft that will create this automatic reply, and you can approve it and then send it. This is cool. So that instead of having to type out a full response manually, you're being triggered to respond to the questions asked and maybe some other features from the original email. However, it could be a great way for marketers to consider how they send customer messages.
So instead of always focusing on these very image-heavy emails or the way they code emails, sending out a text-based email with smartly written questions, knowing that most users, regardless of the domain, are opening messages in Apple's native mail app, could now easily reply and provide you with really great feedback. If you think of surveys, this is a great way to collect data on your customers. It is a great way to seek out information, surveys, and studies; if you want to find out how your customers are enjoying products or services, it is a great way to collect that data.
Adam Steidley
Yeah, that sounds like a really interesting opportunity. I know a lot of even as we go from the marketing emails to more the sales emails, a lot of the templates we're giving to the sales guys or the general managers, we can write those with some notion of how's it going to look like when it shows up in the Apple response. So they can quickly reply by telling us what product categories they're interested in or the best ways to reach them. We always have a lot of problems when reaching out to our customers.
Dana Carr
That brings up a good point, though, when you're thinking about how you're creating the emails, and you brought up summaries. So summaries are again dependent on this AI tool that Apple will soon be coming out with. I don't know when. Summaries will work in two ways: through a thread or a thread. So, if there's been a lot of back and forth and personal emails, instead of starting at the bottom and working your way up, it will summarize the thread, making it easier for you to reply. Or, if it's a single email, it will summarize all of the content and replace what you see in the preview screen. So, instead of seeing the preview header and the subject line, you'll see a preview of the summary of this message.
Dana Carr
However, promotional messages that we know are usually image-based will require alt text behind each image. Many marketers fail to include alt text for every image they include in an email. So earlier, I mentioned many things we recommend as best practices. Not everyone focuses on that now. We need to. So, making sure every image you have in your email has alt text with it will be so important because, without it, I'm curious to see what appears for the summary of a message.
Adam Steidley
Yeah, we especially look at it when we make better images, getting the text right there in the image about the offer and price drop, and it doesn't appear in the copy anywhere. I think it will be do-or-die on that alt text.
Dana Carr
Definitely.
Adam Steidley
We've been focusing on getting a pre-header and our subject line because we know that's what the customer is. Now, this pre-built summary will be a big part of the game to see where it will wind up. Yeah, it'll be really interesting to see how that plays out.
Dana Carr
Yeah, and the summary can hurt us, too. I tell many clients that you should consider the subject line and your preview text to work together. They can tell a story or work together to tease your user into opening your message with a summary. You reveal more of the story, allowing your customers to say they are uninterested. "Nope, it doesn't pertain to me." So, there is a better likelihood of a drop in open rates because of this. So, it's something to consider as you craft your alt text.
Adam Steidley
Yeah. I'd like to know if we see a drop in the open rates from that or an improvement in our click-to-open rate.
Dana Carr
Sure.
Adam Steidley
They have more of an idea if we've teased them to open it, but we don't have anything good to say. We're not going to get good responses. But if they have a better view of it, then when they're opening, presumably it is more interesting to them. So that'll go. And to me, that's also why its click is much stronger to watch than the open. Right. We want to get people from the email to our website that's, you know, keep pushing the conversation forward so, you know, it'll come down to hopefully, if you've got good messages, you know, you're going to get more clicks and I if you have better messages, this should help. But yeah, focusing on how it's being summarized will be important. That will be, yeah.
I'm curious if you, like our friends over at Litmus, will start to have various sorts of Apple preview things so we can check that when we're proofing our copy.
Dana Carr
One thing they are including is that it's not being highlighted everywhere. So, if you start looking up what's coming with the updates in iOS 18 to the native mail app, this isn't like a big call out, but I think it's worth mentioning. I think it's a benefit to email marketers now in the Apple native mail app. They will be highlighting unread messages, and it's important because, to date, that hasn't been something they've done.
But if you think if you get a lot of messages in your inbox, especially right now, where they don't have an organized inbox unless you happen to do that manually on your own, by setting up individual folders and structuring it on your own, there's no easy way to see at a glance which messages you've opened or read and which ones you've never even touched. So being able to see at a glance visually, because these are going to be grayed and you'll see a blue dot next to the ones you still have not opened, will make it easier to identify messages you still have to engage with or you just haven't engaged with yet.
While adding a summary of messages could hurt the open rate, easily identifying those you haven't opened yet could boost the open rate. It's one of these situations where it's like, let's see what happens because while in one situation we expect to see a downtrend, in the other, it could help us. So, while we all thought Apple was trying to hurt the email marketer with iOS 15, this time, they're putting out some things to show that they're very marketer-friendly, and I'm excited to see them in action.
V. CONCLUSION
Adam Steidley
It will be interesting as we see these things roll out, and hopefully, once we start to see some results from it, give us another opportunity to talk, and we can look back and see how we did with our predictions.
So anyway, thanks for your time today, Dana, and thank you with you soon.
Photo Source: 9 to 5 Mac