What You Should be Tracking Instead of Email Open Rates

BY Rachel Cagle
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Are your clients freaking out over Apple’s new Mail Privacy Protection (MPP)’s effect on email open rates? If you don't know yet, the MPP is an option available in Apple device settings of iOS 15. According to an article by GetApp, if the device users select the MPP, that prevents email senders from collecting information about Apple Mail users. At first glance, this development is terrible news for email marketers because you “won’t be able to determine:

  • Which (or if) Apple Mail users open their emails
  • When they open them
  • The device type they use (e.g., mobile or desktop)
  • Their geolocation.”

Apple is one of the leading computing and mobile device manufacturers on the planet. According to GetApp, “21% of marketers say Apple mail users account for over half of their company’s email subscribers.” So, how can your clients continue getting crucial email marketing information with the MPP?

You Don’t Need Email Open Rate Data

What?? That’s what GetApps says. “Email marketers can adapt to MPP and even improve their email performance measurement by honing in on customer behavior. Ultimately, MPP could be a win for individuals looking to create better content and get results.” So, here are a few aspects your clients could be measuring instead of email open rates.

Incorporate New Ways to Get Clicks

If you can’t measure email open rates, then you need to focus on improving click-​through rates. You can do this by improving the readers’ experience when they view your client’s emails. A few improvements GetApps recommends are:

  • Adding videos to the emails
  • Incorporating animation in the messaging
  • Boosting personalization

After all, isn’t it more important that your client’s target audience is interested in the email content and not just the subject line?

Pay Attention to Your Client’s Sender Reputation Score

Another important part of email marketing is making sure that your client’s email are delivered. The internet service provider used to send your client’s emails will give them a score based on:

  • The number of emails they send
  • How often those emails bounce
  • How often the emails are marked as spam
  • The frequency of recipients unsubscribing from the sender’s emails

Based on your client’s reputation score, you can “determine if your email campaigns are generating positive engagement,” says GetApps. “You’ll get a sense of how your open rates are doing as well because seeing a stronger reputation means they are getting to inboxes and recipients are interacting with them.” By measuring reputation scores, you’re getting far more information than measuring email open rates alone.

Clean Up Your Client’s Email Lists

Remember how bouncing emails lowers your client’s reputation score? You can prevent that from happening by monitoring their email lists. GetApps suggests segmenting or resending re-​engagement emails to your client’s subscribers. That way, you can get a good read on which subscribers are still active and can get rid of inactive ones. If you measure active versus inactive subscribers, you’ll have more effective email campaigns. You only want your client’s emails reaching consumers who are interested in your client’s products or services, right? That’s who is going to take action and who you should be focusing on.

Which Tactics Work the Best?

GetApps surveyed companies that report the highest ROI on email marketing. Here are the top tactics they’re using to get around the MPP:

  • Personalization
  • List management
  • Delivery optimization

Sound familiar?

What Types of Emails Should Your Clients be Sending?

Want more information on which types of emails your clients should be sending to increase email open rates? Check out your client’s target audience profiles on AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel. You’ll be able to look up what their favorite types of emails to receive from businesses are.

Photo by Good Faces

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