From the Desk of: Steve Elliott

I hope I'm not the bearer of bad news...

But you can't trust open rates any more.

That's because Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) program creates the illusion that all your emails that go into the Apple IOS ecosystem have been opened.

+ + How Apple spoofs your opens...

For all emails that are processed through Apple's OS, Apple creates a proxy pixel that simulates the recipient opened your email, when, in fact, they didn't necessarily open your email. The "open" spoofing happens with ANY type of email that the Apple OS processes (gmail, yahoo, etc.).

Some sites estimate that as many as half or more of all emails are processed through Apple's operating system -- on a Mac laptop, an iPhone or an iPad. As a result, your reported open rates could be exaggerated by 30-60%. And it may be why your 25% open rate is only resulting in a .3% click rate. 

Apple does this to protect the "privacy" of its users and effectively short circuit marketers who rely on opens as a key metric. 

The good news is, many email providers will isolate the MMP "opens" in reporting. If this is the case, then look at your open rate of non-Apple processed emails for a closer approximation of your actual open rate. 

+ + Here's what to do

The challenge is, you still don't know which Apple-processed emails were opened (since they all appear to be opened). So it's difficult to use "opens" as a criteria for the "active" component of your list.

Even worse, if your email provider suppresses all Apple MMP opens in its reporting, you will have a large portion of your list that is opening your emails but you don't think they are opening.

There's no simple solution. I suggest that first you find out how your ESP is handling the Apple open spoofs. Either way, you may have to shift to click rate as your key metric.

There's another "shift" you should consider regarding management of your email list. It's a shift that your staff will resist.

I'll tackle that next time.

Steve Elliott
[email protected]

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