• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 15, 2022

Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), which is only five months old, has not yet had a major effect on email marketing. But that won’t last, judging by “Are Open Rates Dead? What Apple’s MPP Means for Email Marketers,” a study released Tuesday by software recommendation engine GetApp. 

Of the marketers polled, 44% say their overall email performance has remained the same since MPP took effect. And 36% say it has actually improved. 

That doesn’t mean they’re happy — a total of 57% say MPP interfered with their ability to collect data. And it is affecting email marketing in these ways:

• Open time unknown — 35%
• Disrupted interactive emails — 34%
• Inaccurate email segmentation — 34%
• Inaccurate email segmentation — 34%
• No geolocation data — 34%
• Decreased email engagement — 34%
• Inaccurate localized content — 33%
• Decreased email deliverability — 32%
• Inaccurate email send time optimization — 32%
• Open rates inflated — 30%
• No device data — 30%
• Outdated countdown timers — 28%
• Disrupted artificial intelligence platforms — 28%
• Disrupted email automation flows — 26%

Worse, significant percentages expect these items to be affected in the future, including 40% who say that about automation flows. 

Overall, 65% of marketers are aware of MPP. But many have misconceptions about it. 

For instance, 77% of those falsely believe that the recent privacy updates were turned on automatically for iPhone users. In fact, users have to opt in. And 60% think MPP allows email senders to use pixels to collect information about email users. That’s false.

Seventy-five percent correctly understand that MPP will prevent them from capturing accurate open rates. 

In addition, 70% of the respondents want additional education on MPP as it relates to their company. 

Companies do take privacy seriously, judging by this study. They say:

• Customer data privacy and protection are very important to my company — 90%
• My company is willing to experiment with new email marketing tactics — 87%
• My company is proactive in addressing customers’ privacy concerns — 86%

Moreover, 61% believe MPP has given their firm the opportunity to innovate its email marketing strategy—no small thing, given that 84% say email marketing is critical to their business success.

As GetApp points out, MPP prevents email senders from collecting user information and limits them from accurately measuring open rates, a metric it says is used by two out of three email marketers. Last month, Litmus reported that MPP now accounts for 40.6% of all email opens.  

GetApp’s conclusion?

“Even though MPP hasn’t brought about a huge impact to email initiatives yet, marketers can expect that it will further disrupt the technology they leverage for email marketing,” states states Meghan Bazaman, senior marketing analyst at GetApp. “That’s why it’s important to have a plan.”

Specifically, GetApp recommends that email marketers take the following steps:

1. Leverage technology to improve your email experience.
2. Replace open rates with click-through rates.
3. Monitor your sender reputation score and subscriber lists.
4. Maintain clean email lists.

GetApp surveyed 299 marketing employees at small, midsize and large businesses.