Overheard at GMM HQ
"What matters most is how sales teams use LinkedIn. And the more you know about social selling, the better your sales outcomes will be." — Kiara Jackson on the latest blog, Hello Digital Sales Environment: A Definitive Guide for Life Sciences Sales Reps.
Apple's iOS 15 Impact on Email Marketing
Like most companies, one of the key metrics we use at Grey Matter Marketing to measure email success is the open rate. High open rates are a telling sign that your subject line was compelling, your send time was on point, or subscribers are chomping at the bit to read your content. On the other hand, low open rates indicate that your content doesn’t resonate with your audience’s needs, concerns or interests or your subject line sucked. That success metric may be going out the window thanks to Apple’s upcoming iOS 15 privacy feature. Recently, Apple announced an overhaul of new iOS 15 privacy features that will include:
- Free Mail Privacy Protection: Apple Mail will allow users to opt in to mail privacy features that mask IP addresses and block third parties from tracking email opens or other IP data.
- iCloud+ Subscription: The subscription includes privacy features including a VPN-like Private Relay feature, which prevents sites from tracking Safari users who opt-in and allows users to see which websites they're sending information to.
- Hide My Email Within iCloud+: This email address-cloaking feature allows users to give sites a faux email address. Although this shouldn’t impact important communications, companies will not be able to see the individual's real address unless the contact shares it.
Make It Matter
Prepare for how these features will impact tracking open rates and email-based A/B testing. Here are some tips and strategies to consider:
- Follow updates from Apple if you aren’t already. We’re still learning a lot about how this will impact email marketing so stay tuned for the latest.
- Remember, in the meantime, you'll still get open data from your subscribers and can still make some judgments on the success of opens from these email providers.
- Track alternative email marketing metrics such as click-through rates, unsubscribes, clicks and traffic to your site. There’s no shortage of insightful metrics you can leverage and learn from!
Google's 2022 Phase-Out of Third-Party Cookies
We’re big fans of cookies here at Grey Matter Marketing...both the baked and digital kind! Today, we’re focusing on the less sugar-coated ones, but we’ll keep this run-down short and sweet. By 2022, the way we use cookies and Google ad-tracking tools could change dramatically with Google's efforts to end third-party cookies on Chrome browsers.
Quick recap: Third-party cookies are what most marketers use to track website visitors, improve the user experience and collect data. They’re also used to learn what website visitors are viewing when they aren't on your website.
Make It Matter
There’s no need to fret! Here are the most important steps you should take in preparing for the third-party cookie crumbling:
- Stay up-to-date with news related to third-party cookies and other data privacy updates that could impact your life sciences company.
- Vet any software or solutions to integrate that can help you seamlessly transition away from third-party cookies.
- Vet any software or solutions to integrate that can help you seamlessly transition away from third-party cookies.
