iOS 15 - let’s talk about it

[TomMonaghan]

Hey folks,

So the iOS 15 changes are out in the wild and I thought it was best to start a fresh thread to give everyone a place to ask questions, help each other, and share their experiences.

Thanks,

Tom Monaghan

Director of Product for Email

[cudeogu]

Hi Tom, 

Thanks for the heads up on the impact of Apple's iOS15 changes on email marketing. Thanks also for the checklist.

 Can the checklist be available in a downloadable format? That way Hubspot users can always refer to it. 

Regards 

[amandafann]

While much of the conversation has focused on the impacts to email marketing so far, I'm wondering how Hubspot users will work around the "Hide My Email" feature where visitors will be able to provide a fake email to your form or chatbot. Many of us rely on knowing the actual email address and domain of the lead to determine qualification, track engagement, and enrich the CRM records with Hubspot Insights or other additional data. Here's the description if you haven't seen it. 

• Hide My Email (within iCloud+): An email address-cloaking feature that enables users to give sites a "fake" email address. While promotional emails sent from the brand to the fake address will still go to someone's inbox and shouldn't impact important communication, brands will not be able to see the person's real address unless the contact shares it.

[MMArketing5]

@amandafann  I don't think this will work.  Apple will probably scan the database before accepting the email. This sounds like a really fast way to burn your sending IP address. 

[amandafann]

@MMArketing5  Not sure I understand, what is it that you don't think will work? My question is trying to figure out how inbound marketers will be able to address when visitors enter one of the "fake" email addresses from Apple's Hide My Email icloud+ into your website form or chat coversatios.

[MMArketing5]

@amandafann I think you are missing the bigger picture. Having a javascript or snipped of code that will look for the iCloud variable will not change the fact that if that client has its inbox IMAP or pop3 to the iPhone Email app, this is even if the customer is using the clients such as Google, Yahoo, etc. your email camping will still bring false data. 

[auto-mate]

And, to our Hubspot friends, please take a lead on this, as this is a stick we will get beaten with when it comes to long term platform selection.

Does anyone have a number on e.g. %/# of 18+ Apple Mail users in the US, UK?

[vanessa2]

I personally would like to see HubSpot provide:

1. Option to pre-segment by email client, when known, similar to the IP Time Zone property. 
2. Filtered reporting on open rate (accounting for iOS 15 + server security activity). Bolster our confidence in HubSpot reporting. Yes, if we need to de-prioritize opens, then redesign the Performance report. Help us optimize.
3. A related improvement — Filtered reporting on clicks (accounting for server security activity that is common on corporate email servers). Other services implemented this. HubSpot, as seer of all data, can make assumptions about what clicks are automated and what aren't, right?

OR…

Partner/Integrate with a service that is laser-focused on email performance/has a strategic vision around how to optimize the email channel, and make it easy for us to use them alongside HubSpot.

[Mike_Donnelly]

"OR…

Partner/Integrate with a service that is laser-focused on email performance/has a strategic vision around how to optimize the email channel, and make it easy for us to use them alongside HubSpot."

Hi @vanessa2 - If you'd be open to a conversation regarding your comment above, we'd love to understand more.  Reason I ask is this is exactly what we do here at Seventh Sense (maniaclly focussed on driving better results through your email channel using AI).  The system is also natively integrated with HubSpot and the workflows tool.  Here's a link to our  HubSpot App Marketplace listing if you'd like to take a look.  Additionally, long ago, we had forsight into mobile opens and how bad of a signal it was to begin with, so is already baked into what our system does.  Let me know if you'd like to chat.  mike[at]theseventhsense.com

[KatyH]

Sorry to need clarification on this - but does this only impact contacts who are using Apple as their email provider, or does it affect all contacts who are using an Apple device to access their mail (such as Gmail, etc.)? Thank you.

[KeyWestScott]

@KatyH Yes, this will effect anyone that uses or even just configures their email account through Apple Mail.  Now imagine this.  At one time a person configures their work, gmail, yahoo, aol, etc etc account in Apple Mail. BUT they don't actually use Apple Mail or use it infrequently, but use an app or access their mail via their work computer. Now, since that account was configured to use Apple Mail, it will still conform to and use the settings of that previous setup..... 

Remember that Apple Mail is constantly checking to see if mail was delivered and if so, will enact the security profile, for that user..... 

Scott

[vanessa2]

Hi KatyH, it affects people who use the iOS application “Mail” (Mail.app) on their iOS device. It is not exclusive to me.com/icloud.com/mac.com email addresses. So this change affects people who:

1. use Mail.app
2. on iOS 15 or later
3. who opt in to Mail Privacy Protection.

Yes, that includes gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc, and can include corporate domains as well. This message will appear when they first open the app…I assume more people will opt to "Protect Mail activity."

[Smiles1]

@KatyH This is an email client specific feature, so a bit of a mix of what you said. It applies to contacts who use Apple Mail (the app) as their email client. So I may use my (at)gmail email address on my iPhone in the Gmail App (email client), and as a result this feature doesn't apply. But if I choose to use Apple Mail as my email client, it will. You can see the breakdown of contacts in email reporting on a specific send. It's under the chart for "Opens by email client"

[KatyH]

Thank you!

[Agent314]

One interesting observation we've used is that typically the false positive open occurs at the same time the email is sent and probably 99% or more of the time that's what it is. When the email is opened after that, we see that as the actual first open.

[AMasters6]

Hi Tom - would like to know how HS is going to handle - 1) greymail - thoughts on how to handle?   2) measuring email health - right now you have open rates as part of the metric which seems like a false positive today and it will only get worse as time goes on 3) can we measure readability scale and use that as a trigger  - so open and read vs open and skimmed? (it is better than nothing and I realize that CTR is good too). Thank you.

[KLively]

Just want to make sure we understand the full impact for not just marketing, but for sales.  I'm assuming the 'recent sales email open date' property would get impacted because of IOS pre-loading sales and marketing emails. So the recent date might be updated because of the IOS pre-load rather than them actually opening the email.  Is this correct?

[RMacNamee]

I had this question also - does this impact both Sales and Marketing emails?

[CTodd]

We use opens as a metric in our lead scoring. Obviously anyone using Apple Mail will be over-scored. I submitted an idea in the community, but it would be extremely helpful to surface a property for email client so we could simply exclude Apple Mail users from scoring. I'm sure it'd be helpful for tailoring other processes too. 

https://community.hubspot.com/t5/HubSpot-Ideas/Email-Client-Property-for-Use-in-Lists-amp-Scoring/id...

[JTho]

@Smiles1So an unsub sent from any of the alias accts would unsub the actual email address, correct? This has to be the case or a lot of compaies are going to instantly be in violation of the GDPR et al.

[Smiles1]

I should let someone else with more knowledge chime in definitively because my comments are just based on my intuition and understanding of the software. However, my assumption is that no, an unsub sent from a single alias account will just unsub the alias account. This is because (by Apple's design) Hubspot has no idea if a single person is subscribed under multiple aliases.

[JTho]

How will this affect unsubscribes if HubSpot cannot see the actual email address?