Did Apple Kill Email?

Hey there 👋

It’s Philip from Inbox Insider.

Let’s talk about Apple’s recent IOS update.

Many people have been treating this update like it’s the end of the world for e-commerce email marketing.

Is it?

If you haven’t noticed yet, Apple just gave the email app interface a completely new look and feel.

There are now 4 individual categorized tabs that your emails could land in.

• Primary

• Transactions

• Updates

• Promotions

Apple automatically decides which email gets put into which tab.

Here’s what it looks like:

Why is this an issue for e-commerce brands?

Instead of appearing front and center in the recipients main inbox, your emails could be buried under the "Updates" or "Promotions" tab, making it harder for your audience to see them at a quick glance.

And as we know, people usually check their email in a hurry. Especially when they’re on their phone.

As an e-com brand, your emails will most likely be put into the “promotions tab”.

For e-commerce brands, this is a big deal. If your emails aren't in the Primary tab, they’re way less likely to get opened. Customers now have to go out of their way to find your promotions, product launches, and offers.

It doesn’t help that Apple buried the promotions tab all the way on the right hand side of the screen.

You probably know that Gmail has been categorizing emails using the “Primary”, “Promotions” and “Social” tabs for a while.

This IOS update specifically changed the interface within the apple mail app that comes pre-installed on your phone and many people use to access their gmail, or other accounts.

In some cases, apple won’t auto-load in the content of your emails. Meaning your email might just appear blank and unfinished unless the recipient clicks “show email”.

Will Open Rates Drop?

Yes, slightly. I’ve seen open rates drop very marginally with my clients.

But it’s not the end of the world.

Don’t worry, they haven’t dropped enough to make a significant impact on revenue.

After all, Apple doesn’t have 100% of email users using Apple mail.

A large amount of people still use their gmail or outlook app, + more.

What to do

How do you minimize the effects of this annoying update?

As an e-commerce brand, you probably send a good bit of graphic heavy emails. In fact, you might ONLY send emails consisting of graphics.

Your best bet is mixing in some more text-based emails to your audience.

A simple, plain-text email written from the founder or CEO will almost always have a high open rate, has a higher chance of not landing in the promotions tab, and doesn’t have any images for Apple to block.

They’re usually received much warmer by the recipient, and they actually do some pretty crazy numbers in terms of sales.

Don’t include any buttons either, simply hyperlink the text.

Here’s an example of a plain text email in an abandoned cart flow:

So there we have it: Apple’s latest iOS update has made it a bit trickier for ecom brands to reach their audience, but it’s far from a death sentence for email marketing.

Thanks, let me know if you have any questions!

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Philip Moldovanu | Co-Founder | Social Scout

www.socialscout.us