Overview
BoldTrail offers a feature which allows agents to view when an email was opened by a contact in their Smart CRM, data which is accessible to BoldTrail users via the Contact Profile. We respect and abide by data privacy laws, and we recognize that the email marketing industry as a whole is continuously evolving.
Email open rates are tracked via an invisible pixel, which is automatically added to every email sent from BoldTrail; this is how email marketers globally are able to track their marketing campaign’s email open rates.
In September 2021, Apple released iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, which included a new feature called Mail Privacy Protection.
What is Mail Privacy Protection?
Mail Privacy Protection is an opt-in feature available to all Apple device users. It allows Apple Mail users to hide their email data from marketers by automatically opening inbound emails. This change impacted our customers, as well as many other email marketing providers industry-wide.
Mail Privacy Protection also prevents senders - like you - from seeing if the recipient opened the email you sent them.
How does this impact BoldTrail Customers? There has been widespread adoption of Apple’s new Mail Privacy Protection feature by all Apple device users. This means for Apple device users who have enabled Mail Privacy Protection, we can no longer accurately measure whether an email was opened by the intended [human] recipient, or whether it was opened due to the Mail Privacy Protection feature, which automatically opens user emails.
IRE will continue to ensure our email open data is accurate with data available for non-Apple device users, and is working tirelessly to adapt quickly to these changes. In the interim, we recommend that our users focus on other key indicators to determine email marketing success, such as email clicks and email responses.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this mean email opens in the Smart CRM are no longer applicable?
Email open rates are still valid if the contact is not logged into their email on the Apple Mail app or an Apple device that is updated to their latest software update.
This means that many emails in your BoldTrail Smart CRM that show as “opened” were never in fact opened by a human being but instead by their iPhone or Mac that’s logged into their Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or other email service on the Apple Mail app.
Does Mail Privacy Protection affect all Apple device users?
Mail Privacy Protection only affects email accounts that are logged into on the Apple Mail app (and have opted into MPP).
If a lead has an iPhone, Mac or other Apple device but is not logged into their email account on the Mail app, Apple Mail Privacy Protection will not impact them, and email opens will still be valid in the BoldTrail Smart CRM.
What other performance indicators of email marketing analytics are still useful in measuring the success of my efforts?
Email clicks: Measuring if a user has clicked on a link included within the email is a valid form of determining whether a contact interacted with the email. This is displayed in the same spot as an email open in the Smart CRM, hovering over the open icon will show that the email registered a click.
Responses from leads: The ultimate measurement of email marketing success is whether leads are responding to you, the agent. Real conversations are what drive home sales. See the “Business Analytics: BoldTrail Activity” section of BoldTrail for more details on this, including the “Lead Engagement” graph.
Which Apple software updates and devices started including Mail Privacy Protection?
iPhone: iOS 15
iPad: iPadOS 15
Mac: macOS Monterey
Apple Watch: watchOS 8
Is Mail Privacy Protection here to stay?
Yes, Apple plans to continue to include Mail Privacy Protection on all software updates moving forward.
Is there a way to know whether an individual has Mail Privacy Protection turned on?
If the email in the Contact Profile is marked as “opened” in the lead timeline at the same time the email was sent, it is more likely that it was automatically opened by a computer, and not by a human.
For more information, you can find additional details about Mail Privacy Protection on Apple’s website.