Thread by @MandiMoshay

With the flurry of reactions to iOS 15, I'm seeing a lot of, "LOL why are email marketers so upset about a vanity metric?" responses.

No one worth their salt as an email marketer is worried about the metric. What are we worried about? 👇

1) Segmentation: How will we pivot qualifiers for recency of engagement to ensure we’re following respectful mailing practices?

2) Deliverability: Without open data from seed lists how will we ensure we’re landing in the inbox and course-correct bulking issues?

3) Automated Triggers: What will the basis of re-engagement tactics look like? How will we qualify users for remarketing without over-communicating?

4) List Hygiene+Offboarding: How can we identify contacts for suppression without inadvertently cutting off interested contacts?

5) IP-related Issues: Geo-IP will no longer be available for localized segmentation - what else might be impacted?

6) Testing: We’ll be down one metric when it comes to measuring the success of subject content or optimal send times. Speaking of send times…

7) Send Time Optimization: How can we mail to users based on location/preferences without knowing when they like to engage?

8) Program Health: Some execs get starry-eyed over vanity metrics like list size; what signals can we lean on to flag issues with the program/audience?

Look - I get it. I'm a consumer too and privacy is cool. But for marketers who take a customer-first approach and want to deliver a delightful, personal, respectful customer experience, the loss of open data represents a fundamental shift in the way we do business.

For the record, none of the problems listed above is without a solution. But your patience with us is appreciated as we process this change.