Apple has shaken the email marketing world with the announcement of its iOS 15 update, anticipated to roll out this fall.

The topic is taking over all marketing industry channels, with lots of discussion about the new privacy feature’s impact, including our new hub, www.OpensAreDead.com. It’s so important that it has interrupted our regularly scheduled podcast series on marketing automation.

The primary question up for debate: What are the repercussions when Apple Mail app users can block brands from seeing whether they opened their email?

The general consensus is that opens are dead. Even though not everyone uses iOS or their email app, it’s a large enough segment for which open rate data will disappear. Losing even partial data makes the rest unreliable for making informed marketing decisions.

Open rates have long stood as one barometer of an email marketing program’s success. While we don’t know all the implications of this change, we do know that marketers need to shift focus to what is most important in connecting with and engaging their customers.

Here are some questions we cover in this special podcast episode:

• What do we know about the iOS 15 changes?
• What is still uncertain?
• What should email marketers start doing today to prepare for this change?
• What are the must-have metrics for analyzing performance?
• How can you boost the likelihood that subscribers will open your email?
• What are the best means for ensuring marketing is relevant to the subscriber, and therefore turns a profit?

About The Guest:

Lucas Walker, Founder, Rolled Up Podcast Network

Walker is a serial entrepreneur. He has started three successful businesses in the software, ecommerce and media spaces. Walker’s experience also includes marketing for an internationally-recognized sales trainer, where he launched the Make It Happen Mondays podcast, oversaw partners around the world, and reviewed over 10,000 ecommerce websites.