IOS 15 and SMS Marketing

What’s New?

The main changes that iOS 15 has implemented are primarily leveled at marketing, especially for marketers dependent on data from email.

• Third-party trackers now have a much more difficult time working.  With mail protection policies in place, data collection via pixels is no longer an option.
• The IP address is now hidden.
• The “Hide my Email” function lets users forward messages to their inboxes using an obscured address.

These changes are here to stay and marketers will now have to work around them.

Cleaning Up the Contacts List

Cleaning the contacts list is going to be more important than ever with the aforementioned changes.   Text marketers will undoubtedly be familiar with the process of cleaning out any contact lists, but email marketers might not be as used to the process.

• Remove old and unresponsive contacts.  These are really going to be dead ends.
• Re-engagement campaigns are going to be critical for reaching out to contacts who are about to lose interest in what’s on offer.
• Utilize emails with surveys on company performance.  If the customers believe something is lacking, their feedback matters.
• Give the contacts some degree of input before having them added to any given contacts list.  If their main concern is privacy, it is best if they are reassured.

Any lost customers during this process are to be expected.

Moving to First-party Data

While this will require marketers to be a bit more forthcoming and require customers to display some degree of compliance, one option for data collection is surveys.  This is a strategy that does favor SMS messaging over emails as people are less likely to respond to the latter than the former.  However, this can be useful for maintaining goodwill.  It is then important to design and orient the workflow of these surveys so that customers are directed organically through any questions provided.  This is not too different from striking up a normal conversation with customers.

Orient Around the User

People have habits that can be worked around.  They have lives, jobs, needs that require tending to, preferences for what they like to use and how, and events ranging from birthdays to anniversaries.  From the data gathered utilizing the previous point, further outreach attempts can be oriented around the customer’s convenience.  Not only can this provide some understanding of what the customer will want, but how to potentially organize sales and promotions in the future when they will be more interested in buying something specific.  That way, marketers can appear to their target demographic when the customers find it most appropriate.

Get the Most Out of SMS

Going forward, it will simply be easier to reach out using SMS as it will be much more personal.  Most people today will rarely if ever be in a state without their personal cellular device, meaning they will remain accessible more often through that avenue.  There is a balance to be struck on the other hand.  The use of SMS messaging is a growing trend among all current age demographics, so there is plenty of room to focus on this avenue of communication.

That said, it’s not advisable that email messaging be dropped altogether.  Both can be used in conjunction to great effect in continuing to reach customers.  The customers won’t mind if there is a flood of content so long as the services being advertised show promise in value.  From here, it’s a matter of striking a balance based on how the customers react, if they want to respond, and what avenues they will continue to interact with or ignore.