NEW: iContact Case Study

Why Apple’s iOS14 Update Makes Email Marketing Your Key Channel for 2021

 In Email Marketing, Optimization

Apple’s taking its pro-privacy stance to the streets with its iOS 14 update. The reset brings a number of changes, some of which might make marketers more than a little anxious. The biggest of these will make users able to block the IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) at the app level. This will make it much harder to evaluate ad performance and retarget at the user level. Marketers are already starting to scramble — understandably so — for means to make up for the lost data, clicks and leads. They might be wise to double down on email marketing. Its first-party data and talorable campaigns are marketing gold and can help fill the void left by IDFA blocking.

Marketers take the IDFA for granted as a key means to target mobile users with ads, gauge their effectiveness and plan retargeting strategies. Now, Apple will require apps to ask users for permission to gather and share their data. These changes are reportedly coming to the company’s whole product portfolio. It’s imperative for marketers to think about how much of their audience they’ll lose and how to win them back through channels that remain open, like email.

Though less glamorized in recent years, email marketing’s been primed and waiting for just such a moment to enable a comeback. The fact is, email ticks several key boxes on a marketer’s checklist — first-party data, tailorable, easy to measure and retarget. Anyone who’s been nurturing their email marketing strategy will have some safety net underneath them when the IDFA opt-outs start rolling in. And anyone who hasn’t? They may need to revisit email marketing and put the time they save on ad tracking and retargeting into list building and campaign making.

An email list with a large number of relevant contacts can be a marketing mother lode. Here are eight top tips for building email lists that fuel high-response, high-conversions campaigns.

1. Offer Incentives

Why should anyone give you their email address? If you’re offering a free eBook, 15% discount, newsletter, or something else they want, in exchange, the answer is obvious.

2. Include an email capture in your social bios

The bio section on social media sites like Instagram and Twitter is prime real estate for a signup (for content, a coupon, etc.) that nabs emails.

3. Quizzes or Surveys

People love sharing their opinion. Ask them to sign up to get the results in their inbox.

4. Create social posts people can’t ignore

We don’t mean loud, annoying, ads. We mean posts that use natural language to talk about your product, company or sign-up incentive in an interesting way. When people respond, send a message with a sign-up link.

5. Gamification

Use an interactive sign-up form that incorporates fun, community and/or competition. Invite the visitor to take a quick turn in a game and see how they compared to others in exchange for signing up.

6. Referrals

Add a “forward to a friend” button to newsletters, emails, landing pages and cool signup offers (for PDFs, checklists, how-tos, etc.)

7. Lookup sites

The two most important things in email lists: quantity and quality. If you make basil-infused vodka, and a bar owner in a FB group said he’d pay anything for such a spirit, that guy’s email is quality. This is where site’s like RocketReach, ContactOut and Hunter come in handy. You can look up emails by a person’s name or company.

8. Wait — don’t go! That popup actually works.

Trigger a popup form before a visitor leaves your site. Being on your site makes them a warm lead already, so don’t be shy about asking for a sign-up before parting.

The iOS 14 update will block a big avenue to consumers that marketers have depended on, and its effects will sprawl out beyond mobile advertising. Now is the time to refuel efforts outside of mobile ad tracking, and email should definitely make your list.

Need and IDFA panic pill? Get help growing your email list and firing effective campaigns fast. Contact our email specialists.

Recent Posts