Along with the struggles that have come with the pandemic, marketers are grappling with upcoming privacy changes from major tech companies. Indeed, a majority admit to being concerned about how the changes will impact digital efforts and analytics. Email practitioners face their own concerns, with about 2 in 3 (67%) saying that the privacy changes being made by Apple and Google, along with other government regulations, are a concern, per a report [download page] from SparkPost.
The Q3 2021 survey of 2,000 marketing leaders indicates that Apple’s iOS 15 changes are the most concerning. Some 8 in 10 (81% of) respondents ranked these changes as a medium to high concern. Many also have this level of concern about changes to Google’s third-party cookie tracking (77%), government regulations (72%) and deprecation of app tracking data (72%). This is supported by earlier research that shows many marketers expressing concern that Apple Mail’s Privacy Protection would change how emails are measured and affect their email program more than the loss of third-party cookies.
Alongside these concerns, 3 in 5 (59% of) marketing leaders say their email engagement data has taken a hit, although one-third say privacy changes have yet to affect their organization. However, email practitioners appear more sanguine: while two-thirds express concern about the impending changes, only 3 in 10 (29%) believe engagement data has suffered.
Most Common Email Opening Times
With people are spending less time reading marketing emails, it’s worth looking at when emails are being opened. SparkPost’s data shows that, in North America, most email activity occurs during the workday. Email open rates are highest on Wednesdays and Thursdays between the hours of 7 AM and 5 PM. Additionally, it appears that there is also a high concentration of emails opened further into the evening on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
When it comes to opening emails on mobile, engagement sees a lift on weekends. The data shows that, globally, email engagement on mobile is relatively steady at 40% during the weekdays, but jumps to 50% on weekends.
You can read the full report here.
About the Data: Findings are based on a Q3 2021 survey of 2,000 marketing leaders globally.
