Success Story
Shelter Finds a Home for Accurate Email Metrics
Apple’s iOS 15 and Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) feature disrupted email marketing data for Shelter UK, a leading UK charity. Open rates suddenly shot up, distorting data and lowering reporting accuracy. Shelter needed a way to clean up their data and keep it spot-on — without compromising user privacy.
Industry
Non-profit
Date delivered
August 2022
Length of project
3 weeks
Solution provided
Understanding customers as individuals, Delivering personalisation at scale
Technology
Adobe Campaign
The Project
Apple’s iOS 15 release included a Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) feature which users love and email marketers loathe. Because MPP protects recipient addresses by re-routing emails through a proxy server that “opens” all emails, Shelter UK soon found themselves facing sky-high open rates and diluted data accuracy. So they did the smart thing and turned to Tap CXM for a fix.
The Challenge
Shelter UK faced several issues due to Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection feature:
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- Inefficient data reporting: MPP caused open rates to inflate from ~25% up to 50%, rendering traditional reporting methods unreliable.
- Lack of accurate tracking: The inability to track true open rates led to ineffective campaign strategies.
- Privacy concerns: Restoring data accuracy without compromising user privacy was essential for Shelter.
The Solution
Tap led a project to develop a new process with Shelter’s Adobe Campaign instance for flagging and filtering accounts that might cause false opens. This solved the symptom, keeping Shelter’s data clean while still respecting user privacy.
But we kept digging and realised that we could work with Shelter on new rules based around personalised metrics, engagements and triggers. This lets Shelter personalise marketing emails even more, and get better audience insights from reporting.
The development of auto-open detection has helped us monitor engagement rates and test factors impacting open rates. It’s enabled segmentation without drastically altering our contact approach, which is crucial for our campaign success.
Pip Raven, Head of CRM, Shelter UK
The Results
Our Mail Privacy Protection solution boosted Shelter UK’s performance by refining its email campaign strategies and improving data accuracy. We helped Shelter focus on more personalised metrics, such as clicks and cross-channel interactions, giving a clearer view of what resonates with their audience.
By filtering out false email opens, we also made their data more dependable. This allowed Shelter to develop smarter marketing strategies, concentrate on genuine engagement, and get more value from their Adobe Campaign investment.
Now, Shelter delivers more targeted and relevant email campaigns that truly connect. Engagement rates have soared — genuinely, not like the false opens — with people receiving content that’s relevant to them.
