Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Marketers have been spoiled by the internet. Digital marketing, social media, and email marketing afford us tons of luxuries when it comes to tapping into our audiences and reaching them directly with our products or services. We’ve had it pretty good. Until now.  As I’m sure you’re well aware, Apple will be releasing an iOS…
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Did you know Google gives out 10k per month in ad grants to qualifying businesses? My partner successfully landed us this deal recently and it’s been a game changer! Is this something you guys think I should make a post details about? View Poll
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Have you ever done some obscure search on Google, and been amazed when the search engine still returned such accurate results? 
You can thank RankBrain for that.
RankBrain went live in 2015 and is now an essential part of the Google algorithm.
This article will help break down what you should know about it, and how you can optimize for it.

What Is Google RankBrain?
RankBrain is a part of Google’s algorithm that uses machine-learning and artificial intelligence to better understand the intent of a search query. This understanding can help return the most relevant search results to users.
It was implemented into the core algorithm back in 2015 and was initially only applied to the 15% of never before seen queries it received. Once Google became more confident in it, they made it a part of every search query.
Let’s explore how machine learning and AI contribute to RankBrain.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence helps computers understand and act like a human when they are given tasks like decision-making, language translation, and visual perception.
Google has also stated they use what is called neural matching, which is an AI-based system that helps understand how words relate to concepts.
Although RankBrain and neural matching may differ, they do work together to bring the best results for a search query.
Machine Learning
Machine learning is essentially the ability for a machine to learn on its own from data it receives.
If you currently use a junk mail filter in your mailbox or have movie recommendations appear in your Netflix account, these are examples of machine learning.
The combination of AI and machine learning are what drives RankBrain to be an effective part of the algorithm.
As an example, if I were to look for “the scary hotel movie with the maze”, I would get results for The Shining.
Even without the results using that exact term on the page, RankBrain can assess the topical relevance and deliver the results I want.
Pretty cool, right?

How important is RankBrain?
Given that RankBrain is used in every search that takes place on Google, it’s pretty important.
RankBrain is the first attempt at machine learning and will be paving the path for the future of search. By implementing some best practices now, you can ensure that your website is ready for the continued improvements machine learning will bring to search results over time.
At one time Google claimed it was the third-most important ranking factor. While we are not sure that still applies, what we do know is that RankBrain is still a big part of how Google delivers search results.
So what does that mean for you?
It means you need to up your content and SEO game. Let’s dive into how to do that, next. 
Optimizing With RankBrain In Mind
You cannot directly optimize for RankBrain.
But what you can do is better optimize your content, which will then improve how RankBrain views your website.

RankBrain is focused on ranking sites that most accurately match a users’ query. So your job is to make sure you create content that can match those specific needs.

Below are some ways you can better optimize your content for RankBrain.
1. Use Natural Language
When creating content, you’ll want to write in a natural tone that you might also use when speaking.
Read your content aloud when creating it — does it sound like a human would say it? Is it conversational?
This writing style can make a big difference in helping RankBrain understand your content.
2. Search Intent
This is a big one!
Type the keyword you would like to rank for in the search results and review the top-ranking pages.
These pages are ranking because Google understands that this is the type of content a searcher is looking for based on interactions with the results.
3. Strengthen Relevance
Once you are clear on the intent of the keyword, you will need to create content and optimize it to match that intent.
Think of each page more as a “topic” than just a keyword and make it as comprehensive as possible.
In the past, we may have written several posts about a topic so we can optimize each for a specific keyword. But now the goal is to combine those posts into one post, and rank for multiple keywords and phrases.
When you create a post that covers all possible variations of a topic, you will ultimately rank for more keywords — which will help make the page more authoritative.
Below is an example of a website that has thousands of keywords ranking for their two top pages.

How can you create posts that have thousands of keywords?
Be comprehensive about your topic.
If your main topic is “how to potty train a puppy”, for instance, you’ll want to add content that relates to all aspects of training a puppy. This might include:

How long does it take to train a puppy
How fast can you train a puppy
At what age can I start training a puppy
How to potty train a “5” month old puppy (break it down by age)
Easiest way to train a puppy

All of these variations of terms and phrases will build a strong piece of content that addresses all issues related to puppy potty training. This in turn will help with RankBrain because you are adding items of topical relevance!
4. Improve Click-through Rate (CTR)
Because RankBrain does look at how many clicks from the search results you get, writing exceptional title tags and meta descriptions is critical.
Using emotions in your title is one of the best ways to increase those clicks. You can also use numbers, brackets, or parentheses to help make your title stand out from the rest.
Look at what paid ads in your niche are using as inspiration, as well as the top ranking pages.
5. Quality Over Quantity
If you have been in SEO as long as I have, you will have to change how you view content and keyword strategy.
The days of writing a post around a singular keyword are gone. In the past you may have written a separate post for the terms “get more sales”, “increase your sales”, or “grow monthly revenue” so that you could optimize for each of those phrases.
Unfortunately, that no longer works with RankBrain.
Creating one post and maximizing the content around the term “get more sales” should help RankBrain understand that it is related to those other terms.
For instance, below you can see the search results for “get more sales” and “increase your sales”. You will notice how close the results are for these terms.
This may not have been the case before RankBrain.

RankBrain has made it more beneficial to create long-form content that can be optimized around many phrases or terms.
6. Time On Page (Dwell Time)
Once it delivers the search results, how does RankBrain understand which results are good ones?
There is some indication that it will take UX signals and pages that have more engagement, and rank those higher. Measuring a user’s time on page and whether any pogo-sticking is happening are two of the factors that are likely used.
Some things to consider to improve these UX signals include:

Break-up the text into small paragraphs so it is easy to read
Use titles to break content into sections
Create an engaging introductory paragraph to get users interested in reading more
Use images and videos
Answer questions early in the content
Create content that answers all the questions a user may have about the topic

This is why it is more important than ever to take time to craft great content that makes users’ stay on the page. The longer they stay on your website, the better signals it will send to RankBrain.
7. Improve Old Content
If your website has been around for a while, you may have old content that was optimized before RankBrain.
Additionally, you might have several posts that are topically relevant that might now be better served as one long-form post.
If this is the case, determine which post has the highest traffic, backlinks, and ranking, and make that your primary post. Then merge the content from the other posts into it and do a 301 redirect for those posts to your new “RankBrain-optimized” post.
This is a great opportunity for some quick ranking wins!
RankBrain is definitely a game changer for search. As a content creator or SEO professional, it’s important to use the strategies above to help improve your chances of ranking well with RankBrain.
One thing we know for sure is that RankBrain will be here for a while. While it may evolve over time, the combination of AI and machine learning is here to stay. Learn how you can adapt your own content to reap the full benefits of the SERPs. 

Ten years ago, SEO strategists across the world followed a relatively similar process.
Step one, conduct keyword research. Step two, randomly write those keywords into the text on a page approximately five billion times. And step three — rank number one for that keyword.
I hate to break to you, but that isn’t the case anymore.
Several algorithm updates like Hummingbird and RankBrain brought about a new concept: semantic search.
While this may remove jobs for black-hat keyword stuffers, SEOs who prioritize the importance of providing a good customer experience can sigh in relief that Google is now on their side.
Google and other search engines are continuously striving to satisfy the searcher with the most accurate results — which is precisely where semantic search comes in. In other words, it connects search intent with the context of your content to provide the most relevant and helpful results.
With these updates in place, how does this affect search traffic? And what do SEOs need to consider moving forward?
That’s what I’ll cover in this article.

What is semantic search?
To start, let’s dive deeper into how semantic search works.
Semantic search is the process search engines use to try to understand the intent and contextual meaning of your search query in order to give you results that match what you had in mind.

In other words, semantic search aims to know why you are searching for these particular keywords, and what you intend to do with the information you get.

It’s important to note — you don’t want to mistake semantic search with Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), or what some may call semantically-related keywords. LSIs can help provide context on what your content is about (which consequently helps with matching search intent), but semantic search is so much more than that.
If we’re looking at semantic search holistically, here are the factors that guide how it works:
1. A user’s search intent.
The term “search intent” refers to the reason why you are performing a query (or, in layman’s terms: why you Google something). Most often you want to buy, find, or learn something.
For instance, if I search for “content marketing”, Google provides results around the definition of content marketing, since the intent is fairly broad:

However, if I instead search “How do I get started with content marketing”, Google does not provide definitions of content marketing, because my intent is different:

The takeaway: For all content marketers and SEOs, the big lesson here is that you need to heavily consider search intent when choosing keywords and creating content. Even if you have content that ranks well, if it doesn’t match search intent, the user will leave the page — and that certainly doesn’t help conversions.
2. The semantic meaning of search terms.
“Semantic search” was coined based on semantics, or the study of the meaning of words and phrases in certain contexts and the relationship between those words. When it comes to search, semantics refers to the connection between a search query, words related to it, and the content on website pages.
All of those factors combined help search engines understand what the search queries mean beyond a literal translation, so it can display results that are related to the context.
For example, if you search for “wedding dresses”, the words related to that might include “wedding”, “cake”, “bride”, and “dream”. When the search is for “dresses”, the related words might be “beautiful”, “knee-length”, and so on.
The takeaway: When choosing the keywords that go into your content, I recommend creating what’s known as “keyword clusters”, or groups of related keywords. These clusters directly relate to semantic search, because they ensure that your content covers a broader range of the topic. And with a broader range, comes multiple keyword rankings per page.
Other Factors Related to Semantic Search
Although the above two are the main factors, these factors also affect semantic search:

Featured snippets: Featured snippets are based on providing the most direct and helpful answer to the searcher.

Rich results: These affect semantic search as well through content such as images, and you’ll see how in the example in the next section.

Voice search: Voice search queries are usually very direct, include natural language, longer phrases, and question words that lends to how search engines process results.

RankBrain: based on machine learning technology, the RankBrain algorithm helps Google understand the first-instance set that satisfies the query and related concepts, phrases, and synonyms.

Hummingbird: the focus of the Hummingbird algorithm update was to provide better results for voice search, conversational language, and searches for specific people.

Semantic Search Examples
In order to give you a clear idea of how semantic search works, here are a few concrete examples.
Here, I searched “order a pizza”, so the results are inclined towards local search:

Here, I Googled “Make a pizza”, and I see rich results with recipes:

If I Google just “pizza”, I will likely still get local search results, because more users are looking to order rather than make their own. However, if my search history is filled with pizza recipes, my results for “pizza” will likely also be recipes because of the personalization component.
Semantic search basically affects all results a user receives. So a website will only be served as a result for a certain keyword if the content on the page matches the context of that search query. Results for “make a pizza” will have ingredients, time to prepare, and so on, while “order a pizza” will have locations, delivery, and prices.
On an interesting note, current news affects search results, as well. Before the pandemic, a search for “corona” would have mostly returned the beer brand, but after the spread of COVID-19, you mainly get results regarding the virus.
Another example is Jeff Bezos. When you search for his name, you get a knowledge graph, general information, and below that, recent news. However, if something big has happened recently with Jeff Bezos, you’ll see the Top Stories first.

How Google Uses Semantic Search
Google’s bottom line is to give users the best search experience possible. To do that, they use semantic search to:

Identify and disqualify low-quality content.
Gain a better understanding of user search intent. For example: is the user searching to navigate to a particular page? Or are they searching to do more research about a topic?
Formulate answers to questions.
Determine what relevant data to pull from the Semantic Web
Understand websites and pages in terms of topics instead of keywords.
Integrate Google technologies where semantic search plays a role such as Knowledge Graph, Hummingbird, RankBrain, BERT.
Appropriately format the data for inclusion in the search results.
Connect with queries with all possible meaning when the search intent is not clear.

How to Use the Power of Semantic Search to Your Advantage
To put it simply, if your content doesn’t have a semantic relationship with the search query, it won’t show up in search results. The simple solution to this is matching your content to the search term in combination with the right strategy.
To be on the right side of SEO when it comes to semantic search, I recommend that you strive to do the following:

Focus on topics, not keywords.
Make sure you understand user search intent: is it to buy? to reach a particular page of a brand? To learn?
Build relevancy through links (both internal and external).

Use schema markup.
Use semantic HTML like <header>, <footer> and <article>.
Answer all relevant questions around your topic.
Be answer-based and structure your sentences to be easily understandable.

Check these off your list, and you’ve got a one-stop shop to a powerful SEO strategy with the support of semantic search.

Over the last two years, you’ve probably heard a lot about cybersecurity.
Like many big, serious-sounding concepts, it feels like it sometimes plays out above our heads — the territory of huge conglomerates and governments, or maybe your IT department. And, let’s face it, not too interesting for professionals in marketing, sales, or services.
You may have even found yourself thinking, “Yeah, there are people worrying about this, but we probably don’t have to.”
As a product manager for security at HubSpot, I spend a lot of time thinking about this topic. Today I’d like to explore how essential good data protection and account security are to marketers and the businesses they represent.
It all starts with one thing: trust.

Why Marketers Should Care About Data Security
1. Trust is a cornerstone of the inbound marketing methodology.
You build trust in your business in a multitude of ways.
This could be exemplifying expertise in your field or providing great service centered around the customer experience. You also build trust by creating genuine relationships with customers that transcend simply converting a lead — and includes ongoing support that brings your customers enough success that they feel comfortable recommending your service to anybody they know.
At the end of the day, building and maintaining trust is a key ingredient to keeping your flywheel spinning.
Without it, this whole machine grinds to a halt.
Loss of trust is a catastrophic hit for a business and a brand, too. For example, few things can cause a customer to sever a relationship with a company more quickly than a data breach. In fact, one in four Americans won’t do business with data breached companies.
2. Prospects and customers trust marketers to keep personal data secure.
Every day, your potential customers put trust in you — quite a lot of trust, in fact — when they do things like fill out contact forms on your website, register for your webinars, or sign up for free trials of your service.
By giving you their personal information, they’re putting a massive amount of trust not only in your business but in you as the marketer who maintains those tools. They’re trusting you to keep their personal information safe, not to abuse it (say, by sending them a bunch of spammy emails), and to use it in their best interest to help them meet their goals.
3. Proper use of data isn’t enough anymore — you need to keep customer data safe.
You’ve probably heard conversations about the proper use of customer data, such as emails, centered around the concept “don’t misuse the information.”
For example: don’t over-email someone, don’t send them offers you don’t have any reason to believe they’d be interested in or don’t contact them without their consent.
Just as important is a conversation you may be a little less familiar with — how to actually keep prospect and customer information safe, and out of the hands of people who would use that information to harm them.
If you’re not as familiar with that side of the conversation, that’s understandable. The risk of bad actors gaining unauthorized access to customer data at scale is relatively new.
At HubSpot, we believe it’s just as valuable as any other way to inspire and maintain trust.
As a marketer, you are the steward of your customers’ data.
The job of a marketer doesn’t stop at generating leads or building a brand. 
There’s another important piece to the puzzle — being a trustworthy steward of customer data. 
If customers place their trust in you because of all the hard work you’ve done to build those quality relationships, to build a brand that’s seen as trusted in your field, to create a community of evangelists who have encouraged others to trust you too — then it’s imperative that you hold up your end of the bargain.
It’s your job to do what is in your personal control to validate that trust and keep customer data safe. 
Start with the Fundamentals
Luckily, implementing security best practices to keep your online accounts safe isn’t difficult. In fact, you can get started on many of these things right away.
Here’s a list of content to help any marketer set up the foundational elements of security:
Blogs:

The Ultimate Guide to Cybersecurity
Ten Minutes to Secure Your Online Account

HubSpot Academy Content and Webinars:

Implementing Website Security
Data Protection at HubSpot
Cybersecurity Tips for HubSpot Users

You’ve done a great job building relationships, communities, and image around your business. You can do a great job of security, too — and be a steward your customers can trust.

 

 

eCommerce dashboards provide real-time insight into the dynamics of online stores and allow you to quickly identify areas that require urgent action, streamlining workflows, and re-allocating resources. A well-tailored data visualization software is a valuable marketing tool. What are the best tips to personalize a dashboard? Here are a few tricks.

 

As online stores gain more access to data, the need to find simple ways to visualize it to make it understandable and actionable grows. Data visualization software directly accomplishes this task by creating static or moving images that convey concepts in a way that words and numbers alone cannot. Top eCommerce professionals use dashboards to quickly see the most important aspects of their data to efficiently make better informed strategic decisions.Analysts at research and advisory firm Gartner predict that by 2025, data stories (explaining raw data with visualizations) will be the most common way to use analytics, with 75% of data stories automatically generated using augmented intelligence and machine learning rather than generated by data analysts.

 

What are the benefits of data visualization? AiMultiple lists some of them:

 

faster problem solving through better access to business information,
identifying dependencies and patterns,
identifying and tracking emerging trends,
easiness of communication between parties involved in the process,
better understanding of operational and business activities,
direct interaction with data.

 

Data visualization tools

 

Because of the growing demand for data analytics skills, analytics software companies stepped out to meet users’ needs and began creating plug-ins and extensions to make data more actionable. Here are some popular solutions:

 

Google Data Studio

 

Google Data Studio includes interactive dashboards and automated reporting. This cloud-based platform imports data from multiple sources, including Google Analytics, Google Ads and spreadsheets, and integrates with more than 150 other cloud, SQL and eCommerce platforms. Google Data Studio supports a wide range of data visualizations, including time series, bar charts, pie charts, tables, heat maps, geographic maps, scorecards, scatter plots, dot plots, and area charts.

 

Dedicated Software

 

Tools like Tableau or Infogram are online platforms where anyone can create a data visualization. Data can be imported from a spreadsheet or input manually. According to the manufacturers, one can create almost any type of visualization using their platform. It is a comprehensive online data visualization builder. The tools offer diverse and powerful options.

 

Built-in Dashboards

 

It is not uncommon to talk about dashboards when it comes to the topic of data visualization. The key difference between the two terms is the frequency of data updates. Visualizations are generated from data, while dashboards are updated more regularly to show changes within a data set.

 

Many vendors of business support software, such as SALESmanago, integrate dashboards into their tools to provide accurate real-time visualization of data.

 

Dashboards for eCommerce

 

In order for a dashboard to fulfill its purpose, it should be adjusted to the needs of the specialist who uses it. Excessive, inadequate, redundant data – it all blurs the picture and makes the dashboard non-functional. That is why it is so important to properly adjust the dashboard to the specifics of your business. This idea guided our specialists, who prepared ready-made dashboard templates.

 

From the eCommerce point of view, one of the most important processes to track is sales. Among SALESmanago Dashboard templates you will find a composition dedicated to tracking sales results. The composition of this Dashboard consists of:

 

total sales,
total new sales – figures (previous day and last 7 days),
total new sales – chart for last 7 days,
total new sales – comparison (previous day and last 7 days),
total number of all transactions,
number of new transactions – figure (previous day and last 7 days),
number of new deals – chart for last 7 days,
number of new transactions – comparison (previous day and last 7 days),
total new carts – figures and chart for last 7 days,
number of new carts – figures and chart for last 7 days,
transactions combined with page views.

 

 

For many people, such statistics are sufficient. However, it is worth knowing that you can easily go much deeper into the analytics of online store statistics. For this, you can use the Revenue Attribution Analytics Dashboard template. It consists of:

 

information about the total sales, including sales supported by SALESmanago, (30 days and 12 months),
information about sales supported by mass, automatic and sent-from-rules messages,
summaries of best-performing messages and conversion paths,
information about Cross Channel Attribution sales,
information on the best sources of last click and supporting transactions,
information on top categories and products.

 

 

A detailed description of each component can be found here:

 

Revenue Attribution Analytics and Product Analytics

 

The templates themselves are quite versatile and as presented will be useful for most eCommerce stores. However, you can customize them even better to suit your needs. Here are 7 clever tricks that will turn generic templates into personalized assistants for any specialist.

 

7 quick ideas for personalizing eCommerce dashboards

 

The full dashboard from the Revenue Attribution template may be too elaborate for some online store configurations. Fortunately, by using ready-made Widgets, you can customize the view that interests you in no time. 

 

Case #1 You have a small eCommerce 

 

What’s worth tracking when you have a small eCommerce site? You may want to trim down your template a bit in the beginning so you can focus on building revenue. Therefore, if you’re just starting out, stick with just sales data. Additional analysis of Cross Channel Attribution and top selling brands can bring more mess than clarification.

 

Of course, you constantly have access to this data, so once you feel confident with your current Dashboard template, you can slowly start adding more variables.

 

Case #2 You have few products in your store

 

If your offerings are robust but not very diverse, you don’t necessarily need to focus on which products sell best. It may be much more important to optimize your conversion paths.

 

Keeping track of your conversion paths widget, but also check:

 

The average sales value – last click,
The average number of products per transaction – last click,
Cross Channel attribution,
Introducing and Key interactions.

 

Optimizing purchase paths will help you maximize profits even with a leaner portfolio.

 

Case #3 Your business is based on Dropshipping

 

Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method in which a store does not keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a store sells a product in the dropshipping model, it buys it from a third party and ships it directly to the customer.

 

In such a business model, statistics showing the most popular categories and products are especially important. This helps to properly plan further cooperation and negotiate preferential conditions.

 

Case #4 You have products from different brands

 

Popular marketplaces nowadays often offer various brands. If your store belongs to this category, we recommend adding widgets dedicated to the most popular manufacturers and brands. Transparent data summary helps to plan promotion and allocation of partners’ advertising budgets accordingly. 

 

Case #5 You use multiple recommendation mechanisms

 

The mechanism of recommendations perfectly supports sales in eCommerce. It allows you to suggest interesting products to customers in different channels. If you use this mechanism in your eCommerce, you can easily track which specific frames and channels work best for your audience. You can use widgets analyzing cross-channel attribution, sales in different channels, and in particular the number of transactions and total sales after clicking the recommendation frames.

 

Case #6 You have a large eCommerce with advanced implementations

 

The larger you have a store, the more processes contribute to its smooth functioning. In eCommerce with advanced implementations, it is worth highlighting on the dashboard analytics for workflow processes and rules. Ready-made widgets allow you to check which actions (automatic message, Web Push notification, text message) in the processes work best in terms of generating sales.

 

Case #7 You have plans to grow your store

 

In the lifecycle of any store, there comes a time for more expansive activities, such as expanding your portfolio. A dashboard adapted to product analytics can greatly facilitate strategic business decisions. Knowledge about the best-selling products of the most popular categories, manufacturers and brands allows you to better plan a new offer and undertake profitable cooperation. Additionally, it is also worth looking at the performance of individual communication channels in order to prepare effective advertising campaigns.

 

Benefits of using SALESmanago Dashboards

 

As already mentioned, you have several options for visualizing analytics data in your store. It is quite popular to use Google Tag Manager for this purpose. However, in eCommerce using SALESmanago you should consider verifying data also in built-in dashboards. Naturally, they will present slightly different data – SALESmanago is based on a different attribution model in the case of supported sales. In Google Analytics, revenue that has been generated by SALESmanago is only monitored if someone accesses the site through a link (clicking on the link) with the utm_source=salesmanago parameter added. These differences are especially noticeable with the free version of Google Analytics.

 

What’s more, when using SALESmanago’s built-in dashboards, there is less risk of incorrectly linking events in the store. Most actions are monitored automatically and the implementation is code-free. The technical support of the project manager, who helps to properly configure the system, is also important. There is no need to hire an agency or a specialist-freelancer for this.

 

SALESmanago business dashboards – wrap up

 

One of the most important MarTech trends is to make software as user-friendly as possible. For this purpose, developers create a variety of no-code features. What’s more, they try to make it as easy as possible to use data in everyday life – whether in the form of an elegant visualization or smart, personalized hints on how to use their software.

 

It’s worth using these facilities, especially if they are fully customizable and function as a free part of the platform you already use. If you feel like trying out a personalized SALESmanago Business Dashboard, create one by choosing a mix of the most important KPIs in your eCommerce, or ask your success manager for advice.

As one of the HubSpot Blog’s email marketers, one of the key metrics I use to measure email success is open rate.
When an open rate is high, it hints that your subject line did its job to pull readers, you’re sending emails at the most engaging time of day, or your subscribers are eagerly waiting to get your content in their inbox. When it’s low, it signals that your email subscribers might not even be reading your content.
But, now, the way email marketers leverage open rates could change with Apple’s recently announced iOS 15 privacy features.
At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, the company announced a rollout of a handful of new iOS 15 privacy features that will include:

Mail Privacy Protection (Free): According to reports from Litmus, those with early access to iOS 15, and other tech journalists, Apple Mail will allow users to opt in to mail privacy features that mask IP addresses and block third parties from tracking email opens or other IP data.

iCloud+ (Subscription): An iCloud subscription with additional privacy features including a VPN-like Private Relay feature, which prevents sites from tracking Safari users who opt-in and allows users to see which websites they’re sending information to.

Hide My Email (within iCloud+): An email address-cloaking feature that enables users to give sites a “fake” email address. While promotional emails sent from the brand to the fake address will still go to someone’s inbox and shouldn’t impact important communication, brands will not be able to see the person’s real address unless the contact shares it.

While the paid features might not create a huge impact for marketers because they require users to buy a service, the free Apple Mail privacy feature has already caused a stir in the marketing community.
So far, all Apple has said about this feature is, “In the Mail app, Mail Privacy Protection stops senders from using invisible pixels to collect information about the user. The new feature helps users prevent senders from knowing when they open an email and masks their IP address so it can’t be linked to other online activity or used to determine their location.”
Although Apple hasn’t explicitly said whether Mail Privacy Protection will be an opt-in or automatic feature, some iOS testers have shared images showing the Mail app prompts them to turn Mail Privacy Protection on when they enter the app:

Image Source
While Apple hasn’t expanded too much on its Mail Privacy feature, marketing experts say it could impact the tracking of open rates and email-based A/B testing.
Although this move might seem scary, it isn’t too surprising as it follows a trend of internet privacy rollouts from tech giants. Most recently, Apple’s iOS 14.5 update limited mobile app tracking by requiring users to opt into sharing information when they opened an app after downloading it. Meanwhile, Google has been building out its Privacy Sandbox while preparing advertisers and marketers for Chrome’s phase-out of third-party cookies in 2022.
When it comes to Apple’s iOS 15 pivots specifically, marketers aren’t only unsurprised, but many — including members of the HubSpot team — believe this will be a positive change for user experience.
“From its inception, HubSpot has been relentlessly focused on helping businesses match the way they market and sell to the way people want to shop and buy. Our founders developed the philosophy of inbound marketing in the early 2000s,  and Apple’s moves only serve to reinforce these trends,” says Will DeKrey, HubSpot’s Group Product Manager of Campaigns.
“Buyers get to be in charge of the data they share; not sellers. And big corporations shouldn’t get to create markets for tracking and selling personal data, giving them an information advantage over smaller businesses,” DeKrey says.
“This means that each individual company, large or small, will need to get better and better at building trusted relationships with their audience, earning the right to learn who they are and what they’re interested in.”
“What’s true about people today is that they want BOTH privacy AND personalization. They still want content that is targeted and messaging that speaks to their interests. Given Apple’s changes, email marketers will likely need to focus even more on creating remarkably relevant content that drives their audiences to take action, versus experimenting with headlines just to see if they can get a click,” DeKrey explains.
“Personalization isn’t going away. Conversion optimization isn’t going away. A/B testing isn’t going away. But each of these will need to be more focused on building deeper relationships and more meaningful actions,” concludes DeKrey
Although Apple’s recent open tracking pivot could be great for iOS users who’d like to feel more secure, we know that email marketers still have a lot of questions.
To help email marketers navigate the potential changes that could happen, here are a few tips and strategies teams can consider as the iOS 15 rollout gets closer.

How Email Marketers Can Navigate Apple’s Open Privacy Changes
1. Continue following updates from Apple.
Although Apple’s iOS 15 features have been announced, there’s still a lot that we don’t know yet about how it will impact email and IP address tracking. For example, while it seems like this feature will require an opt-in, Apple hasn’t explicitly confirmed that.
Throughout the next few months, HubSpot’s own email product team will be looking into the change and considering solutions if there will be a major open rate impact.
“On the HubSpot email product team, we’re going to take time to consider what the next best steps are for our customers. In this ever-evolving email landscape, our priority will be to support our marketers in continuing to create highly impactful emails and get the most value from our email tool,” says Shane Janssens, Email Product Manager at HubSpot.
As we know more about these new features and how they could impact HubSpot email analytics, we’ll continue to update this post with more information and links to helpful resources to keep you in the know.
2. Remember, this change won’t impact all email readers.
Although Apple Mail and Apple mobile devices make up over 35% of the email provider market share globally, Google, Outlook, and other email providers haven’t announced similar privacy moves, which means their open and IP data could still provide solid tracking information for email marketers.
While you should be wary that other companies, like Google or Microsoft, could follow suit on email privacy, it’s important to remember that you’ll still get open data from them for the time being and can still make some judgments on the success of opens from these email providers.
3. Consider adjusting open-rate goals.
Although open rates aren’t going away any time soon, a large chunk of email audiences might become untrackable. Because of this, you might need to lower or pivot your open rate goals to determine what your new low, average, and high open rates are.
If your goals are set by a manager above you, it will be important to audit and communicate how many opens you usually get from iOS users to help your manager and your team estimate how they could change after the rollout. You might also want to consider tracking your email open rates for a month or so after the rollout to see what new averages look like based on hard data.
4. Leverage other email marketing data.
While open rate is a key email marketing KPI at many companies, it’s certainly not the only data you can use to determine if your email content is successful. In fact, when sending HubSpot Blog emails, the open rate is just one of many metrics I look at. Here are a few others that I plan to continue to zone in on, even if open rates are impacted:

Clicks and click-through rates: If you share links to content, such as blogs, product pages, and offers in email, the number of clicks and your click-through rates give you insights on how many or how often email readers engaged with and clicked on your content. High clicks or click-throughs can hint that your content was very engaging while lower clicks or click-throughs could hint that readers were less interested or skimming through your email.

Traffic to your site: With software like HubSpot, or the use of tracking URLs, you can determine how much traffic came to your website from one single email — or which pieces of content sent the most visitors to your site. Ultimately, if you’re trying to build your audiences, get people to make purchases, or aiming to increase offer downloads, you’ll need to send people to your website. Good email traffic hints that you’re successfully getting visitors where they need to go with your content.

Clickmaps: Many email providers, like HubSpot, allow you to see which content people clicked most or least in the email. This can help you see which content within your email was most and least clickable,

Unsubscribe rates: While these usually don’t vary much, a spiked unsubscribe rate could indicate that an aspect of your email strategy (such as the content you sent or the frequency of emails) caused you to lose more audience members than usual. Meanwhile, a consistently low unsubscribe rate hints that you’re continuing to retain or even gain subscribers.

Survey or email persona research: Aside from metrics you can gain from your email marketing platform, you can also leverage other strategies, like surveys or polls to learn more about your subscribers’ interests, what they’d like to see more of, and where you can improve your content.

On top of leveraging KPIs that are less impacted by Apple’s change, you can also use email tools or benchmark reports to see how your email rates compare to that of other brands in your industry.
For example, HubSpot users can leverage HubSpot’s Email Health Tool to compare your open, click-through, unsubscribe, and bounce rates against our benchmarks.
Evolving Your Content for a More Private World
Apple’s announcement is not the only privacy pivot that’s impacted digital marketers — and in 2021 — it certainly won’t be the last.
Although the world might be changing in a way that poses some challenges for digital and email marketers, that doesn’t mean you can’t continue to innovate your strategy to meet prospects or audiences where they are.
While open rates are certainly important, there are many other ways to get to know your email subscribers, learn from KPIs, and continue to create great content for them.