Write a ONE PAGE summary of this article and describe how it is RELEVANT to International Marketing! Submit a one-page (10 POINT FONT, SINGLE SPACED) including full in text citations (on the same page, using APA formatting). https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2021/06/23/apple-privacy-email-marketing.html

Kate Nowrouzi has more than two decades of experience focusing on email.During her career, she's heard numerous predictions about the pending demise of email marketing.Some of those predictions are making the rounds yet again in the wake of Apple Inc.'s (Nasdaq: AAPL) recent announcement about privacy changes for its email users. Just as many of those prior predictions proved unfounded, Nowrouzi doesn't believe Apple's latest move will mark the death of email marketing.But Nowrouzi, vice president of deliverability at San Antonio-based email marketing company Pathwire, does think businesses that depend heavily on email should take note and adapt their strategies. "This is a wake-up call for email marketing companies," she said.

Apple announced at Worldwide Developers Conference 2021 its plans to launch Mail Privacy Protection this year likely between September and November. It will affect users on iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS Monterey devices. For users who opt in to the privacy service, the feature will stop senders from using invisible pixels to collect information about them, which will prevent senders from knowing when a recipient opens an email.

It will also mask the recipients' IP address so it can't be linked to other online activity or used to determine a recipient's location. That information has historically been valuable to email marketers. While experts say Apple's changes don't represent an apocalypse for businesses relying on email marketing, they say the initiative will have an impact, and companies should proactively adapt their strategies, as further steps toward more user privacy are likely to follow.

Melissa Sargeant, chief marketing officer for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based email marketing company Litmus, said the change will make open rates a much less meaningful metric in measuring the success of email campaigns.Sargeant said open rates should have always been considered one of many performance indicators, but she said Apple's change will further reduce dependence on open rates alone.She said that could present challenges for companies that focus on drip campaigns or campaign tests based on open rates.

Apple's change will also prevent email marketers from knowing the exact time an email is opened, which Sargeant said could pose additional challenges for companies looking to customize their content. Since the changes haven't taken effect, Sargeant said companies should take time to understand their audience and find out the percentage of recipients who are using Apple Mail."You really want to understand what your universe looks like today," Sargeant said. "If you understand what your subscriber base is today, and how they behave today, you can use that to make some very informed decisions going forward [so] it doesn't become such an onerous blind spot for you."

Sargeant encourages businesses to also expand their email analytics, especially if they have been primarily focused on open rates in the past. "You really want to have a more comprehensive [view]," she said. "That's a good best practice even if this wasn't happening." According to data from Pathwire, 9.3% of respondents in a global survey used Apple Mail, while 52.5% used Gmail and 10.7% used Outlook. While those other platforms won't be initially affected by Apple's new privacy feature, Nowrouzi said companies shouldn't discount the possibility of privacy tweaks for other email services. "I expect others will follow suit, such as Google," Nowrouzi said. "This [trend] is not going to impact only email marketing. This is going to impact online marketing and tracking as a whole. This is just the start."

Nowrouzi said businesses should avoid buying or renting email lists and should instead ensure recipients are opting in to receive emails from them. That will be important in a new privacy-focused world. She also encourage companies to use email placement tools that can help optimize their campaigns.

Experts say it's also important for businesses to consider the content of their emails and whether they are providing what recipients signed up for.

When a customer opts in for a company's email, Sargeant said they are giving the business permission to enter their inbox, but they are doing so with the understanding that they'll receive relevant content. In the new environment, Sargeant said companies should take that to heart, but she's concerned many will not."I think potentially the biggest unintended consequence of this is that consumers who are receiving these emails all of a sudden start getting a bunch of generic emails in their inbox from brands that they really trust that aren't relevant to their interests," Sargeant said. "And they actually aren't getting what they need."