MPP in Email Marketing: Myths, Facts and Your Response

The email marketing community swirled with speculation about the possible impact of Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) leading up to its release in the fall of 2021.

Now, MPP is part of every email marketer’s reality. (And if you’re inexplicably seeing record high open rates and not sure why, this may be the perfect time to get up to speed on all things MPP).

The Litmus engineering team was testing how MPP in email marketing would work—and how it would impact different programs and metrics—before its release. Now more than eight months after the fact, we’re still watching it closely.

The best part? We now have some answers about MPP that we think every email marketer will find helpful.

Claim your copy of our latest ebook “MPP and Email Marketing: Your 5 Step Response Guide.” You’ll learn what we know about MPP’s impact in email marketing—and our recommendations for how you may want to respond.

Read on for highlights of some of the developments we’re seeing when it comes to MPP in email marketing, and answers to a few commonly asked questions the Litmus community has posed.

MPP adoption keeps climbing

Litmus’ email client market share data shows the Apple Mail client—on iPhone, Mac, and iPad devices—with nearly 60% of combined email opens as of April 2022. It’s the most popular email client by a significant lead.

In October 2021, shortly after MPP was released, Litmus Email Analytics data indicated that 14.35% of Apple opens were impacted by Apple Mail Privacy Protection.

By December 2021, that number had jumped to 41%. As of May 2022, the number of MPP impacted opens has exceeded 50%.

More email service providers are accommodating MPP opens

The actual impact MPP in email marketing has on any program depends on how many Apple Mail users who have opted into MPP are on the marketer’s list. Understanding what portion of your subscriber base uses Apple Mail today—and how many are opted into MPP—is your first step to forming how to best respond.

Email Analytics makes it easy to see how your specific email program is impacted by MPP, and a handful of email service providers (ESPs) have started to introduce data filtering to account for false email opens, too.

Email marketers are trying new tactics

Since MPP makes it impossible to know whether a subscriber is really opening the email (or not!), measuring true engagement with content intended to capture “signs of life” from a subscriber has become more important than ever. Polls, gamified experiences, links, and a simple “thumbs up” are all great ways to encourage engagement.

We’ve also started to see some email marketers come right out and ask subscribers to click if they’re truly interested in remaining on the list.