Feature Spotlight

iOS 15’s Impact on Your Advocacy & PAC Email Strategy

Those of us in the advocacy & PAC space know that change is a constant. Through the years, we’ve looked to reach out to our stakeholders in any number of ways, from handwritten letters to faxes, phone calls to email, text messages to social media. As an advocate’s habits and technology usage trends in a specific direction, we as an industry recognize the change and adapt.

The latest change from Apple looks to be a watershed moment in the email space, forever altering how we track engagement with our stakeholders over email.

Earlier this summer, Apple announced new privacy rules that are set to roll out to customers this fall starting with the release of iOS 15 & iPadOS. Among other changes, the latest versions of both systems will mean that advocacy and PAC efforts will no longer be able to track whether subscribers open their email messages.

While for now this move only applies to those using the Apple Mail app, the move has implications for the entire industry. More to the point, if we’re unable to track opens from a large platform, it makes all open data unreliable. This prevents us from making informed decisions about who is interacting with your message.

As seen elsewhere, Apple’s decision means only one thing – tracking opens as a metric is dead.

Email is a cornerstone to advocacy and PAC efforts, providing a quick, easy and reliable way to connect with your audience. This fact won’t change. What will change is the strategy behind your email program and the metrics you’ll be reporting on in the future.

SparkInfluence is in a unique position to respond quickly to changes in the industry and the needs of those in the advocacy & PAC space. While we’re sad to see our custom Effective Open Rate metric go by the wayside, we’re already preparing new reports, searches and views to give you the information you need to continue to educate, empower and engage with your advocates.

Moving forward, we expect Google, Outlook & Yahoo to follow Apple’s lead in the coming weeks / months. (Some evidence shows that the GMail iPhone app is already prefetching images) That said, this announcement paves the way for us to continue to take the lead in helping you better understand how your advocates are interacting with your messaging and effort.

After all, all politics is local, and advocacy and PAC work has always been about action, not opens.

Below is a quick breakdown with additional resources on the impending changes.

What’s Changing?

  • Pre-fetching Images:  The Apple Mail app will begin pre-fetching images & pixels, regardless of whether people ever manually open the email. This means that whether your advocate uses Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, or their work email – as long as it’s hooked up to the Apple Mail app, all tracking pixels will be preloaded into their system whether they’ve opened your message or not. One important note: emails that land in a user’s spam folder will NOT be pre-fetched, and therefore will not register an automatic open.
  • Potential for Pre-fetching Links:  Beyond pre-fetching images, some organizations have implemented additional security that may also pre-fetch links in emails. This may artificially inflate clicks, all while the individual themselves may not have manually opened or clicked through your email.

Who’s Impacted?

  • Everyone: Whether you send email through SparkInfluence or another platform, your open rates will be affected by this new update.

What Do I Need to Do?

  • Reset Expectations:  We’re encouraging clients to rethink how they both report & determine meaningful engagement with their outbound email. This may mean having a talk with leadership to prepare them for the potential skew in stats moving forward.
  • Segment, Segment, Segment:  We encourage concentric sending. Start sending emails to smaller lists of active subscribers based on clicks and conversions rather than opens.
  • Focus on Copy: Renew your focus on your email copy. Keep calls to action clear and succinct. Make the ask. Keep the message relevant, engaging, to the point, and useful, and that should translate to a higher click-through rate.
  • Promote Preference Center: Be sure your stakeholders know that they can update what types of messages they receive from you. (See Email Categories)

Further Reading:

Advocacy Help Desk

Your Email Strategy is About to Take a Hit

Email is dead, Long live email. We’ve all seen the obituaries for email, yet with each advocacy effort, campaign cycle and PAC fundraising request, email has proven crucial to educating, engaging and empowering stakeholders. That said, Apple is about to change email forever. With the release of iOS, iPadOS & macOS this fall, major changes are coming that will change how you track, segment and execute your email strategy. We’re joined this week by Brian Sisolak, VP, Technology Services at Trilogy Interactive. He walks us thru the evolution of email strategy over the last few years, tactics that have worked & how he’s preparing for the impending iOS release and the new pre-fetching of images as a standard.

Listen on Apple PodcastsView on Youtube

Advocacy Help Desk

Building a Successful Advocacy Coalition

There are some legislative battles where working together to elevate constituent voices means more than just leveraging your own database. Building a successful coalition could be the difference between winning and losing. This week, we’re joined by Bethany Dame, Assistant Vice President, Political Engagement & Grassroots at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association as she walks us thru the what, why & how of advocacy coalitions.
From a checklist of how to get started to the dos & don’ts of messaging, pitfalls and more, we hit on all aspects of coalition building giving you the background you need when joining forces with another group. It’s a fantastic episode from an expert who’s put together dozens of coalitions across the country to push her efforts forward.

Listen on Apple PodcastsView on Youtube

Platform Updates

A quick rundown of updates we've made recently

websitesNew & Updated Elementor Widgets – Social Sharing, Action Counter, Map Embed
emailNew Email Categories & Email Tags Functionality
assetsOverhauled add/edit & search functionality for organizational assets
actionsNew Action Tag Functionality

Platform Updates

A quick rundown of updates we've made recently

key contactsNew Field to Identify & Segment by the Source of the Relationship Captured
websitesUpdated Key Contact Survey Widget for Even Easier Deployment
letters to the editorNew Letters to the Editor Functionality to Reach Publishers Across the Country
pacNew PAC Reports & Ways to Export Contributions

Advocacy Help Desk

Shining a Spotlight on Mental Health

2020 was for many a difficult year. COVID-19 put a spotlight not only on physical well-being but on mental health as well. This week, we’re joined by Hannah Wesolowski, Director, Field Advocacy at the National Alliance on Mental Illness. An industry veteran, Hannah guides us through her team’s work over the past 12 months and how their “No Wrong Door” mantra fits into their all-encompassing advocacy strategy. More to the point, Hannah’s team regularly steps back from the limelight, preparing and providing content for their state affiliates, the public as well as elected officials to drive education and engagement on behalf of mental health. From pre-written social media posts to easily shared imagery to activating on GOTV and state-by-state bills, NAMI leaves no stone unturned as they push for greater understanding, destigmatization and more.

Listen on Apple PodcastsView on Youtube

Advocacy Help Desk

A Chaotic Start to 2021

This week we’re joined by return guest Kristin Brackemeyer, head of PAC and Government Relations and Nick DeSarno, co-host of AHD and head of Digital & Policy Communications both at the Public Affairs Council. Only weeks into a chaotic 2021, hot off the Advocacy Conference and only days away from the PAC Conference, we dive into a number of topics, from how various groups are addressing the events of Jan 6 to approaching political contributions and from promoting civics through their advocacy program to building capacity so they can engage on bills today and into the future. It’s a great episode from two professionals who handle the industry’s questions on a daily basis. Remember, it’s always about policy, not politics.

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Advocacy Help Desk

Advocating for Aisles 2 – 11: How a Rebranding Unified a Voice for an Industry

This week we’re joined by Katie McBreen, VP, Communications & Strategy for the Consumer Brands Association. In this episode, we dive into the branding of advocacy efforts and associations, the ability to create & convey an easily understandable message, and what that means for your effort as a whole. Finally, she walks us through what should be table-stakes for associations and how she messages out their new purpose, asks and results to legislators, members and the public at large.

If you’re working on your brand, your messaging or even how to best convey your results to legislators, this is an episode you won’t want to miss. It’s another week and another great episode with strategies you can start putting in place today.

Listen on Apple PodcastsView on Youtube

Platform Updates

A quick rundown of updates we've made recently

websitesRollout of Elementor, making it even easier to edit & deploy advocacy websites quickly & easily
end-of-yearNew EOY reports added to make it easy to capture the work you’ve done over the past year
pacOverhauled the look and feel of contributions, disbursements and batch explorer screens
prior approvalUpdated prior approval process & filtering those authorized by year

Advocacy Help Desk

External Forces Reshaping Advocacy in the New Congress

Nathan Gonzales, Editor and Publisher of Inside Elections, joins us this week as we dive into the results of Election 2020 and how they may bear out for advocacy professionals. In an in-depth discussion, we talk through everything from the makeup of the 117th Congress, to the outgoing President’s potential effect on legislation, new Members who may have an impact on the issues that may come up early in 2021, and everything in between.

It’s a great episode that sets the stage for how advocacy professionals should prepare for a new Congress. Walking the halls early in session isn’t an option, so how do you meet the new Members and forge relationships in the time of COVID? At the same time, how can advocacy professionals best approach the new Congress to have their issues heard and bills passed? There’s plenty here for everyone to learn more about the election, the 117th Congress, and how – as a PAC and advocacy professional – you can get ahead in 2021.

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