Let’s pretend DTC marketers have completely recovered from the myriad of obstacles that iOS 15 brought them. Those online marketing groups certainly added a lot more members during the dark times of increased privacy restrictions that made paid advertising and email marketing much more difficult for success.
Now assuming you are past the trauma, rest assured that your e-commerce marketing world isn’t going to be rocked as hard by iOS 16 as it was by its previous evil step sister.
Officially launched on September 16, 2022, here are the three main changes that B2C marketers should know:
1. Easier Spam Filtering for Messages
Definitely the most impactful to marketers, especially brands that utilize SMS marketing, the new update will make it very easy for users to report messaging for “junk/spam.” Even if the user has opted into your list, every message now has the ability to be notified for “Report Junk”
Impact: 4 of 5
2. Increased Filtering Categories for Messages
Just like the categorization of email messages, the same optionality is coming to messages. This will include SMS creation of categories such as “Orders,” “Rewards,” “Promotions,” and “Coupons.”
Thankfully this update only affects iOS users in Brazil and India, but make no mistake that this will come to the U.S. quickly. Keep your eye on this one and begin to think about how your brand will react to this change when it hits Stateside.
Impact: 3.5 of 5
3. Edit or Unsend Sent Messages
Yes, you read correctly. That message you accidentally sent your ex can now be retracted as long as you do so in the first 15 minutes. So, personally this is great news.
Since most ecommerce brands use third-party software like Attentive, this isn’t super relevant because the update only affects iPhone-to-iPhone messages.
We just thought that this was a great update for personal usage so we had to share.
Impact: 2 of 5 for companies
Impact: 1 of 5 for people
With the last two iOS updates, one observation is clearly evident. The days of singular-channel marketing and its optimization are in the past. More importantly, B2C brands are going to have to really develop an omnichannel approach to their marketing that addresses both acquisition and retention in similar capacities.
Thankfully, the updates have done very little to one channel that every brand still owns: their website. And when you take your website and combine it with the power of live shopping, Reactive becomes a plug-in solution that can increase web traffic, heighten brand engagement, convert more sales, and secure first-party data needed to market to customers later.
Curious how Reactive can help your brand create entertaining, brand loyalty-increasing live events for all your upcoming launches, drops and collection releases? Start your free trial now, or contact sales@reactive.live to request a live demo.
