A few days ago, I read about a girl who was forced to flush her hamster down the toilet.
She was traveling with the hamster — her emotional support animal — on Spirit Airlines.
From Miami to Baltimore, Spirit Airlines allowed the hamster on board.
But for the flight back to Miami, Spirit changed their minds when the girl was checking in at the airport. No rodents on the plane, they said.
The girl tried negotiating, or booking other flights, or renting a car.
But nothing worked out.
Finally, according to the girl at least, one Spirit Airlines agent helpfully suggested she either let the hamster run wild in the parking lots surrounding the airport…
Or flush the poor beast down the toilet.
And so, frustrated and worn out and needing to get home to take care of an urgent medical issue, that’s what the girl did.
The lesson being:
There’s simply no arguing when a behemoth corporation, which has control of your life, says no to your small, individual, even reasonable requests.
I bring this up because marketers, copywriters, and anyone else who relies on email as a marketing channel, might face a similar situation soon.
That’s because of some big technical changes that are coming in the newest versions of Apple’s iOS operating system.
Some of these changes, having to do with telemarketing, will be kicking in as soon as this September.
Others, which will be more relevant for email marketing, will be phased in over the next several months.
And in the worst case, this could mean that the traditional online sales funnel — you sign up for a free lead magnet, I send you some promotional emails — will no longer work.
Not just on Apple devices.
In general.
Now maybe you’re skeptical this is really real.
Or you want to know what the actual technical details are before you make up your mind.
Or you are already scared, and want to start taking some action steps to prepare.
In any of those cases, I can point you to the latest episode of David Garfinkel’s Copywriter’s Podcast, where I heard about this issue just this morning.
David’s podcast has the full details, as well as a free opportunity to help you prepare for this transformation.
So if you wanna take a listen and maybe even prevent your valuable email marketing from getting flushed down the swampy and slimy bathroom toilet at Apple International Airport, here’s where to go: