Newsletters No Longer Available
- Jason@DPD
- August 30, 2013
- 11 Comments
Effective immediately the newsletter feature is removed from DPD.
We added the ability for vendors to send newsletters to their customers several months ago because we thought it would be a swell feature for stores just starting out. Then we added the ability import customers, which made it SUPER EASY to use DPD to import an unlimited number of people and send bulk spam for the low, low price of $10/mo.
When you send spam through DPD our SMTP (outgoing mail) provider blacklists your domain. That means all the mail that DPD sends on behalf of you–including product activation emails to your customers, product updates, ship notifications for tangible goods–are also blacklisted and will not be sent.
When this happens we have no choice but to terminate your account because we can no longer provide the service for which you pay for.
Recently we’ve had to close a number of DPD accounts for Acceptable Use Policy violations in relation to spam. We don’t like being put in the position where we have to close an otherwise successful vendor’s account because of their marketing email practices so we’re removing the newsletter feature.
Vendors can also still send product updates for specific products. We want to make it very clear so there is no gray area though–this is not a marketing tool and we monitor the usage of the import customers and send product update features. Vendors who import large numbers of customers with the intent to send bulk unsolicited email using the product update feature will face immediate termination of their DPD account for AUP spam violations.
We’re sorry for the inconvenience this may cause some vendors, but we’re convinced this is the best move for DPD and our users going forward.
For new stores that want to set up a customer newsletter we highly recommend Mailchimp, which has a “Forever Free” plan for lists up to 2,000 subscribers and integrates seamlessly with DPD using our Mailchimp Integration.
by Avdi Grimm
Aug 30th, 2013
Is there some way to set up integration between DPD and MailChimp’s custom variables such that MailChimp could be updated with what products a customer has purchased? I’m guessing not, but if there IS a way a tutorial post would be tremendously helpful. Thanks!
by Tim
Sep 02nd, 2013
I asked for this a while ago – pass SKU to MailChimp text field (and do conditional sends based on SKU) — it’s apparently being worked on.
by Baden
Aug 30th, 2013
I am new to all of this and to DPD, and don’t quite understand yet what this all refers to. Am I permitted to use my DPD account to send emails (really, a sort of newsletter) to my customers? I only include information relevant to the item they purchased. Thanks in advance for any clarification…
by Joao Bacalhau
Aug 30th, 2013
Sad to see this, it was a very useful tool to keep our costumers updated with newest released products.
by Dave
Aug 30th, 2013
I think this is a good move. It’s good for your vendors and in turn, their customers. Product updates are crucial though, and it’s good to see there is still a mechanism in place for this. This is an essential feature for any digital goods retailer, and I hope DPD will continue to support and grow this feature.
Good show!
by Chris
Sep 01st, 2013
Phew! I thought for a minute they’d turned off the ability to do product update emails. That’s one of the most powerful functions getDPD provides. I’m glad that’s still around. The newsletter thing seems sensible though. Shame it was abused 🙁
by deepak
Sep 02nd, 2013
That is not fair : (
by Oli
Sep 02nd, 2013
No matter, we use Mailchimp for Newsletters in Combination with DPD …!! Works very well …
by Sandy
Sep 02nd, 2013
I had not used this service, but I can assure readers of this post that Mail Chimp and /or AWeber is an excellent service which probably had more features than the DPD service. MailChimp is often free for smaller lists — check it out!!
by D
Nov 22nd, 2016
This is so dumb. Instead of finding a solution to the problem you just remove the whole. That’s pretty lazy developing.
by Jason@DPD
Dec 15th, 2016
I’m sorry you disagree, but our focus as a company is selling and delivering digital products. There are other companies with free or very reasonable prices that we integrate with that have made email marketing their focus.