Last year Amazon implemented a scheme on Amazon.com whereby buyers could opt out of receiving emails from sellers. This feature has now been rolled out across the entire Amazon ecosystem, meaning that now buyers from Europe and India, as well as North America, can now choose to no longer receive “non-critical” emails from sellers.
The “[Important]” Hack is Gone
When Amazon rolled the Buyer Opt-out feature to a wider audience they also removed a backdoor that had been used to get around it. You used to be able to put “[Important]” in the subject line of an email and it would get through to buyers, even those who had opted-out. Guess what? People abused it, and now that is gone. The ONLY way the Zonmaster knows of to get an email to an opted-out buyer is via the Seller Central email system directly. It cannot be done via a third party sending, regardless of what other platforms are telling you. Zonmaster has one of the biggest sample sizes in the industry and can say for sure that this does not work any more.
Why it’s Ok
Our numbers show that only around 10% of buyers are choosing to opt out. If they have chosen to not receive emails, then not sending them emails is the right thing to do. If you put a sign on your front door that says “no solicitors” and then people came knocking anyway, would you give them a favorable review? No. You have to think from the perspective of the buyer. YOU as a seller might think your message is important. The buyer might not. Sorry.
Managing Opt-Outs
We’ve got an article over here that explains what to do. Essentially you forward your opt-out notification messages to us at the special email we tell you about on your control panel on Zonmaster. We will then add the buyers to your “opted out” list – and also to our Global Opt-Out List. When a buyer opts out of an email sent through Zonmaster, that email address is removed from all future Zonmaster-generated messages from our entire network of users.
