Help / CRM and Marketing

Consent, suppression and unsubscribing

Record who has agreed to marketing email, block contacts company-wide, and see what a person sees when they unsubscribe.

Three things decide whether a contact receives marketing email: their consent, the suppression list, and an email address on file.

Record consent

Consent is kept on each client and each lead.

1. Open the client or lead.
2. Find the Marketing Consent card. It shows SUBSCRIBED, UNSUBSCRIBED, or NOT SUBSCRIBED if nothing is on record.
3. Select Change Consent Status.
4. Pick the New status and the Source: manual_staff, form_signup, unsubscribe_link or import.
5. Add an optional Note, for example "confirmed verbally on call", and select Save.

Every change is added to a History list with its source, note and date. Earlier entries are never overwritten.

The suppression list

The suppression list is a company-wide block. A contact on it is never included in any marketing send, whichever audience holds them.

Add a contact

1. Open Marketing > Suppression List.
2. Select Add Contact.
3. Choose Client or Lead, search, and select the person.
4. Optionally enter a Reason, such as hard bounced, complained or legal request.
5. Select Add to Suppression List.

Remove a contact

Select the bin icon on the row and confirm. The contact may become reachable again, but only if their consent is SUBSCRIBED.

What a person sees when they unsubscribe

Marketing emails can include an unsubscribe link (the {{unsubscribe_link}} merge field). The link opens a public page, with no sign-in.

1. The page asks "Stop marketing emails to" the person's address, with part of the address hidden.
2. They select Unsubscribe me.
3. They see "You're unsubscribed". It can take a short while to take effect everywhere.

Behind the scenes their consent is set to UNSUBSCRIBED with the source unsubscribe_link, which you can see in the History of the Marketing Consent card.

A link that is wrong or expired shows "This link isn't valid". If your company has turned Marketing off, the link does not unsubscribe anyone.

Why a contact is left out of a campaign

The campaign's recipient list gives one of these reasons for an excluded contact:

• On the company-wide suppression list
• Explicitly unsubscribed
• No explicit marketing consent on record
• No email address on file
• The client or lead could no longer be found

Good to know

• Suppression is separate from consent. A suppressed contact stays blocked even if subscribed.
• Both rules are checked again at the moment a campaign runs or a journey sends.