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Manage consent for email, SMS (text), voice, and custom channel messages

Note

Customer Insights - Journeys consent is contact point based and works for messages sent to contacts, leads, and Customer Insights - Data profiles. Customer consent is stored per email address or phone number, not per contact record. Outbound marketing consent processes you've already defined aren't affected by the Customer Insights - Journeys settings.

Important

As of December 2022, consent enforcement for real-time journeys for contacts requires opt-in for emails sent using the restrictive consent enforcement model. To revert to the previous behavior, change your consent enforcement model to non-restrictive. If you've previously captured consent on contact records in outbound marketing, load consent to populate the contact point consent records used to enforce consent in Customer Insights - Journeys. Learn more in Migrate consent records to Customer Insights - Journeys.

Important

In an environment with both real-time journeys and outbound marketing installed, the app checks a contact's DoNotEmail, DoNotBulkEmail, and DoNotTrack fields to match outbound marketing's consent enforcement behavior and help with the transition from outbound marketing to real-time journeys. Learn more in Manage user compliance settings in Customer Insights - Journeys.

Configure your environment to ignore the contact field checks if needed. Learn more in Disable contact-level consent checks.

Caution

In July 2023, Customer Insights - Journeys introduced new Dataverse tables to support business units and multi-brand consent compliance profiles. All Customer Insights - Journeys customers are migrated to the new tables. Customers with custom workflows (like Power Automate Flows) that read or write msdynmkt_contactpointconsent2 or msdynmkt_contactpointconsent3 consent tables need to take action to keep functionality.

If your custom workflows read from the msdynmkt_contactpointconsent2 or msdynmkt_contactpointconsent3 consent tables, update custom workflows to read from the latest msdynmkt_contactpointconsent4 table to keep functionality.

If your custom workflows write to the msdynmkt_contactpointconsent2 or msdynmkt_contactpointconsent3 consent tables, any writes to these tables automatically sync data to the msdynmkt_contactpointconsent4 table after a delay (which can be 24 hours or longer). The data sync continues until June 1, 2024. After that date, move all workflows that write contact point consent records to target the msdynmkt_contactpointconsent4 table.

When you create a new email message, choose a Compliance Profile, a Purpose, and, optionally, a Topic from that profile in the Compliance section of the Email header settings. To set up message designation, select the gear icon The Settings menu icon. in the email header. This action opens the Email header settings pane. Go to the Email settings section.

Compliance profile and purpose screenshot.

The app sends an email message only if it passes the consent checks set by the Purpose and optional Topic. The app decides to send or block a message right before sending it. This approach makes sure the app doesn't mistakenly send a message to someone who opted out, even if they're included in a journey segment by mistake. The Enforcement model setting on the purpose controls the consent rules. If the purpose uses a "Restrictive" enforcement model, the app sends the email only if the email address explicitly opts in. If the purpose uses a "Non-restrictive" enforcement model, the app sends the email as long as the email address hasn't opted out. The "Disabled" enforcement model turns off consent checks and lets all messages be delivered. The default "Commercial" purpose uses a "Non-restrictive" enforcement model. The default "Transactional" purpose uses a "Disabled" enforcement model. Change the enforcement models of the purposes in the compliance profile. To learn more about the Purpose, Topic, and Enforcement model concepts, see Manage user compliance settings in Customer Insights - Journeys

As required for commercial email, the app automatically adds a Company Address placeholder and a Preference Center placeholder link to the email footer. The company address shows the value set on the Compliance profile, and you can edit it directly from the email editor if needed. The Preference center link goes to the preference management page set by the Compliance Profile, where customers can review and change communication preferences.

The app checks for a company address and unsubscribe link when you select Ready to send. The app warns you if either is missing when you send a message to a commercial consent purpose.

Note

The app shows warnings if, for example, you accidentally delete the company address or the link to the preference center, but it doesn't block you from sending the email. You can replace the company address field with another one or add a link to a custom preference center if you want.

How consent is respected for SMS (text) and custom channel messages by default

Note

Starting with the November 2024 release, you can change the default enforcement model settings for test (SMS) and custom channels.

Customer Insights - Journeys rules for sending SMS and custom channel messages differ slightly from the rules for sending email by default. Users always need to opt in to get commercial SMS or commercial custom channel messages. By default, transactional SMS and custom channel messages are always sent unless you change the enforcement model from disabled.

By default, users opt in to voice consent to get commercial voice channel calls. The enforcement model for voice channel is restrictive. Transactional voice channel calls are on by default, unless you set the enforcement model to off.

Each compliance profile has a specific purpose for tracking user interactions, like message opens and link clicks. Like commercial and transactional purposes, the enforcement model for tracking consent can be restrictive, nonrestrictive, or disabled. If the tracking purpose uses a disabled enforcement model, the system doesn't check tracking consent for messages sent as part of that compliance profile, so it tracks all interactions.

To collect tracking consent, add the tracking purpose to forms and preference centers.

Note

Customer Insights - Journeys always checks the Allow Tracking field in contact records to see if it can track the contact's interactions. This check is in addition to the Customer Insights - Journeys contact-point consent opt-in or opt-out check for tracking. The system doesn't perform these checks for other entity types, like leads or Customer Insights - Data profiles.

Important

With the July 2023 release, customer consent data uses the new multi-brand consent features. For some Customer Insights - Journeys users, the migration changes the settings that control whether tracking links are included in messages. The changes can prevent tracking in messages if customers haven't given explicit consent. After the migration, to let tracking links be included in messages for customers who haven't provided consent, update the tracking purpose enforcement model of your compliance profile to "Nonrestrictive." This lets tracking links be substituted in emails, as long as the receiver hasn't explicitly opted out of tracking.

The following tables show how consent is checked by default when you run journeys in Customer Insights - Journeys.

Restrictive enforcement model

Opted out None/not-set Opted in
All channels Blocked Blocked Sent
Tracking purpose Not tracked Not tracked Tracked

For example, in the restrictive enforcement model, a customer who hasn't set consent preferences is blocked from all communication channels in a journey and isn't tracked.

Non-restrictive enforcement model

Opted out None/not-set Opted in
All channels Blocked Sent Sent
Tracking purpose Not tracked Tracked Tracked

For example, in the non-restrictive enforcement model, a customer who hasn't set consent preferences is sent messages from all communication channels in a journey and is tracked.

Disabled enforcement model

Opted out None/not-set Opted in
All channels Sent Sent Sent
Tracking purpose Tracked Tracked Tracked

In the disabled enforcement model, all customers are sent messages from all communication channels in a journey and are tracked.

Note

All channels include email, text, and custom channels.

Important

If your environment has both real-time journeys and outbound marketing installed, the app always checks the Allow email and Allow bulk email fields in contact records to see if email can be sent to the contact's email address. Both fields must be set to allow for a commercial email to be sent. Only the Allow email field must be set to allow transactional emails. These checks are in addition to the Customer Insights - Journeys contact-point consent opt-in or opt-out checks for emails sent by journeys. These checks aren't done for other entity types, like leads or Customer Insights - Data profiles. Learn more: Manage user compliance settings in Customer Insights - Journeys.

You can set your environment to ignore the contact field checks. Learn more: Disable contact-level consent checks.

Starting February 2024, a new feature switch lets you set the system to consider or bypass contact-level consent checks. You can separate consent by contact point for emails, so each entity has consent captured and enforced by contact point, and the system ignores consent on the contact record for journeys that target contacts.

Disable contact-level consent checks when outbound journeys aren't in use. To disable contact-level consent checks:

  1. Go to Settings > Other settings > Feature switches.
  2. Set the Check contact consent for real-time journeys toggle to Off.
  3. Select Save in the upper-right corner.

The system enforces consent only based on contact point consent records.

Customer Insights - Journeys offers different options for providing an unsubscribe experience to your customers. The system computes the exact consent status for different scenarios and always shows the user visiting the unsubscribe experience an accurate view of consent.

The consent status shown on an unsubscribe experience depends on several factors:

  1. Whether the check contact consent for real-time journeys feature switch is on or off.
  2. The enforcement model of the purpose.
  3. The channel for which consent is shown.
  4. The contact point's consent status.

Review these important definitions before you start.

Will send, will not send

  • Will send means the contact point consent record and its purpose enforcement model let the app send an email for that purpose to that address. For example, if the purpose is nonrestrictive and no contact point consent record exists, the app evaluates that as Will send.
  • Will not send means the app evaluates that email address’s contact point consent record and purpose and decides not to send an email.

Will track, will not track

  • Similarly, Will track means the tracking contact point consent record and its purpose enforcement model let the app include tracking links in messages sent to that address. For example, if the purpose is nonrestrictive and no contact point consent record exists, the app evaluates that as Will track.
  • Will not track means the app evaluates that email address’s contact point consent record and purpose and decides not to track links in the email.

Subscription centers used in real-time journeys

The DoNotBulkEmail, DoNotEmail, and DoNotTrack fields on a subscription center prefill for the contact based on contact data and contact point consent records for all the contact's email addresses.

  1. DoNotBulkEmail prefills to block sending if the attribute is currently set to block or if any commercial purpose on the compliance profile from any email address on the contact evaluates to will not send.
  2. DoNotEmail prefills to block sending if the attribute is currently set to block or if any transactional purpose on the compliance profile from any email address on the contact evaluates to will not send.
  3. DoNotTrack prefills to block tracking if the attribute is currently set to block or if the tracking purpose on the compliance profile from any email address on the contact evaluates to will not track.

When a user submits changes through a subscription center, the states of DoNotBulkEmail, DoNotEmail, and DoNotTrack update the contact and the contact point consent records for all the contact's email addresses, as set in the audience configuration.

  1. If both DoNotBulkEmail and DoNotEmail are set to allow emails, all commercial purposes on the compliance profile for every email address on the contact record have an opted-in contact point consent record. If either is set to don't allow, all contact point consent records update to opted-out.
  2. The DoNotEmail state is written to all transactional purposes on the compliance profile for every email address on the contact record.
  3. The DoNotTrack state is written to the tracking purpose on the compliance profile for every email address on the contact record.

Preference page and preference center

For journeys targeting contacts, each email address consent prefills if it's contactable (will send) or traceable (will track) based on the specific purpose's enforcement model and its contact point consent record, combined with the contact-level consent fields (only if the check contact consent for real-time journeys feature switch is on).

  1. Commercial purposes/topics prefill to opt in only if the contact point consent record evaluates to will send and both DoNotBulkEmail and DoNotEmail are set to allow emails.
  2. Transactional purposes/topics prefill to opt in only if the contact point consent record evaluates to will send and DoNotEmail is set to allow emails.
  3. Tracking purpose prefill to opt in only if the contact point consent record evaluates to will send and the contact's DoNotTrack is set to allow tracking.

For journeys targeting leads or Customer Insights - Data profiles, each email address consent prefills if it's contactable (will send) or traceable (will track) based on the specific purpose's enforcement model and its contact point consent record. The preference page and preference center experiences prefill email address consent to opt in if the contact point consent record for the email evaluates to will send.

When a user submits consent changes through a preference page or preference center, the system updates only the relevant contact point consent records. The system doesn't modify any contact-level consent attribute in these cases.

In the consent center, you see a list of all contact point consents and their related attributes (type, status, source of consent data, and date modified). To see a compact view for a single consent record or change it, select the contact-point name from the list of records.

The contact and lead forms let you quickly see and update a customer's consent, so you can easily manage what types of messages you send to your customers. You find this comprehensive view under the Communication tab. It gives you one place to manage consent across every channel and line of business in your organization.

The Communication tab lets you:

  1. Get a summary view of the consent each contact or lead provides, so you can see if the customer is contactable at a glance.
  2. Easily change the consent for the email addresses, phone numbers, and custom channels of a contact or lead directly from the contact or lead forms. This gives you control over the type of messages you send to the customer on each channel. The grid view shows you both the consent record and its evaluated contactability. This helps answer the question: "Why did my journey get blocked because there's no consent?"
  3. Drill down into consent for each compliance profile set up in your organization, so you can understand customer consent for each line of business.

You see the consent records for each purpose and topic (if present) of the selected compliance profile here, and you can update them directly. You can also choose a different contact point from the drop-down and select the compliance profile you want to manage consent records for.

When you change a consent record, the contactability column and the communication and tracking status cards update immediately. However, sometimes updates to a consent record don't affect its contactability. For example, if you update the consent status for a topic record to opt in while the parent purpose stays opted out, the contactability of the topic record doesn't change.

Track all consent-related changes for each contact record, including who made the changes and when. The Audit history is available under a consent record's Related tab.

See also

Grow your business with multi-brand, custom preference centers Customer Insights - Journeys preference centers Outbound marketing compliance settings