Marketing Cloud Next - Consent Management: Working with Leads, Contacts and Individuals

Note: This article is a companion article for the Consent Management: Frequently Asked Questions resource. Check that article out for additional details and other frequently asked questions.

Does Marketing Cloud Next require a Lead or Contact record to attach consent to?

No. Marketing Cloud Next performs a consent check at send time against the Contact Point value provided by the Segment and the Communication Subscription selected in the send. A CRM Lead or Contact is a common way to source the Contact Point value, but what's technically required is an Individual, a Contact Point value, a Communication Subscription Consent record, and a PartyId.

The Segment filter is applied to an Individual, which uses Identity Resolution to produce the associated Contact Point values. At send time, the system checks each Contact Point value, Channel Type (email, SMS, etc.), and Communication Subscription against consent. A specific CRM record is not required.

Does importing a Lead/Contact automatically set consent?

Not always. In Salesforce Starter/Pro Suite, for new records, you can set consent status during import. This isn't currently supported for other editions. For existing records, or for editions other than Starter/Pro Suite, you need to ingest consent using a supported method — updating the Lead/Contact object alone isn't sufficient to make them eligible for sending.

How do I synchronize Marketing Cloud Next consent with the Email Opt Out field?

Use one of the below methods:

• Use an Automation Event-Triggered Flow on a "Prospect, Lead, Contact or Related Record Change" event to trigger a consent status change for one or more Communication Subscriptions.

• Use a Data Cloud Record-Triggered Flow on the Communication Subscription Consent DMO to trigger a change to the Email Opt-Out field on a Prospect, Lead, or Contact.

See more detail in this knowledge article. 

I have an existing consent implementation on the Core CRM CommunicationSubscriptionConsent object. How do I use that data in Marketing Cloud Next?

Bring the consent data into the Data Cloud Communication Subscription Consent DMO and write it through a supported method (for example, a Data Cloud-Triggered Flow calling the Create Consent action). Simply having data on the Core CRM object doesn't make records eligible for sending in Marketing Cloud Next.

See: Syncing Contact and Lead Email Opt Out with Marketing Cloud Next Consent Using Flows