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# Manage marketing consent

Consent is the list of clients you are allowed to market to, and the record of how each of them agreed. Marketing only ever texts clients who are opted in and have a mobile number that can receive SMS. That filter is built into every automation and cannot be switched off.

| 📍 **Where to find this:** Left navigation menu → Marketing → Consent

## ✅ What you can do

- See how many clients you may contact, and how many have opted out
- Follow recent unsubscribes and search them by client name
- See where every opt-in came from, as an audit trail
- Preview the page a client lands on from an unsubscribe link
- Change one client's consent from their profile, with the change recorded

![Consent page with tracked clients, recent unsubscribes and the client-facing preview](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/8/c/a/c/8cac159472d82800/marketing-consent-page-v2_1u12qua.png =650x270)

## 📊 Read the three numbers

| Card | What it counts |
| ---- |
| **Tracked clients** | Clients with a consent record |
| **SMS opt-ins** | Clients who may receive marketing SMS — your actual reachable audience |
| **Opted out of everything** | Clients who have unsubscribed from all marketing |

|| ℹ️ Only clients with a mobile number that can receive SMS are counted. A client with no number, or with a landline, is not in these figures even if they have never objected to anything.

## 🔍 Recent unsubscribes

The **Recent unsubscribes** list shows who opted out, through which channel, how it happened and when. It is filled in automatically, whatever route the client used.

- Type a name in the search box to find one client.
- Click **Load more** to see older entries, with a running count of how many you have seen.

An untouched clinic reads *No unsubscribes yet* here, and *No consent records yet* under the sources — both are normal before your first send.
- Click a client's name to open their record.

|| ℹ️ Watch this list after changing a message. A handful of unsubscribes is normal; a cluster on the same day usually points at wording that landed badly.

## 🧾 Where consent comes from

Every opt-in is tied to a source, so it is always clear how a client ended up on your list. This is what an audit asks for, and it is filled in for you.

![Where consent comes from, with a count for each source](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/8/c/a/c/8cac159472d82800/marketing-consent-sources-v2_bphchw.png =650x335)

| Source shown | What it means |
| ---- |
| **Already a client when SMS marketing started** | They were in MERIDIQ before you switched marketing on, and had not asked you to stop |
| **Opted in when the client record was created** | New clients join the list automatically when you add them |
| **Opted in on online booking** | The client ticked the marketing box while booking |
| **Set manually by** *(name)* | That team member recorded the client's agreement, given in the clinic or by phone |
| **Opted in from a message link** | The client turned marketing back on themselves, from the preferences page |
| **Unsubscribed from a message link** | The client opted out themselves, from the same page |
| **Changed by a connected system** | Changed through an integration |

The audit log confirms how and when each client made their choice.

|| ℹ️ The preferences page records both directions under one source, so the wording follows the outcome. The same client can appear as **Unsubscribed from a message link** one day and **Opted in from a message link** the next.

|| ℹ️ Unsubscribes are tied back to the message that caused them, so an opt-out can always be traced to the recipe that prompted it. That is also what feeds list protection.

## 👤 Change one client's consent

1. Open the client from **Clients**.
2. Click the **SMS marketing** button on the client card. It shows the current state, **Opted in** or **Opted out**, in green or red.

![SMS marketing status button on a client card](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/8/c/a/c/8cac159472d82800/marketing-client-chip_1hsypaz.png =646x85)

3. Use the switch beside **Offers & news by SMS** to change it. The line under it reads **Opted in** in green or **Opted out** in red, and updates as soon as you flip the switch.

![SMS marketing popup on a client, with the consent switch and full history](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/-/8/c/a/c/8cac159472d82800/marketing-client-consent-histo_1j3kg8.png =514x508)

### The history list

Below the switch, **History** is the client's complete consent record, newest first. Each row carries three things: how the change happened, the exact date and time, and the status it produced — a green **Opted in** or a red **Opted out** chip on the right.

A client who has changed their mind a few times reads as a story, and every step of it is attributable:

| Row | What it tells you |
| ---- |
| **Opted in from a message link** — *Opted in* | The client turned marketing back on themselves |
| **Unsubscribed from a message link** — *Opted out* | The client opted out from the preferences page |
| **Set manually by** *(name)* — *Opted in* | A named team member recorded their agreement |

Scroll the list for older entries, and use **Load more** when there are more than fit.

|| ℹ️ This is the record you would show if a client ever asked why they received a message, or if you were asked to prove consent. Nothing here is editable — entries are only ever added.

||| ⚠️ **Only opt a client back in if they have clearly agreed to it.** The change is recorded permanently in the audit trail as *Set manually by staff* together with your name, which is exactly what a regulator would look at.

## 📱 What your client sees

The **What your client sees** card shows the page a client reaches from the unsubscribe link in a message. From it they can turn **Offers & news by SMS** off and keep everything else, or use **Unsubscribe from marketing SMS** to stop all marketing.

|| ℹ️ This card is a static preview for your reference. Its buttons and toggles are deliberately not clickable, so nothing you do here affects a real client.

If a client follows a link that has expired or been tampered with, they see **Link invalid or expired** and are told to contact the clinic directly. If someone reports that, opt them out for them from their profile.

|| ℹ️ Unsubscribing from marketing does **not** stop appointment reminders, receipts or other messages the client needs. Only marketing stops.

The client is told what they chose. Opting out confirms **You have been unsubscribed**; leaving SMS on and saving confirms **You are subscribed**, so they never have to wonder which way the switch went. Either way the change lands in their history within seconds, and in your **Recent unsubscribes** list if they opted out.

| 💡 The unsubscribe link is part of every marketing message and cannot be removed — see [Turn on marketing automations](https://help.meridiq.com/en/article/turn-on-marketing-automations-edntg9/).