---
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id: 23d7b9a25968cd5bbc0197012a7117a7b4255a5347730ade918e960e0488c708
title: Considerations for Managing Marketing Consent Data
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/mktg/264-0-0/mktg_consent_considerations.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mktg_consent_considerations.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: 69457c19aff53beb72b6f397945b43db7c3b08a76e980a99545c77a8b166a5da
description: When working with consent management tools in Marketing Cloud Next, keep these considerations in mind.
products:
  - Marketing
release: "264"
---
# Considerations for Managing Marketing Consent Data

When working with consent management tools in Marketing Cloud Next, keep these considerations in mind.

### Required Editions

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small edition"><colgroup><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;">Available in: <span>Salesforce <strong class="uicontrol">Enterprise</strong> and <strong class="uicontrol">Unlimited</strong> Editions with Marketing Cloud Next <strong class="uicontrol">Growth</strong> or <strong class="uicontrol">Advanced</strong> Edition</span></td></tr></tbody></table>

## Default Consent Status

- Marketing Cloud Next treats any prospect, lead, or contact without a consent value as opted out by default. If a record has no consent data, it's considered opted out for all marketing channels and communication subscriptions.
- If you're setting up Marketing Cloud Next for the first time and have existing prospect, lead, and contact records, perform an initial consent import to establish opted-in status. Without this import, your existing records are considered opted out and don't receive marketing communications. To import consent data, see [Import Consent Data](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mktg_consent_import_create.htm&type=5&language=en_US).

## Consent Imports

- If you have consent data stored in Salesforce CRM, it's separate from consent in Marketing Cloud Next. CRM consent records aren't automatically recognized by Marketing Cloud Next. To ensure your existing prospects, leads, and contacts are considered opted in, import their consent data with a CSV file. Each import corresponds to a single marketing channel, communication subscription, and consent status. For details, see [Import Consent Data](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=mktg.mktg_consent_import_create.htm&type=5&language=en_US).
- To update the consent status for existing prospects, leads, and contacts, import consent data from the Consent tab.
- Consent imports update the status and date of consent for each contact point in the import file. To create or update prospects, leads, or contacts, import from the Prospects, Leads, or Contacts tab.
- After you update consent data in Marketing Cloud Next, it syncs to Data 360. It can take some time for changes to appear on prospect, lead, and contact records.

## Subscriptions and Preferences

- You're responsible for complying with any laws or regulations that apply to your business.
- Deleting a communication subscription also deletes all of its related consent data. We recommend that you don't delete communication subscriptions after you collect consent data.
- Before you delete a communication subscription, make sure it's removed from any preference pages first. When you delete a subscription that's used on a preference page, remove it from the consent template in Preference Manager.
- The Preference Manager merge field doesn't work with custom preference pages.