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Best practices · Checklist

Is consent drifting between your Salesforce clouds?

Four checks, ranked by risk, to find people who opted out in one Salesforce cloud but can still be contacted from another.

Checklist

Why consent drifts

In most Salesforce setups, consent lives in several places at once: the opt-out fields on Contacts and Leads, the subscriber status in Marketing Cloud, the prospect record in Account Engagement, and consent records in Data 360. Each is updated by its own process. Syncs fail quietly, duplicates split one person into several records, and a customer who unsubscribed in one cloud can still be emailed from another.

These are the four checks we run, ranked by risk. You can run each one by hand with exports from each cloud.

01

CriticalOpted out in a sending cloud, still reachable from Salesforce

Someone unsubscribed in Marketing Cloud or Account Engagement, but their Contact or Lead in Salesforce is still opted in, so the next send from Salesforce can reach them.

  1. Export unsubscribed subscribers from Marketing Cloud (All Subscribers) and opted-out prospects from Account Engagement.
  2. Match them to Contacts and Leads by email address.
  3. Flag every match where Email Opt Out is not set. Fix: set the opt-out on the Contact or Lead.

02

HighOpted out in Salesforce, still active in a sending cloud

The opt-out was recorded on the Contact or Lead, but never reached the cloud that actually sends.

  1. Report on Contacts and Leads with Email Opt Out set.
  2. Check each against Marketing Cloud subscriber status and Account Engagement prospect status.
  3. Flag every one still active. Fix: apply the opt-out in that sending cloud.

03

HighDuplicate records that disagree

One person, several records, different answers. A send from the record that says "opted in" ignores the one that says "opted out".

  1. Group Contacts, Leads and subscribers by email address.
  2. Flag every group where the records don't agree on opt-out.
  3. Fix: apply the most restrictive choice to every duplicate, then merge where you can.

04

MediumConsent with no record of when or how

If a regulator or customer asks when and how someone agreed to hear from you, you need a capture date and a source for that consent.

  1. Check whether your consent fields or records carry a capture date and source.
  2. Count the records where either is missing.
  3. Fix: capture both going forward, and record what you know for existing records.

Doing this by hand works once. Consent drifts again with every failed sync, import and new duplicate, so the checks need to run continuously.