Marketing Opt-in Compliance

How Marsello collects marketing consent, and recent changes to keep you compliant.

October 6, 2026

Overview

To send marketing emails or text messages, you need your customer's permission first. Permission is required by international law (including GDPR, TCPA, CASL and CCPA) and by our Terms of Use.

To keep you compliant, Marsello collects marketing consent everywhere a customer can sign up. This includes POS, eCommerce, forms, and customer portal.

Consent is explicit. A customer is only subscribed when they tick a box themselves, or when your staff asks them at the POS. Signing up, submitting a form, or signing in to the customer portal no longer subscribes a customer on its own.
Email and SMS consent are separate. Email consent and SMS consent are two separate choices, each with its own checkbox. Marketing consent is now consistently split anywhere your customer's consent is collected.

📝 Note: Every subscriber you add has actively chosen to hear from you, which helps your deliverability and keeps you compliant.

Marketing campaigns and marketing automations check this consent before sending. A customer only gets a marketing email or text if they've opted into that channel.

Disclosure text

Every opt-in checkbox now shows a standard disclosure underneath it. The disclosure by default includes your brand's name and tells customers what they're agreeing to, and it can link to your Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Default disclosure text:

SMS: I agree to receive marketing text messages from [Business Name]. Msg frequency varies. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help, STOP to unsubscribe. [Terms and Conditions] [Privacy Policy].
Email: Disclosure text: I agree to receive marketing emails from [Business Name]. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time. [Terms and Conditions] [Privacy Policy].

This text and your legal links can be edited in Settings › Compliance › Marketing compliance

📝 Note: Existing signup forms won’t update on their own. Re-saving a form refreshes the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions links only. To show your new wording on an existing form, remove the opt-in checkbox and add it back. See Add consent checkboxes to an existing form below.

Edit disclosure text and add your Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions links

In Marsello, go to Settings › Compliance › Marketing compliance (previously called Email settings).
Add the link to your Privacy Policy.
Add the link to your Terms & Conditions.
Edit the disclosure wording if needed.
Click Save.

The disclosure edits update on your customer portal, new signup forms, and your WooCommerce plugin.

Customer portal

Collecting marketing consent

What's changed: Signing up to the customer portal now collects the customer's email address only. It no longer subscribes them to email marketing, or to SMS once they add a mobile number.

The first time a new customer signs in, a pop-up asks whether they'd like to receive marketing, with a separate checkbox for email and for SMS.

To turn the block on and edit the text:

Go to Customer experience › Customer portal
Use the drop-down and select the Marketing consent pop-up
Edit the text.
Click Save.

A Stay in the loop block now appears on the customer portal home page, linking to the customer's marketing preferences. It's a gentle prompt for customers to opt in.

To edit the text or turn the block off:

Go to Customer portal content › Home page components.
Select the Stay in the loop block.

Signup forms

🏷️ Signup forms are unlocked with the Marketing add-on.

What's changed: Previously, your customers were notified that their marketing consent was collected when signup forms were submitted. Now, signup forms have separate email and SMS checkboxes for your customers to explicitly opt in.

This applies to pop-up forms, landing page forms, link in bio and POS check-in forms. For step-by-step instructions for each form type, see Create a pop-up sign-up form, Create a landing page sign-up form, Create & customize a Linkin.bio page and Create a COVID-19 contact tracing form(s).

⚠️ Important:

Any new forms you create include the checkboxes and disclosure automatically.
Next time you update an existing (live) forms, you will be prompted to add a consent checkbox and disclosure text.

Add consent checkboxes to an existing form

1. In Marsello, open the form you want to update.

2. Click the form fields in the editor.

3. In the right-hand sidebar, under Form, click Select… next to Fields.

4. Add the checkboxes your form needs:

If your form collects an email address, click Email marketing opt-in.
If your form collects a mobile number, also click SMS marketing opt-in.

Each checkbox adds your current disclosure text and policy links. If a checkbox is already on your form and you want your new wording, remove it first, then add it back.

💡 Tip: Place the opt-in checkboxes at the bottom of your fields, just above the button, so visitors see your disclosure text before they submit.

5. If your form has a text block with old disclosure wording, delete that text block.

6. Preview the form.

7. Click Save. For a Link in bio page, click Save changes, then Publish changes

📝 Note: In the form builder, “Privacy Policy” and “Terms and Conditions” show as plain text. They become links on your live form only if the wording stays exactly as it is. If you edit that text, the links won’t show.

In-store signups

Give your team a refresher on how they ask for marketing consent at the checkout. Asking about email and SMS separately keeps consent clear and compliant.

Review staff training guides.

Disclaimer: The information provided here is intended to be educational and should not be construed as legal advice. Marsello encourages all of our users, and all merchants, to seek legal advice on how they specifically should prepare for GDPR, TCPA, CASL and other applicable privacy and marketing laws.