Marketing consent

Smileline evaluates promotional messages separately from conversational and essential service messages. Campaigns and reputation invitations are marketing; appointment reminders, deposit messages and automation follow-ups are service messages, sent unless the patient opted out of that channel.

Record evidence on the patient

Open a patient and find Marketing in the profile card. SMS, email and WhatsApp each show their own current preference. Owners, managers and front desk with patient-edit permission can click Record or Update and save:

• Opted in or Opted out;
• the legal basis for an opt-in: Explicit consent or Recorded soft opt-in;
• the evidence source;
• an optional consent-notice version and evidence note.

Every change creates a new evidence event while the patient page shows the current channel state.

Enquiries are a soft opt-in

Every enquiry records a Recorded soft opt-in on each channel the person gave you — email, SMS and WhatsApp. That covers website forms, lead ads, online booking requests, referral forms, tracked and AI-answered calls, and leads your team adds by hand. Adding an email address or mobile number to a lead later records one for that channel too.

A soft opt-in only fills a gap. It is never recorded over an existing preference, and never on a channel that has a global block (see below). An explicit choice always replaces it, whenever it was made: a ticked consent box on a form, a lead ad's consent answer, an unsubscribe, or an opt-out your team records. If your PMS records that a patient declines marketing, Smileline opts them out.

The consent question on template lead forms (US)

A Meta instant form that a US practice builds from a campaign template asks every lead one more question, with Yes and No as the answers and your practice's name in it:

Can Bright Smiles Dental contact you about your enquiry by automated calls and texts? Consent isn't a condition of purchase. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out.

• Yes records an explicit SMS and WhatsApp opt-in, with that question as the evidence, and the patient's consent to automated calls — what the AI caller needs before it rings a US lead.
• No opts the patient out of SMS and WhatsApp marketing, with the answer as the evidence, and withdraws an earlier consent to automated calls. It never touches phone calls: your team can still ring them back.
• The newest answer wins. An older answer that arrives late, such as a lead imported again, changes nothing.

Email isn't covered: the question asks about calls and texts only. Every answer stays in the patient's consent history. Forms in the UK don't ask this question.

Set the practice policy

Owners and managers choose Settings → Practice details → Outbound marketing eligibility:

• Explicit consent only allows only a recorded explicit opt-in.
• Explicit consent or recorded soft opt-in also allows a separately recorded soft-opt-in basis.

Practices start on Explicit consent or recorded soft opt-in, so leads are marketed to unless they opt out. Changing the policy does not create consent evidence. A soft opt-in recorded while the policy is explicit-only is retained but remains ineligible.

The policy also decides whether Instagram DM and Messenger campaigns can send: they need Explicit consent or recorded soft opt-in.

Global channel blocks

Provider-level suppressions take priority over a positive marketing preference. SMS or WhatsApp STOP keywords, email complaints and email bounces create a global block for that channel. Recording an opt-in does not silently clear one of these blocks.

Marketing emails contain a signed unsubscribe link and support one-click unsubscribe. That action opts the patient out of email marketing without stopping essential appointment, treatment or account messages.

Instagram DM and Messenger opt-outs

Instagram DM and Messenger campaigns go only to people who messaged your account in the last 24 hours. They rely on soft opt-in, so they send only while the practice policy is Explicit consent or recorded soft opt-in, and the SMS, email and WhatsApp preferences on a patient's profile don't apply to them. Instead, every campaign message ends with a line telling the person to reply STOP.

A person opts out by sending your Facebook Page or Instagram account a direct message that says only STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END or QUIT, in capitals or not. START or UNSTOP opts them back in. Only words the person types count: tapping a button never opts anyone out or back in, even one labelled Start or Stop, because its label was written by the business, not by the person. The opt-out:

• covers campaigns from the account it was sent to: a STOP on Messenger doesn't stop your Instagram DM campaigns, and the other way round;
• stays in place when the account is disconnected, removed from Social or connected again;
• counts as soon as the message reaches Smileline, even if the connection has an error and the message has to wait before it appears in the Inbox;
• goes by when each message was sent, so a START that arrives late never undoes a newer STOP.

It isn't shown on the patient's profile, and only the person's own STOP or START changes it.

Only campaign messages stop. The STOP message stays in the conversation, your team can still reply to the person in the Inbox, and Social Auto-DM replies still go: they answer the person's own comment, so they aren't marketing.

Checks at send time

Smileline checks eligibility during campaign preview, when the recipient list is materialized, and again immediately before provider delivery. Reputation invitations make the same final delivery-time check. For an Instagram DM or Messenger campaign, that final check covers the person's 24-hour window, their STOP and the practice policy. If the patient withdraws consent while a message waits in the queue, the message is skipped and is not billed.