How to handle partial or topic-based consent?
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Topic-based consent is exactly what it sounds like: you ask subscribers which types of email they want, and you only send them what they agreed to. Someone might opt into product updates but not your weekly digest. Or they want sale alerts but not content newsletters. That's fine. Good, actually.
The mechanics require two things: granular collection at signup, and preference management after it.
At signup: Instead of one checkbox that says "I agree to receive emails from [Company]," offer checkboxes for each category. "Product updates", "Weekly digest", "Promotions and offers". Each one its own consent record. Yes, this slightly complicates the form, but it dramatically reduces unsubscribes later because people opted into exactly what they're getting.
After signup: Your preference center needs to stay in sync with what you're actually sending. If someone later wants to change what they receive, they update their preferences. Your ESP needs to segment by those preferences and you need to check before every campaign that you're only sending to people who consented to that type.
Under GDPR: consent needs to be specific and purposeful. "General marketing" is weak. "Product update emails" is better. Each category should have a distinct stored record with a timestamp.
The catch: your preference center and your sending segments need to actually stay synchronized. This is where implementations fall apart. The consent is captured correctly, but the segments in the ESP don't reflect it. Audit that regularly.
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