Mastering Marketing Approval Management: 5 Best Practices for an Efficient Approval Process

Nine out of 10 marketers say approval delays are the top reason they miss deadlines. And while this might seem like a passing problem, it doesn’t take long to become embedded in the culture of an organisation. Another deadline missed because no one’s managing your marketing approvals? Nevermind — there’s always tomorrow. An efficient approval process is essential to prevent these delays and ensure smooth operations.

If you look forward to getting something approved in your organisation like you look forward to visiting the dentist, you’re not alone. Inconsistent and drawn-out approval timelines are rampant in marketing. And far from being a transient issue, they don’t just fix themselves.

It gets worse when there’s no centralised approach to managing approvals, leaving different teams and team members to default to using email and their own tools, processes and messaging systems.

If you’re in an industry in which regulatory requirements require marketing audits, there’s little hope of even following the trail of who approved particular changes, let alone improving the process.

So here are a few tips that will help marketers to streamline the approval process and establish an efficient approval process so your team can get out of first gear and really start motoring.

 

Understanding the Marketing Approval Process

The marketing approval process is a cornerstone of any robust marketing strategy. It ensures that all marketing materials, from digital and print ads to social media posts, meet the required standards and align with the brand’s vision. This structured approval process involves a series of steps designed to review and authorise marketing strategies, budgets, and creative materials before they are executed.

At its core, the marketing approval process is about maintaining quality and consistency and meeting compliance requirements. It starts with the initial creation of marketing assets, followed by a thorough review and approval by various stakeholders. This ensures that every piece of content is scrutinized for accuracy, compliance, and brand alignment. The benefits of a solid marketing approval process are manifold: it helps in maintaining brand integrity, ensures compliance with regulatory standards, and enhances the overall effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

However, the approval process is not without its challenges. It requires coordination among multiple team members and departments, each with their own schedules and priorities. Despite these challenges, a well-structured approval process is essential for the success of any marketing project. By understanding and implementing an efficient marketing approval process, marketing teams can ensure that their campaigns are not only effective but also compliant and on-brand.

 

Benefits of an Efficient Marketing Approval Process

An efficient marketing approval process can bring numerous benefits to a marketing team. By streamlining the approval workflow, teams can save time and reduce the risk of errors or delays. This, in turn, can lead to increased productivity, improved collaboration, and enhanced creativity. With a solid marketing approval process in place, teams can ensure that all marketing materials meet the required standards and are aligned with the brand’s vision.

Moreover, an efficient marketing approval process can help teams to better manage their workload, prioritize tasks, and allocate resources more effectively. By automating routine tasks and minimizing manual interventions, teams can focus on high-value activities that drive business growth. Additionally, an efficient marketing approval process can help teams to improve their compliance with regulatory standards, reduce the risk of reputational damage, and maintain consumer trust.

 

Challenges in the Approval Process

Despite its critical importance, the marketing approval process can be fraught with challenges that can hinder efficiency and effectiveness. Here are some common issues that marketing teams often face:

1. Delayed responses: One of the most significant challenges is the delay in receiving feedback from key stakeholders. These delays can slow down the entire marketing approval process, causing missed deadlines and stalled projects.
2. Unclear roles and responsibilities: When roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined, it can lead to confusion and inefficiencies. Team members may not know who is responsible for what, leading to duplicated efforts or overlooked tasks.
3. Inconsistent feedback: Receiving inconsistent or conflicting feedback from different stakeholders can be another major hurdle. This can lead to multiple rounds of revisions, increasing the time and effort required to get final approval.
4. Loose version control: Poor version control can result in confusion and errors. Without a clear system for tracking changes and versions, team members may end up working on outdated or incorrect versions of marketing materials, further slowing down the approval process.

Addressing these challenges requires a strong marketing approval process that includes clear communication, defined roles, and a robust system for tracking feedback and versions. By tackling these issues head-on, marketing teams can streamline their approval processes and ensure that their marketing projects are completed efficiently and effectively.

 

Identify Key Review Stages and Stakeholders

Identifying key review stages and stakeholders is a critical step in creating an efficient marketing approval process. This involves mapping out the entire marketing workflow, from content creation to final approval, and identifying the key stakeholders involved at each stage. By doing so, teams can ensure that all necessary stakeholders are involved in the review process, and that their feedback and input are incorporated into the final product.

Key review stages may include content creation, review and feedback, revision, and final approval. Stakeholders may include content creators, project managers, legal experts, and key decision-makers. By identifying these stakeholders and review stages, teams can create a clear and structured approval process that ensures all necessary steps are taken before launching a marketing campaign.

 

Review and Approval

 

Step 1. Create a tiered marketing approval process matrix

An approvals matrix is really just a fancy term for documenting the roles or people that need to approve each type of marketing activity you conduct.

A key step to streamlining marketing work processes is to recognise that not everything is the Magna Carta – just as the CMO shouldn't need to approve every social post, the CEO shouldn't need to approve all marketing projects or every marketing campaign.

Take an organised approach to who needs to approve which tier of activity, and save your team countless hours in lost time.

BEST PRACTICE:

• Create an approvals matrix and store it in a centralised location so that who approves what is clear to all. Or adopt software like Admation that allows you to set up approval tiers and templates. 
• Keep it updated. Marketing team members tend to turn over fairly quickly.
• Don't forget those who need to be informed (but don't need to approve) particular work. Several approval models exist — among them RACI, RAPID, RASCI, PARIS and others — to help you ensure you have all bases covered without building unnecessary oversight into your process.

Download your checklist: 10 Steps to Mastering Marketing Compliance

 

Step 2. Map approvals to a marketing workflow

Since different people will often be called into the approval process at different stages, it's important that everyone knows what's going on.

This means you are absolutely clear on what you're asking people to review, and that everyone knows where they fit into the approval process.

BEST PRACTICE:

• Map out your workflow, visually. Define each approval stage, and who the approvers are for those stages. Make sure that this is attached to the job being approved, in case anyone wants to reference it.
• Give approvers instructions on what you want feedback on. You don't want them to pick apart the look and feel when you've asked them to comment on copy.
• Tell approvers when you need it by. They need to understand that you're working to a deadline, and that they might slow you down.
• Tell them how to give you feedback. Have it all in one place.
• Of course, everyone needs to adhere to your approval process to make it work.

Download your free e-book: 5 Essential Workflows for Time-Poor Marketers

 

Step 3: Minimise revisions

Take a step back. How many people are there involved in your approval process at each stage? And how many revisions does your process allow for?

Limiting the number of approvers is necessary if you don't want your approval process to trail along at a snail's pace.

More people means more feedback, the possibility of contradictory feedback, and more rework and potential confusion for writers and designers. This in turn can mean chaos when it comes to version tracking.

And try to keep the number of revision rounds to two: one round to make changes and another to sign off. It might feel like a pipe dream, but applying this kind of discipline will keep your approvers focused on the job at hand and can literally shorten your campaign creation process by weeks.

BEST PRACTICE:

• Try to keep the number of approvers to no more than three per stage. If your team size allows, just one is preferable.
• If you can keep the number of review rounds to two, you're doing fantastically well! If not, limit it to 3 rounds. This forces approvers to think harder for each round (especially the last one).
• Adopt Marketing approval workflow software like Admation, that automatically track versions.
• Also, if you're running an internal studio, make sure that each revision is approved by someone in the studio team before it goes back to the person requesting the asset. This can save a lot of time going back and forth.

 

Step 4. Track everything in one place

Thanks to content marketing, your digital assets can pile up pretty quickly. In fact, according to the Content Marketing Institute, on average, marketers use 13 different formats in their content marketing efforts!

Certain formats — especially those that are interactive — can make approvals challenging. For example, documenting video edits and amendments.

BEST PRACTICE:

• Templatise approvals for difficult formats to make sure no detail is overlooked.
• Make sure all visual assets – no matter what type of content it is – are reviewed in the same place.
• After assets have been approved, store everything in one place, in an organised and searchable way so that people can find and use it.

 

Step 5. Automate it

Time spent chasing approvals is a pet hate of most marketers. All you need is a simple sign-off. How many emails (and time spent wording them diplomatically) does it take?

BEST PRACTICE:

• A Marketing Project Management or marketing operations platform with built-in workflow and approvals management can automate the process for you. Once your approvers, workflows and the assets requiring approval are in the system, automatic reminders will prompt your approvers of the action they need to take, freeing you up to focus on your real work!
• Once assets are finalised, they get stored in the asset management system, meaning anyone can find the most up-to-date version of the asset they need, and use it with confidence.
• And approvals are never lost in someone's email inbox, in accessible to auditors. They're always on hand and on the record!

The bottom line is marketing teams need to have a system of record for the act of making marketing.

That calls for a marketing operations platform such as Simple Addition part of the new wave of modern, cloud-based MRM systems that are helping to revolutionise the working life of marketers.

 

Implementing a Centralised Approval Process

Implementing a centralised approval process is essential for streamlining the marketing approval workflow. This involves creating a single platform or system where all marketing assets can be reviewed, approved, and stored. By doing so, teams can eliminate the need for multiple email threads, version control issues, and lost feedback.

A centralised approval process can be achieved through the use of marketing approval software, such as online proofing tools or project management software. These tools provide a single platform for teams to collaborate, review, and approve marketing assets, ensuring that all stakeholders are on the same page and that all necessary steps are taken before launching a marketing campaign.

 

Choosing the Right Approval Software for Marketing

Choosing the right approval software for marketing teams is critical for streamlining the marketing approval workflow. With so many options available, teams must consider their specific needs and requirements before selecting a software solution.

Key features to consider include automation, collaboration tools, version control, compliance features, and integration with existing marketing tools. Teams should also consider the scalability and flexibility of the software, as well as its user interface and user experience.

By choosing the right approval software, teams can streamline their marketing approval workflow, reduce errors and delays, and improve collaboration and productivity.

Conclusion

In conclusion, an efficient marketing approval process is essential for marketing teams to deliver high-quality marketing campaigns on brand, on time and within budget. By streamlining the approval workflow, teams can save time, reduce errors, and improve collaboration and productivity and meet brand and industry compliance requirements. 

By identifying key review stages and stakeholders, implementing a centralised approval process, and choosing the right approval software, teams can create a solid marketing approval process that ensures all necessary steps are taken before launching a marketing campaign.

With the right tools and processes in place, marketing teams can focus on high-value activities that drive business growth, improve their compliance with regulatory standards, and maintain consumer trust.