5 ways approval workflow software helps manage marketing compliance

By Jodie Byass

Have you ever experienced that sheer panic when you realise Legal or Compliance hasn't approved a campaign that's gone live? If so, you wouldn't be alone. But when there's a breakdown in your approval workflow process, you leave your brand wide open to marketing compliance issues.

To recap, what is marketing compliance?

In a nutshell, brands are beholden to both internal and external marketing compliance:

Internal marketing compliance is the set of rules and regulations that a business creates to manage its own branding such as logos, fonts, colours and messaging.
External marketing compliance relates to the governance of brands overseen by industry and consumer regulatory bodies.

Marketing compliance and regulations

The risks of marketing compliance can be costly to brands both in terms of their reputation and bottom line. So what's the best way forward to mitigate non-compliance issues?

Admation has inbuilt project management and approval workflow features that can greatly improve your marketing compliance. Is it time to consider implementing approval workflow software? Here are 5 ways Admation can make you better at managing your marketing compliance:

1. Admation's Reserve Button

Admation's Reserve Button is a must-have feature that enables a Legal or Compliance team member to reserve a project deliverable for feedback or approval. This feature eliminates time-wasting duplications when two members from the same team inadvertently review the same job. It also ensures that your marketing projects never go live without Legal or Compliance sign off to avoid costly non-compliance issues.

2. Admation's Multi-User Briefing
The success of your marketing campaigns is heavily reliant on having everyone on the same page at the beginning of each project. That's why nailing your briefs is an imperative. Admation's Multi-User Briefing tool enables any number of nominated stakeholders to review and approve a brief before it is sent through to the creative team. This is the perfect time to get Legal or Compliance involved to ensure your projects are marketing compliant. In addition, this feature also minimises artwork revisions and errors further down the track.

Admation Creative Brief Template

3. Admation's Approval Checklists

Ensure that marketing compliance is checked off even before the project is sent to stakeholders for approval. This feature provides a list of questions and actions that can be customised to specific departments and stakeholders. Each item on an approval checklist needs to be ticked off before the project can be sent on for approval. This provides assurance that marketing compliance is being upheld on every project you work on. This feature also decreases the potential for errors and high artwork revisions which improve the overall efficiency of your approval workflow.

4. Admation's tiered approvals

With Admation's tiered approvals, your Legal or Compliance department will never be overlooked in the approval process ever again. This handy feature prompts Legal and Compliance to review and sign off on artwork at the right time in the approval process. This will not only save you time but you can rest assured that your campaigns will not go live with erroneous information. Admation also enables users to consolidate a list of approvals so that stakeholders can estimate and plan for when their input is required.

5. Admation's automatic audit trail

Admation enables users to save all project briefs, files, feedback and approvals in one central hub, which helps to create an audit trail of marketing work. For example, Admation's Online Documents, which can be anything from a project estimate to a creative brief, can be completed and uploaded to the project. Users can then share the document with any stakeholder, which is tracked, providing a complete audit trail for your online documents. Having an audit trail means that users are more accountable for their work and, therefore, more likely to follow marketing compliance rules. If your brand was ever questioned over a breach of regulations, an audit trail might just be the thing that saves you.

The benefits of marketing compliance

When brands are effective in managing their marketing compliance, the benefits are manifold:

An airtight approval workflow process
Less chance for errors
Minimal artwork revisions
Avoid being fined by a regulatory body
Achieve an enduring reputation and stronger brand loyalty
See greater efficiencies in your marketing operations
Retain good talent who want to work with a reputable brand
Remain competitive
Keep your profits in your pockets

Keen to learn more about Admation approval workflow software for your marketing compliance? Book a demo today.