Assessing Return on Investment on Approval Management Software

Today, ad agencies and internal marketing teams are still expected to produce high quality campaigns but with faster turnaround times and smaller budgets. It makes sense then that more are turning to approval management software to streamline their operations to keep up with a demanding marketplace.

If you?ve been thinking about implementing approval management software, here are some steps to help you put forward a convincing case for its benefits and ROI.

1. Selecting the right approval workflow software
It can't be stressed enough that a successful implementation hinges on selecting the right approval workflow software for your business. While the selection process requires some time and effort, for the exercise of determining ROI you still need to think about what it is you want the solution to do. To do so, list some of the issues your creative teams are currently experiencing. Perhaps some of these sound familiar: incoherent or incomplete briefs; high revision counts on artwork; messy handwritten markups that are difficult to decipher; compliance issues because artwork has gone to market without sign off from the right channels; missing deadlines; final artwork being lost. This step will help you to determine the kind of features you?ll be looking for in approval management software.

2. The cost of implementing marketing approval software
So now it?s time to do a little research on the type of marketing approval software you need. Do you need one with an integrated online proofing feature with markup and compare/revision tools? Do you want a tiered approval process to ensure legal and compliance always review the artwork before it goes to market? Do you want reporting tools for WIP reports? Do need a digital asset management (DAM) feature to ensure final assets are filed away in a secure, central location?

When you find a few solutions that match your requirements, check out the vendors? payment terms. Note whether they?re a one off payment or monthly? Don?t forget to include all the costs, which may comprise of training, support and ongoing maintenance. Make sure you factor in the time required to implement the solution, that is understanding the financial cost of your team being taken away from project work to learn how to use the solution.

3. Projecting your profit from implementing approval management software
To estimate your profit, you need to understand the benefits your team will derive from implementing the solution. How do these benefits equate financially? For example, if your creative team drastically reduces artwork revisions, how does this time and resource reduction keep more money in your pocket? Likewise, if artwork changes are marked up electronically making them easy to understand the first time round, how does this save the agency money?

Don?t forget to look at the bigger picture. If all campaigns that go to market have no compliance or legal issues, are of excellent quality and are on time, that?s a big win in terms of keeping clients happy and for repeat business.

4. Gain Vs Cost of implementing approval workflow software
Now all you have to do is compare the benefits and financial gain of implementing approval workflow software against the cost of purchasing and implementing it. The more time you spend on understanding the benefits of implementing the right solution, the easier it will be for you to demonstrate ROI for your ad agency.

Need help selecting the right marketing approval workflow software?  Download our free guide now!!