Marketing Project Challenges: Managing Your Marketing Approval Workflow

The marketing approval workflow process relates to the full cycle of creating marketing content, from briefing in a creative project to gathering feedback on artwork to final approval. With the success of marketing campaigns hinging on the quality and timeliness of projects, an effective approval workflow process is critical to the output of marketing content.

In a report by Wrike 'The State of Agile Marketing in 2016', one of the top challenges for marketers today is ?keeping up with (the) market and competitors?. Clunky approval workflow processes and deadline delays, though, are impeding the production of marketing projects. In fact, according to Marketing Insider Group,  lengthy and inept approval processes remain a major issue for marketers.

According to industry reports, 95% of project managers are still managing their creative projects with multiple tools. Some of these tools include tracking projects and resources on spreadsheets, which have been found to contain a whopping 88% of errors. Meanwhile, 63% of marketers spend at least three hours of their workday in email alone. Isn't there a better way for marketers to manage their marketing approval workflow process?

The good news is there is a better way forward. Here we present some of the key challenges of managing the marketing review and approval process. We also demonstrate how admation can streamline your approval process while enhancing the quality and timeliness of your marketing content. Read on to discover the best practices for managing your marketing approval workflow. 

 

Challenge 1: Stakeholder feedback and approvals are overlooked in the approval workflow process

Unfortunately, it's not uncommon that stakeholder feedback and approvals are overlooked in the approval workflow process. With so many emails to check, filter, collate and respond to, it's no wonder important information gets missed. Who hasn't experienced the dreaded feeling of not being able to locate an email that is critical to your project? This kind of chaos can lead to high artwork revision counts that your budget hasn?t accounted for. Compounding matters, if vital feedback is missed and the campaign goes live, you might also have a marketing compliance issue to deal with.

Solution: A central, online marketing project management system

Admation's marketing project management software offers a reliable, organised framework from which to manage your approval workflow process. The system can be accessed online from anywhere, and all feedback and approvals are saved in one central location. You?ll also have an automatic audit trail of work on every marketing project you produce.

 

Challenge 2: Difficulty collating feedback

Another common issue that marketers face is collating stakeholder feedback which is provided in a range of different ways. In other words, feedback arrives via email, a meeting, a phone conversation, or scrawled on a loose piece of paper. And I?m sure we?ve all received the fly by feedback. This is when a stakeholder experiences a spark of genius just as they?re walking past your desk and starts dictating changes to you when you?re in the middle of something else. No wonder marketers are having a tough time pulling feedback together.

Solution: Batching Feedback Feature & Feedback Report

Admation's Batch Approval and Feedback Feature and Feedback Report simplifies the process by offering a structured and failsafe feedback system.

 

Challenge 3: High artwork revision counts

While reports indicate that marketers are producing similar types of content, many are not utilising templates to eliminate repetitive administration. For example, in the absence of tailored briefing templates, it?s easy for details to get confused or missed which means that someone then has to waste time chasing up information. If assumptions are made, then the result can lead to artwork changes and high revision counts.

Solution: Online Brief Templates & High Revision Count Report

Admation's Online Brief Templates and High Revision Count Report can help marketers eliminate tedious administration and reduce their artwork revision counts dramatically.

 

Challenge 4: Ineffectual approval workflow processes

Workfront's "3 Keys to Reducing Review Rounds in Your Marketing Department" cites that 48% of marketers say excessive oversight, such as too many reviews and approvals, gets in the way of getting work done.? In other words, marketers are being road blocked by clunky processes when it comes to managing their approval workflow process. This can ultimately result in deadline delays and a decrease in the overall quality of marketing campaigns.

Solution: Approval Templates + Checklists

Admation's Approval Templates and Checklists allow users to nominate unique approval pathways to ensure feedback and approvals are managed effectively and in a timely manner.  Checklist provide an easy access to a list of requirements that need to be met before any asset or content can be approved which makes stakeholders in the approval process more accountable. 

 

Challenge 5: Handwritten mark ups are difficult to decipher

You know the ones: the scrawled notes and sketchy diagrams which are meant to constitute a brief. The kind that, no matter how skilled and experienced you are, you can?t make heads or tails of it. And yet, according to the In-house Creative Industry Report 2017 by The Boss Group and Cella, only 29% of creative teams are using an online proofing tool.

Solution: Online Proofing Tools

Admation's Online Proofing Tools which include compare/revision tools and a comprehensive feedback system take the pain out of collating feedback.

Keen to learn more about how Admation's features can assist your marketing team?  Our Admation at a Glance Guide is a great place to start.  Download it Today!