Marketers are confronted with graphic design almost every day. For example, the marketing agency provides designs for advertisements, brochures or mailings. A lot of teams also have a graphic designer or design department that supplies the marketers with graphic design for promotions and marketing campaigns. This entails a considerable flow of communication via email and PDF. One or more correction rounds are always started to bring the initial design to the approved version. In this article I will show how you can streamline the graphic approval process thanks to digital tools.
Every marketer has experience with approval processes via email and PDF. A PDF file with a graphic design drops into the mailbox via an internal graphic designer or the marketing agency, for example for a digital advertisement. What happens next? The marketer prints the PDF file, analyzes it and starts on a list of corrections. They are written down in an email, sometimes accompanied by a PDF file with a visual translation of the corrections.
Is the frequency of such approval processes rather low and the number of people involved also limited? Then the time investment within such an approval process is quite acceptable. If you are involved in a graphic design review every day and several people within the marketing department and the marketing agency are involved in the correction rounds, then the risk of misunderstanding and frustration with the many emails and PDF files is quite high.
Marketers who frequently have to review, discuss and approve graphic designs, digitize the graphic approval process as quickly as possible. Numerous Online Proofing software programs are available for this that offer the solution to the chaos in design review via email and PDF. How does it work? Designers upload the design in a certain format in the approval software, after which the marketers make comments and corrections directly on the file in the software.
They can then share this with colleagues who make their comments within the same approval flow. For this they only need a link to the place in the online proofing software. All comments are now processed centrally in one place and supplemented with feedback on the comments. In the end, there is one person with final responsibility who gives the signal for approval, after which a new correction round, a publication or a printing process follows.
However powerful online proofing software is, it is yet another extra digital tool that you must set up within the marketing department. Tasks in a task app, communication planning in Excel, results in dashboard software, designs in approval software ... No wonder that not all marketers are eager to digitize operational marketing planning. For those who want to centralize all aspects of their marketing planning within one digital system, there are Marketing Project Management tools or digital marketing planners (such as Husky Marketing Planner).
Digital marketing planners have an integrated online proofing or design review tool. This offers all the benefits of standalone approval software, but is integrated within the communication, media or campaign planning. Does the marketing agency or internal graphic designer upload a design in the proofing module? Then a correction round is created with the designer and colleagues, which leads to an approved design. However, the PDF file with the approved design is attached to a planning item (for example, "Facebook Advertisement from October 1 to November 30"), so that it is immediately visible to the campaign planners. Tasks for yourself, colleagues or the designer can also be assigned to the design. Finally, the budget, any notes and strategies are also integrated with the design. All information and steps to bring your advertising campaign to a successful conclusion are in one daily online planning tool.
| Software | Advantages | Disadvantages |
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| Mail and PDF |
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| Online proofing software Ziflow, Proofhub, Approval Studio, Webproof, GoVisually |
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| Marketing Project Management tools Husky, Wrike, Percolate |
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This blog article is part of a series on shared marketing planning for efficient collaboration. Below you'll find all the articles that will help you find your way around.
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