Faster Content Approval Process

Improve Your Content Approval Process

In Blog by A. Lee Judge

While I was working in Corporate, I was only able to see the Content approval process of the handful of companies that I worked inside of. But now that I run an agency, Content Monsta, I get to see the approval process inside of dozens of them at a time. The most interesting part is that despite their different sizes they have very similar problems.

Some of them have an approval team of just one or two people, while others may have an approval team of several or a dozen people ranging from the creative person all the way through the legal team and the c-suite.

The Impact Your Approval Process Has On ROI

Your creative or marketing content has zero value until it is shipped. Great content dies in the approval process. And beyond the journey towards the land of bland content, you have to defend the return on investment in creating the content.

ROI begins to seep away as employee hours are contributed to the review and commenting process. Think about the cost of each person’s 10 minutes of time, multiplied across the various salaries of the whole review team! In other words, don’t get caught spending more time and money on the approval process than you did on creating the content or distributing the content. That is one sure fire away to kill ROI.

Improving Your Content Approval Process

Here is my advice on fixing your approval process and getting content shipped out the door faster. These are not step-by-step instructions, but rather points that you need to understand to help accelerate your content approval process.

Limit rough drafts to top approvers

Once you ask someone in authority to approve something, they are obligated at that point to make comments. It is human nature to give an opinion once it is asked of you.

Instead, only share a “final” version with them. They will be less likely to want to disrupt progress if they perceive that the process is finished. And this may go without saying, but the more important the approver, the less rough copy they should see.

Set a strict approval order

Develop a strict order of who approves what and when. For example, if a document has already been approved by legal, no one after that is likely going to request changes. You also don’t want legal to see something that still has possible creative changes. It isn’t their role to be creative or to critique creative.

Clarify the number of rounds

Always make the number of rounds clear to the people who are given the option to make changes. If they know that others have already made changes, they are less likely to make more changes out of concern of stepping on someone else’s toes.

If you are working with an outside agency, it’s also good to share how many revision rounds you have left before incurring additional costs. No one wants to be blamed for incurring more costs because of “a small tweak that they thought would make it pop.”

Say things like “this is the final round” or “this has already been approved by [key person] or [the CXO].” That will make it much less likely that someone who is subordinate to someone who has already approved will suggest more changes.

Consolidate team approvals

If an entire team has to approve a piece of content, then give that team a dedicated deadline and make sure that they are required to submit a consolidated review, not one person or one comment at a time revisions. If each person gets to respond on their own timeline, then your timeline will be ruined.

Be ruthless about setting review timelines, deadlines, and consolidation of comments. Remember that your priorities are not the priorities of the people you requested feedback from. You don’t want your deadline sitting on someone’s desk while they are on vacation and you’re expecting to close a review process.

Decide if reviewers should see each other’s comments

When using platforms that allow commenters to see other commenters’ comments, be mindful of a couple of situations. On the one hand, it can be good for commenters to see other approvers’ comments because it will keep them from repeating the same or similar thoughts. On the other hand, it could just start debate over who’s right about a change or whose opinion matters the most. This ends up looking more like office politics than constructive criticism.

Based on your organization, how they communicate, and what their power systems are, you decide whether or not you want them to see each other’s comments. This is an important and critical decision that you need to make.

Keep changes within each person’s role

Always remember that no matter what someone’s role is, whether it be a creative role or a legal role, they will always have personal opinions. So be careful when you give them a chance to make changes and make sure that those changes specifically align with their role. They should be told that their changes should stay in line with their role. In other words, let legal know that you’re not looking for creative changes. Never forget that everyone has a creative opinion, even if they are not creative people.

[Side note: Doug in Legal got hit in the head with a red fire truck when he was 6. He hates red and doesn’t remember why. He will suggest you change the colors in your creative with no legal reason at all. Doug just hates red].

Expect comments every time

No matter what they say, never assume that someone won’t have changes to make. As stated earlier, if you ask someone about their opinion, they will give it to you. If you ask an approver to review something, now they have the obligation to make a comment, else they appear to not be doing their job.

I sure that some of these items hit home with you and I hope that you’ll put them in action to speed up your content approval process. This advice comes from over 20 years inside creative teams, review responsibilities, project management, and working as an agency to get projects through approval and delivered to the world.

About the Author
A. Lee Judge is the cofounder of Content Monsta, a podcast and video production agency that helps businesses create content to drive sales and marketing results. He is also the author of CASH: The 4 Keys to Better Sales, Smarter Marketing, and a Supercharged Revenue Machine.