Last Mile of Marketing

WHITE PAPER

The Last Mile of
Marketing Projects:

How to Avoid Costly Review and Approval Delays

Introduction

Like the last mile of an uphill race, the last mile of 9922% D+8
marketing projects can often be the most painful: It’s
where the review and approval process lives. 92% of marketers cited approval
You and your marketing team know all too well that in any delays as the top reason they miss
given project’s lifecycle, the review and approval process deadlines.¹
is an unavoidable hurdle, and rarely problem-free. With
reviews and approval playing such a critical role in your
marketing world, you—and your projects—are put in a
precarious position far more frequently than you’d like.
Even the slightest delay during the approval process can
spell disaster and derail top priority projects. It’s a burden
on your resources and your bottom line, and one of the
most common reasons you regularly miss those can’t-miss
deadlines.
You’re not alone—92 percent of marketers cited approval
delays as the top reason they miss deadlines.¹
And it’s no wonder! For each project, there often must be
reviews after every stage of the process: strategy, design
and creation, production and implementation, and even in
post-production to measure project performance.²

network proofhq.com   telephon + 1.866.441.0001   telephon +44 (0)1256 807352 2

But here’s the thing. Current market trends make it 7722% +8D2
nearly impossible to succeed without an efficient
content approval process: Today’s marketing 72 % of marketers surveyed report
teams don’t just live within a single channel like working on more than 4 types of
print advertising anymore. Including content projects at one time.³
like interactive ads, animation, blogs, webinars,
podcasts, packaging, and videos, the sheer volume 6600% +0D4
of time-critical projects across so many channels can
be crushing if not reviewed and approved efficiently. 60% work on more than 1 file type
In fact, more than 72 percent of marketers surveyed at once.³
report working on more than four types of projects
at one time, and 60 percent work on more than one
file type at once.³
With so much to juggle, you’re not finding ways
to save time, cut costs, and up efficiency; you’re
spending time you don’t have wrangling approvers
and rounding up feedback, making your workday
feel more like a bad day at the rodeo. We feel your
pain—and we want to help you fix it. Read on to
learn about the three most common problems in the
review and approval process and what you can do
today to solve them.

3 network proofhq.com   telephon + 1.866.441.0001   telephon +44 (0)1256 807352

Problem 1:
Too much time is wasted
gathering feedback

The workplace is evolving. For organizations to survive and thrive in today’s
economy, they need to understand the trends affecting work and adapt to them
quickly or risk falling behind their competitors. The most notable of the changes
affecting today’s businesses is in how the demographics of the workforce have
evolved and with them how people work together, communicate about work, and
get work done. The following trends are leading to a dramatic reshaping of the
workplace, especially where collaboration is concerned.

You sift through endless email chains, handwritten notes, comments in PDFs, and your own foggy memory of a
recent hallway chat, trying to sort out which feedback should be the most “final.” You ping reviewers you still haven’t
heard back from. You chase down the CMO or try to find a minute in his or her calendar to get the feedback you can’t
move forward without—feedback you likely won’t get until a few days after you need it.

network proofhq.com   telephon + 1.866.441.0001   telephon +44 (0)1256 807352 4

According to the American Psychological Association, shifting between SHIFTING BETWEEN
tasks can cost up to 40 percent of your productive time.⁴ When you’re TASKS CAN
switching between PDFs, pings, and Post-Its to compile feedback, you’re COST UP TO
losing precious productivity that could otherwise be spent keeping your 40% OF YOUR
team and project efficient. PRODUCTIVE TIME.⁴

Of course, all this comes only after you’ve already pushed back your need- 2200% 8+D0
by date—a reported 20 percent of marketing projects miss deadlines—
waiting on the feedback your reviewers didn’t know or didn’t remember
was due.⁵

20% of marketing projects miss
deadlines—waiting on the feedback
your reviewers didn’t know or didn’t
remember was due.⁵

5 network proofhq.com   telephon + 1.866.441.0001   telephon +44 (0)1256 807352



Case Study: How Guitar Center cut
proof management time by 90%

Guitar Center is the world’s largest retailer of musical instruments. With on-site and
online stores, the company must deliver a multitude of marketing materials ranging
from print ads and in-store signage to web graphics, buyer’s guides, and multi-page
catalogues.

“The time we spend managing proofs has been reduced by
over 90%. What once took hours and hours now takes less than
15 minutes” — James Smith, director of merchandise operations

Before implementing ProofHQ, Guitar Center relied heavily on traditional hard copies for proofing. The process was
extremely manual, clunky and time consuming. Very often proofs would land on a desk as an “FYI” and stayed there
for a long time with no action. Multiple reviewers would write their comments on post-it notes and hand the copies
back to the creative team to implement the changes. They, in turn, had to decide which comments to enact and which
were irrelevant. The whole process was very sluggish and took too much time.
With ProofHQ, Guitar Center is able to speed up project delivery and improve collaboration. By eliminating hard copy
proofs and by centralizing feedback online, the company reduced proof management time by over 90%.

• “The difference in our approval process is night and day. We’re now much faster and efficient getting projects

out the door” — James Smith, director of merchandise operations

• “ProofHQ proved to be quick and nimble enough to serve our needs, yet powerful enough to handle the vast

amount of activity we were throwing at the tool. That really was the tipping point for us” — James Smith, director
of merchandise operations

7 network proofhq.com   telephon + 1.866.441.0001   telephon +44 (0)1256 807352



Solution 2:
Set compliance standards

More than 73 percent of organizations recently surveyed say they must comply
with regulatory and/or brand standards.¹⁰ But compliance issues don’t just apply
to legal departments anymore: In an increasingly digital world, customers,
buyers, and clients have more channel preferences and content accessibility
than ever before.
7733% +D27
That means your singular marketing message must be maintained in
multiple formats and across multiple touch points, including social
media and mobile. Compliance here is crucial to accurately express
and maintain brand voice no matter the content, and the best way to
establish consistency is by setting some simple compliance standards:

• Require that the reviewer follow a style guide. Adhering to either

an in-house or official editorial style— for example, the Chicago

Manual of Style or Associated Press Stylebook—will help ensure

consistent brand and voice no matter which team your reviewer 73% of organizations recently

is on. surveyed say they must comply with

regulatory and/or brand standards.¹⁰

• Make clear the intended final use of the project. With a clear

picture of the final project, reviewers can approach their review

through the appropriate lens and better understand what to

verify. For example, knowing a project will be used as a retail

package will prepare the reviewer to see that industry standards

and specific requirements, like font size, on project output are met.

• Allow for easy comparison between content. When it comes to

producing cohesive campaigns across all content types, from

inbound marketing content to ads and presentations, it’s important

to provide your reviewers with any other parts of the campaign

where consistency is expected.

9 network proofhq.com   telephon + 1.866.441.0001   telephon +44 (0)1256 807352



Problem 3: There is no clear
and visible workflowYou have a whole horde of people reviewing and
47%
approving your projects, often on different teams. In
fact, 47 percent of companies have more than four

65+35Dpeople involved in the review and approval process.¹¹
The feedback you receive from your disparate reviewers isn’t likely to overlap 47% of companies have more than
or agree much, especially when these reviewers can’t see others’ feedback, 4 people involved in the review and
your project timeline, or who has final say. The result is that too often, you’re approval process.¹¹
left with contradicting pieces of feedback and no clue how to act on it.
2260% +8D0
Reviews come in out of order, and often on outdated versions, making feed-
back instantly obsolete. You don’t have a timeline to back you up, and there’s
no way to show your last reviewer that final really does mean final, so you’re
no stranger to getting fourth-quarter coaching and last-minute overhauls. This
unexpected, end-of-the-line rework is a consistent threat to your project dead-
lines—and 26 percent of marketers say it’s to blame for their productivity loss.¹²

To make matters worse, without an automated audit trail to reference, there’s
no way for you to prove you’re meeting regulatory requirements, identify errors,
and develop process improvements. Your convoluted approval process leaves
you limping across the finish line—and that’s only if you’re lucky.

26% of marketers say it's to blame
for their productivity loss.¹²

11 network proofhq.com   telephon + 1.866.441.0001   telephon +44 (0)1256 807352



CONSIDER SOCIAL COLLABORATION 8800% 20+D

As you decide the best way for you and your team to document
workflows, consider how you currently communicate with your team and
stakeholders. Is there intuitive social collaboration involved? Imagine the
way communication flows naturally on a social media platform such as
Facebook or Twitter: You can see exactly where a post or tweet has been
and how it was received.

The more you can adopt social collaboration into your workflow so 80% of participants who incorporated
reviewers can understand at-a-glance what’s been said before them, social collaboration into their approval
the more success you’ll see. In a recent survey, more than 80 percent process indicated an increase in team
of participants who incorporated social collaboration into their approval memeber accountability because
process indicated an increase in team member accountability because comments are visible to all.¹³
comments are visible to all.¹³ Intuitive social collaboration is one of the
best ways to avoid silos, ensure information is available to reviewers, and
make communication more efficient. 2750% +80D

KEEP AN AUDIT TRAIL

Nearly 75 percent of CEOs already think marketing teams lack business
credibility because they can’t demonstrate their business value.¹⁴ A well
documented workflow serves as an easy way to keep an audit trail: With
the right data documented every step of the way in your review and
approval process, you’ll be able to prove your marketing team’s worth
and justify critical resources like headcount and budget.

75% of CEO's already think
marketing teams lack business
credibility because they can't
demonstrate their business value.¹⁴

13 network proofhq.com   telephon + 1.866.441.0001   telephon +44 (0)1256 807352



Instantly streamline your review
and approval process with
Workfront’s ProofHQ

Solve all your review and approval problems with the online tool built and optimized
to manage it for you: ProofHQ expertly automates your manual approval processes
that slow down your marketing projects.
Go here to get your own sample proof within seconds, so you can start to:

• Keep projects on track by reviewing anywhere, anytime. Provide comments

and feedback instantly through your web browser or mobile device

• Create the best content with consolidated, centralized feedback. ProofHQ

keeps comments and feedback organized and visible to the whole team.
Issues get resolved quickly and accuracy is greatly improved

• Complete projects faster with 29 percent fewer revisions.¹⁵ Drive

consensus with a workflow based approach to review and approval

proofhq.com

15 network proofhq.com   telephon + 1.866.441.0001   telephon +44 (0)1256 807352