Imagine this: You’re sitting in a meeting, discussing progress on a new campaign. The creative director, Julie, says she’s still waiting on final approval for the design budget. "Oh, finance approved that last week," you say. "Didn’t you see the email?"
Then Mark, the Head of Product Marketing, announces, "I’ve just heard from Sales that they want all new collateral, including an updated PDF. Who has the time to work on that, and how will it affect our schedule?" Crickets.
You head back to your desk, only to find three emails asking you to approve new campaign assets. But you have no idea who on the team has already looked at it or what edits have already been requested. And should you be reviewing the attachment or the slightly different version provided in the body of the email? Scrolling through the message thread doesn’t help either— it’s just a mess of edits and revisions.
Wish things could be simpler?
Workflow automation isn’t just for boring business processes. Automating your creative workflows is a smart way to make creative collaboration run smoother, and finding the best professional services automation software for you can boost your processes for maximum productivity.
Top reasons to automate your marketing team's workflow
Less busywork
How much of your team’s day is spent updating spreadsheets, generating reports, and adjusting campaign schedules? Automating these routine tasks can be a significant time-saver, freeing hours in the day for them to focus on CMO responsibilities that are value-adding creative work.
Automation also ensures reports and updates are based on accurate, up-to-date information, so you have all the details you need to make smart, timely decisions.
Fewer errors and inconsistencies
You know that sinking feeling when your website redesign tanks your SEO rankings? Or the headache of launching a campaign with outdated pricing information? As CMO, your job is to make sure your marketing initiatives go off without a hitch. But it’s all too easy for important details to get missed, with costly results.
With automation, creative briefs are standardized, contain all the details needed to get the job done, and are automatically assigned to the appropriate party. No important details are miscommunicated, left out, or overlooked. Processes and policies are consistent, fewer tasks fall through the cracks, and everyone is clear on responsibilities and deadlines.
Automation also makes it easier to provide a consistent customer experience across all your channels. Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer, for example, automate your social media publishing schedule so that prospects and customers always see an active page and your brand identity stays true across your networks.
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Faster reviews and approvals
Has everyone signed off on the final version? How long should you wait for someone to leave comments before moving on? If two people leave conflicting feedback, whose edits are implemented?
Automating the review and approvals process can eliminate all the last-minute scrambling and second-guessing. Reminders, alerts, and notifications keep reviews moving forward since everyone can see the status of each asset. It's easy to stay up to date, a clear process is followed, and nothing gets mistakenly published without the proper approvals.
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Fewer process headaches
You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken. Automating your workflows makes it easier to see where tasks get stuck, which tasks eat up the most time and resources, and where you can make some simple changes to help work run more efficiently. And automatic notifications that alert colleagues when they can begin work on a task make handoffs faster and easier, so work keeps flowing.
Higher revenue
All of these benefits add up to one thing: a boost for your bottom line.
By automating your creative workflow, your team is able to spend more time on high-value creative work instead of routine administrative tasks. Collaboration is more efficient, with fast hand-offs and requests that contain all the context necessary for work to begin. Teams avoid the frustrating cycle of rework and revisions due to miscommunications. Costly errors are caught in an efficient and thorough reviews and approvals process.
If you're in the market for a new collaboration tool, download our free collaboration software buyer's guide. It includes questions and features you should think about carefully before you purchase.
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