The fast-paced agency life is one that you either love or hate. Because of its fire drill nature, most agencies have processes that make everything run like clockwork—everything, that is, except for the approval process.

1. ureo™
5 Tips to
Take the Angst
out of your
Approval Process

2. www.cureo.com
The fast-paced agency life is one that you either
love or hate. Because of its fire drill nature,
most agencies have processes that make
everything run like clockwork—everything, that
is, except for the approval process. Multiple
agency partners, too many client approvers,
numerous revisions, version control issues—the
list of approval woes goes on and on.
While you may not be able to regulate agency
partners and client feedback, you can control
how your agency reacts to a worst-case
scenarios.
This eGuide outlines five tips to reclaim your efficiency and take the angst
out of the approval process.
Start With an All-
Encompassing Brief
Collaborate During
Internal Reviews
Consolidate
Client Feedback
Streamline
Version Control
Review and
Improve
1 2 3 4 5

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Start With an All-Encompassing Brief
1
Elusive, yes, but an all-encompassing brief is attainable.
It is also critical if you want to keep your project on point and your sanity intact. Your delivery team needs a brief to
be properly informed. Without one, they are more likely to miss the mark and rack up revisions. Your clients must
also buy into a brief, or they could be more inclined to throw curve balls when you are least expecting them.
Sharing the brief with your team is imperative to the project’s success and approval ease. Ensure you store it, along
with any branding guidelines or past examples of work, in a cloud-based tool that your
whole team can access.
A GREAT BRIEF INCLUDES:
• The goal of the project with background summary
• A RACI matrix with internal teams, agency partners, and clients, identifying (and limiting) who can provide feedback
• The deliverable’s description, along with any needed messaging, tone, or visual information
• A timeline with internal, agency partner, and client review dates
• Specifications and mandatories for the deliverable, including file format, size, branding guidelines, etc.
• The client and your team stakeholders’ seal of approval

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Collaborate During Internal Reviews
2
For an internal review, you must know who is responsible for reviewing, when
you will review, and where.
While the who and when are typically prescribed in the brief, the where is often an uncertainty.
Reviewing the deliverable in the same room with all the stakeholders is ideal, but in today’s world, how often is that
possible? However, you can be in the same room digitally. There are many software applications available that enable
teams to work collaboratively, and review instantaneously. Use a collaborative tool to ensure that everyone can
review, provide feedback, and see revisions. By doing so, you make the approval process more efficient.
Schedule internal review meetings from your
collaborative tool in advance! Many of these applications
allow you to push meeting reminders to your team’s
calendars, along with any documents required for
the meeting. This meeting invitation will clearly
communicate when feedback is needed, all but ensuring
timely feedback.
QUICK TIP

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Consolidate Client Feedback
3
You can facilitate a streamlined revision process.
Keep all of your client’s feedback in one place where everyone can access it regardless of their location. Valuable
feedback should not be left to email collaboration, but instead, relegated to a streamlined, secure, and
online location.
Over 100 billion emails are sent per day.1
Minimize the time your team spendschecking email by storing feedback in a
collaboration tool and notifying onlythose who need to know.
Source: i
The Radicati Group, INC. http://www.radicati.com/

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Streamline Version Control
4
Revisions are nearly inevitable, but too many of
them can stymie your efficiency and profitability.
They can become even more convoluted and unnecessarily time-
consuming if there is no version control process.
Regardless of how much feedback your team receives, if you have a
built-in-stone version control system, your team will be more efficient.
Ensure your team has a reference that shares how to name revisions,
drafts, and approved deliverables. Additionally, make sure your
deliverable is protected from one teammate’s computer meltdown by
keeping drafts within your collaboration tool.
A strong version control process is key to efficient approvals and
avoiding unnecessary mistakes.
You never know what changes lie ahead. If you’re handing copy off to design or storyboards
off to production, clients can (and probably will) change their mind about something along the
way. With the file history and approved versions kept within a consolidated, easy to access
location, your team will have context for changes or fodder for pushing back, if needed.

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Review and Improve
5
One of the reasons your agency continues to succeed is because you are
adaptable and fix clunky processes.
It is also critical if you want to keep your project on point and your sanity intact. Without a brief, your delivery team,
having not been properly informed, is more likely to miss the mark and your clients, having not bought into the plan,
will be more inclined to throw curve balls when you are least expecting them.
Sharing the brief with your team is imperative to the project’s success and approval ease. Ensure you store it, along
with any branding guidelines or past examples of work, in a cloud-based tool that your whole
team can access.
In order to adapt, however, you must be able to recall the decisions and approval processes of
past jobs, which can be difficult if you’re not documenting as you go.
Luckily, if your team is using a collaboration tool, many of your decisions are documented for you.
Use the tool to support a post-mortem discussion. It will provide a portal for your teammates to
review any pain-points and enable pragmatic process changes.
Each iteration to your approval processes ensures your next job is more efficient and profitable.

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ureo™
To schedule a demo or free trial, or if you just want to learn more about how Cureo can
help your business, call us at 440-424-4311.
Not all collaboration tools are created equal. If you’re looking
to make collaboration more efficient, consider Cureo.
Cureo is a fully-featured collaboration tool that plugs into your agency’s website. With
features like file status, comments, version control, file history and checkin/checkout,
Cureo turns your site into a space to collaborate internally with your team members and
externally with your clients. Not only is it accessible through your site, but once you log in,
it is also customized with your logo, your brand’s colors, and your messages: It’s all about
communicating the values that set your agency apart.
Find the right tool!