{"id":4354,"date":"2017-04-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/4_signs_your_email_approval_process_is_hurting_performance\/"},"modified":"2020-04-21T18:40:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T18:40:38","slug":"4_signs_your_email_approval_process_is_hurting_performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/4_signs_your_email_approval_process_is_hurting_performance","title":{"rendered":"4 Signs Your Email Approval Process Is Hurting Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Process predicts success. That\u2019s true across the entire email marketing workflow, including how brands handle the approval process for new emails.<\/p>\n

Successful email programs are 32% more likely than less successful programs to say they have an appropriately rigorous email approval process (68.6% vs. 52.1%) rather than a burdensome process or one that\u2019s too lax, according to Litmus\u2019 State of Email Workflows<\/a>. Marketers who describe their email programs as sophisticated are also significantly more likely than less sophisticated programs to say their approval process is appropriately rigorous (69.6% vs. 55.2%).<\/p>\n

\"Rigorousness-of-Approval-Process-chart\"<\/figure>\n

Tweet this chart \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

A number of factors can tip the balance of an email approval process toward being too cumbersome or too lax:<\/p>\n

1. Number of Approvals Needed<\/h2>\n

Needing two or three people sign off on an email appears to be the sweet spot for a balanced, appropriate email approval process. If more people are involved, marketers say the approval process becomes cumbersome. If only one person is involved, it becomes too lax.<\/p>\n

Whereas 47.1% of marketers who say they have a burdensome approval process have 4 or more approvers, only 25.5% of marketers with an appropriate approval process have that many people involved. And marketers who say they have a lax approval process are more than twice as likely as those with an appropriate approval process (16.5% vs. 7.6%) to have just one person approving emails.<\/p>\n

Companies with 500 or more employees have 3.3 people approving emails on average, compared to 2.9 people on average at smaller companies. So large companies are at greater risk of having too many people involved.<\/p>\n

\"number-of-approvals\"<\/figure>\n

Tweet this chart \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

2. High-Level Executive Signoff Needed<\/h2>\n

Having high-level executives involved in email approvals generally bogs the process down. Marketers who describe their approval process as appropriate involve VP- and C-level executives less often than those with a cumbersome approval process (22.2% vs. 34.8%).<\/p>\n

The seniority of approvers isn\u2019t a factor for email programs that have overly lax approval processes.<\/p>\n

\"Highest-Level-of-Approval\"<\/figure>\n

Tweet this chart \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Frequency of Last-Minutes Changes<\/h2>\n

Having last-minute changes to emails tend to indicate an email approval process that\u2019s out of balance. It\u2019s a sign of process that is either too cumbersome or too permissive.<\/p>\n

A little more than 22% of marketers who describe their approval process as appropriate say last-minute changes are made to emails often or always. That compares to 58.4% of marketers who describe their approval process as too burdensome\u2014and 44.6% of marketers who describe their approval process as too lax\u2014reporting last-minute changes that frequently.<\/p>\n

\"frequency-last-minute-changes\"<\/figure>\n

Tweet this chart \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

4. Approval Lead Time<\/h2>\n

Having emails approved very close to their send date can indicate an overly lax process. Only 32.4% of marketers who describe their approval process as appropriate say they send emails the same day they\u2019re approved, whereas 42.0% of marketers who describe their approval process as too lax have a similar short turnaround. While it\u2019s generally good to be fast and nimble, you don’t want to be so fast that you become reckless.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the spectrum, having a long approval lead time didn\u2019t make marketers perceive their approval process as burdensome. Actually, marketers who described their approval process as appropriately rigorous were more likely than those with a burdensome process to have an approval lead time of 2 or more days (23.1% vs. 21.9%).<\/p>\n

\"Approval-timing\"<\/figure>\n

Tweet this chart \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

Creating an Appropriately Rigorous Email Approval Process<\/h2>\n

Email programs should aim to create an approval process that\u2019s not so nimble it\u2019s reckless and not so rigorous it\u2019s stifling. The \u201cjust right\u201d approval process\u2026<\/p>\n