Your team has poured time, energy, and care into a project. Perhaps some blood and sweat. But then you hit the review and approval process, and everything falls apart.
The client can’t easily access the file. They might not know how best to leave their feedback. Perhaps they leave comments so vague that you don’t even know how to begin to execute them.
Suddenly, you’re trapped in endless back-and-forth conversations or meetings and emails, trying to clarify what they want.
A dysfunctional proofing workflow slows you down, frustrates your client, and erodes trust.
If you can optimize how to send proofs to clients for clearer communication and faster approval cycles, you’ll be more productive and leave your clients far more satisfied. In other words, you need an online proofing solution.
The Real Costs of Poor Proofing Communication
The standard ways of collaborating with external stakeholders is typically via a variety of tools not purpose-built for delivering and managing feedback and approvals. These include the likes of email, Slack, project management tools, creation platforms, meetings, and many others.
These generic tools are inefficient for proofing. Wires get crossed, requests get missed, and clients struggle with offering precise communication, which can quickly lead to misunderstandings and revisions having to be redone. People are often working from attachments (or even printouts of a file), making it difficult to consolidate feedback, versions, and approvals. Communication becomes siloed, leading to conflicting feedback that the team then have to try to unpick.
All of this means teams spend additional time coordinating and clearing up confusion, which has knock-on consequences for timeline and budget. The process is full of unnecessary friction for clients, negatively impacting their experience and impression of the company overall.
5 Tips on How to Send Proofs to Clients the Right Way
Collaborative review and approval doesn’t need to be this complicated. But it does hinge on the process you have for sending clients the files and gathering their feedback.
How can you ensure that proofs are being sent, received, marked up, and most importantly, approved, in the most efficient way possible? Here are 5 important factors to keep in mind:
1. Use a Centralized Proofing Platform
Make things simple for your team and clients by keeping all your files and feedback in one centralized place.
Your online proofing system should consist of an intuitive platform where internal stakeholders and clients alike can view, comment on, and approve files. The platform you use must consolidate feedback, give you a centralized space for discussion, and provide clients with user-friendly features to add their input.
It should also handle all the files (in any format) you’re working with. Clients shouldn’t need to juggle multiple creation or project management platforms. Instead, your proofing platform gives them one central space where they can review and approve all of the assets.
2. Provide Tools for Markup & Contextual Comments
When sending files to clients, it should be as easy as possible for them to add their comments and feedback. And specific media will require specific tools.
For PDFs, you’ll need text markup and other document-specific markup tools. Likewise, effective video proofing is almost impossible without timestamps and on-frame annotations. And photos are far easier to proof with batch functionality, like ratings and labels.
And regardless of the format, collaborative proofing requires commenting that’s contextualized and threaded, so nobody is stuck trying to piece together what’s being said.
The more your proofing system offers your clients intuitive and media-relevant tools, the better feedback you’ll receive. And with that, the quicker you can get final approvals.
3. Control Versioning and Feedback Loops
Confusion about which file is the most current can cause delays, frustration, and potentially receiving feedback on the wrong files.
A proofing system brings version control to your creative process. It eliminates the chance that someone might comment on the wrong file. Having the detailed history also makes it easier to understand when decisions were made, by whom, and why.
You should also have the ability to quickly compare versions side-by-side and identify differences between them.
4. Keep Revisions Accountable with Task Assignments
Even with the clearest feedback from clients, workflows can get stuck when the revision tasks fall through the cracks.
Assigning feedback as tasks directly to the person responsible for actioning the creative revision makes things clear for everyone. Online proofing gives you the tools to not only assign tasks, but to set up direct notifications, automated workflows, and reminders. That way, you can ensure tasks are completed on time, and things keep flowing smoothly.
5. Set Clear Review Deadlines
Make sure you share clear expectations with everyone involved. This should include the use of review and approval deadlines.
Everyone, including clients who need to review assets, needs to know exactly when their input is required, so teams aren’t waiting for late feedback or approvals. Tools like ReviewStudio can help with this by offering the option to send notifications and to set review deadlines.
How Online Proofing Tools Improve Communication with Clients
Online proofing tools like ReviewStudio are purpose-built to make sending proofs to clients and the ensuing communication with clients smoother and less stressful. Collaborative proofing addresses the pitfalls of methods like email and generic file-sharing options by giving everyone intuitive tools designed for seamless collaboration.
Here are some the features in proofing tools, specifically found in ReviewStudio, designed for better client communications:
- Media-specific markup tools for precise annotation
- Threaded comments for clear feedback
- Support for all the formats you work with (so that you can review all files in one place!)
- Tools for version management
- Ability to compare versions visually
- Tools to add approval/rejection decisions
- No downloads of the software or platform required for reviewers
- Reminders for tasks and approvals
Send Proofs to Clients the Right Way
Sending proofs the right way streamlines the review and approval process. Better communication means more productive teams, faster delivery, and happier clients.
Online proofing with ReviewStudio is the best way to upgrade your client communication process and reap these benefits.
