What Is the Sequence of Approval?

Submitting your work

The process starts with submission, where a task or creative asset is presented for review. At this stage, it’s important to provide stakeholders with any supporting materials or context they need to evaluate the work. Approval workflow tools like StreamWork make this easier by automatically notifying the right people so that submissions don’t get lost in email threads or chat windows. A clear and structured submission process sets the foundation for a smooth review.

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Collecting feedback and making revisions

Once submitted, the work enters the review phase, where stakeholders evaluate it for quality, accuracy and alignment with project goals. If changes are needed, you’ll move on to the feedback phase, where reviewers provide constructive input. This step is all about collaboration—ensuring that revisions enhance the work rather than delay the process. 

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With feedback in hand, the team makes revisions and prepares the work for re-evaluation. This might involve adjusting a design, refining copy or tweaking data points. Tools like StreamWork help teams centralize feedback, keep track of comments and maintain version control to reduce confusion and back-and-forth emails.

Final approval and implementation

The final step is consolidating all revisions and getting final sign-off. Reaching this stage means that  your team has implemented all feedback and the project is good to go. StreamWork can automate the routing of final versions back to stakeholders for ultimate approval to finish off the approval process.

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Following these steps not only enhances productivity but also ensures high-quality deliverables. StreamWork offers a streamlined, intuitive platform that effortlessly walks you through these phases, ensuring clarity and efficiency from start to finish.

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Structuring an Approval Sequence

In creative industries like marketing, graphic design, and content creation, the sequence of approvals is a crucial part of delivering high-quality work that aligns with brand guidelines and campaign objectives. It details which stakeholders are needed to review an asset and, more specifically, the order of those approvals.

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Whether it's a new ad concept, a website redesign or a social media campaign, creative projects often require multiple layers of approval from different stakeholders. A structured approval sequence ensures that you collect feedback at the right stages, keeping projects on track without hampering creativity. But without a well-organized process, teams can face bottlenecks, miscommunication or last-minute revisions that delay deadlines.

How to structure an approval sequence

There are different ways to structure an approval sequence based on project needs. Approval sequences are used broadly across many industries, but you’d be mistaken to think creatives can skip out on it! It can still be helpful to creative teams to build their approval sequences with these structures in mind. 

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In a serial approval process, each stakeholder reviews the work, one person at a time. This ensures thorough oversight, but it can slow things down. A parallel approval process, on the other hand, allows multiple reviewers—such as a brand manager and a legal team—to approve a project simultaneously, speeding up the workflow. Many creative teams use a hybrid approach, where early-stage approvals happen in parallel to save time, but final approvals follow a strict sequence to maintain quality control.

Example sequence of approvals

The approval process in creative fields usually follows a tiered approach, starting with an initial review by a team lead, creative director or marketing manager to ensure the work meets all expectations. Once approved, the project moves to the next set of stakeholders, such as brand managers, legal teams or clients, depending on the scope of the work. For example, a marketing video might first be reviewed for messaging accuracy before moving on to legal for compliance checks. The final phase typically involves senior leadership or a client giving the green light for launch.

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Using a workflow tool like StreamWork can make the entire approval process smoother by automating approvals, keeping track of revisions and ensuring that no feedback gets lost in the shuffle. With clear approval sequences in place, creative teams can spend less time chasing approvals and more time doing what they do best—producing impactful, high-quality work that resonates with audiences.

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Tools for Managing Approval Processes

Today’s approval workflow software can be a lifesaver when it comes to managing approval processes. These tools offer centralized platforms where teams can collect, track and implement feedback. They facilitate seamless collaboration among team members and stakeholders by providing real-time updates, version control and status tracking. For marketing agencies, this means no more bottlenecks so projects stay on schedule and within budget.

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StreamWork is a great option for enhancing your team's efficiency by helping you manage creative workflows with precision. StreamWork offers an integrated suite that allows for easy tracking of feedback and unlimited revisions, ensuring that every stakeholder is aligned with the project’s goals.

Benefits of automation in approval processes

 Want to speed up processing times, reduce human error and create a more organized flow of creative assets? Automation is your answer. By automating repetitive tasks like reminders and notifications, marketing teams can focus more on strategic decision-making and content quality rather than logistical details.

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StreamWork’s automated approval workflows streamline the process, automatically notifying the appropriate team members when their input is needed and moving projects through pre-defined stages of review. This ensures that creative content is evaluated thoroughly yet promptly. The result? High-quality assets delivered quickly and consistently.

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Ready to give Streamwork a try?

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