Agencies are fast-paced environments where every minute counts and each project demands your full attention. Work typically goes through multiple rounds of review and approval involving both clients and internal teams. Managing this approval process effectively can make the difference between delivering quality work by the deadline or falling behind schedule due to endless rounds of revisions and wasted time.
As a result, clients are happy, and when clients are happy, they’re more likely to spread the word, bringing in even more business and boosting your agency’s reputation.
PageProof’s client proofing software optimizes creative workflow efficiency – streamlining the approval process by centralizing feedback, providing smart reviewing tools, and routing proofs automatically through stakeholders elevating the creative output of your agency.
Now, let’s delve into what client proofing software is, its benefits, and how to choose the best solution for you to elevate your agency’s operations.
What is client proofing software?
At its core, client proofing software simplifies the review and approval of creative projects for agencies. Centralizing feedback, tracking revisions from initial concept all the way to final approval effortlessly, and streamlining client collaboration workflows for any type of creative content being produced.
Whether that be Adobe Acrobat PDFs, videos, designs, websites, HTML, audio, email, and much more. It eliminates the chaos of endless email chains, drives collaboration, enhances accountability, and improves agency efficiency and productivity. It’s also more commonly known as an online proofing software.
The benefits of review and approval software
Review and approval software helps with the common pain points faced by agencies. From the frustration of overlooked comments to the hassle of managing multiple proofing processes, approval tools address any inefficiencies that your current proofing methods cause.
PageProof is the leader in the online proofing category, transforming creative productivity. Users of PageProof have experienced significant improvements in their workflow efficiency – thanks to our robust automated workflows, resulting in a 40% increase in productivity. Designers and creatives have noticed a 53% decrease in the need for rework, along with a 38% boost in team efficiency – additionally, review time has been cut by 61%. Read on to learn more about the benefits of client approval software.
“We needed a tool that allowed our clients to easily request changes to artwork, web pages, videos, and websites that we create at our digital agency. It’s a game changer and no-brainer!”
Paul Nelson – Managing Director at Hangabouts International
Saving time and effort
First and foremost, online proofing software saves your team time and improves efficiency across all stages of the approval process. With features like automated workflows and version control, agencies can streamline their operations – all within one centralized platform. Cutting out any time-consuming manual tasks that plague agencies and allowing your team to focus on creating high-quality billable work for your clients.
Ensuring quality control
One crucial aspect of client proofing software is its role in maintaining accuracy and quality control. By providing a centralized platform for reviewing and approving assets, it helps identify and address errors or discrepancies more effectively. Features like proof audits and checklists ensure that projects meet the highest standards of quality.
PageProof goes beyond conventional proofing platforms, ensuring files remain in high-quality resolution, and to the Ghent Output Suite 5.0 standard. This guarantees that your clients will see a pixel-perfect version of your work, maintaining the integrity of your designs throughout the review process.
Scaling operations
Perhaps the most significant advantage of client proofing software is its scalability and customization opportunities. From custom workflows and permissions to integrating with existing MarTech stacks (such as with monday.com, Asana, Airtable, Trello…to name a few), client proofing software empowers agencies to adapt their approval processes to suit the unique needs of different projects and clients.
Moreover, with broad and flexible integrations, proofing software integrates seamlessly no matter the industry, integrating with project management platforms, design software, and file storage solutions alike.
Collaborating remotely
In an increasingly remote working environment, approval software is a vital tool for facilitating collaboration among dispersed teams and stakeholders. As of 2023, 12.7% of full-time employees work from home, while 28.2% work a hybrid model. With features such as real-time commenting, and notifications, agencies can ensure seamless communication and collaboration regardless of team members, clients, or freelancers’ locations. This capability enables agencies to tap into talent pools and customer opportunities beyond geographical constraints, fostering a more globally distributed team and increased opportunity.
Improved relationships
By providing clients with transparent, efficient, and collaborative approval processes, approval software contributes to higher levels of client satisfaction and retention. Clients appreciate the ability to track project progress, provide feedback in a structured manner, and have visibility into the approval pipeline. Moreover, the streamlined workflows and faster turnaround times enabled by the software lead to quicker project delivery, enhancing the overall client experience.
Secure online proofing
Safeguarding sensitive data and intellectual property (IP) is more important than ever in today’s competitive business landscape. Agencies must be cautious when protecting their client’s pre-market work from unauthorized access and potential leaks. Ensuring the security of this data not only builds trust but also maintains a competitive edge in the market.
PageProof offers the most secure online proofing solution, ensuring that your files are kept safe at every step. Our patented triple-layer encryption makes us the top choice for agencies with clients in industries like government, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, finance, and insurance.
Committed to the highest standards, we hold ISO 27001 certification, guaranteeing the protection of customer data through our robust information security management system (ISMS). Partnering with Microsoft Azure further strengthens our security, providing SOC 2 Type 2 compliance and leading ISO certifications, ensuring that your client’s information remains secure in the cloud. Read our IT security whitepaper to learn more.
How to choose an online proofing platform
When choosing an online proofing platform, several considerations come into play. From feature requirements and budget to customer support, agencies must choose a solution that meets their specific needs and goals.
Learn how to choose an online proofing platform.
Key factors to consider include:
Support and training
Opt for platforms offering real-time support from actual people — not just automated responses. Look for platforms with easy-to-follow training materials like guides, and videos that you can access whenever you need. You should also ensure there are options for personalized training sessions to suit your team’s and your client’s needs.
At PageProof, we make sure our customers are happy every step of the way. Recently, our customers gave us a big thumbs up in the quarterly G2 category review. PageProof is voted as having the Best Relationship overall in organizations of all sizes.
This shows how much our users appreciate it when we go above and beyond to make their experience great. Our scores for Likelihood to Recommend (97%), Ease of Doing Business With (98%), and Quality of Support (98%) were all top-notch.
And for our enterprise-level customers, they rated us even higher for Best Relationships (86%) and Best Support (100%), and we’re the solution that is Easiest To Do Business with (100%). It’s a fantastic result that shows we’re all about putting our customers first.
Smart automation and workflows
Are manual processes slowing down your business? It might be time to consider workflow automation. By automating repetitive tasks, you can save time and reduce errors. Did you know that 70% of business leaders believe they could save up to 30 hours every month with workflow automation? Additionally, automation provides transparency into processes, fostering accountability and informed decision-making. Plus, it can lead to significant cost savings, with companies saving an average of $46,000 annually.
PageProof offers creative workflow automation allowing complete control throughout the proofing process. Control when clients are invited to a proof, ensure key collaborators are involved, and the appropriate stakeholder has the final approval. This provides you with the flexibility to reflect the way your team and clients work, with content flowing through the approval process automatically. With workflow automation you can save time on manual and monotonous tasks, reducing errors and improving transparency for your clients.
Powerful integrations
Marketing teams and agencies alike are experiencing MarTech stack bloat – according to Gartner research, martech investment accounts for 25% of marketing budgets, but only 33% of features and capabilities are utilized. In simplifying your MarTech stack, you should identify the key platforms needed to operate. Whether it’s for project management, cloud storage, design, or communication platforms, seamless integration is key.
Project management tools
Project managers benefit from the automatic syncing of vital proofing details with leading project management tools like monday.com, Asana, Airtable, ClickUp, and Trello.
Design platforms
Designers enjoy a two-way integration with the PageProof plugin for Adobe Creative Cloud apps, facilitating quick proof creation and clear feedback visualization. The popular design tool Canva is supported too.
Cloud storage providers
Proof creators find it easy to create proofs of files stored in cloud storage providers such as Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, and Dropbox.
Communication platforms
Reviewers can stay in the loop with proof notifications and updates integrated into communication tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and of course email.
Powerful proofing features
When selecting an online proofing tool, it’s crucial to prioritize advanced features that optimize productivity and streamline workflows. Look for innovative functionalities that go beyond basic markup and commenting capabilities. Here’s what to consider:
- Templates for proofs and workflows: Simplify processes and ensure the right stakeholders are involved at each stage. Proof and workflow templates are a great way to save your common workflows, share them with your team and others to use, and save huge time when creating proofs.
- Pixel-perfect proofing tools: Accuracy, brand compliance, and design elements must be checked and approved by stakeholders, and we’ve designed tools to specifically address the concerns of reviewers during the review and approval process. Rulers, gridlines, automatic link checking, and font/color analysis ensure precision and consistency.
- Checklists: Checklist templates are a great way to ensure compliance when reviewing and approving proofs. You can create a checklist of items to guide reviewers – and these items can be arranged into groups assisting different teams or departments.
- Smart compare: An important part of the online proofing process is checking whether changes that were asked for have been actioned between versions. PageProof makes comparing proof versions quick and easy. No more playing ‘spot the difference’.
- Color Separation: With PageProof ColorSep® you can easily review CMYK, spot, and Pantone color plate preview separations to ensure proofs are pixel-perfect. Check color breakdowns and ink density coverage too.
- Barcode scanner: The barcode scanner makes it quick and easy to check barcodes and QR codes on a proof. It will automatically scan the artwork and identify these codes for you – in fact, these will be highlighted on the proof for easy spotting.
Learn about PageProof’s features.
PageProof’s customer-first mindset
Starting with us is simple. We’re dedicated to keeping things easy, beginning with integrating our platform into your agency’s daily operations. We’ve been voted Most Implementable, winning our category with a score of 91%, surpassing the category average of 81%, according to real customer reviews on G2.
Our Ease of Setup score, at 94%, indicates that teams face minimal challenges when starting with PageProof – this ensures users can quickly use all of our features. Moreover, the Time To Go Live with PageProof is 31% faster than our competitors at just 28 days, allowing for your workflows to be optimized quickly so you can have a fast turnaround.
For small businesses, we were recognized as the Most Implementable solution – for mid-market customers PageProof has the Highest User Adoption rate, at 81% compared to 67% for competitors. Finally, enterprise customers voted us as the solution with the Easiest Setup for the online proofing category. With an overall score of 98% for enterprise, PageProof demonstrates a commitment to providing a user-centered and seamless implementation experience, significantly exceeding the category average of 86%.
Justifying the cost of proofing software
Investing in software may require an initial investment, but the long-term advantages outweigh these costs. Using modern solutions for your approval process can lead to improved efficiency and happier clients.
To justify this investment, start by pinpointing the problem you’re facing. Businesses usually invest in new tech to either make things run smoother, which cuts costs, or to boost effectiveness, strengthening their brand and increasing profits.
It’s important to assess both efficiency and effectiveness to see if the solution will give you a good return on investment (ROI). Read through our whitepaper to calculate the potential ROI for your agency when using PageProof.
Broad industry support
PageProof is designed to meet the creative collaboration needs of agencies working with clients across various industries. These include:
- Retail – Make sure product offers and pricing are accurate and on time across catalogs, web banners, and digital, and in-store materials.
- Food & beverage – Use specialist proofing tools to check labels, packaging, photography, branding, and advertising in detail.
- Health, medical, & pharmaceutical – Get approvals faster for instructional videos, websites, packaging, and designs, including translations.
- Arts & entertainment – Speed up the review process for billboards, merchandise, social media content, videos, app designs, and emails.
- Banking, finance, & insurance – Ensure documents, presentations, and marketing materials meet regulations and are secure.
- Automotive, transport, & machinery – Keep your clients’ branding consistent across websites, brochures, social media, and more.
- Aerospace, tourism, & hospitality – Make it easier to give feedback and approve marketing materials, websites, emails, and social media content.
Just to name a few…
Online proofing can transform how agencies operate
Online proofing software is a game-changer for agencies, helping them work faster and smarter, and focus more on producing great creative work. Plus, it ensures top-quality work, making clients happier and relationships stronger.
And the best part? PageProof can integrate into your MarTech stack, making it easy to tailor your workflows to maximize efficiency. Simply put, PageProof is a powerful tool to overhaul how agencies do business, making productivity easier to achieve. Book a demo with PageProof today to see it in action.
FAQs
What is client proofing software?
Client proofing software, like PageProof, is a digital platform that allows for the review and approval of creative materials between agencies and their clients, offering streamlined creative collaboration tools to ensure accuracy and efficiency in the proofing process.
How does online proofing benefit agencies?
Online proofing can benefit agencies by allowing them to work more efficiently thanks to streamlined collaboration, allowing them to focus on their work rather than administrative tasks. Ensuring top-quality work and strengthening client relationships by providing faster approvals and integrating seamlessly into clients’ existing marketing technology stacks.
References
- https://images.adpinfo.com/Web/ADPEmployerServices/%7B085dfeb6-e471-4e88-b8fb-dc0b2b9b2b07%7D_2020-In(Sight)-Report.pdf
- https://www.formstack.com/blog/workflow-automation-survey
- https://marketech-apac.com/whats-next-2024-combatting-martech-bloat-should-be-this-years-resolution-for-marketers/
- https://www.g2.com/products/pageproof/reviews
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbooksauthors/2024/01/24/the-state-of-hybrid-workplaces-in-2024/
