Most content marketers deal with this situation on a regular basis: you’ve written a great piece of content that’s ready to be published, but you need your manager’s approval first. You sent it to her a week ago and still haven’t gotten any feedback.
You’ve sent a reminder email, a friendly skype message, and you’ve even approached her during lunch. You’re borderline stalking her at this point.
And yet, your content still hasn’t been approved. And you need to put it live tomorrow.
Sound familiar? You’re not alone. But there are steps you can take to avoid situations like these in the future.
1. Share deadlines
The first thing you need to do before anything else is determine a due date. Once you know when your task is due, you need to communicate it with the person who will be reviewing and approving your work. In this case, let’s assume your manager.
You need to make it clear to your manager from the beginning that your work needs to be ready by a certain date and that the due date cannot be moved. You also need to explain the consequences of a missed deadline (e.g. content calendar pushed back, other content delayed, etc.).
2. Create a shared folder
Creating a shared folder is always a good idea when there is collaboration involved. It allows all parties to work with the most recent copy of a file.
Let’s say your company uses OneDrive for Business. All you need to do is create a content marketing folder (and sub-folders). Then save it in the virtual drive where you will house your work. You can then share the path of the folder with your manager for reviewing and approval.
Many document management software such as Microsoft Office and Soda PDF have built-in cloud integration so it makes saving and sharing files way easier. No extra steps necessary.
3. Save your file in PDF format
PDF is the standard format in which to save shared files because it is safe and can be opened on any device. You can even encrypt your PDF with a strong password so that it can only be viewed by those who know the password.
If your file contains sensitive information, this is the smart way to proceed. You just need to relay the password to the person who will be reviewing and approving your content marketing work.
4. Send content to your manager
This is where things get tricky. Your manager probably receives 100 emails per day (if not more). So your email might get lost in her inbox, even if you flag it as urgent.
You can take a chance and try emailing it to her anyway. Or you can use a proper task management program that will help you keep track of everything.
A project management software such as Jira is a great way to document all the steps you’ve taken to complete your content marketing projects. In this case, you would create a task, set due dates, upload your content, include the shared folder path, and eventually assign it to your manager for approval.
If your manager does not review your work on time, there will be written evidence that the deadline was missed to no fault of your own. In other words, Jira will have your back.
5. Set up a meeting
If you want to go one step further to assure your manager approves your work on time, you can set up a follow-up meeting in your manager’s calendar ahead of time. That way, if she peruses her Outlook calendar, for example, the notification will remind her that she has a content marketing meeting tomorrow and needs to approve your blog post prior to that meeting.
If you do not have access to your manager’s calendar, you should probably request it. Otherwise, you can just speak to her and ask her to book it in her own calendar.
6. Edit and publish
Your manager can use a PDF editor to review and annotate your work. Soda PDF has great annotation features such as sticker notes, virtual pen, stamps, arrows, and a highlighter to facilitate the reviewing process.
Assuming your manager reviews your work on time. You better hurry up and make the changes she requested asap (you can edit directly through Soda PDF). If your manager wants to review your project one more time before you publish it, you need to make the changes quickly and go through this process again.
If your manager trusts your content marketing skills and doesn’t require a second or third approval, you’re good to go. All you need to do is make sure you’ve edited your work properly and schedule it on time.
Want to try Soda PDF’s awesome editing and reviewing features?