The Future Online Proofing System
Last updated on by Cody Miles
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From a time when you and your clients had to email back and forth to give feedback and revisions, we’ve progressed to specialized software that improves the proofing process significantly. One of the main improvements: all of your proofs exist in one place within the software, not cluttered among your abundance of emails. You can easily find all of your current proofs, check their status, and see where they are in the pipeline. The entire life of the proof is viewable — every revision you send and every comment by your approvers. It’s a neat, tidy system that works just fine.
Your average proofing system is worlds better than email, but the future of the online proofing system is worlds better than even that. Your approval software can not only make your approval process more efficient, it can introduce you to features you didn’t know you needed. Ashore is sailing ahead of all the rest with some current and upcoming features.
The Future of Proofing
In the future, all of the features of an online proofing system should lead to the same general goals: improving your time management through automation and customizing your processes. Your approval process may already be helping you reach these goals — but maybe it’s not. Regardless, the future of proofing will be better.
Information at a Glance
The online proofing system of the future will help you learn more about your proofing process — how many versions you send per proof, the average number of reminders before approval, your approval rate, and other insights. These metrics can help you plan project timelines more accurately, considering factors like the number of revisions you’re likely to create and the average time for approval.
When you view all of the proofs you’ve sent, you should be able to see their status: approved, not approved, or overdue. Some systems list the status next to the proof itself. Ashore, however, prefers a color-coded system — a quick and easy way to tell the status of your proof, and aesthetically pleasing to boot.
You should also be able to search through your online proofing system for individual proofs or filter for all overdue proofs. Whether you’re sending 100 projects or 1,000, your system should help you sort the workload quickly. For more customization, tags offer a helpful solution.
Saving Time
Your online proofing system should, above all else, save you time and get approvals. Ideally, you’ll be able to start your proof along the approval pipeline with confidence that your approvers have received it and will get reminders to review and approve. Three big features save the most time: workflows, reminders, and templates.
Workflows
Sending a proof for approval to one person can be complicated enough, but sending to multiple people — simultaneously or sequentially — multiplies the difficulty. An online proofing system should provide an automated workflow feature that sends your proof to the next reviewer after it’s been approved. Even better, the workflow feature should allow you to add your email templates, customizing the emails each approver receives.
Reminders
You probably spend a good portion of the approval process just waiting for feedback or decisions. Automated reminders for each approver save you time and worry. The best systems make reminders customizable and include information relevant to your company.
Templates
Writing an email may not seem time-consuming, but when you’re typing the same thing for every proof, it adds up. Email templates streamline the process. The best systems also allow you to create templates for automated reminders, approval notifications, and any other system-generated emails — adding a personal touch to your communications.
Customization
Using a third-party software for online approvals doesn’t mean your branding should take a back seat. A good system will help you white-label the experience so you can present a professional, unified front to customers.
Logo
When you’re paying to use the system, you don’t want your clients seeing the software’s logo everywhere — you want them seeing yours. Integrating your logo is one of the most basic customization features.
Email Integration
Proofs and reminders still rely on email, and until we can beam information directly into our brains, that’s not changing. You’ll want those automated emails to come from your own domain and reflect your branding, not the proofing system’s.
Subdomain
Even if everything else is white-labeled, the URL for your approval screen can still give you away. A customized subdomain may not be at the top of your list, but it’s a detail that adds polish to your client experience.
Come Ashore for the Future
Learning more about your approval process, saving time, and customizing your branding are the core pillars of the future of online proofing systems. The good news is you don’t have to wait — these features already exist (or are coming soon) to Ashore.
Hop aboard and see for yourself.