
Email production can be a whirlwind. At any given time, your team might have a dozen emails in production, all at varying phases: conception, design, coding, testing. And since no one wants to make a costly or embarrassing mistake (though occasionally it happens), review and approval processes are critical steps along the way. However, they can be time-consuming and logistically challenging to execute. That's why BEE's email collaboration tool has a built-in, easy-to-use review and approval process that your internal and external teammates can all use. Keep reading as we show you and your team howto save time—and sanity!
Email design review and approval is time-consuming
According to research by Litmus, companies spend the most time on email design. Fine-tuning an email's design is often a collaborative process full of multiple review checkpoints and iterations. You know the drill. A designer might email the first draft to a team of reviewers, who then send feedback—trying to describe the changes they want to see "at the top of module 2" or "in the subheader of the first section." Maybe they even open the email in another program, like Skitch or InVision, to mark it up before sending it back. The designer responds and makes updates. The reviewers have more comments. And on and on. Things can get messy.And, if you're an agency, you might be at an even greater disadvantage. Agencies have bigger teams, Litmus reports: 30.8% of agencies have email marketing teams of 7 or more people, twice the rate of brand marketers (15.4%). Plus, agencies spend more time than brand marketers on email production, as seen in the infographic below. And, agencies are twice as likely as brand marketers to use an extensive pre-send checklist (34.0% vs. 17.4%).

Source: Litmus, 2016 State of Email Agencies
Why is the review and approval process a culprit in slowing down teams?
You probably recognize these common snafus:
- No central location for all project communication
- No clear approval process
- No ability to track feedback and revision history
- No ability to mark up an email in a shareable team environment
Introducing Collaboration: An easy way to review and approve email
Thankfully, there is a solution for your team's email workflow:Collaboration,a teamwork tool that allows you to share, comment, and approve email campaigns and templates in one place.Collaboration is available for BEE Pro users and their colleagues and clients. The tool streamlines the email review and approval process, so you can work more efficiently.

Collaboration Tool Features that Simplify the Approval Process
Tutorial: How to improve your review process with BEE's Email Collaboration tool
Once you're finished, the approval point person can toggle the email from In Progress to Approved, so it's clear when an email is ready for the next phase of production. (Reminder that the designated approver needs a BEE Pro account in order to access and make this final change.)

So to recap, with email Collaboration in BEE, you get:
- One place to track all communication
- The ability to mark up an email to improve the review and approval process
- An organized way to track comments from everybody
- A clear approval process that's funneled through one person