David Pondell
12
min read
Dec 10, 2025
As a marketer, you’re under constant pressure to deliver quality campaigns fast, but when feedback and approvals are spread across disjointed emails and chat windows, work can slow to a crawl. Version control, marketing compliance risks, and endless back and forth cause delays that are bound to frustrate your team and your clients.
If your review processes feel a bit like herding cats, it’s time to look into creative review platforms. That’s because the right online proofing software brings order, clarity, and speed to your projects each and every time. We’ll break down the must-have (and nice-to-have) approval workflow features to look for. Then, you can choose the platform that fits your team and move from cat herding to smooth sailing.
Email and chat might be fine for one-off tasks, but things start to break down when you’re managing creative reviews across campaigns. Feedback is scattered across threads, making it difficult to consolidate. What’s more, manual versioning often leads to missed edits or team members working on outdated files. There’s no record of approvals to track who signed off on what when, and marketing compliance easily falls by the wayside without a clear audit trail. So, what’s a marketing team to do?
A dedicated creative review platform centralizes all your processes — from markup to approvals — keeping visual feedback, comments, sign-offs, and more in the same place. Version control ensures everyone is working in the right file, and clear deadlines keep your team on track. Plus, compliance-ready recordkeeping keeps everything above board in terms of internal policies, external regulations, and ethics.
But choosing the right online proofing platform for marketing teams means knowing which features matter most. Let’s run through some of the must-haves.
Before you start comparing platforms and scheduling demos, make sure that the platforms you’re considering include core approval workflow features that address common challenges for marketing teams.
To eliminate the guesswork, your team should be able to comment directly on images, videos, PDFs, and even PSDs. Visual annotations let everyone see exactly what needs to be changed directly on the file.
Avoid confusion by tracking every revision side by side. Version control ensures reviewers are always working from the latest file and can compare updates instantly.
Route assets automatically through creative, legal, and client review stages, and assign deadlines to keep your team moving forward.
Simplify stakeholder involvement by allowing external clients or contractors to review and approve without creating an account. Accessibility should never slow down approvals.
Stay on schedule and keep everyone accountable with automatic reminders and progress dashboards — no more chasing approvals manually.
The best platforms handle all major creative file types, including videos, PDFs, PSDs, and slides.
Your online proofing software should capture every piece of feedback and every approval, along with timestamps, to maintain marketing compliance.
Be sure to look for a creative review platform that integrates seamlessly with the tools you already use, like Adobe, Google Drive, and project management tools like Asana or Monday.com.
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Beyond the basics, think about the extras that can take your review processes to the next level.
While they may not be essential, these approval workflow features elevate the experience — especially for agencies managing multiple clients or campaigns.
Of course, before you decide on an online proofing platform, you’ll want to take it for a test drive. If it’s not clear from the get-go, be sure to ask the following questions:
Once you’ve completed several demos and it’s time to start comparing options, try creating a short checklist to keep your thoughts organized:
Since StreamWork is built specifically for marketing and creative workflows, you’ll find that it checks all the boxes.
StreamWork is a creative review platform designed to meet the unique needs of marketing teams, supporting PSDs, videos, PDFs, and slides all in one place. With multi-stage approval workflows, automated reminders, and version tracking, your team can collaborate seamlessly across departments and campaigns.
Working with external agencies or clients? StreamWork offers unlimited reviewers with no login required for faster approvals and less friction. Plus, audit trails and integration capabilities with Adobe, Google Drive, Asana, and Monday.com keep your workflow compliant and connected.
In short, StreamWork eliminates feedback chaos while giving you full control, visibility, and marketing compliance.
The right online proofing platform for marketing teams transforms how you manage creative feedback and approvals. The key is choosing software designed for your unique creative workflows. Try StreamWork for free, and spend less time managing approvals and more time creating campaigns that deliver.
Author
David Pondell
David is a Sales Account Executive and Platform Specialist at StreamWork. David has extensive experience working with organizations of all sizes to implement seamless creative workflows that drive results and exceed client expectations.
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