Functionality Overview
This feature provides a "peer review" system where specific Users can review and authorize email content before it is available for sending. Each new email will have an "Unapproved" status, meaning it cannot be sent or used in any Automation or Journey activities until a user with the appropriate permissions reviews and confirms that the email can be used for sending, moving it to an "Approved" status. The approval only needs to happen once, and the Approved emails can still be edited afterwards.
To enable this feature in your account, please contact your Customer Success Manager.
User Permissions
To approve emails, user accounts must have the necessary permissions enabled. When the feature is enabled, the client's users will have the following two permissions under Email permissions.:
- Allow Email approvals - this permission enables the user to review and approve emails existing in the client that the user belongs to
- Allow Sub-client Email approvals - this permission enables the user to review and approve emails existing in the sub-clients of the client the user belongs to.
Users that have these permissions enabled are referred to as "Approvers" and those that do not have these permissions enabled are referred to as "Non-Approvers" in this article.
Functionality
Email Statuses and Sending Abilities
Emails will have an additional set of statuses (Unapproved/ Pending Approval/ Approved) along with the existing set of statuses (Pending/ Ready/ Warning/ Error). These will be visible in the email manager for Clients with the Email Approval feature enabled:
Emails that are Ready but do not have the Approved status:
- Cannot be sent or used in automations
- Will not be available for selection in any Process or Journey Automation
Unapproved emails can still be used for Test Mailing as long as they are in a Ready state.
Approval Status Flow Diagram
Requesting Email Approval
When a user (Approver or Non-Approver) clicks Request Approval (option available only to Ready emails), a window appears allowing the user to choose Approvers to review the email. The user can then select one or more Approver users to send the request to and write a note in a text area to be sent along with the request (optional). Approvers can be selected from both the current client and parent client, if applicable, by checking the Include Approvers from Parent Client option.
Once the request is submitted, an email will be sent to the Approver(s) with the following information:
Request Account - Name of the User who requested the Approval
Client Name - The Client the email was requested in
Email Content Name - Name of the email to be Approved
Link to Email Content - URL directing the Approver to the Preview page (the Approver must be logged in to the platform first)
Additional Notes - Optional notes added by the User
Once the approval request is sent, the email's Approval status will change to Pending Approval. While in this status, a user can make multiple Approval requests; this can serve as a reminder to the requested Approver(s) or seek approval from other users not included in the original request.
Approving and Rejecting an Email
When an Approver views an email with an approval status of Pending Approval, in the Preview Step there will be two more buttons available: Reject and Approve.
Approving an Email
The Approve button allows the user to approve the email for sending. Clicking the button opens a confirmation window where the user must confirm the approval of the email.
Once the action is completed, the approval status of the email changes to Approved and a confirmation email is sent to the person who requested the approval.
After the email is approved, the Request Approval, Reject, and Approve buttons are replaced with the Schedule and Send button.
Rejecting an Email
The Reject button lets the user decline the email approval. Clicking the button opens a confirmation window where the user can explicitly reject the approval and provide details or reasons for the rejection in a text area (optional).
Once the action is completed, the Approval status of the email changes back to Unapproved and a notification email is sent to the person that requested the approval containing any additional notes made.
The Reject and Approve buttons are removed from the Email Preview leaving only the Request Approval button visible.
Duplicating and Distributing Emails
When you duplicate an email, the Approval status of the new email will not be the same as the original. Duplicated emails will be marked as Unapproved and will not contain any information related to approval requests or approvals.
Additionally Displayed Information
Tracking Approval Status Changes
In order to better track changes to the approval status, additional data will be displayed in the Properties step of the Email:
- Approval Requested By - last user to request the Email's approval
- Approval Requested Date - the time of the most recent approval request
- Approved By - user that approved the Email
- Approved Date - the time when the Email was approved
- Rejected By - user that rejected the Email's approval
- Rejected Date - the time when the Email's approval was rejected
