What you can do to make legal sign-off less painful

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What you can do to make legal sign-off less painful

Very few companies roll the dice with their media, and for good reason. One misleading ad could land the entire company in hot water with regulators and the public. Because of this, creative marketers often suffer through the painful and tedious process of submitting work for legal sign-off, often trudging through endless back-and-forth and waiting days for approval. Here are 4 ways marketers can ease this necessary burden:

 

  1. Getting feedback: When legal sends back requests for more information, don’t just blindly follow directions in the hopes of staving off further requests. Ask them why they need certain information and whether similar campaigns in the future are likely to require the same notes. This makes it less likely to get knocked back next time round.

 

  1. Forecasting: Building on the last point, alerting the legal department on upcoming jobs can help save you much headache. Ask them about future work before it is completed to ensure that you’re providing them with the knowledge they need to make judgement calls. This can also help you to make necessary inclusions without having to ask every time.

 

  1. Set company guidelines: There are some protocols that should just be common knowledge. Marketers shouldn’t have to bounce e-mails with legal all day, and legal doesn’t need the extra burden. If your work has common requirements – disperse that information to the team and make it common knowledge. Basically; take ownership of compliance responsibilities within your scope.

 

  1. Invest in tech: Believe it or not, some companies actually specialise in making the marketers life much easier. This is probably the most efficient way of reducing drafts and getting your work out quicker. Tech solutions respond to pieces of marketing material and answers from the marketer to ensure that media is compliant with the law. This makes it much quicker to get work reviewed, and makes it much easier for legal to review.

 

Compliance is just something that you can’t get around no matter how much you may want to, and for good reason. Follow these tips and you’ll manage to make the process much easier and save yourself a lot of time and frustration.

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