ApproveThis manages your iContact approvals.

Why Bother Connecting ApproveThis and iContact?

Let’s cut to the chase: approval bottlenecks are the silent killers of marketing momentum. You’ve got your iContact campaigns ready to launch – newsletters, promotions, lead magnets – but they’re stuck waiting for legal sign-off, budget approvals, or client thumbs-ups. Meanwhile, your competitors are hitting “send” while you’re hitting “refresh” on your inbox.

This is where ApproveThis comes in. When you connect it to iContact through Zapier, you’re not just automating workflows – you’re removing the human choke points from your email marketing engine. We’re talking about turning days of back-and-forth into minutes of structured decision-making. And before you ask – no, your approvers don’t need iContact licenses. External clients, legal teams, or execs can review campaigns without getting tangled in your marketing tech stack.

Real-World Scenarios That Actually Matter

Here’s how mid-sized companies are using this integration to stop chasing approvals and start hitting KPIs:

1. The Compliance Firewall

Picture a healthcare company launching a new patient newsletter. Every email needs legal review for HIPAA compliance. With ApproveThis + iContact:

• New iContact draft → auto-generates approval request
• Legal team gets email with campaign preview + specific compliance checklist
• Approved? Campaign goes live automatically. Denied? Comments route back to marketing

Bonus: Approval thresholds automatically greenlight low-risk emails (like internal comms) without committee meetings.

2. Client-Controlled Campaigns Without the Chaos

Marketing agencies love this setup. When your client adds new contacts to iContact:

• New contact triggers approval request in ApproveThis
• Client decision-makers get mobile-friendly review with contact details
• Approved contacts auto-segment into correct lists; denied entries get flagged for follow-up

Pro tip: Use calculated fields to auto-approve contacts from whitelisted domains while flagging unknown addresses for review.

The Hidden Perks You’ll Actually Use

While other approval tools stop at basic yes/no decisions, ApproveThis brings tactical advantages specifically for email teams:

Vacation Coverage That Doesn’t Suck
Legal lead out on leave? Approval responsibilities automatically shift to their deputy without missing SLA deadlines. No more “I was OOO” excuses.

Audit Trails That Cover Your Ass
Every approval decision timestamps who approved what – crucial for regulated industries and client billing. When compliance asks “Who cleared this subject line?”, you’ve got receipts.

Setting This Up Without Losing Your Mind

Here’s the 3-step reality check:

1. Create Zapier connection between iContact and ApproveThis
2. Pick your trigger (new campaign draft, contact added, list change)
3. Map approval criteria using ApproveThis’ conditional logic

Pro move: Set up parallel approval paths for multi-team reviews. Example: Marketing Director + Legal Counsel both need to approve campaign copy, but they can review simultaneously instead of waiting for each other.

Who Actually Benefits in Your Company

Marketing Teams: Stop playing approval tag. Get real-time visibility into where campaigns are stuck – is Legal sitting on it? Client MIA? The dashboard doesn’t lie.

Operations Managers: Quantify approval bottlenecks with time-stamped data. Prove you need more legal resources or show clients actual time saved after implementation.

Compliance Officers: Enforce review processes without becoming the bottleneck. Set automatic escalations for high-risk campaigns approaching deadlines.

The Quietly Powerful Features

While you’re focused on email approvals, these tools are working behind the scenes:

Dynamic Fields: Auto-calculate discount amounts in promo campaigns. If the math doesn’t check out, approval requests get kicked back before legal ever sees them.

Approval Groups: Handle complex org structures – require 2/3 client stakeholders to approve while only needing one internal marketing sign-off.

Common Objections (And Why They’re Wrong)

“We’re fine with email threads.”
Cool. How’s that working for version control when three execs reply-all with conflicting feedback? ApproveThis keeps all comments and decisions centralized.

“Our process is too custom.”
We’ve seen teams automate approvals for pharmaceutical email disclaimers, university donor communications, and franchise marketing materials. Your workflow isn’t special.

When to Stay Manual

This integration isn’t magic fairy dust. Keep these scenarios in Outlook:

- One-person marketing teams with instant approval turnaround
- Companies where the CEO insists on personally approving every “Happy Holidays” email
- Organizations that think “approval workflow” means walking over to Accounting with a printed email

Getting Started Without the Sales Pitch

Try these starter Zaps:

Basic: New iContact campaign draft → Approval request to Legal
Intermediate: Contact list changes → Dual approval from Marketing + Compliance
Nuclear Option: Denied approvals auto-create Asana tasks with reviewer comments

The Bottom Line

If your email marketing velocity is getting choked by approval delays, you’ve got two options: Hire more middle managers to chase people down, or build an automated system that forces accountability. One of these options lets you actually hit your quarterly campaign targets.

ApproveThis isn’t another SaaS toy – it’s your leverage point to turn email approvals from a bottleneck into a measurable process. The Zapier integration with iContact just makes it stupid not to try.

Book a 10-minute demo or start a free trial. Worst case? You’ll finally have data to prove how broken your current process is.