{"id":31,"date":"2025-06-07T21:10:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T21:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/10xforce.cloud\/blog\/?p=31"},"modified":"2025-06-08T20:48:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T20:48:31","slug":"salesforce-marketing-cloud-when-content-approval-breaks-your-transactional-sends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/10xforce.cloud\/blog\/salesforce-marketing-cloud-when-content-approval-breaks-your-transactional-sends\/","title":{"rendered":"Salesforce Marketing Cloud: When Content Approval Breaks Your Transactional Sends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recently, I came across a blog post<\/a> discussing the poor user experience and implementation of the approval process in Content Builder. Couldn\u2019t agree more with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it inspired me to share my experience with this feature and point out a related bug (or a feature, depending on how you look at it) before the decision to use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what happened?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a quiet Tuesday morning. I had my coffee, and my email was ready in Content Builder. I turned on Content Approval and added myself as the approver. I felt safe. What could go wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the Problem<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I opened Postman and used the API to make a new Transactional Send Definition. I thought it would go live right away. I’ve done this many times. But the status stayed Inactive<\/em>. No detailed error message, as usual. No clue why. I even tried the API Update to make it \u201cActive,\u201d but that failed too, with the same error message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Long Search<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My live demo with a client was coming up fast. I was nervously looking for a fix through forums. I was checking the Approvals tab and settings. I read the API docs and Content Builder Approval<\/a> documentation again. Nothing helped. My client waited, and I could not say, \u201cHere it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Simple Fix<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, after a few hours of trying everything I found online and failing, I decided to turn Content Approval off on the account level. Then I tried to create the send definition again. This time, it became active right away! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it turns out Marketing Cloud won\u2019t let you activate a send definition via API, even if the email has already been approved. Disable content approval first, and it works.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hidden Trap<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feeling happy, I turned Content Approval back on, but there is a catch. That is when I saw it: every email in my account had just been automatically approved. Pending reviews? Rejections? Wiped clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things I Learned<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Turn Off Approval First<\/strong>
    If you will use an email in a Transactional Send Definition, always turn off Content Approval first.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Use Clear Names<\/strong>
    Add \u2013noApproval<\/em> at the end of your template names. That way, you know which ones must stay not approved\/open.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Make a Simple Checklist<\/strong>\n