Understanding Digital Asset Management and Its Benefits for Your Business

A lengthy blog post explaining the latest marketing trends expected to reign supreme in the following year is nothing more than a pile of sentences, unless you put it to use. Once you publish this useful blog on your website, disseminate it across your social media channels, all at the right time and in front of the right people – it becomes your digital asset. The same applies to the sum of your digital imagery used to convey your brand, as well as all of those video ads, gifs, clever Tweets, and everything in between.

In the world that has become so preoccupied with all things online, it makes every sense that modern businesses truly need to play their digital cards right in order to win over the hearts and trust of their customers. This is where your ability to manage your digital assets seamlessly becomes vital.

Defining DAM

The simplest way to understand digital asset management is to describe it as a software solution that allows all digital content to be shared, edited, published, and organized within a single system. That means all of your brand-related files, from photos, video files, PDF files, to blog posts, are stored in a single location for all of the stakeholders to use.

By this point, you may wonder: why not use Dropbox or similar cloud solutions for the same purpose? Well, while the former allows you to share documents with anyone you please, it doesn’t have the same scope of management options as the latter. DAM software has the ability to deal with files of various sizes, including larger, more complex formats, and the third-party integrations simplify the sharing and publishing steps you need to take.

Improved organization

Digital businesses that grow rapidly can find themselves handling incredible amounts of data, most of which is far from perfectly structured or organized to enable a faster, more efficient workflow. Not every team member has the latest, updated file version, some may not have enough access to format and make changes to their documents, and not to mention putting all that data to use in different campaigns.

With the right DAM at your disposal, you can assign the right people to the right files, give them the needed access to alter, share, and publish content, all the while keeping the history of changes. This prevents any mistakes in the process, so that you can go back to a previous, better version and save time on reversing those changes manually.

Seamless and secure branding

In the modern market, it’s all about building and retaining a consistent brand image. It allows for the creation of a strong emotional bond between your clients and your business, and a clearly established identity is able to stand out in the crowd. To a great extent, relying on enterprise asset management software to constantly update your brand data and distribute it to the right people is a vital step in consistent, seamless branding. This is especially relevant for businesses dealing with global branches as well as international clientele, hence the need for a centralized, unified system.

From developing a brand book, or a brand guide for all relevant people to use, all the way to sharing brand-relevant data among your employees in real time makes it possible to stay true to your brand identity without reducing creative output.

Legal responsibility

Many a company suffered legal consequences for copyright infringement, or other legal conundrums that they often weren’t aware of to begin with. In a company with a multitude of branches and employees handling sensitive and branded material, the risk of such legal issues increases drastically over time.

However, a software dealing with digital assets allows you not just to manage those digital files, but also to handle license agreements and similar relevant information regarding those files. If, by chance, a license expires, the software removes it from your database, thus preventing any legal missteps and potential issues.

Better personalization

DAM technology is not a passive player in your team, on the contrary. While most cloud-based storage solutions many companies still use are merely there for greater safety and security, DAM software has the ability to be integrated with other systems you use to deliver the right content to the right audience. Nowadays, no brand can afford a cookie-cutter approach to all customers – the focus is on delivering authentic, customer-centric content that takes into consideration their individual preferences.

Utilizing digital asset management tools in this sphere helps connect the dots into a perfect customer experience. The right tool can truly turn a simple piece of information into an asset to be used to create a targeted approach for every customer in your database.

Easier collaboration

Finally, from doubled pieces of branded content, useless copies taking up space, all the way to lost data, the traditional cloud solutions aren’t without their flaws. This is where DAM software comes in with a more refined list of options to handle the assets your brand uses on a daily basis. No matter where your employees may be, they can have instant access to the right file and make necessary changes on the spot – and everyone will be in the loop.

This is easily noticed during a complex marketing campaign with many departments involved. Using DAM software helps speed up the process, provides everyone with the most updated file versions, and allows seamless implementation.

DAM is a great example of how digital solutions can simplify your operations all the while making them more secure. As the world turns more digital every day, it’s vital that you make the most of your digital presence with the help of these tech innovations, and let them elevate your brand to the next level of success.