Digital media has become an increasingly crucial aspect of every business. Each day, companies are required to produce photos, videos, interactive advertisements and other forms of creative marketing to gain a competitive edge in their niche.
This boom in digital media has meant that businesses require a more streamlined approach to organising, editing, storing and sharing their digital assets more than ever. Digital Asset Management (DAM) has become the go-to software for achieving these results for a wide variety of industries.
In this blog you will learn the fundamental benefits of using DAM and who it might be useful for. You can also download this guide in the form of a colourful infographic here, so that you can download and keep it (no sign ups required, don't worry!).
The highly secure storage, easy distribution functionality and the ability to organise files with ease has made it a popular tool to help smooth workflow processes and marketing tasks. Controlling, grouping and searching for content, reducing the risk of duplication, and controlling who can access documents is made effortless and effective.
Who uses DAM systems?
DAM is a beneficial solution for any organisation seeking to optimise their digital asset workflow. The need for DAM becomes greater as the size or complexity of asset storage increases, such as within marketing teams. From designers to sales teams and agencies seeking to curate, control and share their resources at any given time, DAM ensures greater consistency, a faster turnaround and easy access to the latest materials. This saves you time and money.
DAM has been repeatedly popular with these industries: Academic organisations, Marketers, Retailers and franchises, Hospitality, Non-profits, Tourism, Government, Construction.
Benefits of DAM
DAM is a secure and easy way to manage archives of rich media content from a central repository. It saves time that otherwise would be spent searching for images or buried files, and improves the overall ROI of marketing campaigns, but there are many advantages to using a DAM that companies of all different sizes can benefit from.
1. Publish marketing campaigns faster
More content is being produced than ever before, so organisation is paramount to any marketer's success. A DAM system helps you to control the content you're creating and reduced workflow redundancies. When it comes to publishing to social media, CMS or your key marketing channels, it can all be done with a single click, saving you valuable time.
2. Utilise assets in various formats
The day to day running of a business doesn't just entail Word documents and photos, but many different file types. Everything from video and InDesign files to Power Point presentations and audio recordings should be easily stored and accessible, and a DAM platform is capable of managing the many formats that make your business possible.
3. Manage metadata more effectively
A DAM system doesn't just keep track of your files - it also stores embedded information about each one, from the technical specifications to copyright information and associated keywords. Having this metadata accessible and customisable saves companies a lot of time.
4. Control access and user rights
One of the key benefits to a good DAM system is that it comes with a refined user and rights management tool, meaning when something changes, you'll know exactly who has done it. As every access is logged, you'll have a clear picture of who has or hasn't used each asset. It's up to you who has access to what, whether they can edit or simply view, as well as if the need for security measures are necessary.
5. Improve collaboration between teams
Sharing content becomes infinitely faster and easier with a well-built DAM platform, ensuring that all staff members and departments have access to the latest versions of assets. A DAM streamlines collaboration, wherever users are in the world, and enables smoother distribution within the workflow. What's more, an approval process can be triggered before certain images or files are downloaded, providing greater tracking.
6. Ensure assets are securely stored
DAM systems safeguard the files within your storage centre, as well as the channels they’re sent through, via incredibly secure encryption protocols that are almost impossible to hack. This also means benefits such as watermark functionality on visual assets and even single sign-on options in some cases too.
7. Benefit from simpler tagging capabilities
Having swathes of content is only an advantage if it can be found. Every DAM system has tagging capabilities that make it easier to navigate through different types of content, and higher end software utilises artificial intelligence and image recognition technology to relieve the burden of manual tagging by associating the correct keywords to an image. This technology frees up precious time and space for other value-driven tasks.
8. Maintain a consistent brand image
Consistency across all marketing channels is the marker of any professional business. It helps to instil trust in your brand and encourages recognition among your audience. Centralised control of the assets used on your channels and social platforms will ensure everything is up to date and uniform, which has a significant impact on how your brand is perceived by your audience and competitors.
9. Group your content more strategically
A multi-functional DAM system allows you to organise your content more efficiently and makes searching for and distributing assets far easier. Your business may have thousands of images, for example, yet only use a fraction of these in marketing collateral. Using a DAM system means you can reduce the duplication of such assets and filter out the content you have no use for.
10. Make great savings in three key areas
DAM delivers savings not just in time and resources, but also financially. It delivers more streamlined processes that garner faster results, reduces the time it takes you to bring new marketing materials to market and encourages better collaboration within teams. The scalable functions mean it’s an adaptable tool that suits companies of any size.
To keep this useful guideline on the benefits and uses of DAM, click the link below so you can download and keep it.
