Content marketing delivers three times the ROI of other marketing strategies. But it requires long-term commitment, consistency and coherence.
With the challenges many of us face in marketing, it’s not unheard of for this labour-intensive part of your marketing strategy to flounder if not managed well. Content is king - so ensuring you’re staying on top of your workload and getting your content out on time is key to staying ahead of your competitors.
The solution? Digital Asset Management (DAM). In this article, we’ll explore how DAM can improve your content marketing processes so you can scale production and increase productivity. We’ll cover:
How DAM can enhance content marketing in four key areas:
What is a DAM platform?
Before we launch into the benefits of DAM for content marketing, let’s make sure we’re on the same page with what DAM means.
Because in some quarters, there’s a perception that DAM is a bit of a one-trick-pony. And that Sharepoint will serve the same purpose. To which we reply with a respectful but robust ‘No’ and ‘Hell no’ respectively.
DAM stands for digital asset management. It’s software that provides centralised storage for your digital assets - images, videos, audio, copy, logos etc - so you can effortlessly search, find and use them in your content marketing.
With a DAM system, you can find any asset you need in just a few clicks. You can search or browse based on metadata like file contents, colour, even sentiment. And thanks to AI, a lot of this metadata can be added automatically.
Not only that, but DAM integration with other apps means you can find and use assets from within the tools you use every day. So you can stop wasting time looking for assets and spend more time getting creative with them.
How can DAM enhance content marketing?
Content marketing spans a lot of activities across different stages of the customer journey. We don’t want to sound too Craig David here but a typical content marketer might be making TikToks on Monday, ToFu blogging on Tuesday, working on a webinar Wednesday…
It’s a type of marketing that has endless possibilities. And therein lies the rub. Because it is ENDLESS.
Content marketing requires consistent, ongoing application to reap rewards. It’s a labour-intensive strategy - but one that’s shown to deliver 3x the ROI of other marketing activity.
That’s why it’s great that so many marketing teams have seen their team and budget doubled to accommodate the extra work... (jk - that’s happened to literally no one).
So - if you’re not able to throw extra budget and bodies at the challenge - how can you keep pace with your audiences’ insatiable appetite for content? And - more importantly - how can you make sure you’re delivering innovative, high-quality, customer-centric content?
With DAM. Here are four ways DAM can help you scale your content marketing efforts.
Speed
First off, let’s talk speed. Because none of us are complaining about having too much time. DAM can significantly speed up your content production processes by eradicating wasted time and automating manual processes - essentially, it's all about getting your digital ducks in a row.
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This boosts team productivity, which means you can create more content with the same number of staff. Or give staff more time to work on each piece. It’s about eliminating empty time and making more time for the stuff that counts. Like creativity, campaign planning, and quality. As well as making sure your team are agile and able to react to emerging topics and opportunities.
You might not have noticed the time your team wastes searching for digital assets. But you’ve probably heard the grumbles.
- The files they can’t find because of an impenetrable folder structure… or maybe because John has the files on his desktop
- The artwork they’ve had to recreate because the original has gone walkabout and ‘it’s quicker to just start from scratch.
- The second-choice photos they’ve had to ‘just go with’ because there’s a deadline looming and they’re done with looking
Poor digital asset management processes cost your team on many levels. It steals time, undermines quality and causes a lot of headaches. And although individual games of ‘asset hide-and-seek’ might only take a little time, collectively they add up to hours of wasted time each week.
DAM solves these problems by putting the right assets at your disposal, every time. Creatives can search or browse their way to individual assets in lightning fast time, blasting away roadblocks in the creative process.
Efficiency
For most marketing departments that implement it, DAM is a key driver of efficiency. It’s all about removing unnecessary friction in your content processes. So that when you scale, you scale the good stuff, not the time-sinks.
Integrations are one way that DAM improves efficiency.
Because DAM doesn’t just make digital assets available on its own platform. It also integrates with other applications. This means creatives can add DAM’s asset-surfacing superpowers to the apps they already work with - like design applications and content management systems.
That’s right. They don’t even have to open the DAM directly. They can simply search and browse assets from their existing software and place them in designs. They can even automatically convert files into different versions - such as specific crops or sizes - at the click of a button too.
So whether you’re producing artwork for an ebook, social graphics to promote your podcast, or a slide deck for your latest webinar, DAM makes it faster and easier.
Collaboration
Next, let’s look at content marketing execution. Your content has to excel if you want to rise above the noise. So how can you deliver consistently high-quality content when you’re just one team… maybe even just one person?
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Content is like the proverbial child that it takes a village to raise. Great content takes collaboration. And whether that’s within your organisation, or through external agencies and freelancers, you need to collaborate effectively. Especially if you’re looking to scale up your content marketing processes.
DAM is invaluable here, as it provides a safe, secure, user-friendly way to share content between collaborators.
- No more transferring files via FTP or inboxes
- No expired transfer links or ‘oops I forget the attachment’ emails
- No exposure to risk using third-party transfer sites
Just a straightforward share link that gives collaborators immediate access to all of the digital assets they need… and nothing else. Meaning your dream team can collaborate in a single shared system - and you can expand your team to include experts from anywhere in the world.
Execution
Finally, let’s talk execution. Specifically, let’s talk about how DAM can drive up quality across your organisation and empower more staff to create quality content.
We’ve already highlighted how - within creative teams - DAM eradicates mundane manual processes and saves a lot of time. This frees up brilliant brains for what they’re best at - ideation and creation of click-worthy content.
It also reduces the risk associated with digital asset use - such as accidentally using assets without the correct permissions - by providing all users with at-a-glance rights management information and automatically archiving expired assets.
But DAM can also drive up quality within the wider organisation, wherever your colleagues need to create content. Using DAM as a brand hub provides easy access to brand assets for any individual or department that needs to manage their own communications. You can also integrate DAM with brand template apps, to give staff access to both assets and artwork templates.
This lets you delegate content marketing to more staff - increasing outputs without dilution of brand or quality. It is ideal for organisations that want to give individual teams more autonomy and agility to serve their local markets - without relinquishing complete control of their brand.
Pitching a DAM platform to senior stakeholders
If you’re ready to scale your content marketing efforts with DAM, you might want to consider how you can pitch Digital Asset Management to your senior stakeholders. Whether you’re pitching to Head of Brand, Marketing or a Director in your company, we have loads of great tips to ensure you can win people over and secure the right platform for you and your team.
