Should you’ve reached some extent the place common cloud storage drives aren’t slicing it and also you’re Googling “finest cloud storage for enterprise,” then it’s time to think about digital asset administration (DAM) software program.

Why?

As a result of DAMs are the pure subsequent step when fundamental storage isn’t assembly what you are promoting wants. They go means past file storage and file sharing: They’ve dozens of superior options that can assist you higher handle your model collateral, use that collateral extra strategically, and rework how your groups are utilizing your digital belongings. Consequently, DAMs can actually assist you to enhance your model consistency and construct buyer loyalty.

In brief, DAMs are like cloud storage drives on steroids. Cloud storage drives would possibly work for people or actually small companies that don’t have a lot of a digital presence, however all different groups and organizations want a DAM to benefit from their model belongings.

It’s additionally price mentioning that there isn’t any such factor as “enterprise cloud storage options.” All cloud storage suppliers perform in just about the identical means. Whereas some manufacturers might break their storage providers up into tiered packages and promote sure plans for enterprise customers, the one actual distinction between these enterprise plans and the extra fundamental plans is the obtainable space for storing. So switching from one cloud storage answer to a different simply because it appears extra superior sometimes doesn’t work out, and most groups on this boat ultimately find yourself in a DAM.

On this put up, we’ll clarify how digital asset administration software program — particularly our answer, Brandfolder — expands upon the performance of normal cloud storage drives that can assist you higher arrange, share, use, and monitor your model’s digital collateral. We’ll additionally discuss extra in regards to the variations between cloud storage drives and DAMs so you possibly can study extra about who every software program possibility is suited to.

We constructed Brandfolder round the concept that a digital asset administration device is simply pretty much as good or helpful as its implementation and ease of use.

Give it some thought: Should you change over to a DAM however there’s no rhyme or motive to your asset library — your recordsdata are onerous to search out, you don’t arrange the appropriate integrations, or your groups have bother navigating your DAMs options — you’re basically losing your cash as a result of your DAM isn’t actually working for you.

So half of our total DAM product is our onboarding and assist providers — not solely will we make a high-quality, customizable DAM platform, however our buyer expertise staff additionally walks you thru the whole setup and transition course of so your Brandfolder is totally designed for you and your groups. (And don’t fear, you don’t need to deal with this alone.)

Throughout onboarding, we assist you to:

• Map out your asset library in essentially the most logical means for you and your customers
• Create a extra detailed “content material taxonomy” so our platform can robotically arrange digital belongings and add metadata/tags to your belongings upon add
• Select the quantity of space for storing you want, choose the appropriate options, and arrange integrations and APIs
• Put together for the pre-transition clean-up and put collectively a plan to get your whole belongings moved over to our platform
• Practice your groups on use the software program

There are not any limits on customization, both. You may change storage plans or make changes at any time, and our staff is obtainable to reply questions or help. We provide limitless storage choices and by no means cost additional to make tweaks to your Brandfolder.

All of that is what permits Brandfolder to work as a flexible answer and scale along with your operations: You may change to Brandfolder and modify our pre-existing answer to fit your altering enterprise wants,To not point out that our platform helps limitless customers, so that you by no means have to fret about needing to modify DAMs.

Let’s discuss a few of the fundamental methods Brandfolder is extra handy than on-line storage suppliers.

1. DAMs Preserve Your Library Organized & Up-To-Date Robotically

After you’re all arrange in Brandfolder, our system has options comparable to duplicate asset detection, overview/approval flows, and asset expirations to maintain your asset library clear and arranged.

• Duplicate asset detection prevents customers from importing dupe recordsdata. If it acknowledges the uploaded file as one which already exists in your Brandfolder, it’ll immediate the uploader to delete it or merge it with the present model in an “Asset Container” so it may be simply referenced. That means you don’t have a billion and one variations of the identical file cluttering your asset library.
• Assessment and approval flows be sure that all newly uploaded belongings undergo a overview and approval course of earlier than they’re obtainable for different customers to view or obtain. This prevents simply anyone from including belongings to your library.
• Asset expirations allow you to set belongings to run out so that you don’t have outdated or outdated recordsdata obtainable in your Brandfolder. This characteristic is helpful for companies which have a number of belongings for seasonal occasions, vacation promotions, or different limited-time campaigns.

Brandfolder additionally has built-in collaboration instruments so creatives can work on asset updates instantly in our platform. As soon as an asset is up to date and accredited to be used, it robotically updates within the Brandfolder platform (and each place the asset is embedded throughout the online – extra on that under) in real-time so all people is all the time viewing essentially the most present variations of your recordsdata.

Plus, Brandfolder data an in depth model historical past for each asset so you possibly can hold monitor of how your belongings evolve over time and entry earlier variations if want be.

Word: One other means Brandfolder makes life simpler is by accepting all file varieties, so you possibly can hold your whole model recordsdata — we’re speaking every part from pictures and movies to Adobe Photoshop recordsdata, Powerpoint displays, Excel spreadsheets, Google Docs, enterprise playing cards, product brochures, advertising and marketing collateral templates, model logos, fonts, colours, and so forth — in a single storage drive. This prevents you from having belongings dispersed throughout totally different cloud storage instruments (and even worse, saved in exterior onerous drives).

2. They Additionally Make Belongings Simpler to Discover

Brandfolder’s search is way extra superior and environment friendly than what you’re used to in cloud storage drives as a result of it doesn’t function simply by file identify and actual search time period. As an alternative, it’s powered by our proprietary AI (a.okay.a. Model Intelligence), which analyzes the content material of your belongings and pulls every part that pertains to your search time period. Which means it might scan your belongings and determine colours, fonts, product pictures, background surroundings, and extra to search out the entire model collateral you would possibly want on your present mission.

Not solely that, however Brandfolder’s search additionally works on a flat construction; so as phrases, it doesn’t search by folders and subfolders, however reasonably, it analyzes your total asset library to assist discover every part that’s related actually shortly.

Model Intelligence additionally improves the “discovery” of belongings, as it might assist you to discover new collateral inside your library that you simply didn’t notice existed. This lets finish customers uncover and use recent, distinctive content material for his or her tasks (and it helps groups make higher use of their collateral and guarantee their designers’ time is well-spent).

We must also be aware that the group of belongings, in addition to the entire metadata and tags that you simply add throughout add, have a number of weight on the effectiveness of your DAM’s search. So organising your Brandfolder correctly is crucial to its ease of use in a while down the road… and that’s another excuse why we’re so hands-on through the onboarding course of.

3. Brandfolder’s Sharing Options Enhance Accessibility & Management

Along with organizing belongings and organising your DAM so it’s straightforward to make use of and search, you even have to ensure the belongings inside Brandfolder are accessible to the customers who want them.

Brandfolder’s sharing options are rather a lot just like the sharing strategies obtainable in cloud storage drives (making them easy to make use of) however they’re extra sturdy as a result of they assist you to:

• Management how customers work together along with your asset library, and the entire recordsdata inside, after belongings are shared
• Monitor all exterior sharing and make modifications anytime you’re feeling needed

There are two methods to share digital recordsdata in Brandfolder: Consumer permissions and customized share hyperlinks.

• Use permissions when sharing belongings with different Brandfolder customers. You need to use these permissions so as to add customers to Brandfolders, Collections, or Portals (in addition to particular person belongings or teams of chosen belongings). The precise position you assign every consumer will dictate what they’ll do in your DAM, and you may study extra in regards to the totally different consumer roles right here.
• Use customized share hyperlinks when sending recordsdata to exterior stakeholders and collaborators, or another non-Brandfolder customers. Customized share hyperlinks allow you to select precisely what belongings you wish to share and with whom you wish to share them, and we don’t put any limits on sharing. (The truth is, our free limitless visitor seats make us a fantastic possibility for bigger groups or anyone buying enterprise digital asset administration software program as a result of we don’t put limitations on sharing.)

Our sharing options allow you to monitor all exterior share hyperlinks so you possibly can monitor which belongings are shared and when. You can even:

• Change the identify of the share hyperlink
• Add or take away belongings from the hyperlink
• Set the share hyperlink to run out
• Watermark the entire belongings obtainable within the share hyperlink
• Disable asset downloading
• Require customers to offer an electronic mail handle to open your share hyperlinks
• Set alerts so Brandfolder will notify you when shared belongings are opened or downloaded

These sharing strategies are much better than simply sending your model belongings round and hoping that whoever you share your recordsdata with will use them accurately, which is kind of what it’s important to do in cloud storage drives.

Word: We additionally provide visitor add hyperlinks that permit exterior events to contribute content material to a model’s Brandfolder; that is nice for UGC content material, discipline advertising and marketing groups, occasions, and many others.

4. DAMs Make It Simpler to Really Use Your Model Belongings

We’ve already lined the methods wherein you need to use Brandfolder to retailer, discover, and share belongings; however on this part, we’ll cowl a few of our different options that can assist you get these model belongings out in entrance of your audience.

First, Brandfolder makes publishing throughout totally different platforms easy by permitting you to transform and crop belongings on the fly to go well with totally different on-line channels. You may change the file measurement or kind for obtain, or use a customized crop device to optimize your content material for social media channels, electronic mail advertising and marketing campaigns, weblog posts, web site pages, and so forth. This manner you’re all the time pushing high-quality digital content material with out making a bunch of modified variations of your authentic asset.

Subsequent, Brandfolder is constructed with a content material supply community (CDN) system that allows you to energy your whole on-line publishing proper out of your DAM.

How does this work? Brandfolder assigns each asset a singular CDN hyperlink. Then, your staff can entry that hyperlink, copy it, and paste it wherever they wish to embed the asset throughout the online. This avoids the time-consuming technique of downloading recordsdata out of your DAM and importing them the place they should be, and publishing digital belongings with their CDN hyperlink additionally helps you keep a constant model picture as a result of all modifications which can be made on the Brandfolder degree are robotically mirrored in every single place the asset lives on-line (as we talked about in #1 above).

Third, Brandfolder additionally has built-in web-to-print capabilities so you possibly can ship digital recordsdata instantly out of your DAM to your printer — printing flyers, infographics, enterprise playing cards, informational pamphlets, and different print collateral has by no means been simpler.

Final, we provide dozens of out-of-the-box integrations and permit groups to attach Brandfolder with any of the instruments they use by means of our open-source API, so you need to use Brandfolder to push belongings into the entire different instruments you and your groups use each day. That enables all people to perform what they should accomplish extra productively and really feel extra assured that they’re utilizing 100% polished, on-brand belongings of their tasks. (And this additionally retains all people constant.)

5. Brandfolder Lets You Monitor Asset Efficiency & Monitor Asset Utilization

Despite the fact that we offer you instruments to regulate how others use your belongings and hold your whole groups on the identical web page, we additionally give you in-depth reporting instruments so you possibly can view information on how your customers interact along with your belongings and gauge whether or not or not your digital campaigns actually succeed along with your clients.

With our reporting instruments, you possibly can see metrics like:

• How usually an asset has been seen, downloaded, or shared
• Who’s viewing, downloading, and sharing your belongings
• The place an asset’s CDN hyperlink is embedded on-line
• Who interacts along with your library essentially the most
• Which belongings are hottest
• Which belongings are least common

This data offers you a clearer thought of how your groups are utilizing your digital recordsdata and what collateral is hottest amongst each your customers and audience. These reporting instruments are utterly customizable, too, so you possibly can have a look at totally different metrics over totally different timeframes to dig into any information.

Brandfolder is a extremely safe DAM answer as a result of we leverage Google Cloud (GCP) and Amazon Net Companies (AWS) cloud service suppliers, meet SOC-2 Sort 2 compliance requirements, and have top-tier safety features and stringent protocols in place to maintain your information personal. To study extra about our DAM answer, the way it retains your model belongings safe, and the way it’s tailored to fit your groups, get in contact with us for a free demo.

Among the Finest Cloud Storage Companies to Know

Whereas a DAM is the very best storage answer for a lot of companies, not everybody is prepared for it. Should you…

• Don’t have a number of digital recordsdata
• Don’t do a ton of sharing
• Don’t have a giant staff (i.e., don’t have a number of customers who have to entry your model belongings)
• Don’t collaborate rather a lot with exterior companions or stakeholders
• Don’t publish their content material on-line or have a powerful digital presence
• Don’t really want to make use of their model belongings past storage and occasional sharing

…then you definitely would possibly wish to take into account a few of the safe cloud storage suppliers on this part. These choices are fairly straightforward to make use of and inexpensive. Plus, a lot of them provide free cloud storage (as much as 5GB) for brand new customers.

Beneath are a few of our prime picks for cloud storage drives.

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  Google Drive: Google Drive is among the hottest choices as a result of it’s free and related to the entire Google workspace instruments, like Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Every part you create within the GSuite is robotically saved in your Google Drive. Additionally they provide user-friendly cell apps for iOS and Android so you possibly can entry these recordsdata on the go. Drive is a spot to retailer digital recordsdata, however total, this platform could be very fundamental when it comes to asset group and sharing choices, and it offers you nearly no management over how others use belongings.

• Microsoft OneDrive: Microsoft’s OneDrive is a go-to for professionals who use Office365, Outlook, Sharepoint, or the Microsoft Workplace suite of merchandise. It’s very very similar to Google Drive in the truth that it’s a easy cloud drive and doesn’t have many options past safe file sharing, internet hosting, and synchronization. It’s largely advisable for private use, though they do have enterprise plans obtainable by means of “OneDrive Enterprise.”

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  Apple iCloud: Apple’s iCloud is a private cloud storage drive for iPhone & Mac (iOS) customers. You may modify your storage settings at any time, and Apple’s cloud storage providers are fairly low-cost. That is the simplest possibility for individuals who use Apple gadgets as a result of Apple robotically saves your content material within the cloud. Additionally, many individuals like utilizing Apple’s iCloud for private storage as a result of it makes transferring cell gadgets simpler — with iCloud you possibly can immediately arrange your new cellphone from a cloud backup and your whole settings, apps, information, and many others. might be pushed to your new Apple machine.

• Dropbox: Dropbox is a bit more superior than the choices above; its major perform is file storage and sharing, however additionally they have extras like collaboration options, HelloSign (for eSignatures), and a toolbox to assist distant staff keep on job and dealing productively. They’ve free and entry-level storage plans, however additionally they provide paid plans below Dropbox Enterprise for bigger groups.

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  Field: Field is a safe cloud storage, staff collaboration, and file-sharing device that’s common amongst small companies as a result of it’s easy and inexpensive. Field, like Dropbox, is constructed with additional options to supply somewhat greater than the standard storage drive, they usually provide tiered packages to assist totally different groups. Nevertheless, many companies ultimately outgrow Field and improve to DAM software program.

• pCloud: pCloud is one other highly-rated cloud storage service — many reviewers prefer it as a result of pCloud provides as much as 10 GB of free space for storing for brand new customers, the packages are cheap, and their platform is fashionable and intuitive. pCloud is an effective possibility for private customers who’ve a number of massive recordsdata (as a result of they do provide a lot free storage), however additionally they have plans for households and companies. If you obtain pCloud’s desktop app, it’ll save your whole native recordsdata within the cloud, however you possibly can nonetheless entry every part proper out of your desktop. Additionally they have cell apps and browser extensions to drag and save recordsdata.

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  iDrive: iDrive is a web-based backup service with plans for private customers, in addition to small, medium-sized, and enterprise companies. It’s somewhat totally different from the storage suppliers above as a result of it makes a speciality of information backups: It could possibly backup gadgets like cell telephones and computer systems, or it might do full server or information middle backups to make sure what you are promoting’s data is safe. They’ve desktop apps for Home windows and macOS working programs, and iDrive additionally works on Linux servers. They’ve cell apps and file syncing instruments so you possibly can entry your whole model belongings from any machine. As a bonus, iDrive has a characteristic to guard in opposition to ransomware and different on-line threats.

• SpiderOak: SpiderOak is an uber-sophisticated cloud storage drive designed particularly for enterprise professionals who’ve actually confidential information to maintain safe. They’ve a “zero-knowledge” coverage on the subject of your information — which simply signifies that SpiderOak doesn’t have a look at or know what sort of information you might have saved on their servers — they usually hold all of it protected with end-to-end encryption. They’ve a handful of merchandise and backup choices. However regardless, it is a fairly critical storage drive and is marketed for federal officers, authorities contractors, and healthcare staff who want to fulfill HIPAA compliance requirements.

Word: Though a few of these instruments have additional functionalities or combine with different software program, they’re nonetheless removed from being thought-about DAM software program as a result of they lack the mandatory options to handle and management your model belongings. Should you want DAM software program, select DAM software program.

Get a Free Demo of Brandfolder

A generic storage answer can solely take what you are promoting to date: They assist you to get your digital belongings extra organized (for a restricted time) they usually make sharing digital belongings quicker and extra handy than sending giant recordsdata over electronic mail. Whereas DAMs make it simpler to prepare belongings (and hold them organized) and enhance the accessibility of your belongings for your whole groups. On prime of that, they offer you instruments to raised handle and use your model belongings. *Now we have a 98% retention charge amongst our clients for a motive. *

So in the event you’re on the fence about whether or not or not you’re prepared for a DAM, or you might have some considerations about shifting over to DAM software program, get in contact with our staff to speak about your particular wants and what you’re in search of in a greater answer. We’ll assist you to plan out precisely make the change, and we’ll assist you each step of the best way.