What Is Digital Asset Administration (DAM)?

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Digital asset administration (DAM) is a system of software program designed to centrally retailer and handle digital content material. Most significantly, DAM supplies a solution to improve marketing campaign productiveness and guarantee model consistency.

Is your organization having a tough time maintaining together with your digital property?

In the end, the most effective DAM platforms manage your property in the best way that maximizes their worth to your model. Its options assist you do issues like automate workflows, set expiration dates for asset licensing, and set various ranges of person entry for recordsdata, folders, initiatives and full campaigns. With in-app analytics, DAM software program may also present you ways inventive property are performing.

When recordsdata are saved throughout a number of gadgets and platforms, the unlucky reality is that they typically go to waste. A cloud-based DAM platform centrally shops all a model’s property, giving customers the power to securely collaborate on content material from wherever they’re positioned. As workflows happen inside the platform, suggestions is hooked up on to in-progress initiatives, that means communication is rarely misplaced in translation or buried in e mail.

On this put up we’ll go into depth about DAM software program and the way it helps groups get organized and keep on schedule.

Know the way a lot asset distribution disrupts your staff?

Discover out

in The DAM Maturity Information and see the place your model has essentially the most room to develop.

What’s a Digital Asset?

A

digital asset

is a picture, audio file, presentation, video, and every other branded content material or media that always have utilization rights or licensing necessities. These recordsdata could also be in a number of codecs, resembling PNGs or JPGs for photos; WAVs and BWFs for audio recordsdata; PSDs and TIFFs for design recordsdata; PDFs and Phrase docs; and extra. In any case, these recordsdata improve exponentially over time, so a DAM platform ought to have the ability to help a variety of

media

file varieties (though not all of them do).

12 Advantages of a Digital Asset Administration System

Digital asset administration software program will hold inside and exterior groups organized inside a single supply of reality. It permits for fast entry to related recordsdata, automated workflows, and the power to handle permissions for particular person items or complete asset collections.

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The record of advantages that manufacturers discover because of this is vast ranging for organizations in and out, however there are a variety of frequent themes.

  1. Discover digital property quick with little to no coaching
  2. Customise asset group
  3. Hold all asset-related collaboration inside a single platform
  4. Stop duplication of digital content material
  5. Guarantee digital property are by no means unused
  6. Entry and share recordsdata with anybody, anytime, wherever, and on any machine
  7. Create and collaborate on digital property in a single place
  8. Simply distribute firm content material throughout digital channels – CMS, social media and extra
  9. Preserve model consistency
  10. Set expiration dates for licensed property
  11. Determine alternatives for repurposing digital property
  12. Analyze how property are performing, the place they’re getting used, and who’s utilizing them

How does Duo Safety save their inventive staff greater than 10 hours per week with Brandfolder? Click on right here to observe the video.

Who Makes use of Digital Asset Administration?

There are two varieties of DAM customers: Inside and exterior. Beneath are just a few instance use circumstances:

Inside Customers

Creatives

In-house creatives resembling graphic designers and photographers can use a DAM system to entry branded property and add new inventive recordsdata for assessment and distribution. These customers will recognize the built-in integrations for instruments they commonly use resembling Adobe Inventive Suite and venture administration software program.

Gross sales & Advertising and marketing

DAM software program may help gross sales and advertising and marketing groups collaborate on branded collateral to be used in gross sales pitches and displays as a part of streamlining complete campaigns.

IT & Authorized

IT professionals can profit from DAM by easing the burden on assets wanted for managing permissions and system upkeep. It additionally has the power to streamline metadata administration and the creation of customized configurations by API connection and seamless integrations.

Authorized groups additionally discover DAM techniques helpful, as expiration dates will be added to property to attenuate the dangers of compliance and misuse.

Exterior Customers

Businesses

DAM techniques enable companies to simply share property with exterior purchasers, relay shopper suggestions, and take initiatives from pending to permitted.

Contractors & Companions

Corporations can simply make property accessible to exterior contractors and companions as a part of joint campaigns to promote companies or collaborate on merchandise.

Digital asset management user leverages Brandfolder

What Does a Digital Asset Administration Platform Do?

DAM software program enhances seven important points of a model’s operational effectivity with digital property: creation, group, collaboration, distribution, storage, and efficiency measurement.

Let’s take a better have a look at how DAM improves every of those areas.

Creation

Groups with DAM can scale initiatives by leveraging integrations with inventive instruments like Adobe Inventive Suite, native video editors, and venture administration functions resembling Smartsheet, so groups can create new property with out toggling between platforms.

Example of a summer catalogue template stored in the digital asset management system

Group

Manufacturers are producing exponentially extra property than ever earlier than. DAM software program acts as a central supply of reality for organizing and monitoring that digital content material.

You should utilize tags, filters, and

superior search capabilities

– resembling in-document search and picture recognition – to shortly retrieve recordsdata from asset libraries of any dimension.


DAM platforms

resembling Brandfolder additionally enable customers so as to add metadata tags to any file sort, monitor model historical past, assign

entry ranges and permissions

, set assortment expiration dates, and use AI to detect duplicate asset uploads.

Setting asset approvals in Brandfolder

Brandfolder’s customized approval guidelines keep the integrity of property.

With customized approval settings, you possibly can scale back the danger of redundancies and make sure that property are by no means distributed erroneously.

CASE STUDY: See how the worldwide advertising and marketing staff at P.F. Chang’s is ready to bulk-manage their digital property with Brandfolder and save hours of time every month.

Collaboration

After importing property, customers can remark, pin annotations, make edits, and within the course of, streamline your complete assessment and approval course of.

View of asset annotations and proofing in Brandfolder

Workforce members and purchasers can touch upon recordsdata and talk inside the platform.

Collaboration extends to any asset sort or media content material, from PDF paperwork to design recordsdata and movies. Organizations can entry and replace recordsdata from wherever, so groups can collaborate with the proper folks irrespective of the place they’re positioned.

Distribution

A DAM system permits property to be printed wherever, from one cloud-based location.

Distribute property immediately out of your DAM utilizing public or non-public hyperlinks, and for added safety, you possibly can set expiration dates for hyperlinks.

Embed property immediately into your web site, so guests and media retailers can entry essentially the most up-to-date logos, bios, and model imagery. Each time an asset is edited, or a brand new one added, it’s routinely up to date on the level of distribution.

CASE STUDY: See how Spyderco, a worldwide chief in cutlery, streamlined administration of name property for his or her worldwide manufacturing and distribution community.

Storage

A DAM offers companies and types true digital asset storage for limitless recordsdata, of any dimension, in a single safe, cloud-based location. That is important when storing bigger property resembling high-res imagery, video, and audio recordsdata.

File backups, customized person permissions, and rights administration options improve the safety of saved property. Whereas storage is limitless, customers can set asset expiration dates, to scale back pointless digital litter.

View of asset storage in Brandfolder

Property saved in Brandfolder

A DAM offers companies and types true digital asset storage for limitless recordsdata, of any dimension, in a single safe location. That is important when storing bigger property resembling high-res imagery, video and audio recordsdata.

File backups, person permissions and rights administration guarantee all property are saved securely.

Efficiency & Measurement

On-premise and conventional cloud-based storage techniques are restricted in what they will inform you about asset utilization.

Using a DAM to monitor and track performance of digital asset

Brandfolder’s asset utilization insights.

A digital asset administration answer can present detailed analytics and insights about asset views, placements, and engagements. You’ll have the ability to see how exercise has trended over time and use that info to extra precisely assess the ROI of name property.

Simple Integration

A DAM system will be

built-in

with different instruments and cloud-based platforms, resembling venture administration software program, content material administration techniques, and picture modifying software program.

Prime Digital Asset Administration Enterprise Use Instances

Now that you’ve got a common data of what digital asset administration is and its advantages, let’s check out the

enterprise case behind DAM

software program.

Use digital asset administration software program to keep up model consistency

Do you know that

prospects usually tend to buy from a model they acknowledge?

Due to this, Fortune 500 corporations make a proactive effort to keep up model consistency of their advertising and marketing and promoting campaigns.


87% of consumers desire manufacturers that present constant buyer expertise

throughout all channels. (Supply: Zendesk)

Sustaining a model id and requirements is less complicated when you’ve got a DAM platform. You may prohibit entry to legacy recordsdata and make sure that solely essentially the most up-to-date property are accessible, so customers can create, handle, share, and collaborate on property and wealthy media with out deviating out of your model pointers. As soon as creatives have completed designing an asset, they will streamline manufacturing on easy duties by

saving the structure as a template

in order that permitted customers can shortly repurpose the design.

Use digital asset administration software program to gauge asset ROI and insights

A DAM answer makes it simpler to assemble, handle, and interpret information from a number of sources, providing you with worthwhile insights on find out how to maximize using your digital property to help your enterprise objectives.

Brandfolder affords insights resembling views, downloads, and shares — by person, by asset assortment, or by group.

Metrics for views and downloads of assets in Brandfolder

An instance of Brandfolder’s analytics dashboard.

Use digital asset administration software program to maintain your content material safe

Conserving your property safe always is as necessary as it may be troublesome to handle. Recordsdata will be corrupted, servers can crash and fail, and recordsdata can grow to be misplaced as a result of mismanagement. DAM software program eliminates all these dangers as a result of it shops and secures all of your digital property within the cloud.

Cloud-based DAM techniques include options like model management, rights administration, and information encryption for file transfers and storage. Further safety enhancements embrace SAML & SSO id administration, and routine utility and infrastructure testing to detect any safety vulnerabilities that might compromise buyer recordsdata.

Use digital asset administration to enhance marketing campaign collaboration

A digital asset administration answer creates an setting constructed for collaboration. When your inventive groups use a file sharing platform that serves as a “central supply of reality,” it’s straightforward for everybody to be on the identical web page, no matter their location, time zone, or division.

Digital asset administration options help you outline position hierarchies and person permissions throughout all

workflows.

You may guarantee every person has entry solely to the recordsdata or duties which might be most related to them, and you may automate alerts that inform your staff and exterior stakeholders when motion is required.

Use digital asset administration software program to speed up asset entry

Discovering a particular digital asset will be time-consuming and irritating when recordsdata are saved throughout a number of platforms and folders.

In actual fact, workers with out entry to a DAM system spend 5 instances longer on the lookout for the proper property.

DAM software program makes use of AI to connect related metadata tags to property, primarily based on what it “sees” while you import property. The platform additionally reads and shops any current metadata, and customers can edit, add, or delete tags to enhance asset search outcomes.

Digital asset administration accelerates time-to-market

When scaling your digital presence, time is of the essence. You may’t afford to lose minutes or hours to inefficient processes. But,

46% of entrepreneurs report losing time

as a result of downloading and importing property utilizing a number of instruments, and 51% say they’ve wasted cash on marketing campaign property that they will’t find.

As mentioned, a DAM platform means that you can retailer, manage, and retrieve property shortly. Inside the context of any marketing campaign or

inventive workflow,

this helps transfer steps alongside whereas minimizing redundant and expensive rework. You may as well hold all suggestions inside the platform to get rid of the delays that usually include prolonged email-based suggestions chains.

The outcome: sooner launch of compliant and on-brand advertising and marketing campaigns

Use digital asset administration software program to mitigate compliance dangers

Conserving monitor of licensing agreements and expiration dates is a problem when you’ve got an enormous database of images, audio recordsdata, movies, and logos.
Non-compliance with such agreements can lead to fines and tarnish your model’s popularity.

Digital asset administration techniques include a

digital rights administration

(DRM) function that ensures all copyright info is up-to-date and that each one licensing agreements are upheld. With the power to set entry permissions, licensing expiration dates, and automatic licensing expiration alerts, you don’t have to trace licensing and permissions exterior of your DAM system.

See how Duo Safety is ready to scale their asset creation and utilization whereas saving hours of labor every month. Click on right here to observe the story.

Continuously requested questions

What’s a digital asset administration system?

A digital asset administration (DAM) system is software program that permits companies to prepare, distribute, collaborate on, and securely retailer digital recordsdata that make up a digital asset library. DAM platforms comprise options resembling permission controls, rights administration, and asset efficiency analytics.

What are examples of digital property?

Digital asset examples embrace any digital recordsdata used as a part of a enterprise’s model presence. They’re typically inventive and advertising and marketing supplies, resembling photos, video, phrase paperwork, PDFs, graphics, and design recordsdata.

How do I select the proper digital asset administration answer?

5 issues to think about when selecting the best digital asset administration answer for your enterprise:

  1. Search for limitless inside and exterior person entry.
  2. Check search intuitiveness and ease of use.
  3. Evaluate integrations for compatibility with present inventive venture workflows.
  4. Handle safety and rights administration considerations with permissions settings.
  5. Take into account platform customization and personalization for model consistency.

What’s the distinction between a CMS and a DAM?

A content material administration system (CMS) is used to construct, show and publish content material in your model’s web site, whereas a digital asset administration (DAM) system is designed to retailer, handle, manipulate, and monitor all model property individually.

When ought to I put money into a DAM?

Any model or enterprise with a rising digital asset library ought to contemplate investing in digital asset administration software program (DAM), as a way to improve effectivity, enhance asset efficiency, strengthen safety, and speed up manufacturing timelines.

What does a digital asset supervisor do?

A digital asset supervisor is accountable for the taxonomy, metadata, efficiency measurement, storage, and safe distribution of a corporation’s digital property. Manufacturers typically have a digital asset administration (DAM) system in place earlier than hiring a digital asset supervisor.

Are you prepared for a digital asset administration answer?

If you happen to want a greater solution to handle digital property, monitor publishing rights, and keep model consistency, it’s time to think about a DAM answer.

Are you able to take management of your property?

Contact Brandfolder at this time.