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 enhance marketing campaign productiveness and guarantee model consistency.

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

In the end, the very best DAM platforms manage your belongings in the way in which that maximizes their worth in your model. Its options allow you to do issues like automate workflows, set expiration dates for asset licensing, and set various ranges of consumer entry for recordsdata, folders, initiatives and whole campaigns. With in-app analytics, DAM software program can even present you the way artistic belongings are performing.

When recordsdata are saved throughout a number of gadgets and platforms, the unlucky reality is that they usually go to waste. A cloud-based DAM platform centrally shops all a model’s belongings, giving customers the power to securely collaborate on content material from wherever they’re situated. As workflows happen throughout 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 submit 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 crew?

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 usually have utilization rights or licensing necessities. These recordsdata could also be in a number of codecs, comparable to PNGs or JPGs for pictures; WAVs and BWFs for audio recordsdata; PSDs and TIFFs for design recordsdata; PDFs and Phrase docs; and extra. In any case, these recordsdata enhance exponentially over time, so a DAM platform ought to have the ability to assist 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 total asset collections.

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The listing of advantages that manufacturers discover in consequence is broad ranging for organizations inside and outside, however there are a variety of frequent themes.

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

How does Duo Safety save their artistic crew greater than 10 hours per week with Brandfolder? Click on right here to look at the video.

Who Makes use of Digital Asset Administration?

There are two varieties of DAM customers: Inner and exterior. Beneath are a couple of instance use circumstances:

Inner Customers

Creatives

In-house creatives comparable to graphic designers and photographers can use a DAM system to entry branded belongings and add new artistic recordsdata for assessment and distribution. These customers will admire the built-in integrations for instruments they often use comparable to Adobe Inventive Suite and undertaking administration software program.

Gross sales & Advertising

DAM software program can assist gross sales and advertising groups collaborate on branded collateral to be used in gross sales pitches and displays as a part of streamlining total campaigns.

IT & Authorized

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

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

Exterior Customers

Businesses

DAM techniques permit businesses to simply share belongings with exterior shoppers, relay consumer suggestions, and take initiatives from pending to permitted.

Contractors & Companions

Firms can simply make belongings obtainable to exterior contractors and companions as a part of joint campaigns to promote providers 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 belongings: 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 artistic instruments like Adobe Inventive Suite, native video editors, and undertaking administration purposes comparable to Smartsheet, so groups can create new belongings with out toggling between platforms.

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

Group

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

You should use tags, filters, and

superior search capabilities

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


DAM platforms

comparable to Brandfolder additionally permit customers so as to add metadata tags to any file kind, 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 belongings.

With customized approval settings, you may cut back the danger of redundancies and be certain that belongings are by no means distributed erroneously.

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

Collaboration

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

View of asset annotations and proofing in Brandfolder

Workforce members and shoppers can touch upon recordsdata and talk throughout the platform.

Collaboration extends to any asset kind 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 situated.

Distribution

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

Distribute belongings straight out of your DAM utilizing public or non-public hyperlinks, and for added safety, you may set expiration dates for hyperlinks.

Embed belongings straight into your web site, so guests and media shops 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 mechanically up to date on the level of distribution.

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

Storage

A DAM offers businesses and types true digital asset storage for limitless recordsdata, of any dimension, in a single safe, cloud-based location. That is vital when storing bigger belongings comparable to high-res imagery, video, and audio recordsdata.

File backups, customized consumer permissions, and rights administration options improve the safety of saved belongings. Whereas storage is limitless, customers can set asset expiration dates, to cut back pointless digital muddle.

View of asset storage in Brandfolder

Belongings saved in Brandfolder

A DAM offers businesses and types true digital asset storage for limitless recordsdata, of any dimension, in a single safe location. That is vital when storing bigger belongings comparable to high-res imagery, video and audio recordsdata.

File backups, consumer permissions and rights administration guarantee all belongings are saved securely.

Efficiency & Measurement

On-premise and conventional cloud-based storage techniques are restricted in what they’ll let you know 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 data to extra precisely assess the ROI of brand name belongings.

Straightforward Integration

A DAM system could be

built-in

with different instruments and cloud-based platforms, comparable to undertaking administration software program, content material administration techniques, and picture enhancing software program.

High Digital Asset Administration Enterprise Use Circumstances

Now that you’ve 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

clients usually tend to buy from a model they acknowledge?

Due to this, Fortune 500 firms make a proactive effort to keep up model consistency of their advertising 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 gotten a DAM platform. You may limit entry to legacy recordsdata and be certain that solely essentially the most up-to-date belongings are accessible, so customers can create, handle, share, and collaborate on belongings and wealthy media with out deviating out of your model tips. As soon as creatives have completed designing an asset, they’ll 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, supplying you with precious insights on methods to maximize using your digital belongings to assist your small business objectives.

Brandfolder affords insights comparable to views, downloads, and shares — by consumer, 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

Protecting your belongings safe always is as necessary as it may be troublesome to handle. Recordsdata could be corrupted, servers can crash and fail, and recordsdata can turn out to be misplaced as a consequence of mismanagement. DAM software program eliminates all these dangers as a result of it shops and secures all of your digital belongings 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 surroundings constructed for collaboration. When your artistic groups use a file sharing platform that serves as a “central supply of reality,” it’s simple for everybody to be on the identical web page, no matter their location, time zone, or division.

Digital asset administration options let you outline position hierarchies and consumer permissions throughout all

workflows.

You may guarantee every consumer has entry solely to the recordsdata or duties which are most related to them, and you’ll automate alerts that inform your crew and exterior stakeholders when motion is required.

Use digital asset administration software program to speed up asset entry

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

In truth, workers with out entry to a DAM system spend 5 instances longer in search of the proper belongings.

DAM software program makes use of AI to connect related metadata tags to belongings, based mostly on what it “sees” whenever you import belongings. 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 consequence of downloading and importing belongings utilizing a number of instruments, and 51% say they’ve wasted cash on marketing campaign belongings that they’ll’t find.

As mentioned, a DAM platform lets you retailer, manage, and retrieve belongings shortly. Throughout the context of any marketing campaign or

artistic workflow,

this helps transfer steps alongside whereas minimizing redundant and expensive rework. You may also hold all suggestions throughout the platform to eradicate the delays that usually include prolonged email-based suggestions chains.

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

Use digital asset administration software program to mitigate compliance dangers

Protecting monitor of licensing agreements and expiration dates is a problem when you’ve gotten a large database of images, audio recordsdata, movies, and logos.
Non-compliance with such agreements can lead to fines and tarnish your model’s fame.

Digital asset administration techniques include a

digital rights administration

(DRM) function that ensures all copyright data 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 outdoors 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 look at the story.

Ceaselessly requested questions

What’s a digital asset administration system?

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

What are examples of digital belongings?

Digital asset examples embrace any digital recordsdata used as a part of a enterprise’s model presence. They’re usually artistic and advertising supplies, comparable to pictures, video, phrase paperwork, PDFs, graphics, and design recordsdata.

How do I select the proper digital asset administration answer?

5 issues to think about when choosing the proper digital asset administration answer for your small business:

  1. Search for limitless inside and exterior consumer entry.
  2. Take a look at search intuitiveness and ease of use.
  3. Evaluate integrations for compatibility with present artistic undertaking workflows.
  4. Handle safety and rights administration issues with permissions settings.
  5. Contemplate 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 belongings individually.

When ought to I put money into a DAM?

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

What does a digital asset supervisor do?

A digital asset supervisor is answerable for the taxonomy, metadata, efficiency measurement, storage, and safe distribution of a corporation’s digital belongings. Manufacturers usually 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?

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

Are you able to take management of your belongings?

Contact Brandfolder immediately.