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 strategy to enhance marketing campaign productiveness and guarantee model consistency.

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

In the end, the most effective DAM platforms arrange your belongings in the way in which that maximizes their worth in your model. Its options assist you do issues like automate workflows, set expiration dates for asset licensing, and set various ranges of consumer entry for recordsdata, folders, tasks and full campaigns. With in-app analytics, DAM software program may present you the way artistic belongings are performing.

When recordsdata are saved throughout a number of units and platforms, the unlucky reality is that they typically go to waste. A cloud-based DAM platform centrally shops all a model’s belongings, giving customers the flexibility 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 tasks, which means communication isn’t misplaced in translation or buried in e-mail.

On this publish 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 some other branded content material or media that always have utilization rights or licensing necessities. These recordsdata could also be in a number of codecs, comparable to 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 enhance exponentially over time, so a DAM platform ought to have the ability to help a variety of

media

file sorts (though not all of them do).

12 Advantages of a Digital Asset Administration System

Digital asset administration software program will preserve inner and exterior groups organized inside a single supply of reality. It permits for fast entry to related recordsdata, automated workflows, and the flexibility 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 large 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. Stop 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 system
  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. Preserve model consistency
  10. Set expiration dates for licensed belongings
  11. Establish 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 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 sorts of DAM customers: Inside and exterior. Under are just a few instance use instances:

Inside 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 overview and distribution. These customers will recognize the built-in integrations for instruments they repeatedly use comparable to Adobe Inventive Suite and challenge administration software program.

Gross sales & Advertising

DAM software program might help gross sales and advertising and marketing groups collaborate on branded collateral to be used in gross sales pitches and shows 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 flexibility to streamline metadata administration and the creation of customized configurations by API connection and seamless integrations.

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

Exterior Customers

Businesses

DAM programs permit businesses to simply share belongings with exterior purchasers, relay consumer suggestions, and take tasks from pending to authorised.

Contractors & Companions

Firms can simply make belongings out there 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 features 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 tasks by leveraging integrations with artistic instruments like Adobe Inventive Suite, native video editors, and challenge 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 need to use tags, filters, and

superior search capabilities

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


DAM platforms

comparable to Brandfolder additionally permit 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 preserve the integrity of belongings.

With customized approval settings, you may cut back the danger of redundancies and make sure that belongings 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 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 the whole overview and approval course of.

View of asset annotations and proofing in Brandfolder

Crew 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 correct folks irrespective of the place they’re positioned.

Distribution

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

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

Embed belongings instantly 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 world chief in cutlery, streamlined administration of name belongings for his or her worldwide manufacturing and distribution community.

Storage

A DAM provides businesses and types true digital asset storage for limitless recordsdata, of any measurement, in a single safe, cloud-based location. That is important 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 provides businesses and types true digital asset storage for limitless recordsdata, of any measurement, in a single safe location. That is important 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 programs are restricted in what they will 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 info to extra precisely assess the ROI of name belongings.

Simple Integration

A DAM system might be

built-in

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

Prime 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 take care of model consistency

Do you know that

prospects usually tend to buy from a model they acknowledge?

Due to this, Fortune 500 firms make a proactive effort to take care of model consistency of their advertising and marketing and promoting campaigns.


87% of patrons favor manufacturers that present constant buyer expertise

throughout all channels. (Supply: Zendesk)

Sustaining a model id and requirements is simpler when you’ve gotten a DAM platform. You may limit entry to legacy recordsdata and make sure 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 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 authorised customers can rapidly repurpose the design.

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

A DAM answer makes it simpler to collect, handle, and interpret knowledge from a number of sources, providing you with useful insights on easy methods to maximize using your digital belongings to help your small business objectives.

Brandfolder provides 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

Holding your belongings safe always is as essential as it may be tough to handle. Recordsdata might be corrupted, servers can crash and fail, and recordsdata can turn into 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 belongings within the cloud.

Cloud-based DAM programs include options like model management, rights administration, and knowledge encryption for file transfers and storage. Further safety enhancements embody SAML & SSO id administration, and routine utility and infrastructure testing to detect any safety vulnerabilities that would 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 straightforward for everybody to be on the identical web page, no matter their location, time zone, or division.

Digital asset administration options can help you outline function hierarchies and consumer permissions throughout all

workflows.

You may guarantee every consumer 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 selected digital asset might be time-consuming and irritating when recordsdata are saved throughout a number of platforms and folders.

Actually, staff with out entry to a DAM system spend 5 instances longer searching for the correct belongings.

DAM software program makes use of AI to connect related metadata tags to belongings, primarily based 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 hurries up 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 belongings utilizing a number of instruments, and 51% say they’ve wasted cash on marketing campaign belongings that they will’t find.

As mentioned, a DAM platform permits you to retailer, arrange, and retrieve belongings rapidly. Throughout the context of any marketing campaign or

artistic workflow,

this helps transfer steps alongside whereas minimizing redundant and expensive rework. It’s also possible to preserve all suggestions inside the platform to get rid of the delays that sometimes include prolonged email-based suggestions chains.

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

Use digital asset administration software program to mitigate compliance dangers

Holding monitor of licensing agreements and expiration dates is a problem when you’ve gotten a large database of photographs, audio recordsdata, movies, and logos.
Non-compliance with such agreements may end up in fines and tarnish your model’s popularity.

Digital asset administration programs include a

digital rights administration

(DRM) characteristic that ensures all copyright info is up-to-date and that each one licensing agreements are upheld. With the flexibility 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.

Ceaselessly requested questions

What’s a digital asset administration system?

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

What are examples of digital belongings?

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

How do I select the correct 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 inner and exterior consumer entry.
  2. Check search intuitiveness and ease of use.
  3. Assessment integrations for compatibility with present artistic challenge workflows.
  4. Tackle 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 belongings individually.

When ought to I spend money on a DAM?

Any model or enterprise with a rising digital asset library ought to contemplate investing in digital asset administration software program (DAM), so as 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 company’s digital belongings. 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 strategy to handle digital belongings, monitor publishing rights, and preserve model consistency, it’s time to think about a DAM answer.

Are you able to take management of your belongings?

Contact Brandfolder right now.