Content Creation

6 ways to empower your frontline employees for maximum content creation

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Papirfly
8 minutes read

Content creation is the lifeblood of modern marketing.

From a consistent cycle of blog posts, emails and social media posts, to powerful one-off videos, landing pages and billboards – great content campaigns are the key to connecting with your audiences worldwide.

With 97% of professionals saying they experience at least some level of success with content marketing, brands must keep up with growing consumer demands. But this is much easier said than done.

Maintaining a constant flow of content across multiple channels is a prevailing problem for marketing teams. Despite innovations in AI software and automation tools, the struggle persists, placing a lot of demand on creatives, designers and your head office to maintain pace with an ever-growing number of platforms – all in the face of ever-shrinking budgets.

While these everyday challenges may be your responsibility, it is empowering your frontline staff where the key to scaling your outputs to new heights can be found. In fact, it’s right that the people who interact with your customers, manage your outlets, and take care of your day-to-day obligations are able to flow with trends and markets as easily as possible..

Here we’ll explain how, with the right tools, strategies, and incentives, you can empower your frontline employees to become the beating heart of your content marketing efforts.

What do we mean by frontline employees?

First, we should clarify what we mean by “frontline employees”. As noted above, your frontline workers are the people who directly engage with your audiences and keep your operations running smoothly.

As well as traditional marketing roles, they’re the baristas serving customers in your cafe. The shop assistants stacking shelves in your supermarket or department stores. The customer service representatives answering people’s questions and concerns. Simply put, they’re the backbone of your organization.

The challenges impacting today’s content marketers

Now, what are the prevailing challenges today’s content marketers face, and which of these could be resolved by a helping hand from your frontline workforce?

Lack of trained personnel

First, there’s the simple problem of demand for content outstripping available resources. With 51% of companies saying they use over 8 channels, many marketing teams need additional personnel to produce and maintain a continuous flow of content on each of their active platforms – especially if they have visions of scaling up in future.

Personalisation and localisation

Beyond the number of channels, global companies also have to consider the pressing need to tailor content for specific audiences and regions. With personalized content now a growing expectation among consumers, this adds another layer of complexity for already burdened content marketers.

Maintaining brand consistency

Attempting to churn out content at pace can allow inconsistencies to creep in – mistakes which can subsequently damage your image in the eyes of your customers. Brand consistency is critical to a strong reputation and sustainable brand equity – when this falters, it can take a long time to fully recover.

Managing content and campaigns

With multiple marketing campaigns in motion across several locations, maintaining control and oversight of every asset is a time-consuming, painstaking burden. The more time your marketing team devotes to coordinating assets, the less time they can dedicate to evolving your content strategy.

Dependence on designers and agencies

To relieve the burden on the central marketing team, many organizations delegate content creation to freelance designers and specialist agencies. This can reduce the stress involved, but it comes at a cost – and not just a financial one.

Using professionals outside your organization places your content production schedule in their hands, adding complexity to the pipeline and concerns over their capacity to fulfill your needs.

How does empowering your frontline employees address these issues?

A lot of the fundamental issues affecting content marketers could be resolved if there were simply more people who could contribute to your content creation process. People who understand your business, your brand and your customers. So, what better than boosting your frontline employees into this role?

Now if it were as simple as that, every company in the world would already be doing it. If you’re keen to mobilize your frontline workers, there are several hurdles you have to clear first:

Tough obstacles that, with the right combination of tools and some top-line direction from your marketing leaders, can be overcome to make frontline content creation a very real possibility in your organization.

6 steps to enhance your employees’ involvement in your marketing

1. Utilize intelligent design templates

The biggest barriers between your employees and your content are a lack of design expertise and available time. Using on-brand design templates addresses both of these concerns and can instantly inspire your employees to share quality content.

Content creation solutions with this capability provide an intuitive framework for users, fixing all necessary brand elements in place so there is zero risk of inconsistency. From there, your employees then have the freedom to create and adapt materials to their requirements, without compromising your company’s identity.

This can have several practical benefits, such as:

  • Enabling anyone to produce high-performing assets, no matter their skill level
  • Cutting down asset creation times to a matter of minutes
  • Allowing users to tailor languages, imagery and wording to their audience or region
  • Permitting the production of content for multiple different channels in one location

By also incorporating safety measures, such as approval workflows and a library of professionally designed content templates, you lay the foundation for an employee-generated content revolution – one that can scale up your in-house marketing and reduce your reliance on freelancers and agencies.

2. Centralise brand guidelines and directives

Your content production tools shouldn’t stop at design templates. While these tools help lock down consistency while reducing production times and costs, it’s just as important that your frontline employees understand your brand inside and out before you allow them to start generating assets.

Your brand guidelines are the crux of this requirement, so it’s essential that they’re accessible to your entire workforce. You might think that this is a given, but while 85% of companies say they have documented guidelines, only 30% enforce them consistently.


Establishing a central, online destination for your brand guidelines and similar resources helps ensure that your frontline staff, wherever they’re based, can engage with and educate themselves on your identity. A brand portal can be a valuable tool in this process, storing this key information in one online place that your teams can access whenever required.

3. Provide education and training

Alongside these capacity-expanding tools, it’s beneficial to introduce designated training sessions with frontline workers who are interested in content creation. Hosted by members of your central marketing team or other executives, regular sessions with your team can help them understand what’s expected and feel more confident engaging in this process.

While on the surface it may seem like trading one time-consuming task for another, it’s all a matter of perspective. What is more time-costly: a monthly training session with your internal teams, or the hours you devote to creating, proofing, amending and distributing content to your outlets worldwide?

Plus, opportunities for learning and development are massive motivators for the latest generation of frontline workers. So not only can this scale up your content development – it may also enhance your overall employee experiences and job satisfaction. 

4. Incorporate content creation into your onboarding process

The employee onboarding stage sets the expectations for your new recruits, so they can fully understand your processes and their responsibilities. By introducing your content creation tools and brand management solutions at this early phase, you can help ensure that this is understood and embraced by your newest employees.

This means that by the time they have fully settled into their new role, your content creation process can already be second nature to them. Over time, this can create a culture of content production throughout your frontline workforce, rather than the sole responsibility of your central marketing teams.

5. Create a single source of truth for your content

If your entire frontline staff are engaged in content generation, assets can quickly become muddled, misplaced or lost altogether, adding to your workload instead of streamlining it. Preventing this requires a single, centralized repository for assets developed across your organization – a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system.

Investing in a DAM solution allows you to consolidate all your branded content, assets, imagery, videos and beyond into one combined library – accessible to your teams across the globe. With the ability to tag assets, set permissions and distribute these to your outlets worldwide in real time, a DAM can put you in total control over the consistency and frequency of your content.

If you want to learn more about DAM, check out our ultimate guide to Digital Asset Management.

6. Establish an employee recognition and rewards programme

Finally, encouraging your employees to play a more conscious role in your marketing operations through tangible incentives can help ensure that this is not an on-again, off-again occurrence, but a fixed, reliable approach. 

While each employee will have their own unique motivations to get involved in such a scheme, some examples to help inspire your staff include:

Reap the rewards of empowering your frontline workers

Empowering your frontline employees to be at the core of your content creation efforts is not straightforward. But by following the techniques above and investing in the tools and training required to execute this, you open the doors to a whole host of benefits:

Scaled-up content output: With more hands available, your teams can create more content than ever, with increased productivity and better cost-efficiency.

Greater consistency: As work is created in-house by professionals who know your brand, consistency can be locked down on every channel and location.

Extended reach: Scaling up your content generation means you can build a bigger presence on new and existing channels, and tailor content to specific regions and audiences.

Faster times to market: Turnaround times for content can be cut significantly, and employees are enabled to capitalize on fleeting opportunities to capture sales.

More engaged employees: By getting involved in your content generation, your employees can forge stronger, more meaningful bonds with your brand.

Capacity for strategic thinking: With the pressure of content generation eased, your marketing team will have more room to plan, reflect and evolve your brand.

Empowering your frontline employees to create collateral takes time to perfect, but with every piece of content your teams produce, the closer you come to a state of marketing self-sufficiency.

We hope this has given you the motivation to see where you can scale up your content creation in the long term, and harness your professionals at every level of your organization to make a positive impact on the future of your brand.

Table of contents:

  1. What do we mean by frontline employees?
  2. The challenges impacting today’s content marketers
  3. How does empowering your frontline employees address these issues?
  4. 6 steps to enhance your employees’ involvement in your marketing
  5. Reap the rewards of empowering your frontline workers

Digital Asset Management

Digital Asset Management in retail: Insights from Forrester’s 2025 report

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Papirfly
5 minutes read

Retail is changing at record speed. According to Forrester, online retail spending in the United States will grow twice as fast as total retail spending through 2029, accounting for 29% of all retail sales. For marketing teams, that surge translates into one thing—an explosion of content needs.

Every new product launch, seasonal promotion, or localized marketing campaign requires consistent, engaging content across multiple channels. Add the growing use of AI-generated assets, and managing this complexity becomes unmanageable without the right technology.

That’s why Digital Asset Management in retail is no longer optional. The latest Forrester Digital Asset Management Systems Landscape, Q3 2025 highlights retail as a key industry driving increased DAM investment. For marketers, a digital asset management solution has become the command center for content operations—a system to scale personalization, protect brand value, and ensure agility in an always-on marketplace.

Why Digital Asset Management in retail is now essential

Retail marketers operate in one of the most content-heavy environments. Product catalogs are expanding, customer experiences are multiplying, and digital marketing campaigns need to adapt to local languages, cultures, and regulations.

Forrester’s research shows retailers are among the fastest adopters of digital asset management DAM because of this rising complexity. A modern asset management platform doesn’t just store digital files—it enables:

  • Faster time-to-market for products or services through structured, reusable marketing materials.
  • Seamless omnichannel delivery, ensuring every campaign looks and feels consistent across websites, apps, and social media platforms.
  • Operational efficiency, reducing duplicate work and costly delays by giving teams the right asset at the right time with version control and access control baked in.

In short, DAM provides the foundation for retail growth, turning a content bottleneck into a content advantage.

Growth of online retail vs total retail through 2029 in the US
“Online retail spending in the US will grow twice as fast as total retail spending through 2029” – Forrester DAM Landscape report 2025

How DAM transforms retail from asset storage to brand experience

Forrester emphasizes that DAM has evolved from a passive content library into an active enabler of brand experience, supporting marketing efforts. This shift is especially relevant for retail, where brand trust and product accuracy directly influence sales.

For retail marketers, the benefits of modern DAM include:

  • Consistent experiences across regions — Local teams can adapt marketing content for their target audience without losing alignment with global brand guidelines.
  • Brand protection at scale — Design templates, approval workflows, and embedded rights management safeguard against off-brand or non-compliant assets.
  • Customer confidence — Updated product visuals and accurate data in digital content ensure buyers see exactly what they’ll receive.

Retailers also gain stronger collaboration across marketing teams, merchandising, and ecommerce operations. This accelerates campaign execution and ensures every channel—from in-store displays to digital content online—tells the same story.

Consistent experiences across regions icon

Consistent experiences across regions

Brand protection at scale icon

Brand protection at scale

Customer confidence icon

Customer confidence

The future of Digital Asset Management in retail with AI and personalization

The next wave of Digital Asset Management in retail is powered by AI. Forrester highlights how vendors are racing to integrate agentic AI—intelligent systems that can autonomously plan, create, and deliver content.

For retailers, this opens new opportunities:

  • Hyper-personalized shopping journeys — DAM-powered AI can automatically deliver product recommendations with compliant, on-brand visuals.
  • Seasonal campaign automation — Repetitive updates, like resizing ads or translating digital files of product images for social media platforms, can be automated at scale.
  • Creative democratization — Non-designers can adapt content while AI ensures every version remains compliant with brand guidelines and legal requirements.

But these benefits come with responsibility. Retail marketers must assess whether their Digital Asset Management solution is ready for AI—considering governance models, data structures, and change management to ensure automation enhances brand trust rather than erodes it.

Retail is at the forefront of digital transformation, and DAM is the system making it possible. As Forrester’s 2025 report makes clear, brands that embrace modern Digital Asset Management in retail will be best positioned to meet customer expectations, scale personalization, and safeguard their brand value.

The message for retail marketers is simple: DAM is no longer a back-office tool—it’s the engine powering your ability to compete.

Get the full Forrester DAM report

Uncover retail insights shaping 2025 strategies

Get the full Forrester DAM report

Uncover retail insights shaping 2025 strategies

Download the report
Download the report

Get the full Forrester DAM report

Uncover retail insights shaping 2025 strategies

Download the report
The Digital Asset Management Systems Landscape, Q3 2025, Forrester

FAQs

Why is Digital Asset Management important in retail?

Digital Asset Management in retail ensures product visuals, campaigns, and brand marketing materials are consistent, accurate, and easily accessible. This reduces duplication, speeds up product launches, and supports omnichannel campaigns.

What did Forrester’s 2025 DAM report say about retail?

The Forrester Digital Asset Management Systems Landscape, Q3 2025 highlights retail as one of the fastest-growing sectors for DAM adoption, driven by online sales growth, rising content complexity, and the need for personalization at scale.

How does DAM improve personalization for retail customers?

DAM systems integrate with AI and adjacent tools like PIM and ecommerce platforms to deliver localized, personalized content quickly. This helps retailers serve relevant product recommendations and promotions across multiple channels.

Can DAM help protect brand consistency in retail marketing?

Yes. Modern DAM systems embed brand guidelines, templates, and approval workflows. This ensures assets are always compliant, on-brand, and optimized for different channels and markets.

What should retail marketers look for in a DAM solution?

Key features include seamless integration with ecommerce and PIM systems, AI-powered content transformation, strong governance tools, and scalable portals that democratize access without losing control.

Table of contents:

  1. Why Digital Asset Management in retail is now essential
  2. How DAM transforms retail from asset storage to brand experience
  3. The future of Digital Asset Management in retail with AI and personalization
  4. FAQs
Digital Asset Management

DAM scalability: 6 questions for a future-proof ecosystem

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Papirfly
6 minutes read

Managing digital assets across multiple platforms, teams, and regions is already complex. As demand for on-brand content increases, DAM scalability is key as branding and marketing operations can’t afford to rely on systems that weren’t built to grow with them.

That’s why choosing the right Digital Asset Management software matters – not just for today’s campaigns, but for your brand’s future.

Why DAM scalability is essential for modern brands

The global market for DAM software is expected to nearly quadruple by 2032. That’s because brands are producing more content, on more platforms, for more audiences than ever before.

Without a future-ready Digital Asset Management system, marketing teams will quickly hit operational limits. If your DAM can’t keep pace, your brand pays the price – through delays, duplicated efforts, or content going off-brand. That’s why scalability should be a non-negotiable.

In this article, we’ll walk through six essential questions to assess whether your DAM can scale with your needs.

DAM systems that aren’t future‑proof

performance bottlenecks

Cause performance bottlenecks

restricted growth

Restrict marketing growth

reduced user adoption

Discourage user adoption

become obsolete sooner

Become obsolete sooner

performance bottlenecks

Cause performance bottlenecks

restricted growth

Restrict marketing growth

reduced user adoption

Discourage user adoption

become obsolete sooner

Become obsolete sooner

6 questions to evaluate whether a DAM is future‑proof

1. Can it grow with your asset library

No question, your asset volume will increase in the future. Campaigns, formats, and channels will all evolve. It’s essential that your DAM software can handle not just today’s requirements, but also everything to come.

Ask about asset storage limits, upgrade options, and how easily capacity can be scaled. A future-proof DAM gives you room to grow without forcing a migration later.

Prevalence of content marketing

45%

of marketers say at least half of their campaigns are content‑led

Source: World Media Group

Prevalence of content marketing

45%

of marketers say at least half of their campaigns are content‑led

Source: World Media Group

2. Will it support the evolution of your company and brand?

New markets. New sub-brands. New regional teams. All can impact and reshape the nature of your brand. Your Digital Asset Management system must be able to flex to accommodate any eventuality. That means being able to support:

  • Multiple brand identities
  • Mult-language support
  • Region- or campaign-specific asset portals
Company vision misunderstanding

68%

of employees say they don’t understand their company’s vision

Source: European Leaders

Company vision misunderstanding

68%

of employees say they don’t understand their company’s vision

Source: European Leaders

3. Is it intuitive for new users?

DAM software is only as powerful as the people using it. If your Digital Asset Management system is difficult to navigate, adoption will suffer – and so will your brand consistency.

Software failure due to low adoption

70%

of software implementations fail
due to poor user adoption

Source: ERP Software

Software failure due to low adoption

70%

of software implementations fail 
due to poor user adoption

Source: ERP Software

Look for built-in features that promote usability, including:

  • Drag-and-drop uploading to your digital library
  • Smart search and auto-tagging
  • Version control
  • Role-based permissions
  • Workflow automation

An effective brand portal also supports the long-term usability of your DAM, giving team members clear context for each asset, so they can use them correctly and consistently every time.

Drag-and-drop functionality infographic
Automatic tagging infographic
Instant search infographic
Asset version control infographic
Flexible access control infographic
Automated workflows infographic

4. Can it integrate with your existing stack?

Most marketing teams are already juggling a dozen or so tools. Your Digital Asset Management software shouldn’t add complexity – it should reduce it. That’s why it’s so important to choose a DAM that easily integrates with your key platforms. 

For example:

  • CMS
  • PIM
  • Templating tools
  • Creative software

The more your DAM connects to your existing brand ecosystem, the quicker and easier it is for teams to activate content.

5. Is it powered by AI?

AI isn’t a buzzword. It’s now a baseline. DAM systems that leverage AI deliver smarter tagging, faster search, and multilingual metadata, reducing manual work and improving asset findability. Emerging machine learning is set to go even further, recommending optimal assets for specific campaigns.

If you want to stay ahead, now and in the future, a DAM with a clear AI roadmap is critical.

Papirfly asset linking to brand story on IBM - how they use Papirfly’s digital asset management system and content creation suite to streamline the management of their employer brand

6. Does the vendor have a product roadmap?

A Digital Asset Management system is an investment in your future. You deserve to know how it will evolve. Ask your vendor:

  • What new features are planned?
  • How do you gather customer feedback?
  • How often are updates released?

A transparent, customer-focused roadmap shows that your DAM provider is in it for the long haul – just like you.

Papirfly checklist of questions marketers should ask to determine how future-proof a digital asset management system is

Choose a DAM built for tomorrow

As the battle to manage content across numerous channels grows more intense, having a DAM that you can depend on is a key differentiator. And in an always-on, content-heavy world, only scalable, intuitive, and connected systems will stand the test of time. So ask the tough questions now – and, if your current solution isn’t up to the task, consider one that is.

Papirfly’s Digital Asset Management and Templated Content Creation suite is designed to scale with your business, keeping your teams aligned, your assets on-brand, and your content strategy future-ready.

FAQs

Why is scalability important when choosing a Digital Asset Management system?

Scalability ensures your DAM can grow with your asset library, team size, and brand structure. As content volumes, formats, and platforms expand, a scalable DAM prevents operational bottlenecks and avoids costly future migrations.

What features make a Digital Asset Management system future-proof?

A future-ready DAM should support: 
– Multiple brand identities
– Multilingual portals
– AI-driven search and tagging
– Flexible user permissions
– Integration with existing tools
– Transparent product roadmap for ongoing updates and innovation

How can DAM software improve user adoption across global teams?

To drive adoption, your DAM must be intuitive. Features like drag-and-drop uploading, smart search, auto-tagging, version control, and guided brand portals help users quickly find and apply assets – without training or guesswork.

Why should DAM software integrate with other marketing tools?

Integration enables smoother workflows and faster content activation. A DAM should connect with CMS, PIM, creative platforms, and templating tools. This makes it easy for teams to publish, localize, and reuse assets directly from one system.

What role does AI play in future-proofing a Digital Asset Management system?

AI enhances DAM performance by automating metadata tagging, improving search accuracy, and personalizing content recommendations. A vendor with a strong AI roadmap ensures your DAM stays relevant and efficient as your needs evolve.

Table of contents:

  1. Why DAM scalability is essential for modern brands
  2. 6 questions to evaluate whether a DAM is future-proof
  3. Choose a DAM built for tomorrow
  4. FAQs
Digital Asset Management

5 benefits of Digital Asset Management for marketing operations

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Papirfly
4 minutes read

The pace and pressure of marketing today can be relentless. More content, more channels, more complexity – and less time to manage it all. That’s where Digital Asset Management software comes in.

DAM software streamlines how marketers organize, access, and activate brand assets – cutting down on manual tasks, reducing risk, and helping teams deliver faster, smarter, and more consistently. Whether you’re managing global campaigns or supporting local markets, modern Digital Asset Management for marketing teams gives everyone the clarity, control, and capacity to operate at scale.

If you want to simplify managing digital assets, and free up time to be more strategic, creative, and experimental, DAM is the answer.

How Digital Asset Management for marketing supports your teams

A Digital Asset Management system is more than just a place to store files. It’s a centralized platform designed to organize, govern, and distribute brand content – everything from imagery and video to templates, logos, guidelines, and campaign materials.

But more importantly, DAM is a marketing operations engine. It removes bottlenecks, empowers teams, and ensures every asset used is on-brand and fit for purpose. 

Here are five ways you can use DAM to transform your marketing operations:

1. Put an end to asset chaos

Marketing teams deal with thousands of assets – across teams, tools, and territories. Without a central system, things get messy fast. Files live on desktops, in emails, or buried in folders with names like ‘IMG_375.jpg’. It’s inefficient, risky, and unsustainable. 

DAM is how you bring order to digital asset chaos. Assets are stored in a structured library with visual previews, smart filters, and searchable metadata. Everyone knows where to find what they need, and which version is current and approved.

2. Strengthen brand consistency

Consistency is critical for building band trust. DAM is critical for building consistency. Having one centralized brand portal ensures that everyone uses the same approved, up-to-date materials – from local marketers to global partners.

 Guidelines, campaign kits, and creative assets can all be accessed from here, reducing errors and duplications. Teams can also use the DAM to repurpose assets for new regions, channels, or formats without compromising brand integrity.

3. Simplify collaboration and asset delivery

Marketing rarely happens in isolation. Teams rely on creatives, agencies, and internal stakeholders to produce, review, and activate content. A central DAM brand hub makes this collaboration seamless.

External partners can upload assets directly into the system. Internal teams can access what they need – within the permissions you control. Approval workflows ensure nothing goes live without sign-off.

4. Automate routine tasks

Time spent reformatting files, managing version control, or digging through email threads is time lost. Digital Asset Management for marketing teams saves you the expense by automating manual tasks your people experience every day. Some DAM software uses AI to optimize visuals across all channels or perform intelligent cropping. Result: marketers are freed from mundane, repetitive activities and can focus their efforts on high-impact work.

5. Connect your marketing ecosystem

Digital Asset Management software integrates easily with other software in your marketing stack, whether it’s CMS, CRM, PIM, or campaign management tools – and this is when DAM is at its most powerful. It means that web editors can publish directly from your central brand portal, email marketers can personalize with confidence, and ecommerce teams can instantly deploy assets at scale.

DAM software is key to successful marketing

Digital Asset Management is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s an essential part of the brand ecosystem, enabling organizations to deliver agile, on-brand, and high-performing marketing.

If your current asset management setup isn’t keeping pace, it’s time to explore what a modern DAM can unlock.

Transform your marketing with DAM

See how leading teams create and control marketing content

Transform your marketing with DAM

See how leading teams create and control marketing content

Find out more

Transform your marketing with DAM

Find out more
Papirfly's Digital Asset Management - All you need in one single place
Find out more

FAQs

What is a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system and how does it support marketing teams?

A Digital Asset Management system is a centralized hub for storing, managing and sharing brand content. For marketers, DAM streamlines workflows, ensures on-brand asset use, and simplifies access to approved materials across teams and channels.

How does DAM software help eliminate digital asset chaos in marketing operations?

DAM simplifies managing digital assets by consolidating files into a searchable system with metadata, version control, and visual previews. This removes duplication, reduces time spent searching, and ensures teams use the correct version every time.

How does a DAM improve digital asset management workflows?

DAM systems streamline collaboration by enabling permission-based access, external uploads, and automated approval flows. Every authorized team member can review and approve content directly in the platform, reducing delays and errors.

What other marketing tools can DAM software integrate with, and why does it matter?

Modern DAM solutions like Papirfly integrate with CMS, CRM, PIM, and campaign management platforms. These integrations allow assets to be deployed instantly across websites, emails, and ecommerce platforms, maximizing speed and ensuring brand control across the ecosystem.

Table of contents:

  1. How Digital Asset Management for marketing supports your teams
  2. DAM software is key to successful marketing
  3. FAQs
Digital Asset Management

What Forrester’s 2025 DAM Landscape means for modern brands

Avatar
Papirfly
3 minutes read

Forrester’s Digital Asset Management Systems Landscape, Q3 2025 has arrived. The report confirms what many enterprise marketers and brand leaders have long suspected: Digital Asset Management is no longer just about storage and governance—it’s about acceleration, personalization, and measurable impact.

In this post, we unpack the key findings from the report and how they relate to Papirfly’s roadmap, product strengths, and vision for DAM in the enterprise.

Core DAM capabilities: what is required by common use cases

Forrester splits the DAM landscape into “core” and “extended” use cases. Core capabilities are no longer differentiators—they’re expectations. Among the most critical:

  • Asset rights and compliance: Papirfly ensures brand governance with granular user permissions, automated asset expiry, and GDPR-compliant consent management. Our face recognition feature for consent flagging puts us in strong alignment with where enterprise compliance is heading.
  • Asset reuse at scale: Efficient reuse is more than just downloading assets. Our global brand portals, which can be tailored to specific roles and use cases, empower local markets to locate and repurpose assets quickly, maintaining consistency while significantly cutting production costs.
  • Time-to-market acceleration: Templated Content Creation enables non‑designers to localize content in minutes, eliminating bottlenecks and scaling output globally.
  • Centralized brand control: As a single source of truth, Papirfly’s DAM ensures consistent, secure access to approved assets across markets and teams.

While other vendors may highlight advanced AI transformations, Papirfly focuses on enabling everyday use cases with immediate ROI—like localization, governance, and speed.

Extended use cases: where DAM software must go next

Forrester’s report also highlights extended use cases that signal where DAM is evolving:

  • Advanced compliance: With AI-powered facial recognition, Papirfly flags non-compliant assets and automates consent tracking—a critical feature for regulated industries and global campaigns.
  • Searchability and personalization: Papirfly’s robust categorization, metadata tagging, and facial recognition support advanced search capabilities to help users find and localize content faster across regions and departments.
  • AI-assisted localization: Tools like AI translation and upcoming image derivatives help enterprises adapt content for global audiences without reinventing the creative wheel.
  • Content intelligence (WIP): While we currently offer analytics on asset usage within the ecosystem, full lifecycle tracking remains a future goal—a priority for roadmap development.
  • 3D asset support: Despite industry hype, Forrester notes limited real-world demand. Papirfly’s position is to integrate with external tools when needed, rather than building redundant features.

How brands should evaluate DAM solutions in 2025

One of the biggest takeaways from the report is that enterprises must shift how they assess DAM solutions. It’s no longer about checking off feature lists—it’s about impact:

  • Can your teams find, adapt, and publish content without delays?
  • Does your DAM protect your brand while empowering every market?
  • Is AI solving a real problem—or just creating new ones?

At Papirfly, we believe future-ready DAM is about user-first innovation, not feature-first marketing. This means focusing on adoption, extensibility, and automation that supports real workflows. That is why some of the world’s biggest brands are our customers, and choose us time and time again.

Choose a Digital Asset Management system that continues to evolve

Forrester’s 2025 DAM report doesn’t just outline where the category is today—it maps where it’s going. And for brand leaders, it’s a clear signal to prioritize tools that scale content creation, ensure compliance, and enable smarter operations.

Explore the 2025 Forrester DAM Landscape

See how Papirfly meets evolving DAM expectations

Explore the 2025 Forrester DAM Landscape

See how Papirfly meets evolving DAM expectations

Access the full report
Access the full report

See how Papirfly transforms content creation

Access the full report
Visual cover of 2025 DAM report highlighting Papirfly’s relevance in Forrester’s evolving DAM landscape.

FAQs

What are the core DAM capabilities Forrester highlights for 2025?

Forrester defines core DAM capabilities as table stakes in 2025, including asset rights management, compliance, reuse at scale, and time-to-market acceleration.

How does Papirfly align with Forrester’s DAM landscape?

Papirfly addresses both core and extended use cases with scalable, compliant, and localization-ready capabilities. Our DAM solution prioritizes real-world brand and marketing workflows over feature-first marketing.

What should brands look for when evaluating DAM platforms in 2025?

The focus should shift from feature checklists to measurable business impact. Can the DAM accelerate content creation? Protect brand consistency? Enable local markets? That’s where value lies.

How does Papirfly support AI use in DAM without sacrificing brand control?

Papirfly uses AI where it matters by automating consent tracking, improving searchability, and enabling smart localization—while maintaining full brand governance.

Table of contents:

  1. Core DAM capabilities: what is required by common use cases
  2. Extended use cases: where DAM software must go next
  3. How brands should evaluate DAM solutions in 2025
  4. Choose a Digital Asset Management system that continues to evolve
  5. FAQs
Content Creation

How design templates save finance brands 80% in content creation

Avatar
Papirfly
4 minutes read

Marketing teams in banks, credit unions, and insurers face increasing pressure to produce more content, faster—without sacrificing compliance or brand control.

But with legacy tools, siloed teams, and agency dependencies, production costs and risks spiral fast.

Discover how Papirfly helps financial institutions reduce asset creation effort by up to 80%—while reducing spend, improving control and brand consistency, and increasing speed to market.

Why financial brands overspend on content design

Financial institutions operate in highly regulated environments where every marketing asset must be accurate, brand-compliant, and legally sound.

When local branches rely on outdated systems or manually recreate content, it increases the risk of errors such as non-compliant disclaimers, conflicting messaging, slow campaign rollouts, and rising agency costs.

These inefficiencies make financial content production not just more expensive, but also riskier. The real challenge is not simply creating more content, but creating smarter content with consistent compliance and control.

Templated design unlocks faster creation of content at scale

Papirfly’s design templates give financial marketing and compliance teams the ability to scale high-quality content without losing control or inflating costs. Essential brand elements, logos, and disclaimers are locked into every template, eliminating common errors before they happen.

Local teams gain the freedom to create on-brand materials within clear guardrails, while automated approval workflows keep compliance seamless. The outcome is faster, more consistent campaigns — with far less reliance on agencies or manual rework.

Key benefits of design templates include:

  • Locked brand assets and compliance elements
  • Empowered local content creation within guardrails
  • Automated approval workflows
  • 80% reduction in manual content creation effort

Key results:

Shapes representing asset creation

80% reduced effort
in asset creation

80% reduced effort
in asset creation

Agency spend per asset

$200 average agency
spend avoided per asset

$200 average agency
spend avoided per asset

Papirfly logos representing brand consistency

Improved content distribution
and brand consistency

Improved content distribution
and brand consistency

Using design templates with DAM for smarter governance

Papirfly’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) brings every approved asset, campaign file, and approval record into one secure, centralized hub.

This ensures every branch or business unit works from the most up-to-date version of logos, visuals, product images, and region-specific disclaimers.

With features like smart search, version control, usage rights management, and full audit trails, DAM gives financial institutions complete governance and transparency across all content operations.

What an 80% effort reduction looks like in practice

According to Forrester’s Total Economic Impact™ report, enterprise teams using Papirfly experienced:

  • 80% less manual effort in content creation
  • 200$ average agency spend avoided per asset
  • 100% brand-compliant assets delivered to customers in all content

By combining design templates with Digital Asset Management, financial institutions can streamline production, eliminate unnecessary agency costs, and deliver more content—without compromising brand governance or speed.

Discover your content savings potential

See how Papirfly transforms content creation

Discover your content savings potential

See how Papirfly transforms content creation

Learn more
Learn more

See how Papirfly transforms content creation

Learn more
Papirfly's Templated Content Creation tool

FAQs

How can design templates reduce agency spend?

Papirfly enables teams to create on-brand content in-house, eliminating the need for external designers for routine marketing tasks. Assigned budget can instead be spent on high-value creatives.

What makes this different from basic design tools?

Templates are built with embedded brand rules and approval flows—guaranteeing compliance across markets and teams.

Is Papirfly suitable for local branch marketing?

Yes. Templates and access controls are customizable by region, team, or campaign, enabling safe localization at scale for local branches for financial institutions.

Can we track who’s using assets and where?

Papirfly includes audit logs, version histories, and user permissions to monitor asset usage and ensure governance.

How long will it take to create a template?

We have a variety of design template solutions. Get started instantly with Papirfly’s InDesign templates based on designs, while you build out more with flexible elements where users choose from pre-approved options. All with as much support from Papirfly as you need.

Table of contents:

  1. Why financial brands overspend on content design
  2. Templated design unlocks faster creation of content at scale
  3. Using design templates with DAM for smarter governance
  4. What an 80% effort reduction looks like in practice
  5. FAQs
Brand Consistency

How to keep your banking brand consistent after a merger

Avatar
Papirfly
4 minutes read

When banks, credit unions, and insurance providers go through mergers or acquisitions, the result can be operational alignment — but brand confusion. Multiple branches, legacy systems, outdated assets, conflicting messaging, and strict governance standards all create challenges.

Consistency isn’t just a marketing priority in finance – it’s a compliance necessity. This blog explores how to overcome that challenge with the right content governance tools. Discover how Digital Asset Management (DAM) and Templated Content Creation can help teams stay compliant, consistent, and in control at every branch, during every change.

How to maintain brand consistency during mergers in financial services

In the financial world, mergers and acquisitions are a given. Institutions consolidate to scale services, expand into new regions, or unify under a stronger umbrella brand. But without centralized governance, local branches often:

  • Use outdated or incorrect logos, templates, or disclaimers
  • Depend on head office or agencies for every content request
  • Operate in silos, leading to conflicting messages and compliance risk

All of this puts the brand’s trust, credibility, and regulatory standing at risk.

Why brand compliance is critical for financial content creation

According to the Content Marketing Institute’s Financial Services Survey (2024), 63% of financial marketers cite regulatory compliance as their number one content creation challenge.

63% of financial marketers list compliance as top challenge

63%

of financial marketers list compliance as top challenge

Source: Content Marketing Institute

63% of financial marketers list compliance as top challenge.

63%

of financial marketers list compliance as top challenge

Source: Content Marketing Institute

Trust is the currency of financial services. That trust starts with clarity and consistency — across brochures, branches, campaigns, and digital channels. But staying on-brand at scale is difficult when teams:

  • Work across dozens or hundreds of branches
  • Manage content in siloed systems
  • Lack access to approved, compliant materials

When speed matters — reacting to market shifts or regulatory changes — long approval chains or outdated folders won’t cut it.

How a DAM creates brand integrity in every financial services branch

Forrester’s DAM Trends Report (2024) shows that more than 60% of financial services firms have adopted a Digital Asset Management solution in the past three years. [Source: Forrester, 2024].

Papirfly’s DAM and Templated Content Creation solutions are purpose-built to solve these challenges. Our suite creates a single hub for everything your teams need to stay on-brand and compliant — even during large-scale changes like mergers and acquisitions.

  • Centralized brand hub – Distribute updated assets, disclaimers, and messaging in one secure, searchable brand portal
  • Smart templates – Empower branches to localize content while protecting layout, logos, and legal copy
  • Approval workflows – Streamline compliance reviews and guarantee brand alignment before go-live
  • Audit-ready control – Maintain a full record of how assets are created, edited, and used

Regulated industries need marketing tools built for compliance

Papirfly already supports financial organizations worldwide — including Deutsche Bank, Citi, Goldman Sachs, and Rabobank — helping marketing teams scale output without risking compliance or brand dilution.

Our tools are built for highly regulated industries, balancing flexibility for local teams with control for brand and compliance leaders.

If your teams are:

  • Going through a rebrand, merger, or acquisition
  • Supporting dozens of branches with limited marketing resource
  • Concerned about brand integrity or compliance exposure

…it’s time to explore a solution built for financial services.

Bring order to brand complexity

Discover how banks and credit unions scale their content with Papirfly

Bring order to brand complexity

Discover how banks and credit unions scale their content with Papirfly

Achieve brand control

Discover how banks and credit unions scale their content with Papirfly

Achieve brand control
Discover content templating for brand consistency in financial services
Achieve brand control

FAQs

How does Papirfly help with brand consistency across branches?

Papirfly provides a centralized brand hub with templated content creation tools, so every branch accesses and uses the same compliant, approved assets.

Is Papirfly suitable for financial services?

Yes. Papirfly is designed for regulated industries like banking and insurance, offering governance, audit trails, and brand control.

What happens during a merger or acquisition?

With Papirfly, new branches or teams can quickly access the latest brand materials, helping align communications and eliminate legacy content.

Can local teams still personalize content?

Absolutely. Templates allow localization while locking down brand and legal elements to maintain compliance.

Do you offer support during setup?

Yes. Papirfly provides dedicated onboarding and support teams to tailor the system to your institution’s needs.

Table of contents:

  1. How to maintain brand consistency during mergers in financial services
  2. Why brand compliance is critical for financial content creation
  3. How a DAM creates brand integrity in every financial services branch
  4. Regulated industries need marketing tools built for compliance
  5. Think of your DAM like a hotel
  6. How to evaluate enterprise DAM systems in 2025
  7. Download the enterprise-ready evaluation tool
  8. FAQs
Content Creation

7 best design template tools in 2025: Consumer vs Enterprise

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Papirfly
4 minutes read

Choosing the wrong templating solution costs more than just budget. It can erode brand trust, slow content velocity, and lead to inconsistent messaging across global teams. With hundreds of tools offering “design templates,” the real challenge isn’t selection. Success means knowing which ones are actually fit for enterprise needs.

This blog breaks down the top seven design platforms, highlighting how they differ—and why only a few can truly scale brand-compliant content creation in global organizations.

What makes a design template platform truly enterprise-ready?

“Templates” are everywhere—but their functionality varies wildly. Some tools optimize for speed and visual appeal. Others prioritize automation. Few are built to meet the compliance, localization, and workflow needs of complex teams managing multi-market brands.

To bring clarity to a crowded market, we’ve divided the top solutions into three categories:

  1. Consumer design platforms – intuitive but risky for brand control
  2. AI-powered content generators – fast but often generic
  3. Enterprise templating solutions – purpose-built for brand governance at scale

How consumer design platforms are easy but lack control

1. Canva

Loved by individuals and small businesses, Canva offers over 250,000 templates. But with little control over brand assets, fonts, or layouts, it falls short of enterprise-grade governance.

Best for: Social media, small team marketing, freelance creatives

2. Adobe Creative Express

Backed by Adobe’s reputation, this tool offers premium imagery and editing for a small monthly fee. However, brand controls remain light, and enterprise collaboration features are limited.

Best for: Creative professionals in the Adobe ecosystem

3. Figma – Powerful, but steep learning curve

Figma’s collaborative UI/UX environment is ideal for product designers. However, its professional depth can overwhelm non-designers, making it impractical for company-wide templated content creation.

Best for: Design teams and system builders

AI-powered platforms provide automation but lack brand alignment

4. Gamma

Gamma uses prompts to generate slide decks automatically. It’s great for speed but often misses the nuance of tone, hierarchy, and messaging. Limited brand alignment means risk for enterprises.

Best for: Individual productivity and fast ideation

5. Jasper Art

AI-generated imagery can support content workflows—but authenticity often suffers. Jasper Art’s outputs may impress visually, but they rarely meet brand or compliance standards.

Best for: Fast content experimentation, not brand-led execution

Enterprise templating blends creativity and brand compliance

6. Templafy

Templafy integrates tightly with Microsoft Office, making it ideal for legal and compliance-heavy teams. But it’s not built for modern marketing or brand activation.

Best for: Policy documents, legal templates, enterprise file compliance

7. Papirfly: The enterprise templating solution built for scale

Papirfly stands alone in combining global governance with local empowerment, enabling marketers across departments, regions, and skill levels to create high-quality, on-brand assets at scale.

Why Papirfly leads in enterprise design templates:

  • Locked templates with flexible inputs
    Papirfly’s templated content creation enables any user, including non-designers, to produce studio-quality, on-brand assets at scale using locked brand templates, ensuring compliance with guideline elements like logos, fonts, and color palettes.
  • Liquid Layout Technology
    With automated resizing through Papirfly’s fluid UI and layout system, marketing teams can instantly adapt branded content for print, social channels, and ad formats. No manual cropping or re-design required.
  • Global localization built-in
    Papirfly empowers local, regional, and affiliate teams to localize and customize pre-approved templates while keeping core brand elements protected and providing instant export options for print-ready PDFs and digital assets.
  • Multi-format on-brand templates
    Create and manage brand-compliant templates for every major format—including video, email, social media, print and digital documents, and banner ads. Ensure consistent branding across all channels and touchpoints.
  • InDesign import & campaign integration
    Convert existing InDesign files into flexible, editable templates in seconds using Papirfly’s integrated import workflow—streamlining the production of global assets and accelerating time-to-market.
  • Enterprise-grade workflow control
    Team members can create, approve, and publish customized templates across multiple channels using Papirfly’s role-based workflow—helping brands centralize control, automate approvals, and empower rapid production.
  • Interconnected with your tech stack
    Integrate Papirfly’s template builder and DAM with business-critical platforms like Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, CRMs, and CMSs for seamless brand asset management and campaign activation.
  • Unified platform architecture
    The Papirfly suite combines DAM, Templated Content Creation, and other brand management tools so enterprises can manage collateral, enforce brand governance, and deliver consistent campaigns with a single solution.

Best for: Mid-market and enterprise organizations prioritizing brand compliance, speed-to-market, and global execution.

Strategic comparison: Which tool is right for your business?

Use CaseRecommended solution
Small teams (under 10)Canva, Adobe Creative Express
Creative departmentsFigma, Adobe Creative Express
Document-heavy workflowsTemplafy
Mid-market with growth plansPapirfly
Enterprise, global brand opsPapirfly

Only Papirfly’s design templates scale for brand governance

Consumer platforms focus on creative freedom. AI tools chase speed. Most enterprise tools handle one challenge well, rarely all.

Papirfly bridges the gap between creative enablement and brand control. It’s not just a templating tool. It’s a scalable solution to modern content operations, enabling every team to build trust through brand consistency—at speed, and at scale.

Ready to scale on-brand content creation?

Discover why leading brands trust Papirfly

Ready to scale on-brand content creation?

Discover why leading brands
trust Papirfly

 Discover our templates

Discover why leading brands trust Papirfly

Discover our templates
Design template interface displaying brand-approved assets and layout options in a content creation tool.
Discover our templates

FAQs

What is the difference between consumer and enterprise templating tools?

Consumer tools prioritize design flexibility but lack control. Enterprise tools like Papirfly ensure brand compliance, scalability, and workflow management.

Can Papirfly replace our current DAM or design tool?

Papirfly integrates with your DAM and creative suite while enhancing their capabilities through intelligent templates and brand governance.

How does Papirfly support localization?

With dataset-driven templates and multi-market content orchestration, Papirfly enables localized, compliant content creation without compromising brand identity.

What teams benefit most from Papirfly?

Global marketing teams, brand managers, and local market contributors who need to create fast, on-brand content without relying on designers. Papirfly’s brand portals ensure every team can adopt brand guidelines.

Can Papirfly handle regulated industries?

Yes. Papirfly supports compliance workflows, GDPR consent managemnet, role-based permissions, and audit trails. The modular suite makes it ideal for regulated sectors like finance, healthcare, and pharma to build their compliant brand ecosystem according to their needs.

Table of contents:

  1. What makes a design template platform truly enterprise-ready?
  2. How consumer design platforms are easy but lack control
  3. AI-powered platforms provide automation but lack brand alignment
  4. Enterprise templating blends creativity and brand compliance
  5. Why Papirfly leads in enterprise design templates:
  6. Strategic comparison: Which tool is right for your business?
  7. Only Papirfly’s design templates scale for brand governance
  8. FAQs
Digital Asset Management

Preserving corporate heritage with a modern DAM solution

Avatar
Papirfly
5 minutes read

Every photo, video and archived document is part of your company’s brand narrative. Yet too often these assets are hidden in old drives or out‑of‑the‑way servers – unavailable when you need them most. Ensuring corporate heritage remains both safe and accessible presents digital asset managers with a complex balancing act.

This guide explores how a purpose-built Digital Asset Management system can help preserve your heritage, reinforce brand culture, and accelerate creative workflows. From brand portal technology to GDPR compliance and templated content creation, we’ll dive into the key capabilities that make heritage asset a living resource, not a forgotten archive.

Why corporate heritage matters

Corporate heritage is the history of your business. From founding documents to milestone campaign reels, from product prototypes to workplace snapshots, these are the artifacts that chronicle your brand’s journey from the beginning to the present day.

Heritage assets serve three strategic purposes:

Strengthening brand authenticity: Archival photos support genuine storytelling that can help build emotional connections with audiences and distinguish you in crowded markets.

Fostering cultural continuity: Heritage assets can be useful for welcoming new hires and engaging existing employees by demonstrating shared values and showing “who we are”.

Mitigating compliance risk. Accurate historical records of product designs, financial disclosures, and consented imagery can be critical, especially in heavily regulated industries.

Timeline of brand assets accumulated over several decades for an energy company.

Over 50,000 brand assets
are often stored in companies’ DAM systems

Source: cmotech.uk

Timeline of brand assets accumulated over several decades for an energy company.

Over 50,000 brand assets
are often stored in companies’
DAM systems

Source: cmotech.uk

Common challenges associated with digital archives

Legacy assets are notoriously difficult to control, with industry benchmarks suggesting that teams lose an average of four hours a week just hunting for the materials they need. 

Common digital asset management issues include:

  • Siloed storage: With film archives in vaults, scanned photos on local drives, and digital videos in forgotten folders, nobody is sure where to look for the assets they need.
  • Inconsistent metadata: Missing dates, unclear usage rights, and ad hoc tagging hide assets from search.
  • Legal uncertainty: Lack of automated consent tracking means rights may expire unnoticed, risking GDPR violations or license breaches.

How modern DAM software bridges the corporate heritage gap

A mature Digital Asset Management system ensures heritage assets are compliant and accessible by bringing scattered archives together in one secure platform. But that’s not all it does. Here are some of the additional benefits offered by the best Digital Asset Management software:

  • Integrated brand portals. Centralize guidelines, logos, tone-of-voice documents and heritage galleries in a dedicated brand portal. Frontline staff and agencies can access the right assets and instructions without guesswork, ensuring every video, social post, or print ad aligns with your corporate style.
  • GDPR compliance manager. Automate consent capture, time-based permissions and instant asset revocation. Whether you’re using customer testimonials, employee headshots or licensed music, the system flags pending approvals and removes expired content – protecting you from fines and reputational damage.
  • Templated content creation. Empower non-designers with smart templates that merge heritage imagery and brand elements. Need to promote your centennial anniversary? Teams can generate on-brand posters, social carousels, and event banners in minutes, freeing designers for high-value projects.
  • Robust metadata and AI enrichment. Combine a consistent taxonomy with AI metadata tagging, facial recognition, and OCR, and even obscure heritage items become discoverable.
  • Granular access controls. Separate restricted archives from public heritage galleries by defining role-based permissions.

This approach reduces duplication, ensures compliance, and accelerates time to market.

Papirfly’s DAM solution showing how an AI search will not include archived assets

AI-powered DAMs can reduce asset retrieval times by up to 40%

Source: mordorintelligence.com

Papirfly’s DAM solution showing how an AI search will not include archived assets

AI-powered DAMs can
reduce asset retrieval times
by up to 40%

Source: mordorintelligence.com

Best practices for heritage‑focused DAM implementations

  1. Start with a pilot. Choose a manageable archive, such as your first decade of product launches. Ingest, tag, and publish a curated exhibit. Measure search time reductions and stakeholder feedback to validate your approach.
  2. Define a metadata governance plan. Get archivists, marketers, and legal teams to agree on taxonomy and tagging conventions. Document standards in a central guide and enforce them via DAM templates and AI helpers.
  3. Automate compliance workflows. Configure GDPR-manager rules for consent capture and asset expiration. Use time-based permissions to ensure outdated materials don’t ever slip through by accident.
  4. Curate thematic heritage exhibits. Build collections to tell powerful brand stories that engage employees, investors, and customers alike.
  5. Integrate across the ecosystem. Connect your DAM with CMS, CRM, and intranet platforms, so heritage assets can be automatically incorporated into newsletters, training portals, and web pages.
  6. Measure and iterate. Track KPIs such as asset utilization rate, search efficiency, stakeholder adoption, and compliance incident counts. You can use the data to continue refining taxonomies, permissions, and brand portal designs

Turning your corporate heritage into a living resource

Corporate heritage can be so much more than a static archive. It can provide the basis for powerful brand-building, authentic storytelling, and cultural cohesion – as long as you have the tools to get disparate legacy assets under control.

By adopting a Digital Asset Management solution with integrated brand portals, GDPR compliance management and templated content creation, you turn hidden treasures into living assets that fuel creativity and brand trust.

Ready to future-proof your heritage and make managing digital assets easier than ever? Download our DAM buyer’s guide to discover the must-have features for preserving your brand legacy.

Future-proof your brand heritage

Discover the DAM features that turn legacy assets into living brand tools

Future-proof your brand heritage

Discover the DAM features that turn legacy assets into
living brand tools

Discover Papirfly

Future-proof your brand heritage

Discover Papirfly
Custom brand portal interface surfacing legacy assets to showcase brand heritage interactively
Discover Papirfly

FAQs

What is corporate heritage and why is it important for brand strategy?

Corporate heritage refers to the historical assets that document a company’s evolution, such as photos, videos, and founding documents. These materials can be used to strengthen brand authenticity and create a sense of shared company culture, as well as mitigating compliance risks in regulated industries.

What are the common challenges of managing digital heritage assets?

Legacy archives often suffer from siloed storage, inconsistent metadata, and unclear usage rights. These issues can lead to lost productivity, as team members waste time searching for hard-to-find files. It can also mean brand assets are underused.

How does a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system help preserve corporate heritage?

Modern DAM solutions like Papirfly centralize heritage assets, enforce metadata standards and automate GDPR compliance. This makes archives accessible, searchable, and usable across teams and campaigns.

What features should DAM software include to support heritage asset management?

Key features include integrated brand portals, GDPR consent tracking, templated content creation, and granular access controls to manage different levels of asset visibility and permissions.

What are best practices for implementing a DAM system for corporate heritage?

Follow these key steps:
1. Start with a pilot archive
2. Establish a clear metadata governance plan
3. Automate compliance workflows
4. Curate thematic collections
5. Integrate with your wider tech stack
6. Track performance metrics to improve over time

Table of contents:

  1. Why corporate heritage matters
  2. Common challenges associated with digital archives
  3. How modern DAM software bridges the corporate heritage gap
  4. Best practices for heritage‑focused DAM implementations
  5. Turning your corporate heritage into a living resource
  6. FAQs
Content Creation

Your brand’s guide to creating on‑brand content at scale

Avatar
Papirfly
9 minutes read

Content creation has evolved from a simple marketing activity into the strategic backbone of successful brand communication. In today’s digital landscape, businesses need more than just great ideas – they need scalable systems, consistent brand messaging, and efficient workflows that enable teams to create compelling content at scale.

This comprehensive guide explores how modern brands can master the content creation process while maintaining brand consistency and maximizing efficiency through strategic use of content creation tools and workflows.

What is content creation?

Content creation is the process of developing, producing, and distributing valuable, relevant content for defined audiences – always with clear business objectives in mind. It spans everything from blog posts and social media content to video marketing materials and branded templates.

Modern content creation goes beyond words and design. It involves understanding your audience, aligning content with marketing objectives, and enabling teams to produce consistent, compelling content across every channel – at scale.

The strategic foundations of content creation

Aligning content with marketing objectives

Before producing anything, you need to establish a clear connection between your content strategy and your broader marketing goals. Without alignment, content can feel fragmented, diluting its impact.

Key alignment considerations include:

  • Brand consistency – Every piece of creative content marketing should reflect your brand voice and visual identity.
  • Audience targeting – Tailor messages to match the pain points, needs, and interests of specific customer groups.
  • Business impact – Connect content metrics to measurable business outcomes like pipeline, retention, or brand awareness.
  • Channel optimization – Adapt messaging and formats to suit specific platforms and buyer journeys.

Building your content marketing strategy

A robust creative content marketing strategy provides the roadmap for all your content creation activities. It helps your teams stay focused, agile, and aligned – especially as volume and complexity increase.

What your strategy needs to address:

  • Target audience definition – Build detailed buyer personas to guide content topics, tone, and distribution channels. Understanding your audience’s preferences, challenges, and content consumption habits is crucial for creating resonant messaging.
  • Content themes – Identify 3-5 core content themes tied to your brand’s expertise and audience interests. These will help you retain focus and prevent teams making the mistake of trying to cover too many topics at once.
  • Calendar planning – Strategic calendar management ensures greater consistency and impact, especially for social media content. Plan around campaigns, product launches, and seasonal trends for maximum relevance.

Which teams are most effective at creating content?

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to creative content marketing. The right mix depends on your company’s goals, resources, and brand maturity. Modern brands typically use a combination of the following:

Building in‑house content teams

Having internal content creation capabilities gives you full control over brand messaging and content quality. In-house teams are especially useful when:

  • You need to produce high volumes across multiple channels
  • You’re worried that your content won’t be credible unless it displays deep industry expertise and brand knowledge
  • You have rapid turnarounds and need content creators to collaborate closely with other departments
  • You want to develop a long-term content strategy

In-house content creation teams typically include content marketing strategists, writers, designers, and project managers who can collaborate effectively across the entire content creation workflow.

Empowering internal subject matter experts

Subject matter expertise doesn’t always sit in marketing — and it doesn’t have to. Empowering colleagues from sales, product, or customer success to contribute can strengthen authenticity and scale output.

This approach involves:

  • Training employees from other teams to contribute content insights
  • Developing systems that enable non-writers to share expertise effectively
  • Creating templates and frameworks that guide subject matter experts through content creation processes

Using external agencies and content creation services

Third-party providers can complement your internal team without compromising brand quality – if you have the right content marketing tools, systems, and guidelines in place. External content creation services add most value when:

  • You need specialist skills or fresh creative direction.
  • Your internal team is small or stretched.
  • You’re struggling to manage seasonal spikes or campaign surges.
  • You require expertise in specific content formats or industries.

Leveraging AI tools for content creation

Artificial intelligence has transformed content creation by speeding up research, outline development, and first-draft generation. You can use AI tools to translate content, tag assets, and generate on-brand visuals – saving time, reducing costs, and scaling global brand impact.

Some of the best AI tools for content creation include:

  • Content research and ideation platforms
  • Writing assistants for drafts and editing
  • Visual content generators
  • Translation and localization tools
  • Asset tagging and organization systems

While AI speeds up production, it cannot work alone. Human creators are still critical for ensuring content quality, relevance, and brand alignment.

3 content creation tools every modern business needs

Template editors and design systems

Design templates enable fast, consistent content creation across teams and regions. They standardize how your brand shows up — without slowing down delivery. A best‑in‑class template editor system will typically include:

  • Banner design templates – Standardized templates for web banners, promotional materials, and social media content that maintain visual coherence across all touchpoints.
  • Design document templates – Structured formats for various content types that guide creators through best practices while maintaining brand standards.
  • Templates for scalable visual content creation – Pre-designed templates that lock in brand elements while enabling rapid content production across teams and locations.

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

Content creation only works if the right teams can access the right assets, when and where they need them. A Digital Asset Management (DAM) system centralizes brand assets, making them easy to manage, find, and share.

Capabilities to look for in a DAM a system include:

  • Centralized storage and organization of brand materials
  • Version control and approval workflows
  • Easy asset discovery via search and tagging
  • Integration with content creation tools and platforms

Extended content marketing tools

Any comprehensive content creation ecosystem brings your teams, processes, and assets together in one place. Look for:

  • Collaborative workflows – Tools that enable writers, designers, reviewers, and approvers to collaborate seamlessly throughout the content creation process.
  • Brand compliance features – Built-in controls that prevent off-brand content creation while enabling creative flexibility.
  • Multi-channel publishing – Features that enable teams to adapt content for different platforms and formats without starting from scratch.
  • Performance analytics – Integrated measurement tools that track content performance and prove ROI.

Content creation best practices by content type

Social media content

Social media content needs to be scroll-stopping – and on-brand. Key areas to prioritize include:

  • Platform optimization – Tailor content dimensions, formats, and messaging styles for each social media platform while always staying true to your core brand identity.
  • Visual storytelling – Compelling imagery can help you communicate brand messages quickly and effectively in crowded social media feeds.
  • Templated content creation – Use digital design templates to produce social media content at speed, without ever straying off-brand.
  • Automatic resizing for social channels – advanced content creation systems ensure that template outputs are created for all main social media channels in one creative process

Website content creation

Your website is a key brand asset and a foundational component of your digital marketing efforts. Main areas to focus on include:

  • SEO integration – Achieve the right balance between content that has user value and content that is optimized for search.
  • UX-informed structure – Develop content hierarchies and formats that guide visitors towards the right actions.
  • Brand voice consistency – Maintaining consistent tone and messaging helps you reinforce your brand personality across every page.

Video content marketing

Video is a highly effective but resource‑intensive format. To get the most out of your video content, concentrate on:

  • Aligning video content with marketing objectives – Tie each video to a clear objective, while ensuring your content educates and entertains.
  • Optimizing production workflows – Establish efficient processes for video planning, creation, editing, and distribution.
  • Enabling multi-format adaptation – Create video content that can be repurposed across platforms and touchpoints.

Digital content creation for B2B Brands

Business-to-business content creation requires its own specialized approach. Key areas to prioritize include:

  • Technical accuracy – Ensure content demonstrates deep industry knowledge and technical expertise.
  • Decision-maker focus – Consider the multiple stakeholders involved in the buying process and create content that address their specific interests and concerns.
  • Trust building – Develop content that establishes credibility and thought leadership within industry communities.

3 ways to optimize your content creation workflow

1. Streamline content creation

It’s crucial that your content creation workflow achieves the right balance of efficiency and creativity. Focus on developing:

  • Standardized processes – Establish clear, consistent steps for teams to follow, from ideation through to publication.
  • Quality checkpoints – Build in review and approval stages that maintain content quality without creating bottlenecks.
  • Asset integration – Create a seamless content creation workflow by connecting your Digital Asset Management system to content creation tools.

2. Build on‑brand creativity into the process

Innovation and creativity thrive within the right guardrails. Empower your team by establishing:

  • Ideation frameworks – Structured brainstorming processes help generate original ideas aligned with strategic objectives.
  • Creative brief templates – Content creators excel when they are provided with clear direction.
  • Feedback loops – Your process should include regular opportunities to for team members to iterate and refine.

3. Measure content creation impact and ROI

Content creation is an investment. To understand return, you need to measure:

  • Engagement – Track how audiences interact with different content types and formats.
  • Lead generation – Monitor how content contributes to qualified lead generation and pipeline development.
  • Brand awareness – Assess the impact content has on brand recognition and perception within target markets.
  • Content marketing ROI – Calculate the financial return on content creation investments through attribution analysis and customer lifetime value assessment.

How to start content creation: step‑by‑step guide

Begin your content creation journey by following these five simple steps:

  1. Define your content marketing strategy – Start by defining clear objectives, target audiences, and KPIs.
  2. Audit existing assets – Organize existing digital assets to understand what you have and identify content gaps.
  3. Choose your content creation tools – Select platforms and software that align with your team’s skills and content requirements.
  4. Develop templates and guidelines – Create standardized formats and brand guidelines that enable consistent, efficient content production.
  5. Start small, then scale – Pilot one or two content types before using what you learn to expand your content creation capabilities with confidence.

Sourcing ideas for effective content creation

Stuck for inspiration? Here are some useful areas to tap into when you’re looking for content creation ideas:

  • Customer research – Are there any questions or challenges you regularly get from customers that you can answer in your content?
  • Industry trends – Can you provide a unique perspective on any industry developments or emerging topics?
  • Competitor analysis – Is there anything your competitors are failing to cover with their content?
  • Internal expertise – Do you have specialist knowledge or unique experiences in your team that you can use as content material?

Where next for content creation?

Content creation continues evolving at pace. To keep up, brands must embrace modern content creation tools that balance flexibility with consistency. Here are some key emerging trends to watch out for.

  • Personalization at scale
  • AI-enabled content creation
  • Seamless workflow automation
  • Interactive content formats
  • Omnichannel brand experiences

Unlock creating content at scale for your teams

Successful content creation requires more than creative talent – it demands strategic thinking, efficient processes, and the right technology. Only this way can teams produce compelling, on-brand content at scale.

Whether you’re just starting your content creation journey or looking to optimize existing processes, the key is finding the right balance between creativity and consistency. Start with solid strategic foundations, invest in the right content creation tools and processes, and continuously refine your approach based on performance data and audience feedback.

The aim? To make content creation a powerful driver of brand growth, and to enable your team to create exceptional brand materials that increase customer engagement and drive real business results.

Unlock scalable content creation

See how design templates empowers anyone to produce on‑brand content

Unlock scalable content creation

See how design templates empowers anyone to produce on‑brand content

Discover Templated Content Creation

See how design templates empowers anyone to produce on‑brand content

Discover Templated Content Creation
Discover Templated Content Creation

FAQs

What does content creation mean for modern brands?

Content creation is no longer just about producing materials – it’s about delivering consistent, on-brand experiences that support strategic business goals. From blogs and video to templates and social media content, it’s the process of developing valuable content that speaks directly to your audience, across every channel.

How can brands maintain consistency when creating content at scale?

Consistency comes from systems – not just style guides. By using templated content creation, centralized brand assets, and built-in approval workflows, teams across regions and departments can produce content faster without compromising brand quality.

What’s the most effective team structure for content creation?

Many brands find success by combining in-house expertise, external content creation agencies, and AI tools. But there is no one-size-fits-all approach. The best solution will depend on your brand’s unique challenges and goals.

Will AI replace humans in content creation?

AI tools are powerful accelerators – ideal for research, drafting, translation, and visual generation. But they work best when guided by people. Skilled marketers ensure the content remains relevant, high-quality, and true to your brand.

What’s the first step for brands looking to build a better content creation process?

Start by defining your strategy: clarify your audience, goals, and content priorities. Then audit your existing assets, choose the right tools, and build templates that support consistent execution.

Table of contents:

  1. What is content creation?
  2. The strategic foundations of content creation
  3. 3 content creation tools every modern business needs
  4. Content creation best practices by content type
  5. 3 ways to optimize your content creation workflow
  6. How to start content creation: step‑by‑step guide
  7. Sourcing ideas for effective content creation
  8. Where next for content creation?
  9. Unlock creating content at scale for your teams
  10. FAQs
Digital Asset Management

The impossible challenge of a retail marketer

Avatar
Papirfly
3 minutes read

Retail marketers today face a fragmented, chaotic content landscape. This blog explores the challenges of delivering consistent, on-brand messaging across 12+ retail channels—from e-commerce and franchise networks to programmatic and in-store campaigns. Learn how Digital Asset Management (DAM) with channel-specific portals offers a scalable solution, and take our 21-question audit to identify gaps in your current operations.

Why retail marketing is more complex than ever

If you’re a retail marketer, your day is a constant balancing act. You’re expected to deliver consistent, compelling brand experiences across more touchpoints than ever before—and do it faster, cheaper, and more often.

Once upon a time, marketing was relatively linear. Create the campaign. Send it to store. Repeat. Today? You’re managing content for your own e-commerce platform, distributor sites, physical displays, franchise networks, social channels, email campaigns, and more.

Each route to market demands tailored content, unique formats, regional adaptation, and compliance checks. Global teams juggle multiple file versions and stakeholders. Local teams often recreate assets from scratch because they can’t find the right ones.

Retail content funnel showing ecomm, dealers, social, and in-store channels

How disorganized content slows down retail growth

Without the right systems in place, content operations become a source of delay and frustration. 

Retail marketers face:

  • Delays in approvals and launches due to unclear workflows. 
  • Redundant work, as teams duplicate efforts across markets and formats. 
  • Off-brand activations stemming from outdated or non-compliant assets. 
  • A lack of transparency into which content is used where—and how it performs.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, 67% of marketers say campaign speed is directly tied to revenue performance (CMI, 2025). Yet without asset visibility and governance, campaign execution slows to a crawl.

A new foundation: Digital Asset Management with portals

The answer isn’t more people or more meetings. It’s better infrastructure. A modern Digital Asset Management (DAM) system acts as the foundation for consistent, scalable, and localized retail marketing.

DAM with channel-specific portals lets you:

  • Serve the right assets to the right partners at the right time
  • Maintain brand control across every execution
  • Empower local teams to adapt and publish content independently
  • Connect your content with tools like PIM and CMS
  • Track usage, performance, and asset reuse

This approach reduces duplication, ensures compliance, and accelerates time to market.

Branded digital asset portal for dealers and partners

Ready to assess your content operations?

To help you take the first step, we’ve created a Retail Content Operations Audit. In just 21 questions, you can:

  • Uncover inefficiencies and bottlenecks
  • Evaluate your tech stack and workflow readiness
  • Prioritize where to streamline or scale content operations

The checklist includes 21 yes-or-no questions designed to reveal the friction points slowing your campaigns. It’s the fastest way to map where your content machine is working—and where it needs tuning.

Eliminate bottlenecks from your retail mix

Streamline your retail content
in 21 questions

Eliminate bottlenecks from your retail mix

Streamline your retail content
in 21 questions

Start the audit

Eliminate bottlenecks from your retail mix

Start the audit
Streamline your retail content operations in 21 questions - PDF cover
Start the audit

FAQs

What are the main challenges retail marketers face today?

Fragmented channels, inconsistent branding, manual content adaptation, and approval delays are some of the most common operational issues.

How can a DAM system help retail teams?

A DAM with portals streamlines asset access, ensures compliance, and empowers local teams with ready-to-use, on-brand content.

What does the 21-question audit cover?

It evaluates content strategy, workflow efficiency, tech stack integration, and brand governance across channels.

Who should take the audit?

Anyone involved in campaign delivery—brand managers, trade marketers, content leads, and regional marketing teams.

How long does the audit take and what do I get out of it?

t takes just 3 minutes and provides a clear snapshot of where to streamline content ops and scale more effectively.

Table of contents:

  1. Why retail marketing is more complex than ever
  2. How disorganized content slows down retail growth
  3. A new foundation: Digital Asset Management with portals
  4. Ready to assess your content operations?
  5. FAQs