Is your Digital Asset Management (DAM) letting you down?

The vast amount of digital content that leading brands distribute every day, across multiple channels and formats, means legacy content asset management systems are often no longer fit for purpose.

Long, complicated file paths on standard servers can lead to big productivity problems as marketing teams waste time searching through folders for the right asset.

Robust, scalable content asset management systems are critical in today’s fast-paced, global landscape. Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems help drive the digital transformation of businesses and gives marketing professionals a modern solution that saves time and money. 

However, not all DAM systems are created equal – and it’s important to determine whether yours is realising the undoubted potential these platforms have to streamline communication, speed up turnaround times and lock down brand consistency.

Increased productivity and peace of mind

While DAM platforms have the power to store, share and organise all your digital content in a centralised location, you should get more out of your creative files by being able to edit and track the changes being made to assets. 

• Can you categorise the assets based on metadata and tags? 
• Can you generate different sizes and file formats from the asset itself, so that you can truly operate in one place? 
• Can you share your assets with both external and internal stakeholders with ease? 

This is what Digital Asset Management is truly about, securing a seamless workflow for your entire company while giving Brand Managers total control over their assets. 

Of course, storing, accessing and sharing your digital assets quickly and easily is one of the key foundations of an effective marketing operation. But you also want your colleagues to use these assets correctly when communicating with potential customers, so it’s important to think about what else you need from your DAM system.

Dynamic brand activation at your control

Today’s marketer needs more than just static assets. They need the flexibility to create different marketing materials using these assets, such as presentations, brochures, ads, social media images. Enabling asset creation is a must-have for modern marketers. So, if you have this in place, that’s great. If you don’t, you should ask whether your DAM tools are providing what you need to keep up with evolving marketing trends.

As the demands on digital content continue to grow and organisations increase efforts to streamline brand strategy processes, a single-purpose DAM system may not be enough for modern marketers.

Here are a few key metrics and areas we recommend using to judge the performance of your DAM system:

User experience

It’s vital that your DAM solution presents an excellent user experience for your employees and any other users. The primary goal of any DAM is to make it easier for your team to find and use the resources they need to support the creation of marketing collateral. If the UX makes this challenging, the DAM is not working as it should.

A good user experience will start with how people navigate the system:

• How intuitive is the structure, hierarchy and navigation of the software?
• Does the system allow you to tag and categorise assets using terminology you and your team are familiar with?
• Can you quickly filter resources by a particular tag or category to help you find the asset you’re looking for faster?
• Is the display and user interface straightforward and intuitive to users?
• Is it easy to share assets with your teams in a variety of locations?
• Can the system be translated into multiple languages to support its use by your teams globally?
• Does it offer any indication if an asset has already been uploaded to the system to remove the risk of duplication?
• Is it easy to operate across multiple devices, including mobile and tablets?
• Can you export digital assets into a variety of file formats?

These are just some of the questions you should ask about any prospective DAM solution to ensure it provides you and your team with an effective user experience. Without this, it will inevitably be ignored and underutilised, meaning you miss out on the ROI that other organisations gain from this type of software.

Internal implementation

The user experience also depends on how you, as an organisation, manage your assets when the system you’ve selected is implemented. While it can do a lot, it requires those responsible for the solution to manage it professionally and prudently. 

• Have you ensured that all labeling is applied consistently and in terminology that your global teams can recognise?
• Are resources specific to a particular location or outlet clearly marked?
• How are assets grouped together for a specific purpose and is reasoning clearly marked up?

When the user interface offered by a high-quality DAM aligns with the effective organisation of the team operating it, then the management of your digital assets can reach a whole new level.

Local vs global

There is also a need to differentiate between digital assets that are globally available, and resources that specifically cater to a particular market or location. As we’ve explored in other articles, localised marketing is essential to effectively engage your audience at a deeper, personalised level. Giving this attention can help you build stronger bonds with the various communities your brand interacts with and foster customer loyalty.

The scale of your digital asset creation and the severity of the problems you face will depend on both your marketing team’s setup and the needs of your organisation. But, there is no doubt that the challenges surrounding content production continue to grow as demands on content escalate, with an increasing number of channels and mediums for brands to connect with their audiences.

This puts more of a priority on asset creation than on how these assets are managed. So it’s worth looking at the additional features and benefits that a Brand Activation Management (BAM) system brings to your business.

Evolving from DAM to BAM

Brand Activation Management (BAM) expands on the capabilities of a standalone DAM system. BAM includes an effective DAM solution within it, capable of containing an enormous number of digital assets in one place, and making it easy for users to seek out what they need and share it with their colleagues globally.

But, BAM  goes further in providing marketing teams with an intuitive creation suite and intelligent templates, which can be used by anyone to produce on-brand, high-quality assets regardless of their design experience or expertise. 

With access to all assets available on the DAM, someone can immediately download these and use them as a base for new, tailored assets for an upcoming campaign, without the financial or time burden of starting from scratch or bringing in a specialist.

On top of the same functions as a DAM system, BAM:

• Gives everyone access to create and edit brand consistent print and digital marketing materials, without the need for specialist design skills
• Becomes a single source of truth for the entire brand, housing all guidelines and standards in one place to be accessed by team members
• Allows users to oversee and manage delivery of assets across their campaigns, and track what assets are being utilised most frequently

Fundamentally, it builds on the platform that DAM systems and similar distinct content management softwares have created, and blends these into one powerful, all-encompassing package for content marketers.

Without the foundation that DAM established decades ago and has continued to refine, BAM could not build on this with a means of enhancing an organisation’s ability to govern their brand voice and keep it consistent across all channels and locations.

Because at their core, DAM and BAM work to deliver the same highly sought-after commodity: control.

For teams looking to take control of content production like never before, and reduce their reliance on costly freelancers or agencies to create assets you could produce in-house with the right tool, BAM goes a lot further in resolving all of the issues that teams face day-to-day:

• Content creation is faster and more consistent than ever before
• Brand guidelines are kept at the forefront of teams’ minds
• All assets are securely stored and shared across your global workforce
• Key metrics related to your assets’ usage are tracked and stored

BAM by Papirfly™ represents an ideal evolution. It is enabling marketing teams to create an infinite amount of assets with one single, annual license fee. This means they can do a lot more for less – keeping up with the pressures on brands to be ever-present without any further strain on their budgets.

Find out more about Papirfly’s BAM solution by booking your free personalised demo.

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