If you’re struggling to get a handle on a constantly changing library of digital content – you’re not alone. Digital asset management has become a must-have for commercial teams, as creative content has become central to nearly every step of the sales process.
Digital asset management (DAM) systems eliminate many of the roadblocks that keep organizations from fully leveraging content into revenue. With a central source of truth for digital assets, there are no more content silos, lost or misplaced files, or outdated non-compliant documents. Combined with powerful analytics and AI the result is a massive boost in content ROI.
According to Forrester’s 2022 Marketing Survey, B2B marketing decision-makers say investing in new technology to support productivity is the most important point of focus for their content strategy in the next year, and DAM systems are a key component of those investments. Verified Market Research predicts that the value of the Global Digital Asset Management Market will reach $13.94 Billion by 2028.
In this post, you’ll learn what digital asset management is, what it can do for your organization, and what to look for when choosing a DAM solution.
What is digital asset management?
A digital asset management (DAM) system helps companies create, organize, store, retrieve, and distribute their digital assets from a central library or collection.
An easy-to-use DAM provides key stakeholders – including employees, clients, contractors, and managers – access to all of an organization’s digital assets.
A DAM system can manage any digital asset, including:
- Videos
- Presentations
- Audio, video, or graphic icons
- Spreadsheets
- 3D files
Users of DAM systems include internal and external stakeholders, such as:
- In-house creatives like graphic designers and photographers
- Sales and marketing teams
- IT teams
- Agencies that need to share assets with external clients
- Contractors and partners
6 benefits of using a digital asset management system to organize sales content
Suppose your organization is storing digital files across multiple devices and platforms. In that case, the unfortunate truth is that many of your assets may be wasted because they are difficult to find, share, collaborate on, and measure.
A DAM system centrally stores all your organization’s assets so you can increase the ROI of all your content and creative programs.
DAM systems have many benefits for organizations, including:
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Create, collaborate, and share content from a centralized hub
Your digital asset management system provides a centralized, secure hub for your entire sales team to manage content during its entire lifecycle, from the first creative brainstorming steps to downstream delivery of the assets. You’ll be able to collaborate on projects, assign tasks in DAM workflows and approve assets within the system, so you can streamline communication and improve the productivity of your sales teams.
No matter where your sales team members are in the world, they’ll be able to access and share files with anyone, at any time, from any device.
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Publish and distribute content from different sources
The digital publishing tools in a modern DAM enable you to push any digital asset to content management systems, including marketing automation solutions, social media channels, and third-party distribution services.
With a DAM system, you’ll be able to track the licensing requirements and usage rights for every asset in your library, and set expiration dates for your licensed assets.
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Find assets fast
With a digital asset management system, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to filter through your digital assets and find what you’re looking for.
With a DAM’s powerful search capabilities, you can specify file types to search for, use image filters, or use in-document search functions to narrow your results and find what you need.
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Maintain brand consistency
Zendesk reports that 87% of buyers prefer brands that provide consistent customer experience across all channels – and digital asset management can help you maintain this kind of brand consistency across your advertising and marketing campaigns.
By restricting access to legacy files, your DAM ensures that only the most up-to-date assets are accessible to your users. Sales team members can create, collaborate on, manage, and share assets without deviating from your brand guidelines.
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Track and measure the impact of your sales content
Understanding how your marketing and sales content is performing is a critical part of your marketing success. A DAM system will automatically generate easy-to-interpret reports that help you analyze the ROI of your digital assets, including who’s using the files and where they’re being used.
Analytics can help you shape your content marketing strategy and identify opportunities for repurposing your digital assets.
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Increased sales
A DAM system can help your company stand out from competitors in a crowded marketplace. With the right assets always at their fingertips, your sales team will be able to engage with prospects more effectively so they can close more deals.
5 things to look for in a digital asset management system
Once you’ve recognized that you need a DAM, it’s time to start looking for a platform that suits your organization’s needs. Here are some tips for comparing your options and choosing a digital asset management system that works for your sales team.
Cloud-based solution
If you choose a DAM hosted entirely on the cloud, your organization won’t need to maintain hardware or servers on-site. Cloud-based DAM solutions are often the most affordable and scalable option for companies that need to store and manage assets but don’t want the added costs of maintenance and upkeep of secure servers.
With a cloud-based DAM, you only pay for the resources you need, and it’s easy to add users and upgrade your storage capacity as needed.
Easy to integrate
Integrating your DAM into your existing tech stack can help you speed up your workflow. When evaluating digital asset management system options, make a list of integrations you need, including items such as design and editing tools, CMS integrations, or social media publishing.
Your DAM should also offer a robust API so your IT team can connect it with any further niche applications your organization might use.
Scalability
As your team and your digital asset collection expand, your DAM system needs to scale with you. Make sure you can increase storage at the push of a button and add more users quickly and easily.
Simple asset distribution
One of the biggest advantages of using a digital asset management system is easy publication and distribution of assets – so your DAM needs to make it easy to publish assets anywhere, from a central cloud-based location.
With modern DAM systems, you’ll be able to distribute assets directly using public or private links, as well as embed assets into your websites’ pages and posts. When assets are edited in the DAM system, those assets should be automatically updated at the point of distribution.
Integrated digital rights management
Your digital asset management system should track and maintain usage rights and restrictions for any third-party content your marketing team licenses for campaigns. Copyrighted or licensed material includes music, product images, archived photos, video clips from sporting events, news footage, and music videos.
Modern DAM solutions track the length of time or number of uses for each asset, as well as specific restrictions on how assets can be used and other contract requirements.
Leverage your digital asset management for compliant guided selling through Pitcher
With Pitcher, you’ll be able to seamlessly integrate your CRM and DAM to your sales enablement tool so that your field and sales team can find what they need, when they need it – all in one app.
The Pitcher app provides a content engine to transform any type of content stored in our DAM and provides suggestions on the most suitable content to use for each specific customer – depending on the stage of the customer journey and segmentation they’re in – and delivers it via the preferred ( omni ) channel.
Pitcher enables your teams to track the usage and customer feedback for the content your customer-facing teams are using and makes compliant delivery easy.
Contact us today to schedule a demo to see how to leverage your DAM and guide your sales teams with Pitcher.
Frequently asked questions about digital asset management
What is a digital asset management system?
A digital asset management (DAM) system allows businesses to organize, distribute, collaborate on, and securely store digital files in one central location. DAM solutions contain features such as digital rights management, user permission controls, and asset performance analytics.
What are some examples of digital assets?
Any digital file that is part of a company’s brand presence is considered a digital asset. Examples include images, videos, PDFs, audio files, presentations, icons, spreadsheets, and design files.
When should I invest in a digital asset management system?
If you have a growing digital asset collection, investing in a digital asset management software solution can help you increase workflow efficiency, strengthen security and legal compliance, accelerate creation timelines, and improve the performance of your assets.
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