Images and videos are integral to brands these days. Making sure you and your team can actually access and find this visual content is super important. It’s a responsibility that tools such as One Drive or Dropbox can’t quite live up to.
That’s where digital asset management (DAM) comes in. It’s the single source of truth for all your creative files and the home for your visual content. No more endless searching through Google Drive or SharePoint. No more chunky email attachments. Keep everything in one central location where everyone can find what they need, fast. 🚀
What are the benefits of digital asset management?
Without further ado, here are some of the key benefits of digital asset management and why you should consider adding it to your workplace.
Save time and money
One of the biggest benefits of digital asset management is the time you’ll get back. In fact, time is money, and something I’m sure you and your boss want to save.
The good news is DAM can save you loads of time. This gives you a good return on investment if you pick an affordable tool, like Dash. There’s a reason we won the best ROI for small and medium businesses in the Summer 2022 G2 awards, after all. 😇
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How do DAMs save you time? Check out these features:
Find media files fast
Say you’re looking for the perfect product image for a new ad campaign. You could be hunting through folders in your shared drive and scanning over hundreds of tiny thumbnail images before you find the exact one you’re looking for. And, even then, it might not be the dimensions you need. It’s a pain, right?
In a good DAM, you can search for a keyword or phrase and instantly see all relevant assets. You can search the actual content of your content, without having to remember digital file or folder names. Intelligent tagging means you could simply type in the word ‘lamp’ and your DAM will show you any photos with that object in.
Optimise search with tags and fields
Keep all your folders and files organised in a DAM by setting up folder structures, naming files clearly and using tags to make the search functionality even faster. In Dash, you’ll get auto-tag suggestions which you can implement with a click. You can sort by file type, orientation and date your file was added.
You can also create your own fields to organise content in a way that works best for you. Custom fields connect related images together across different folders. Create tags by product line, marketing campaign, content creator, or whatever you like! Think of how your colleagues might want to find the content they’re after, then plan your custom fields around that. The better your structure, the quicker you’ll find your content.
Speedy uploading and downloading
It may sound like a no-brainer, but uploading and downloading are essential features in a digital asset management solution. It can be as simple as dragging and dropping a digital file into an upload form, or clicking the download button next to your new video ad. No more waiting around for big email attachments. 🥱
Here are some things Dash does with uploading and downloading:
Duplicate detection on upload
One of the biggest issues with network drives is that you could be saving a duplicate photo without even realising. Whilst our computers are good at picking up duplicate file names, they can’t recognise the same image - even when it’s staring them in the face.
Digital asset management software uses duplicate detection to detect when the same image is being uploaded twice. If you’ve already uploaded that photo of the office dog wearing a funny hat, Dash will flag it, ensuring you maintain a tidy system.
Customised downloads
You don’t need to stick to the original file when you download from Dash. You can choose to download a JPG as a PNG, or, crop the image to a specific size.
For anyone managing social media, you can select a size for the particular platform you’re working. In Dash, you can choose to set dimensions for LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
No more waiting for your graphic designer to resize that image for you - you can get on and do it yourself.
Protect your brand
When logo files are stored on work servers, copies get made across folders and local storage. It's how old, incorrect or poor-quality formats sneak into all kinds of places. Using a DAM solution as a home for your brand assets means they can be kept fresh and shareable with your colleagues and outside freelancers. They’re also much more likely to be used correctly and keep your brand integrity intact. Here’s how:
Manage permissions
If your digital asset management tool is being used by multiple team members and departments, chances are you’ll want to set permissions and manage user access. This means that only certain people will be able to see certain business assets. Say you want your social media team to use the latest product shots and brand photography, but you don’t want them to download any working files or old brand graphics. You can easily set levels of permissions using groups.
Permissions will help you set up approval workflows and ensure brand consistency and security. In other words, you won’t be catching any unapproved content in your marketing channels. Phew!
Expiry dates
Using models or freelance photography to create your assets? With Dash, you can add the usage rights associated with each image or video. This way, if you only have access to an image for a certain time, you can set an expiry date and your team members will get notified if it’s no longer available to use.
Tell your brand story
‘Branding’ means more than a consistent logo - which brings us to the next digital asset management benefit: storytelling.
Imagery and videos can enrich your brand’s story. Whether you’re producing a compelling customer story or creating an ‘about us’ section, curating the right selection of visual assets is important to strengthening your brand story.
If you’re a brand manager, you’ll no longer have to ‘police’ your company’s visual identity. You won’t need to answer the same questions and manually share the latest logo artwork with everyone who asks for it. A DAM will provide a clear, easy-to-navigate brand hub that’ll free your time.
Collaborate with ease
Dealing with important contacts outside your company network? Here’s how DAM software can make collaborating that much easier:
Easily share files
Perhaps you work with the press, freelancers, or agencies spread across time zones. Answering frequent content requests can be a drawn-out process with the risk of mistakes or lost emails. No thank you! With a DAM, you can quickly share files by generating a share link or sending it to an email address. This avoids any unnecessary downloads on your end. 🙌
Even better, with Dash, you can set up collections or portals:
Collections are a selection of assets of your choosing. You can share with anyone who has access to a Dash account.
Portals are public-facing areas of your Dash. This means anyone can access and download the images and videos you put in there. This could be a press centre, a brand hub or an image bank for your distributors. It means external partners or agencies can find your brand content for their work - without having to bother you.
Receiving files
When your content is coming from outside suppliers, a DAM solution means fewer stages than a file transfer website. For example, if you’re working with a freelance photographer, they can easily upload the latest product shots to your digital asset management system. You can then accept or reject the files you like or dislike. Goodbye expired WeTransfer links that make you despair!
Get your visuals to market, faster 🚀
Once you’ve got all your gorgeous brand assets, you’ll want to get them out into the wild.
You can deploy your assets quickly and seamlessly by embedding them into your website, downloading social-ready images and connecting up with tools such as Hootsuite. Most DAM platforms offer cropping features that anyone can handle. This means countless design hours on resizing jobs is a thing of the past. In Dash, you can pick preset sizes for social media. Whether it’s sponsored content for LinkedIn or a photo for a TikTok video, you’ll no longer need to hassle your design team.
Integrate with your favourite tools
Most DAM tools offer integrations that let you hook up with multiple tools that you might already be using. This means your workflows will be even smoother, saving you even more time.
If you pick Dash, you’ll be able to sync up with loads of different tools that’ll benefit your teams. For marketing, check out our Hootsuite, Wordpress and Canva integrations. For designers, you can integrate with Figma, Sketch and Adobe Creative Suite. You can even connect with other storage tools like SharePoint, Google Drive, Dropbox and Box.
But it doesn't end there. Check out our integrations page to discover more.
Keep your content secure
A cloud-based DAM solution is the choice of most marketing and creative teams and their IT colleagues. We’d recommend it too. It frees your technical support teams from maintenance duties, and removes the need to replace hardware.
Dash is ISO 27001 certified (the international standard for information security), stays up-to-date with security patches and continuously backs up your data.
Which DAM tool should I pick?
Now you can see the benefits of DAM, it might be time to start thinking about which tool you’re going to use. There are lots of different providers out there, so it’s important to make sure you choose one that’s right for you. Download our free software comparison worksheet to help you whittle down you choices.
Edie Mullen is a content management and DAM consultant. She's worked with clients like Men's Health, Net-a-Porter and GQ.
