Why your business needs brand asset management

A strong brand is at the heart of all successful ecommerce businesses.

It’s not just a ‘nice to have’. It’s one of your most important assets which can actually impact your bottom line. As Forbes reports, a consistent brand across all your platforms can increase your revenue by up to 23%.

If you’re a growing ecommerce brand working across channels, different teams and partners will need access to your company’s visual content. It can be challenging to manage that without sacrificing the quality of your brand integrity.

How do you keep everything looking and feeling consistent? How do you make sure that everyone, from designers to resellers, keeps on brand? With brand asset management software, of course!

What are brand assets?

This is a good place to start. Brand assets are digital files which make up how your brand is shown online. They can come in different formats, types and sizes. Here's a few examples:

• Logos - Note the plural here. If you're a brand online, you'll have different variations and sizes of your logo depending on the channel you'll be using it for.
  
• Brand style guides - Consistency is key. To achieve this, brands turn to style guides. These are usually PDFs which govern how designers and content creators should use your brand elements.
  
• Colour palettes - This will be set by your brand style guide. Every brand has a colour scheme which forms an important part in creating a cohesive brand.
  
• Fonts - Font files unique to your brand class as a digital asset. Good typography is an essential part in articulating the personality of your company.
  
• Brand-approved marketing material - Having a bank of brand-approved sales and marketing content speeds up the time it'll take you to get content to your teams - and keep them on brand.
  
• Audio files - Sound, especially sonic signatures, are an increasingly important part of a brand identity. Who wouldn’t want their own version of Netflix’s iconic ‘ta-dum’? These could be used in podcast adverts or at the start of any video content you’re creating.

What is brand asset management? 

Brand asset management (BAM) is the single source of truth for your company’s visual assets. It’s a central location where your colleagues can find the most up-to-date versions of branding assets and marketing materials. As your company grows, it lets you stay in control of your online brand management and brand quality whilst granting different teams and partners access to your brand visuals.

Whether you’re undertaking a rebrand or just want to keep on top of your brand integrity, a BAM should be a vital part of your asset management strategy. It’s a solution to assets getting lost in hard-to-find folders on your Google Drive or Dropbox. 

To give you a little sneak preview, here’s what your brand assets look like in Dash (that’s our brand asset management solution).

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What is a brand asset? 

When we say brand assets, we mean digital files which make up how your brand is presented online. They'll likely appear on your social media channels, marketing emails and across any brand awareness campaigns you launch. They can come in different formats, file types and sizes. Here are a few examples:

• Logos: Note the plural here. If you're a brand online, you'll have different variations and sizes of your logo depending on the channel you'll be using it for.
  ‍
• Brand style guides: Consistency is key. To achieve this, brands turn to style guides. These are usually PDFs which govern how designers and content creators should use your brand elements.
  ‍
• Colour palettes: This will be set by your brand style guide. Every brand has a colour scheme integral to creating a cohesive brand.
  ‍
• Fonts: Font files unique to your brand class as a digital asset. Good typography is an essential part of articulating the personality of your company.
  ‍
• Brand-approved marketing material: Having a bank of brand-approved sales and marketing content speeds up the time it'll take you to get content to your teams - and keep them on brand.
  ‍
• Audio files: Sound, especially sonic signatures, are increasingly important to a brand identity. Who wouldn’t want their own version of Netflix’s iconic ‘ta-dum’? These could be used in podcast adverts or at the start of any video content you create.

DAM vs BAM - what’s the difference?

There are a lot of acronyms in the SaaS space. And brand asset management is no exception. In fact, BAM is actually a type of digital asset management (DAM).  

The best way to get your head around this is to think of digital asset management software as a category. It refers to tools that help you store, organise, share and use your brand’s visual content, digital files and creative assets. 

Now, think of BAM as a specific flavour of DAM. Alongside standard digital asset management benefits, a BAM will also have features specifically for brand managers, like being able to bring your style guide to life or control branded templates.

In short, digital asset management (DAM) is a software category. Think of BAM (and video asset management, or VAM for short) as specific DAM flavours.

Here’s why your company needs a brand asset management tool

Let’s go through a few reasons why you should consider a brand asset management platform for your company.

1. For helping your brand awareness 

Building brand awareness is crucial in making sure you’re seen by your target audience and you’re part of their buying decision. A part of that process is establishing your brand identity and creating assets like logo variations, approved fonts, colour palettes and iconography. Using consistent branding across your marketing channels will help build trust and familiarity with your audience. A brand management tool means all these digital brand assets are in an easily-accessible location. So when your social media teams need to drop some brand graphics into a Canva project, they’ll know exactly what assets are approved and go to do. 

2. Your teams can find your brand files (without hassling you)

If you’re a brand manager, you'll be spending time finding approved assets for your creative, sales and marketing teams.

Let’s use logo files as an example. Logos can come in all different shapes, colours and file formats. Keeping these in a shared folder makes it tricky for your colleagues to find the asset they’re after. They’ll either waste time tracking it down or ask you to do it for them.

By using a BAM, you can neatly categorise brand assets so colleagues can find the files themselves. If you pick a good tool, like Dash, they’ll be able to find what they’re after much quicker.

Here’s a look at how we’ve categorised logo files in our own Dash. Our team can now filter by different types of logo attributes, like usage, colour and iconography.

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3. For maintaining brand integrity

With all your brand assets kept in a single platform, it’s easier for you to keep on top of your brand integrity and quality. Anything not approved by you doesn’t make it into your BAM. That means you don’t run the risk of a stray team member using out-of-date logos from a Drive or Dropbox folder you forgot to update.

Use Dash’s access controls and user permissions to decide what different sets of people can see and do in your Dash. Your resellers and stockists, for example, don’t need access to your folder of archived brand assets. Similarly, your sales team needs to download logos and graphics for pitch decks but doesn’t necessarily need to upload anything to your Dash.

4. For quick and easy rebranding

Developing a rebranding strategy is a daunting prospect for any brand manager. From the design and creative process at the start right through to rolling out your new brand, there are plenty of hurdles you’ll have to guide your business over. Make things easier on yourself by using a BAM tool for rebranding instead. With Dash, you could:

• Integrate Dash with Adobe Creative Suite so your designer can drop assets straight from Dash into the projects they’re working on (without having to hassle you with file requests).
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• Set your creative team working on the rebrand as Dash ‘contributors’. This means they’re able to upload the new assets they’re working on to your Dash where they’ll be kept in a holding area ready for you to approve. You can accept the ones you like, reject the ones you don’t, and provide feedback on creative assets which need editing.
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• Then, once your designs are ready to go, use version control to notify anyone who’s downloaded your now out-of-date logo that there’s a new file they should be using.

5. Make sure nobody uses old branding

Even if you’re not undertaking a whole rebrand, there’ll still be occasions where you need to refresh creative files and retire old ones. Here’s the two main ways Dash can help you keep on top of this:

Even if you’re not undertaking a whole rebrand, there’ll still be occasions when you need to refresh creative files and retire old ones. Here are the two main ways Dash can help you keep on top of this:

• Expiry dates: Nobody wants to see the Christmas version of your logo way into February. When you know your brand assets are going to have a limited shelf life, set an expiry date. Dash will send warnings to admins ahead of the defined date so they can be sure they don't end up using outdated content.
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• Version control: Brands and assets change and evolve over time. If you’ve tweaked an asset, you can re-upload it to Dash as a ‘new version’. This will send an email to everyone who’s downloaded the previous version so they can make sure to update it.

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6. Bring your branding content to life

You want your customers to have a consistent brand experience. So why not your colleagues and partners? Instead of putting up with the Drive or Dropbox branding all the time, pick digital asset management software that you can make your own.

You can theme your Dash easily. Select your logo, brand colours and images you’d like to feature in your login and home page. This is great for file sharing with external teams, too, like your paid ad agency.

It doesn’t end there. Using our Corebook integration, you can turn your PDF brand design guidelines into a mini website. Not only does it look great, but it’s also far easier to maintain and update. Your design teams will thank you for it, we promise.

Read how ecommerce brand, Kinetics, uses Dash and Corebook° to create an online brand hub. 

Who uses brand asset management software?

BAM software is, first of all, a tool for brand managers. But we’d argue that brand asset management software can benefit other teams in your business. 

Brand managers 

Brand managers are the gatekeepers of your brand. They’re responsible for ensuring all your content and communications align with your brand’s identity. A BAM is crucial in helping them keep track of all the assets that are created. In a BAM like Dash they can approve new content from your designers, and ensure your different teams can access the brand content they need. 

Marketing teams 

Your marketing team will use BAM software for their day-to-day tasks. They can access approved content without needing to ask your brand manager which logo is currently the most up-to-date version. They might also use the integrations to get product images and videos ready for marketing channels. 

Brand templates and style guides also come in handy. Let’s say your social media team needs to create a post ASAP. They can hop into a BAM system like Dash, browse your brand guidelines, grab product images or brand assets and push them directly to social media via the Hootsuite integration. Alternatively, they can create a new post in tools like Canva and connect with Dash to quickly drop images into new projects. 

Discover how the team at Emmy London uses Dash to plan their marketing campaigns. 

Freelance designers 

If you’re like many ecommerce businesses, you’re likely using Google Drive or Dropbox to receive images from freelancers. These systems are cumbersome and don’t do your visual content justice. 

Things are much different with brand asset managers like Dash. You can create a Guest Uploads folder where freelancers submit design files for review. Here, you can approve designs and for use or provide feedback to the designer directly. 

You can also use Dash and Corebook to share up-to-date brand guidelines with your freelancers, so they stay on-brand from the start. That way, you won’t waste productive time on unnecessary revisions and back-and-forth. 

Learn how Forthglade uses Dash to collect UGC for their Dog of the Month competition. 

Sales teams 

The last thing you want is your sales team pitching customers using outdated product images. It’s not a good look for your business. With a BAM tool, they can easily access the latest product images and catalogues for their sales decks — without asking for marketing or design help. 

If you’re using Dash, you can set up a Portal where customers and resellers can browse through your product offering and select what they need. It’s faster and more convenient for everyone. 

And when they have to create sales decks and presentations, they’ll use your online brand book as a reference to ensure everything matches your desired look and feel.

Read how History and Heraldry use Dash to give sales teams access to new product lines all around the world.

The best brand asset management software for your business

You’re ready to invest in brand asset management, but you’re not sure which tool to use. Not to worry; here are four brand asset management software perfectly suited for bringing a consistent brand image to life. 

1. Dash: BAM tool for growing ecommerce businesses 

If you’re looking for a seamless way to organise, deploy and share your brand visual content — from images and videos to online brand books — then you should definitely check out Dash (that’s us 🤩). 

Dash is a digital asset management system and has a ton of brand management capabilities that will help you maintain a consistent image across all your channels. It’s like having the best of two worlds. 

Let’s talk a bit more about how brand managers use Dash. 

• To create online brand guidelines: As a growing ecommerce business, you’re likely working with a freelance graphics designer or agency to create visual assets for your brand. You need an efficient way to ensure that these assets match your brand’s visual identity — that’s where online brand guidelines come in. 

Dash integrates with Corebook, allowing you to create a beautiful online brand book for your ecommerce business. Instead of a PDF file that no one reads, you get editable online brand guidelines that do your visual content justice. 

The best part? Any updates made in Dash will automatically sync with your online brand book — so you don’t have to worry about adding or deleting assets manually. 

• To find brand assets quickly: Think about how you search for images in your traditional file manager like Google Drive or Dropbox. You’ll typically need to know the exact file name or spend hours scrolling through numerous assets to find what you need. 

But things are much simpler with Dash. When you add a new asset to Dash, our artificial intelligence tagging system automatically scans and adds relevant search terms to its metadata so you can easily find it in the future. 

Dash also saves the exact location where images are taken, allowing you to search for assets based on the names of places, such as London and New York. But it doesn’t end there; you can find images using their exact content. For example, you can search for “cactus” to find all the images that include it. 

• To share and deploy images and videos: Need to send updated product images for a rebranding campaign? Simply create a public-facing portal of your Dash, add the brand assets, and share it with external collaborators via a URL. It’s easy and saves time for everyone. 

Dash also integrates with several channels where you use your visual assets. For example, you can browse your full Dash right in Shopify and update product listings with new images and videos directly. You can also post images from your Dash to your social media accounts using our Hootsuite integration. 

“So how much do I pay for all of these?” Not much — Dash’s pricing plans are super affordable.

For £79/$109 a month, you get access to all our digital and brand asset management features. And you’ll only upgrade if you need extra storage space.

2. Brandfolder: For enterprise businesses 

Brandfolder is an enterprise-level DAM designer for large businesses. It has more than 100 features, such as creative workflows, on-demand brand templates and smart CDN that enables you to embed brand assets from Brandfolder to your marketing channels. 

Brandfolder offers two packages: Premium and Enterprise. While it’s not transparent about pricing, we dug around and found out that these packages cost around $1,600/month at the very least. You can read our full Brandfolder breakdown to learn more about its features and capabilities. 

3. Frontify: For brand templating

Frontify provides everything you’ll need to organise your brand-related assets, collaborate with your team and ensure a consistent visual presentation across your channels. 

Their templating feature also lets you create customisable and reusable digital, video and print templates. However, Frontify lacks some basic digital asset management features, such as cropping and resizing images. 

Frontify doesn’t share exact numbers when it comes to pricing. You’ll need to speak with the sales team to know how much it costs.

Want to learn more? Our Frontify alternatives article covers everything you need to know. 

4. Canto: For mid-market businesses 

If you have complex brand management needs but can’t afford an enterprise BAM tool like Brandfolder, you could try Canto. 

It offers similar features to Brandfolder, such as media cloud delivery, brand guidelines and workflows. It also has decent DAM capabilities like preset image sizes and integrations. Check out our Canto alternatives article for the full scoop. 

Canto costs about $600/month, which is relatively pricey for smaller ecommerce brands but might fit an enterprise budget nicely. 

How to make a business case for brand asset management software

You’re sold on a brand asset management system and excited to try it out! But there’s a problem: you’re not sure how to convince your boss. The business is already running on a tight budget, and since there’s already a make-shift system for managing brand assets, your boss might not be keen on investing in a shiny new tool. 

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here are some ways to build a strong case to win over your boss. 

1. Know why you need a BAM

You need to have a strong business reason for investing in brand asset management software. 

Speak to everyone who works with brand assets in your organisation to find out the challenges they face with the current system. Maybe they’re spending too much time searching for assets, or there have been instances where someone used your old logo for a social media creative. Write these down. 

If possible, quantify the revenue impact of these drawbacks on the business. Showing the numbers is a sure way to get your boss’s attention. 

Check out our article that covers DAM return on investment, which has tips on how to calculate the money you could save with a digital asset management tool. 💸

2. Research your options 

When talking to your boss, make sure to gather information about the BAM tools that might be a good fit for your business. 

Research their features and pricing to know what they offer. This is where Dash stands out. Our pricing page (with the actual numbers) is right on our website — unlike enterprise DAMs like Brandfolder and Frontify. No need to speak with sales or engage in a lengthy trial period. 

Prepare a comparison of these options, highlighting key features, benefits, costs, and how each aligns with the organisation’s needs. Be ready to answer questions and provide additional information if needed, showing that you have a solid understanding of each tool’s value.

Even better, download our free DAM comparison worksheet to help you weigh your options. 

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3. Test the software

Don’t just believe what others say about these tools; try things out for yourself. Dash offers a 14-day free trial that gives you access to all of our features. You can experience our tool firsthand to know if it’s the right fit for your ecommerce business. Alternatively, if you’d like a member of our team to show you round, you can book a 30-minute demo. 

Getting started with brand asset management 

Now you’ve explored all your options, it’s time to get set up with a new BAM tool. If you’ve picked Dash, you can easily move assets from cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox using out integration. If you’re moving from another DAM system, our team can help you migrate everything over to Dash. We can also give you advice on your folder structures and the taxonomy you might need. Our team is always on hand to help using in-app chat. In fact, we’ve won awards for the unique experience we give small and medium-sized businesses.

Try it out yourself today. Take out a no-strings free trial and build the home your brand deserves.