Your guide to picking digital asset management software

There’s over 250 different DAM vendors to choose from according to G2. For the uninitiated, this is a software review site that rates providers based on customer reviews. So it’s a pretty good resource to use when searching for a DAM. 

But when you’ve got 250 DAMs to trawl through, how on earth are you meant to vet them all and make a decision?  😩. Instead of wading through an endless list of software solutions, you can shortlist vendors based on some of the following: 

Transparent pricing 

Many well-known vendors expect you to pay thousands of dollars every year for a complex solution that you just don’t need. 

Even worse, most don’t offer pricing on their website. In fact, G2 suggests there’s only 38 DAM tools out of 250 that gives you pricing up front. So it’s hard to tell which one you can actually afford. You’ll often have to schedule a demo first - which is what happened to Kaitlyn, from Kelly Wynne. Before she found Dash, she spoke to one vendor who wanted to charge her an eye-watering $10,000+ per year! 🤯

So if you’re a small business, look out for vendors that offer transparent and affordable pricing. For starters, you can quickly see how much Dash will set you back on our pricing page. 

Return on investment 

You’re buying a home for all the visual assets you’ve spent time and money creating. That’s why your digital asset management software solution should give you the best return on your investment (ROI). 

When you spend thousands of dollars on a DAM, it’s harder to see the ROI you’re getting from it. Especially if the solution is complex. It’ll take a while to get the hang of and your team won’t be able to make the most of all the features.

Instead, look for a cheaper and simpler solution that doesn’t sacrifice on quality. You’ll be up and running in no time at all. Which means you and your team can quickly start making use of your brand assets in your campaigns. 

And FYI, our customers voted Dash as the DAM with the best ROI. 😇

Current client lists

 Client lists and customer stories can indicate whether a particular vendor is suitable for your business. For example, an enterprise DAM, like Bynder, clearly targets large brands. They’ve got massive companies like Five Guys, Puma and Alpro on their books. 

A DAM built for growing businesses, like Dash, is used by DTC brands including Goodrays, RJ Living and Filling Pieces. So if you’re a smaller brand, you might want to purchase a DAM that’s more streamlined and focused on the needs of your business. 

Ease of use 

An intuitive and user-friendly DAM won’t just make your life easier. It means that anyone outside of your company - like agencies or resellers - can use your system without any lengthy demos. They can simply jump in, find the creative assets they need and start selling your products. Take a look at G2 and Capterra to see what customers are saying about the user-interface of their DAMs. 

(To save you the research, Dash was voted the number one easiest-to-use DAM across the entire industry). 😇 

Free trials 

If you’re shopping around for a DAM, do you really want to sit through hours of demos with different vendors? Instead, look for vendors that offer you a free trial. 

Dash, for instance, doesn’t even require your credit card to get started. Simply sign up with an email address, import some assets and add your own branding to make it feel like yours. 

While you’re here, we thought we’d explore how Dash stacks up against its competitors. This should help you fill out your DAM comparison worksheet. 🙌

Dash is super affordable

Some of our competitors charge thousands of dollars a year for the core DAM features. For example, Bynder costs around $450 for a basic package (that’s $5400 a year). 

Instead, you can start using Dash for $59/£49 a month. You’ll get access to every feature and unlimited users. You’ll only pay more if you increase your monthly downloads or you need more storage.

You’ll be up and running quickly

Many DAMs have a big learning curve. That’s because their user interfaces are often complex and designed for massive organisations. Take Canto, who’s customers report it can take several weeks to complete the onboarding process. This is because the interface is clunky and overly complex. 

On the other hand, Dash has been voted the easiest-to-use DAM by our customers. The UI is intuitive, so anyone can jump in and get started. We’ll also migrate your assets over to Dash for free. Whether you’re currently storing them in Google Drive, Dropbox or your network servers - it couldn’t be quicker to get started. 

Dash is visually inspiring

You want to look after your brand’s visual content, so your DAM should be visually inspiring. If you’re currently using a tool like SharePoint, you’ll know how clunky and drab the interface looks. This doesn’t encourage your team to search for the best marketing assets for your campaigns. 

Dash, however, is design-led. The interface looks great and puts your assets front and centre. Just take a look at Planto’s Dash (that’s our fake brand). 😍

Features designed for growing brands 

We’ll be honest, Dash doesn’t have the extensive list of features that an enterprise digital asset management tool like Bynder has. You can’t print brand templates and we don’t have a built-in design studio. 
But we do have advanced features that are specifically tailored for small and growing businesses. Here are a handful:

• Auto-tagging and custom fields: Dash uses AI to automatically tag your assets. That means when you type ‘sofa’ into the search bar, Dash will scan the contents of your images to give you relevant results. You can also use custom fields and tags to categories and organise your images by SKU, product range, colour, marketing campaigns (or anything else you can think of). 
  
  
• Portals for resellers and agencies: If you want to give your resellers and agencies access to your assets you can set up public portals. External teams can search, browse and download your visuals quickly - meaning they can continue selling your products with ease.   
  
  
• Deploy content to your marketing channels: In Dash you can crop and resize images before you download them. Use the preset dimensions for your social media channels. Or set up your own dimensions, ideal for website headers and emails. You can also use our Hootsuite integration to quickly push images out to social. 
  
  
• Drop images into your Shopify store: Use our Shopify integration to seamlessly drop your images from Dash into your product listings. You won’t have to worry about resizing your images in another system. And there’ll be no more back and forth between your teams. Perfect for growing ecommerce brands who need to quickly launch new product lines. 🚀

🤓 Take a look at our full range of DAM features to make your life easier. 

Excellent customer service

Our customers consistently rate us highly for our customer service. In fact, we were voted the DAM with the best relationship with our clients. 🙌 If you ever have any questions or problems, you can message us via the chat app in Dash. As Jonno says on G2: 

“Dash is a superior service not just because of what the platform offers, but for the customer service. The team are always willing to assist and is always eager to improve Dash, and is continually looking at ways to make Dash even stronger. Would highly recommend it.”

Dash has great ROI

We’ve already said it, and we’ll say it again - Dash was voted the number one DAM for return on investment. This is how Kaitlyn, from handbag brand Kelly Wynne, continues to justify her investment with Dash: 

“When we’re looking at the bottom line, I always tell Kelly [company founder and Kaitlyn’s boss] that we could be paying Dash X amount, or she could be paying me X amount an hour to search for images in Google. The monthly Dash investment is much lower than my hourly photo hunting rate, and now I’m able to spend my time running campaigns and planning for the future.”

Getting your boss - and your teams - to agree to take on a new system can be tricky. They might not realise there’s a problem with the way you’re currently doing things. And they might be reluctant to invest in a DAM. But, ultimately, you need them to sign it off. And you want them to make good use of the system, too. Here are some tips on pitching DAM to your boss and wider teams:

1. Show them how much time and money you’re wasting: Calculate how much time you’re currently spending looking for assets. Check out the formula in our article that’ll help you tot up the hours spent searching for images. 
   
   
2. Prove how much time and money DAM will save: Next, show how a digital asset management solution will give you back that time and money. It’s not just about how much the DAM will cost, but how you’ll be making the most of those assets you’ve spent money creating. Again, our article above will show you how to do this. 👆
   
   
3. Give them a tour of your DAM: Whether you book a demo, or take out a free trial with a tool like Dash, you should show your teams how the DAM works. They can see for themselves how easy it’s going to be to search for images and videos. ✨

One of the biggest worries we hear from potential customers is how long it will take to move assets into their new system. We get it - you’ve probably got hundreds, maybe thousands of digital files that you need to collate and move over from tools like Google Drive or Dropbox. 

Luckily, we’ve made this process super-easy. It takes just a few simple steps:

1. Book a call with a customer success manager  
2. Share folders of content you want in Dash and we’ll move them over for free
3. Organise your files with Dash's bulk edit and metadata import
4. Build new folders and fields (with advice from us if needed)
5. Here’s a more in-depth article if you need to find out more. 

Ready to get started with Dash? You can sign up for a free trial below. 🙌

Or if you’re not quite ready, head back up to the free DAM software comparison worksheet to continue your research. ✨