Manage All of Your Digital Assets in One Location

For the last several years, businesses across various industries have been moving towards digital assets and digital asset management systems.  

With consumers’ reliance on smartphones, tablets, and computers, the shift from traditional print materials to digital became a necessary response from bands in order to keep up with what customers were demanding. 

Some companies recognize the need to transform their content digitally, while other companies continue to push back on digital transformation. It’s the brands who are digitally forward-thinking who are winning over today’s customers.

Nearly half of customers who left a brand in the last year revealed it’s due to a poor customer experience. Poor customer experiences can range from things like customers not being able to find what they need at a moment’s notice, unable to be onboarded to their new product successfully, unengaging experiences with a brand, and more. 

At the rate at which forward-thinking brands are creating digital content, resources, and assets for their customers, a system for managing, storing, and distributing digital content efficiently must be put in place; otherwise, chaos will ensue. 

Welcome to the world of digital asset management. 

A digital asset management (DAM) solution is defined by Gartner as, “manages the creation, approval, organization and distribution of all types of content (text, graphics, images, videos and audio) from a single system. It ensures that each piece of content is the best and most appropriate for every interaction and that internal and external stakeholders properly use digital assets to increase customer engagement, retention, acquisition and satisfaction.”

In other words, a DAM helps brands centralize and manage their digital content.  

What Are Examples of Digital Assets?

Digital assets come in a variety of forms these days. Below are a few examples of the type of content marketers can store in a DAM solution. 

• Documents

• Audio

• Images

• Videos

• Text

Additionally, a DAM helps improve brand consistency by serving as a single source of truth for approved brand assets. Teams across the business can access the latest logos, videos, images, and more that have been approved by marketing. Plus, DAM solutions often include permission settings that help brand marketers reduce the distribution of unapproved assets. 

The Role of DAMs

A  DAM solution serves as a trusted place to store an organization's digital content, including images, videos, documents, and more. 

DAM tools are the cornerstone of businesses organizing their content in order to share it with other team members, agencies, or channel partners. 

In recent years, the amount of DAM solutions has expanded significantly and possesses capabilities beyond just content management. DAM solutions are a piece of the puzzle to a much larger product experience strategy that brands need to prioritize in order to create an exceptional customer experience.

In a well-thought-out product experience strategy,  DAM solutions are part of a larger ecosystem, called a Product Experience Management (PXM) Platform that has a Product Information Management (PIM) solution to manage product data, a Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to create digital touchpoints throughout the customer journey, and even text messaging abilities for personalized communication.

The role of a DAM within a PXM is to create a seamless process across departments, which enables these teams to create and manage digital assets that can be pulled into digital experiences to enhance the customer experience. 

With the future of marketing leaning heavily on the creation of digital experiences, DAM software is no longer a nice-to-have,  but a necessity for manufacturers. 

What Is DAM in Digital Strategy? 

DAM systems play a crucial role in a digital product strategy; they help marketers manage, distribute, and leverage their content seamlessly. Today’s best digital strategies rely on delivering personalized experiences that make customers want to engage with the brand.  

A DAM system empowers marketers to personalize content for various customers by curating assets that align with specific demographics, regions, or interests. Whether it's an upcoming trade show that sales teams need personalized experiences for or a seasonal campaign to boost sales in-aisle, DAM tools enable marketing teams to quickly create engaging, personalized digital experiences for their customers.

Where Is Digital Asset Management Used?

For any business creating digital assets (which is almost every business), investing in a digital asset management solution is necessary, especially for manufacturers. 

Manufacturers have a ton of products they produce and sell; that means there’s an incredible amount of digital assets for each product including:

• Overview Product Videos

• Owner’s Manuals

• Warranties

• Troubleshooting Videos

• Product Images

Not only can a DAM help manage the numerous digital assets related to a manufacturer’s products, but this technology can also help bring a brand’s products to life. 

Let’s take a look at some examples of digital product experiences manufacturers can create with the digital assets stored in a DAM to enrichen the customer experience: 

• Product Onboarding - Product onboarding can make or break it for brands. Make sure customers are successfully onboarded to your brand’s products with a helpful product onboarding experience with plenty of videos, images, and manuals that provide customers with the information they need to know to set up their products.  

• In aisle - Wow customers in-store by creating an in-store digital product experience customers can scan on a shelf or floor talker that provides more product images of your featured product and sweetens the deal by adding a coupon they can use at checkout. 

• Product Information - Maintaining a product often comes with a ton of handouts, instructional videos, and more. Make it easy for your customers to have all of the digital assets they need to troubleshoot their own products like tutorial videos, step-by-step instructions paired with images or GIFs, and owner’s manuals that provide more detailed information for customers.  

• Events - Event teams can create engaging digital trade show experiences that feature product overview videos, product images, manuals, and more information that attendees interested in a specific product would be interested in taking home and sharing with others. 

Why Is Digital Asset Management Important?

In an age where a brand’s image can make or break a company, maintaining consistency across all points in the customer journey is crucial. By providing a centralized location for all of a brand’s digital assets, a DAM empowers businesses to uphold brand consistency, enable cross-collaboration, and create personalized experiences for their customers. 

Brand Recognition

Marketing materials, logos, product images, and videos can be accessed by team members across departments, ensuring that everyone is working with the latest and approved versions. This reduces the risk of unapproved or inconsistent assets being circulated to customers and increases the likelihood of brand recognition from customers.

Let’s take McDonald’s as an example. This fast-food powerhouse is one of the most recognizable brands in the world. Think about if they had different versions of logos or images. They wouldn’t be one of the ten most recognized brands in the world. 

Collaboration

Marketing teams, channel partners, and agencies often collaborate on projects or campaigns, making asset sharing and communication vital. DAM solutions help ensure these projects go off without a hitch by providing the ability to easily share a brand’s assets.  

Personalization

Personalization is the cornerstone of a successful brand and allows brands to connect with customers on a more meaningful level. DAM systems enable the ability to deliver personalized content faster than traditional methods. With a comprehensive list of assets within the DAM, marketing teams can curate content that resonates with specific target audiences, tailoring resources, images, or videos based on specific customers. 

For example, if marketing teams are creating personalized sales resources, they can easily create and upload personalized product images and videos that can be showcased in each of these individualized sales resources like sell sheets or product catalogs. 

Benefits of DAM Platforms

There are many reasons why marketers would want to use a DAM system to organize their digital assets. Let’s take a look at just a few of the benefits associated with DAM software. 

• One Source of Truth - A centralized location for managing digital assets across the business with a DAM solution that makes sure employees are only using the most accurate and approved digital assets within your brand’s digital experiences. 

• Tagging - DAM software often comes with the ability to tag digital assets to make it easier to find the assets you need. That way if you’re looking for a particular instructional product video, you can click on a tutorial tag and easily find what you’re looking for. 

• Searchable - With assets being searchable, team members can quickly locate specific resources, promoting productivity and reducing time spent on manual searches.

• Instantaneous Updates - When digital assets are updated within a DAM, the changes are automatically reflected in digital experiences like digital experiences using them like your website or product catalog. This removes the need for marketers to have to manually update content. 

• Brand Portals - Allows you to share a curated selection of digital assets with other users such as other team members, agencies, or channel partners with a portal to your brand’s DAM. 

• Increased Productivity - With tagging and search functionalities, assets can be quickly retrieved without the need for manual searching. This not only saves time but also minimizes the risk of duplicate efforts and version confusion.

• Brand Consistency - Only approved marketing materials, logos, product images, and videos can be accessed by team members across departments, ensuring that everyone is using the latest versions. 

• Removes Silos - DAMs help remove silos from business by enabling collaboration and the sharing of resources easily, We all know it's hard to get employees to read our internal emails and announcements, so when there’s a new digital asset for employees to use, they know exactly where to go if your business is using a DAM.

What Is the Difference Between DAM and Content Management Systems?

If you’re looking for a solution to help organize and manage your digital assets, then you might be wondering if a CMS is the same as a DAM. Let’s get into exploring these different solutions that help businesses manage their content and digital assets. 

DAM vs CMS

In the world of content and digital asset management, two major solutions often come to mind: DAMs and Content Management Systems (CMS). While both serve as vital tools for businesses to manage their content and  digital assets, they cater to use cases.  

Understanding the differences between a DAM and a CMS is essential for brands to invest in the right solution that will ultimately help drive brand loyalty and drive revenue through engaging digital product experiences.  

DAM Solutions

A DAM solution is used to store all of a company’s digital assets and can be used across multiple channels by multiple teams. For manufacturers, a DAM commonly stores all product-related digital assets such as product images, owner’s manuals, troubleshooting videos, etc.

CMS Solutions

A CMS solution typically is used by marketers to manage all of a website’s digital assets and content. 

A CMS stores things like: 

• Audio

• Documents 

• Forms 

• Icons

• Images 

• Videos

A CMS is typically more limiting than a DAM since it only houses digital assets for a company’s website, whereas a DAM houses digital assets to be used across multiple channels. 

Usually, these solutions are marketed separately, depending on which software solution you choose to go with. Other times, a PIM, CMS, and DAM are all part of a larger software ecosystem that eliminates the need for manufacturers to invest in outside solutions. 

Why Do I Need a DAM?

Manufacturers need a DAM in order to centralize their digital assets related to their products so that they can create digital product experiences more efficiently. 

If your competitors aren’t forward-thinking, they won’t likely have a solution like Lumavate where marketers can store their digital assets in one place so they can easily pull them in future digital product experiences they create. 

What Are Examples of Digital Asset Management?

Because the world has moved to rely more heavily on digital, more and more digital asset management examples are popping up for companies to choose to invest in.

Let’s take a look at some of the top digital asset management systems in the market today.

List of Digital Asset Management Companies

• Lumavate - Lumavate is a PXM platform that has capabilities of all kinds that manufacturers would need to manage their product experiences including a DAM, PIM, DXP, and more. 

• Brandfolder - Brandfolder is a digital asset management platform that enables companies to effectively organize their digital assets. Some users of Brandfolder have revealed that the search functionality is not as intuitive as it could be and manufacturers could not build digital product experiences on Brandfolder’s system since it is just a DAM. 

• Bynder - Bynder is a digital asset management platform. Some reviews have revealed that Bynder is not a cost-effective solution and manufacturers would need other solutions in their tech stack if they wished to create digital product experiences. 

• Adobe DAM - The Adobe digital asset management functionality enables individuals and businesses to store digital assets under their Adobe Experience Manager solution. That being said, Adobe is not a PXM purpose-built for manufacturers therefore it makes it challenging to use Adobe’s DAM to use in experiences like product onboarding or within in-aisle campaigns. 

Is Dropbox a Digital Asset Management Tool?

Dropbox is a file-saving system that enables businesses to store simple files. It doesn’t have the ability to store complex images and videos that can be seamlessly embedded within a multitude of places in an omnichannel strategy. 

Dropbox is a great solution for files for your business like internal documents, but it should not be used as a digital asset management platform to manage your brand's digital assets. 

Now that you know that Dropbox is not a good option for a DAM solution, you might be asking what is. There's only one best digital asset management software on the market - Lumavate. 

Lumavate is the best DAM solution because it’s not just a DAM solution. Lumavate is where manufacturers centralize their product data in its PIM solution. It’s where manufacturers can create digital product experiences using the product data stored in the PIM using its DXP capabilities. And it’s where manufacturers can store their digital assets for their brand using Lumavate’s DAM functionality. 

Evaluating DAM Solutions 

When it comes to evaluating a DAM solution for your business, the right choice can significantly enhance your product experience, marketing efforts, and overall brand management. 

Here are some things you should keep in mind when evaluating various DAM tools. 

• Understand Your Brand’s Needs: Begin by pinpointing the challenges you face in your current asset management process. Not every solution will solve your current frustrations or needs. Take tours or demos of each solution you’re considering to make sure your pain points will be met. 

• Consider Scalability: Consider a DAM solution that offers scalability to accommodate your growing asset library and future needs. You need a solution that can house unlimited assets so you won’t be limited as your business grows. 

• User-Friendly Interface: Look for a DAM solution that offers intuitive navigation and easy uploading, tagging, and searching capabilities. This not only streamlines your team's workflows but also makes your team members’ lives easier.

• Integration Capabilities: A DAM solution should seamlessly integrate with your existing tech stack. This capability enhances cross-functional collaboration, making it easier for marketing and sales teams to access and utilize assets. But perhaps the best thing to look for in a DAM solution is whether it’s a part of a larger PXM ecosystem, that way you don’t have to be concerned if your DAM will run into issues integrating with your tech stack.  

• Security and Permissions: You need to ensure the DAM solution you’re investing in provides enhanced security features, including role-based permissions, access controls, and more. You don’t want unauthorized team members to be making changes to digital assets for the entire company.

• Customer  Support and Product Updates: Select a DAM solution that offers reliable customer support and regular product updates. By partnering with an innovative company, you can ensure that your DAM solution remains effective and aligned with your business’s evolving needs as this team is always likely working on enhancing their product and providing the best support possible. 

Implementing a DAM Solution 

As we mentioned before, Lumavate is the best digital asset management on the market, and it only takes one day to get onboarded to our solution.

When getting started with any DAM solution, including Lumavate you’ll go through these steps to make sure you’re getting the most out of your DAM investment as possible. 

1. Gather Your Digital Assets: There is a little bit of an early lift you have to do in order to use a DAM solution, which is rounding up your digital assets. Once you’ve gathered your images, videos, audio, etc. you’ll need to categorize them and determine the tagging structure you’ll want to use. But after you take on this task, you won’t ever have to think about it again and it will save you and your team an incredible amount of time in the future, so it's worth getting this step right the first time. 

2. Define User Roles and Permissions: Determine who will have access to the DAM and establish user roles and permissions accordingly. This ensures that the right stakeholders have appropriate access to assets while maintaining data security. When using Lumavate’s DAM solution, user permission is controlled at the Command Center level. You want to make sure you don’t skip this step so only the necessary people can edit and change your brand’s digital assets. 

3. Upload and Organize Assets: Begin uploading assets into the DAM system. Mirror your brand’s internal content structure that you defined in the earlier steps of this process.

4. Define Workflows: Establish a clear process for how your team will go about uploading and publishing assets. The roles and permissions you defined in an earlier step will help speed this process along and ensure that the right individuals have access to the appropriate assets. You’ll also want to create guides for how each digital asset should be named so you can establish consistency across your DAM.

5. Onboard Your Team: Once all of your content is uploaded to the DAM and you’ve established your workflows, provide brief training sessions to team members on how to effectively use your DAM system. Ensure they understand how to upload, search for, create, and share assets. It may also be worth highlighting the benefits of using the DAM system, such as time savings, enhanced collaboration, and improved brand consistency so they’re more likely to use your DAM system rather than continuing to rely on the methods by which they currently manage your brand’s digital assets. 

Start Using Lumavate’s DAM Solution Today

Schedule a demo with one of our product experts and we’ll show you how easy it is to organize your brand’s digital assets and product information in our platform, so you can start creating engaging digital product experiences for your customers that drive brand loyalty and revenue.