Digital Management Software

As your business quickly accumulates numerous digital assets, you will find yourself searching for digital asset management tools that can help you track all of this different information and ensure it is used appropriately throughout your business. Fortunately, the right digital management system can make a tremendous difference to your marketing and sales efforts, supporting your business growth. Here is what you need to know about digital asset management.

Understanding Digital Asset Management: What is Digital Management Software?

With the amount of digital assets and information that businesses must manage online, a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution quickly becomes essential. With the right digital asset management tool, businesses like yours have a central place to store, manage, and share all the digital files you have for your business.

Each product your business manufactures will require digital assets, which can quickly grow into a large collection. If your product team needs to make any adjustments, you want these creations to reflect these changes. Other departments also need to quickly and easily access the digital assets, as they can be used throughout the sales cycle. Fortunately, the DAM also makes it easy for you to remain consistent and accurate with all your digital pieces.

Even when you want to work with outside partners, such as agencies and channel partners, Digital Asset Management (DAM) also provides immense value. Thanks to the sharing features of the solution, you can quickly pass your brand-approved assets to these outside partners.

What Are Digital Assets?

To see the value of the Digital Asset Management solution, it helps to consider all the different types of assets that you can include in this type of system. Your assets can include pieces that stretch across the entire buyer’s journey, from the images that help to educate new leads to the manuals and video files passed to existing customers to keep them engaged.

Your digital assets include valuable pieces such as:

Product images
Documents
Video files
Audio files

All the different types of files and information you employ online can fall into this category and can be stored using your DAM solution.

Why Do You Need a DAM? What is a Digital Asset Management Platform?

The first question on your mind is likely, “What does a DAM system do?”

Businesses today have to carefully manage numerous different files related to all their different products. A Digital Asset Management solution allows companies to control all their digital assets effectively from one location. If something in an owner’s manual needs to get updated, for example, the updated version can be quickly added and then made available to everyone throughout the company, and outside partners, who need it.

This level of convenience makes everyone’s job easier. People don't have to search for assets they need at a particular time. For example, if a customer requests a particular asset, it can be delivered quickly and, therefore, provide that customer with a pleasant interaction with the company representative.

Since everyone has access to the assets, it also reduces the concern of someone creating their own asset in response to a need. Everything people use across all departments has been brand-approved so that customers always receive the latest accurate, helpful information.

What Benefits Do DAM Systems Offer Businesses?

From a marketing perspective, using a DAM will offer a wide range of benefits. These systems can help businesses achieve many goals as they work to engage with their leads and encourage them to make a purchase. Here are a few of the key benefits you will notice as you start to effectively employ one of the best DAM systems.

A centralized location for managing digital assets. You will not have to worry about having multiple locations for different digital assets, such as the hard drives of different employees. In one location, updated items only need to be modified once, and no inaccurate information ends up in the hands of customers.
The ability to tag digital assets to make them easier to find. When your company representative is actively engaging with a lead or customer, or when they are designing a marketing campaign, you want them to have access to the digital asset that will help them immediately. You do not want people searching in vain or wasting time trying to find something helpful. You also do not want people trying to design their own assets, failing to realize that a particular asset already exists and has brand approval. A tagging system makes assets easy to categorize, organize, and then find.
The system is searchable by your team. The tagging and organizational system used in the Digital Asset Management solution means that the assets are searchable by users. Everyone who needs access to these assets can find what they need immediately.
Automatically update digital experiences when an asset is updated. If you need to make an adjustment to something on your digital asset, the DAM system makes it easy to ensure that change is reflected across your digital experiences. With the organizational capacity of the DAM solution, an updated asset will be reflected everywhere relevant, reducing the work involved.
Create brand portals for curated lists. When you work with team members from different departments or outside agencies and partnerships, you want them to have access to the assets they need immediately, but they do not necessarily need access to all the assets you have created. Fortunately, the DAM empowers you to create carefully curated lists and selections of your digital assets. These curated bundles can then be shared with the partners or team members who will find them useful.

As businesses experience the value of having their digital assets organized and thus managed and maintained, they quickly find that the best digital management software offers them tremendous advantages and the chance to work more effectively.

DAM vs. PIM Systems: What’s the Difference?

Businesses considering the value of a DAM solution will also likely come across information about the PIM, or Product Information Management solution. The uses of these two types of systems do have considerable overlap. However, they do have significant differences and offer different types of value for businesses. In many situations, businesses find that they can maximize the potential of their solutions and their ability to market their products when they use these two systems together.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) platforms focus on allowing companies to store, manage, and share the digital assets they create with other members of their team and any external partners. On the other hand, the Product Information Management (PIM) solution focuses on centralizing product data itself in a single spot.

Because of the overlapping responsibilities of these two types of systems, with one focusing on storing product information while the other stores product digital assets, many PIM solutions will include DAM functionality built in. When these two work together, your product records and the digital assets you create can be linked together. In other words, if you update something related to your product in the PIM, the system can quickly bring that information to the relevant aspects of the DAM. If you need to update the photos you use of your product or the owner’s manual, that information can quickly be linked with the product information and the digital assets, so that everything gets updated at once.

DAM Competitive Landscape: What Are the Digital Asset Management Companies?

Businesses interested in using a Digital Asset Management solution for their products will find that many different options are featured prominently on the market. These customers ask themselves, “What is an example of a digital asset management system?” as they try to understand the potential for the solution and what it can do for their business.

Some of the most common digital asset management companies people hear about as they begin to look at their options include:

Adobe
Canto
Bynder
Brandfolder

One of the most complete systems businesses can buy is known as Lumavate. Although the four digital asset management system examples listed above offer some of the same functionalities as Lumavate, businesses quickly discover the shortcomings of the other systems.

For example, all four of the systems listed above are known as ‘stand-alone’ systems. In other words, they do not offer assistance with creating digital experiences. If you want to take your digital assets and use them to create interest-driving digital experiences for your target audience, integrations such as a Digital Experience Platform (DXP) make that possible. However, none of these digital asset management examples have the built-in capacity for this partnership. Instead, if you want to create a digital experience, you have to turn to a third-party solution or the help of agencies and developers. This additional step can make it harder to realize the full benefits of the DAM solution.

Another important note is cost and setup. Some other systems, such as Adobe, come with a very high price tag and a very complex installation process. This upfront cost makes it harder for businesses to see ROI. Along the same lines, you have to consider the complexity of the system. A system that employees can learn to navigate easily while offering concrete results is a better use of resources than a system that is incredibly complex to install and often requires third-party assistance. This additional strain on resources can further hinder your business's chance of seeing a positive ROI.

With Lumavate, businesses not only get access to a quality DAM that is easy to implement and begin using, but it also includes a full PIM to make product management more straightforward and efficient. As an additional bonus, Lumavate also includes a full DXP, or Digital Experience Platform. Since this integrates seamlessly with the rest of the DAM solution, your team will have no trouble bringing together their assets and information to create digital experiences that drive engagement with leads and customers.

Since all the product records for items in the DAM can be reached within a few clicks, it also becomes easier than ever before to create these digital experiences.

Is Google Drive a DAM?

Many businesses looking for a DAM product wonder if the popular Google Drive might work as a solution. While Google Drive does allow businesses to store their digital assets, it doesn't have the other capabilities of a well-constructed DAM. For example, your employees cannot tag the items they create for easy organization. The Google Drive system will also not update any experiences related to an updated file. If you need to update important product data in your DAM solution, the integrations of a well-built platform like Lumavate will take that information and make sure the other relevant sources receive the update. Google Drive, however, does not have any capabilities like this.

Is Dropbox a DAM?

Like Google Drive, many professionals wonder if Dropbox counts as a DAM. Dropbox also provides businesses with access to their digital assets. However, it doesn't offer the features that people can use to enhance the digital experience they create. For example, Dropbox does not provide users with the option to tag their different assets. It also does not automatically take updates made in one area of the system and then verify that the information gets updated in all the relevant assets. This limits what people can accomplish with Dropbox and means that having an account on this popular platform does not negate the value and importance of a quality DAM.

How to Choose a DAM

If you are in the market for a DAM, you likely want to know more about the type of factors you should consider. You want to select the best digital asset management software for your business.

To help businesses evaluate the different DAM vendors effectively, it helps to look at DAM systems examples and consider questions like the following.

What is the primary problem that we want to solve with the DAM? Consider what made you start investigating potential DAMs and what you hope the solution will accomplish.
How many digital assets do we have and what types are they? Knowing about the size of the system you need will also help you better evaluate the different options on the market.
How will we structure the taxonomy of our digital assets? It also helps to formulate ideas about how you want to organize the digital assets and the taxonomy you want to use. This will help you determine how you can find relevant assets and figure out which systems align best with your goals.
What other systems do you need to integrate with? Look at the existing system your business has that impacts your digital assets and the experiences you create. Know how you want your systems to work together so that you can see if any DAM options are eliminated based on the limitations.
Where and how will the digital assets be used? Investigating when and why the assets will be used can also help you evaluate your DAM options. This insight will help you structure your information and assets appropriately, so everyone on your team has access to the information they need.

As you consider the type of DAM system you want for your business, look carefully at the five questions above. The better you understand how you plan to use the DAM, the easier it will be to find a system that fits your business.

Cost of DAM Systems

As you prepare to purchase your own DAM system, looking at the cost is an important step. You want to examine the prices of the different options to see how they fit into your overall budget and how they will impact your ROI.

Pricing for Digital Asset Management solutions can vary considerably, based on factors such as:

The size of the system and how it will be used. If you are a small manufacturing business, you likely do not need access to the same storage space as multinational manufacturers.
On-premise versus cloud-based solutions. Whether you select a cloud-based solution or whether you want the system on-premise for your business will again impact the price.

Generally speaking, the price for a DAM solution can range from as low as $1,000 per year up to $250,000 per year.

Those who want to get the best deal for their money will quickly see the advantages of Lumavate when they look at these results. Lumavate offers a full Product Experience Management solution, which means the platform includes a Digital Asset Management solution, a Product Information Management (PIM) functionality, a Digital Experience Platform (DXP), text messaging, and form a complete solution. In addition to offering all of these capabilities, working with Lumavate typically is 75 percent more cost effective than other competitive solutions. To make your shopping and price-comparing process simpler, Lumavate also publicly shares its pricing on its website. If you want to see what Lumavate would cost you, you can quickly compare it to the quotes you receive from competitors.

Get Started With Your DAM

Digital management software can help your business better track and maintain your digital assets, empowering you to create an effective digital experience for your customers. The best DAM systems will bring together not only digital asset management but also the integrations and capabilities you need to create outstanding experiences.

If you are done sorting through DAM vendors and are ready to get started with the industry-leading capabilities of Lumavate, let us know today. We look forward to helping you build your digital experience.