In order to effectively promote your company’s products and services, you need to have a strong online presence. The first step in journeying towards a successful online presence is establishing a website representing your brand. Once you’ve created a website, you’ll want to build a robust digital asset library. That’s where digital asset management (DAM) comes in.
Digital asset management (DAM) has become a key part of marketing strategy for businesses of all sizes. It is an effective way to manage and store digital assets, including images, videos, audio files, and other content.
The following sections will discuss what a digital asset library is and how DAM administration can make you a better marketer.
What Is A Digital Asset Library?
A digital asset library is a collection of digital media used to represent your company. These include logos, photos, video clips, brochures, images, presentations, and more. They’re typically stored on a computer server but can also be stored on external hard drives or cloud-based storage.
You may already have some digital assets. For example, if you work at a large corporation, you probably have access to a corporate intranet where you can upload documents and share information. If you work for a small business, you might use social networking sites or employee apps to share information about your company.
You can also purchase digital assets from third parties. Many companies offer stock photographs, including high-quality images that can be downloaded and used without copyright restrictions. Other companies sell clip art or ready-made graphics that can be used in place of photographs. Some even offer royalty-free music and sound effects.
Why Utilize Digital Asset Management?
Why not just keep everything on your computer? Well, there are many practical reasons why you should consider DAM administration instead of keeping everything on your computer.
First, having a central location makes it easier to find specific content when needed. Second, storing digital assets in one place means you don’t have to worry about backing up your data. Third, it helps prevent accidental loss of important files. Finally, it gives you greater control over who sees what.
How Does It Make Me A Better Marketer?
As a marketer, you know that creating great content is essential to success. However, you also know that creating great content takes time. That’s why you hire writers, editors, graphic designers, videographers, photographers, etc.
However, these people aren’t always available. Sometimes, you simply don’t have enough time to complete projects yourself. Or maybe you don’t have the right skills to produce certain types of content.
That’s where a digital asset library comes into play. Here are ways that a digital asset library can benefit your marketing efforts:
1. Streamlines Workflows For Easier Project Management
First of all, your workflow becomes easier when you utilize a digital asset library. Managing projects can be challenging if you have different versions of the same document. For example, suppose you’ve created a series of presentations for a client. If you want to make changes to one of the slides, you’ll have to go back to the original PowerPoint file and re-create the slide.
Doing this can take hours or even days, depending on how much content there is. With a digital asset library, however, you can keep track of all of your documents at once. It means you can make edits without worrying about losing any previous versions.
2. Helps Your Team Collaborate More Effectively
A digital asset library allows you to collaborate more effectively with your team members. When everyone has access to the same content, they can work together to improve the overall quality of the project.
In fact, many teams use a shared folder structure to organize their digital assets. Each team member can create their own subfolder within the main folder. This way, each person only needs to see the content they work on.
Tasks like editing and proofing are often done simultaneously. For instance, if someone wants to make changes to a document, another person might want to review the edits.
By doing so, both parties can avoid wasting time trying to coordinate their schedules. You can even share files with clients and colleagues so they can view them while you continue working on other parts of the project. Using placeholders also makes it easy to update existing content.
3. Eliminates Creative Clutter
One of the biggest challenges for most creative professionals these days is finding the right tools to complete their jobs. They often end up using multiple applications to accomplish simple tasks.
For instance, if you’re working on website design, you might use Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks. Not only does this require a lot of space on your hard drive, but it’s also inefficient.
By contrast, a digital asset library eliminates clutter by allowing you to store all of your designs in one place, making it easy to find the specific image you need and giving you access to all your other files simultaneously—even if you choose to work on different devices.
4. Improves Data Security
Another reason why a digital asset library can be beneficial is that it helps protect your data from being lost or stolen. By storing your files in a central location, you reduce the risk that someone will accidentally delete them.
Furthermore, when you share files with others, you can ensure that they won’t inadvertently overwrite your work. For example, if you send out a presentation to several people, you can prevent anyone from editing the file after you’ve finished creating it.
5. Increases Customer Satisfaction
Digital asset libraries also increase customer satisfaction. Because your customers know exactly what they’re getting when purchasing your products or services, they feel more confident in your brand.
Imagine if you had to repeatedly explain to clients what they would receive when they purchased your product. It would be frustrating for both parties. But, with a digital asset library in place, you can simply point to the folder where they can find everything they need.
6. Accelerates Time To Market
A digital asset library can also accelerate time to market. When you’re ready for a new product or service launch, you don’t have to wait until you finish designing each element. Instead, you can start sharing your ideas immediately.
You can also save money by not having to pay designers and developers to create prototypes. Furthermore, you can avoid wasting time waiting for feedback from clients.
7. Reduces Costs
Finally, a digital asset library can help you cut costs. If you’re constantly sending large amounts of information back and forth between different locations, you may be paying unnecessary fees.
With a digital asset library, you can store your files in one place instead of sending them around, saving you money and reducing the bandwidth required to transfer files.
Final Thoughts
There are many reasons why you should consider using a digital asset library. It can make your life easier as a marketer and rocket your revenue. So, if you haven’t already done so, start utilizing digital asset management today.
