Why is a DAM Important and Why Should You Have One?

By Jodie Byass

We know how you feel, digital marketing is becoming increasingly complex with more channels, more strategies, more competition, and, yes, more digital assets. Yet, it’s crucial that all your processes are as efficient and your team as productive as possible.

So, as part of your efforts, you should ensure that your digital asset management is on point. The problem is, however, that this sounds easier than it is. Just think about it, you need to be able to find assets easier, see who worked on what, and be able to share assets quickly and effortlessly among both internal and external stakeholders.

That’s where digital asset managers come in. But what are DAMs, what are the benefits of using them, and what features should you look for when considering one. In this post, we’ll look at these questions in more detail.

What Is a DAM?

So, what exactly is a DAM? Well, as the name implies, a digital asset manager is a software-based solution that allows you to manage your digital assets. So, in other words, it’s a solution that allows you to store, organise, manage, and share any digital assets from a central location not only effortlessly but also securely.

Typically, these digital assets include:

PDF files.
Design files.
White papers.
Company branding files.
Marketing content.

Now, considering the definition above, a DAM might sound a lot like Google Drive or something like Dropbox or OneDrive. It does, but it’s important to remember that, while these solutions can be powerful and effective to manage digital assets on a small scale, they become increasingly difficult to manage for large volumes of assets and many users. That’s where DAMs come in.

Why Do DAMS Exist?

Now that we’ve looked at what DAMs are, let’s consider why they exist. In other words, generally, why is there a need for DAMs and why are they popular?

Well, there are a few reasons. For one, nowadays there’s an increased need for companies to store and manage digital assets. For instance, with more people using the internet than ever before, digital marketing is becoming increasingly popular amongst companies who want to get their products and services in front of the right people at the right time.

Unfortunately, this has also made digital marketing more complex with companies needing to market on different channels and to multiple audiences. Also, mere digital marketing is slowly becoming insufficient as consumers are increasingly demanding a personalized message in the marketing they receive.

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As a result, social media advertising, blog posts, and other digital marketing campaigns require far more work and digital assets compared to print advertising or digital marketing just a few years ago. In turn, this requires more effective and efficient digital asset management. In simple terms, what use is an asset if it’s not properly stored and managed?

Another contributor to DAMs becoming more prevalent is the digital transformation of many companies which, in most cases, involves migrating to the cloud. Although this was on the roadmap for many companies before the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic accelerated their efforts. In fact, according to a recent study, 40% of businesses accelerated their move to the cloud in the wake of the pandemic.

This was mainly due to companies needing to implement the necessary strategies to allow their employees to work remotely. As a result, the demand for cloud-based technologies has exploded and with it, the need for solutions to effectively and efficiently manage digital assets.

In turn, using DAMs has made many companies realise the convenience of having their assets and data available, no matter where their employees are. It’s no wonder that the digital asset management market reached a global value of $3.88 billion in 2020, with this number expected to increase in the coming years.

Benefits of Using a DAM

Now, storing digital assets in such a way that it’s easily available is a massive benefit to have, but what does this capability mean for companies? In other words, what benefits, that flow from this capability, can companies enjoy? Well, there are actually quite a few, which include:

Brand consistency and compliance. With the increasing number of digital assets being created, it’s vital to properly manage digital assets, not only to ensure brand consistency but also brand compliance. Here, DAMs help marketers do this, which ensures that all marketing campaigns only use approved assets and content.
Seamless sharing. One of the major benefits of using a DAM is that it allows the effortless sharing of assets between team members. Apart from sharing, DAMs also store digital assets in a central location which allows team members to search for and find assets easily, use and publish assets, and eliminate the duplication of content and assets.
Improved collaboration. Because a DAM increases visibility over all assets for every project, it allows team members to work on the same files which, in turn, eliminates confusion and misunderstandings and improves collaboration between team members.
Secure storage. DAMs allow companies to store their digital assets safe and secure in the cloud. To further improve security, DAMs typically give companies the ability to manage access to the assets which ensures that these companies always know who can access the assets and when. Generally, DAMs also facilitate simpler version control and proper backups, so companies are sure that they never lose their assets and always have access to earlier versions of files.
Increased efficiency. When teams always have access to the files they need, are able to share assets between team members quickly and effortlessly, and find assets quicker, they’re far more efficient. This is especially important considering that about 50% of a company’s overall marketing spend goes towards making marketing work. So, any opportunity to increase efficiency is the key to unlocking an increased return on investment.
Saving time and money. Allowing teams to collaborate better, and flowing from the increased efficiency provided by DAMs, companies ultimately end up saving time and money. This allows team members to focus more on creating new assets instead of wasting time on managing and creating duplicate digital assets which, ultimately, increases companies’ return on investment.
Analytics. DAMs also improve compliance and governance because it provides asset usage data and analytics. This means companies can see exactly which assets are used, the campaigns they’re used in and how they perform. In turn, this data gives them insights into their strategies and the ability to make data-driven decisions to improve their campaigns.

Ultimately, considering the above benefits, using a DAM allows companies and marketers the opportunity to optimise their marketing spend which means they’ll be able to market better and sell more. This, in turn, leads to more revenue.

How Traditional DAMS Are Changing?

Even though DAMS were becoming increasingly popular even before the pandemic, it has driven increased adoption of DAMs amongst companies and marketers alike. This is mainly due to, as mentioned earlier, the fact that the pandemic accelerated many companies’ digital transformation efforts and, by implication, a shift to cloud-based technologies.

As a result of this shift, the demands placed on DAMs are constantly in flux which means they’re constantly changing and increasing and more is expected of them. Fortunately, constant innovation means the DAMs of today are able to meet these demands effortlessly. These demands include:

Intuitiveness and ease of use. As digital marketing becomes increasingly complex, it’s crucial that the tools marketers use stay simple and easy to use. As a result, DAMs are simplifying the process of storing, managing, accessing, and editing assets.
Built-in analytics. Let’s face it, data is becoming increasingly important for companies globally. They use it to make better decisions, improve their efficiency, and make their business processes more effective. When it comes to marketing, the situation is no different. As a result, marketers now expect DAMs to have built-in analytics tools that give them deeper insights into how their assets are used and how they perform which, ultimately, allows them to increase their return on investment.
Brand management. Nowadays, marketers expect DAMs to be a complete brand management platform that allows them to store and manage all their digital marketing assets while enabling them to ensure that all their assets remain compliant.
Keeping up with technology. It’s a fact, marketing technology will continue to evolve as new innovations become available and marketers need to distribute content across various channels. As a result, it’s vital that DAMs evolve with it.

Ultimately, DAMs are constantly evolving to provide more features that aim to make asset management simpler and more intuitive while giving marketers the capabilities they need to make their processes more efficient.

Standard DAM Features

Now that we’ve seen some benefits of using a DAM and how DAMs are evolving to keep up with the evolving needs and requirements of companies and marketers, it’s time to consider what features a DAM should have. In other words, what should a high-quality, modern, advanced DAM be able to do?

In simple terms, the following features are crucial:

Facilitate asset organisation. The main aim of a DAM is to allow companies and marketers to better store and manage their digital assets. As a result, it should have all the features necessary to facilitate effective and efficient asset organisation.
Simplify searching and sharing. As part of efficient asset organisation, a high-quality DAM should make searching for and sharing assets among both internal and external team members simpler.
Integration with other tools. Nowadays, marketers are using various tools in their marketing efforts. As a result, the right DAM should be able to integrate with these tools that will allow marketers to streamline their workflows.
Improved version control. It’s simple, during the course of asset creation, various changes are made to assets, so it’s vital to ensure that the right versions of assets are used in the campaign. Because of this, proper version control is a crucial feature.
Eliminate duplicate assets. Let’s face it, creating duplicate assets takes a lot of time and effort, not to speak of money. So, to eliminate this and make the process more efficient, it’s vital that the right DAM eliminates duplicate assets.

Download: What makes Simple Asset Manager different

In Closing

Ultimately, considering that digital marketing is becoming more complex and marketers are creating more digital assets than ever before, digital asset management is becoming increasingly important.

Hopefully, this post helped illustrate what it is, how it’s evolving, the benefits of using a DAM, and what features a high-quality DAM should have. In our next post, we’ll deal with the future of digital asset management and how the features of our Simple Asset Manager brings the future closer.

From AI tagging to extensive integrations, Simple’s Asset Manager helps marketers ensure brand governance, drive cost-out and promote efficiency. To find out how reach out to one of our representatives.  