We live in a digital world where the expectations of users are rising and rising. This is also the case for DAM platforms, which are becoming more accessible for companies of every size, instead of only big corporations with deep pockets. Meaning that all sorts of businesses are becoming more digitally mature and increasing their efficiency. This change comes with producing large quantities of content for more channels at a faster pace than ever before.
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Digital asset management enables companies to oversee their brand assets from a centralized space. It helps organize brand assets and deliver a consistent customer experience to the audience.
1. Saving time with automated workflows
As we hear a lot, marketers do spend lots of time (around 50%) just on creating and designing documents based on the brand guidelines. However, by using a DAM platform, you can easily save time with automated workflows. For example, you can do the following with the right DAM platform:
- convert images to different file formats
- manage permissions and access to DAM categories
- share assets with colleagues to external users
- create workflows and approve (new) assets
- manage copyrights and asset availability
- integrate your DAM in your favorite (design) tools such as Adobe, Figma, and MS Office
- create metadata schemes to enhance your assets with all business-related information
- import metadata from other platforms like Product Information Management (PIM) systems
2. Audit your assets
Beforehand: The first thing you should do before implementing a DAM is to create a comprehensive inventory of your assets to get a better understanding of them. Get to know what assets you have, who the creators are, for who they are made, and for what they’ll be used for.
This preparation is important as it helps you define your objectives and get a better understanding of what challenges you are facing. In this way, you are more confident in picking the right DAM partner that fits your organization’s unique needs.
During: It is also important to audit your DAM regularly while it’s being used. See if all metadata and naming conventions are followed accordingly and assets are being placed in the correct categories. The easiest way is to set a schedule for your audits and stick to it. This will allow you to evaluate and improve your DAM platform.
3. Roles and permissions
Finding the right digital assets at the right time is essential to any type of business and DAM makes this task more efficient. Implementing roles and permissions for different user types let you control access to certain assets, ensuring that a stakeholder who is looking for an asset can only choose from what that stakeholder is allowed to.
Roles and permissions can be based on departments, regions, or other characteristics of your organization. They add a layer of security and make the available content for each user more relevant.
Example 1: You can prevent users from accessing assets that are not yet approved for external usage*
Example 2: Grant access to a specific category, only for the department that is currently working on it.
*Kadanza can offer a workflow so approving assets can be done in the context of categories. Users have permissions to see certain statuses, that’s why it is possible to have access to a category but still, you won’t see unapproved assets.
4. Define your metadata structure
This step is also best taken before implementing your actual DAM. Gather a small group of diverse stakeholders within your organization that will engage most frequently with the DAM system.
First, decide the level of complexity you want to achieve because there are many different data fields that you can tie to every single asset. In the beginning, it is best to start simple and add more information later. This will get you up to speed faster and you can always add more metadata later on.
Second, define the taxonomy that will be used in your DAM. You have to build naming conventions, formatting, and more so the assets are organized, look familiar, and are easily searchable.
It is best to have one person within your organization who is responsible for the decision-making on this and who is deeply familiar with the entire DAM. Other contributors also need to be held accountable for their role with the DAM. Important thing is to educate the contributors on your metadata structure and strategy so that when changes are made they can be communicated clearly. Also, add your metadata while uploading the assets, and don’t plan to add it later to avoid confusion and misusage of the assets.
In conclusion
A DAM is a living system that needs to be maintained properly so make sure to continuously ensure that the original goals are met. Analyze the usage and identify problems that arise to tackle them. Gather insights to improve your DAM so you can further enhance the experience of the system and spend less time on creating documents.
Kadanza offers you more than just a Digital Asset Management tool. For example, it helps you to create digital assets based on your branding and store, organize and work on the assets with your team within the given permissions by saving time with automated flows.
