Benefits of Digital Asset Management

As a modern manufacturing business, you need to be ready to interact with customers regardless of where they are online. All the assets you create for your products need to be digitally accessible and create a positive experience for your leads and customers. Whether you want to present potential customers with product images and how-to videos or need to share an owner’s manual, you want your digital assets accessible, so you can deliver an outstanding experience.

A Digital Asset Management solution, or DAM, is key to you providing this type of experience. If you have not used one of these systems before, we will break down what you need to know about how these systems work and how they can help your business create carefully cultivated, planned product experiences for customers across all of your online channels.

Understanding Digital Asset Management: Why Do You Need a DAM?

With a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, you have a solution that will help you store, manage, and share your digital files from one centralized location. This solution makes it easy for you to share the information across multiple departments in your business as well as outside partners, such as agencies or channel partners. Since everyone has access to the same source, you know that all people use the same digital asset files and the same information. This creates a more unified experience for every customer and lead who interacts with your business.

What Is a Digital Asset and Why Do We Need Digital Assets?

If you are new to implementing the DAM solution, you may also wonder what qualifies as a digital asset. Your digital assets are all the digital sources of data and information you have about your products. These creations may take a variety of different formats, including:

• Product images

• Documents

• Video files

• Audio files

• Owner’s manuals

These assets help you connect with new leads and customers and provide them with valuable information about your products. Having a common source for all your digital asset files ensures that everyone has access to the same information sources and, therefore, the same high-quality, brand-approved creations that can be used when engaging with customers. Given the role of your assets in engaging customers, you can see the importance of digital asset management.

What Are the Benefits of Digital Asset Management?

Those who first begin to investigate DAM solutions often ask, “What is the value of a digital asset management system?” When you use digital asset management software, you will quickly encounter several benefits. These systems help your entire company work more effectively. Here are the five benefits that people often encounter as they incorporate a DAM into their marketing strategy.

A centralized location for managing digital assets across the business. Since everything is found in one place, edits and changes can be made easily. No one has to worry about private assets stored on individual computers or working to find a variety of different folders that contain multiple assets for the same particular product. With everything in one place, making any required updates is easy, and everyone has access to the new information in real-time.

The ability to tag digital assets to make them easier to find. The system will help you organize all your different assets so that those who need one can find them quickly. Your team can create a tagging system that will be intuitive for those at your company. This way, everyone can find what they need when they need it.

It is searchable by your team. With all the assets in a common location, people can use search functions and find all the options available for a given product or asset type. No employees create their assets because they cannot find the piece they seek. Digital asset management use cases clearly show the value of ensuring that everyone has access to the same quality assets.

Automatically updates information in digital experiences like your website or product catalog when the asset is updated. Since the DAM helps keep all the records related to your products connected, updating digital assets and experiences has become easier. Now if you need to update information about an asset, you know that all the related digital experiences that employ that asset will also be updated.

Most DAMs allow you to create brand portals, so you can share a curated selection of assets with others. If you need to share your digital assets with other team members, agencies, or channel partners, the structure of the DAM simplifies the process of curating and sharing a relevant selection of digital assets. This keeps everyone working off the same information and assets, so your customer experience remains consistent.

Who Owns the DAM?

Typically, a DAM is owned by the marketing department. The members of this team typically create the taxonomy used to categorize the content and to ensure that only approved branded content is available to the DAM. By managing this responsibility, they maintain the appropriate creations for your products that promote the brand’s voice when connecting with customers and leads across different channels.

In most organizations, other departments will also have access to the DAM so they can pull the approved, branded content when they need it. The information contained in the solution can also be shared with outside partners who help you cultivate the desired voice and reputation with your customers.

What Does a Digital Asset Manager Do?

An important role in the digital asset space is that of a digital asset manager. This professional is responsible for the overall management of the Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution. They’re ultimately the individual in the organization who is responsible for ensuring that the DAM is well-maintained, even though multiple people may have the responsibility of uploading information and assets into the system. Typically, multiple people also access the DAM for files and downloads.

The digital asset manager will generally live in the marketing department. They will track all the brand-approved pieces created and ensure that the important updates have been completed so that people can trust the information in the solution.

The DAM Competitive Landscape

As you start investigating the different options available in the DAM space, you will find that there are several options. Some of the most prominent digital asset management companies include the following:

• Adobe

• Canto

• Bynder

• Brandfolder

While these four options offer popular digital asset management tools, they are standalone systems. This means that they do not provide you with the complementary capabilities you will need to produce the full digital experience. To create this desired experience, you will need to call upon third-party solutions, such as outside agencies and/or developers, to create the experiences you want your customers to have as they interact with your brand.

Many businesses also encounter other shortcomings with these digital asset management examples. For example, Adobe digital asset management comes with an extremely high price tag, which can be off-putting for many businesses and make it more challenging for them to see a high ROI. Additionally, several systems, like Adobe, require highly technical implementation. This may need to be outsourced or require internal professionals with high levels of technical skills to even get the system set up.

Businesses that want to operate more efficiently often find that this level of cost and lengthy implementation hinders their goals of working more effectively and building quality experiences for their customers. Instead, they often turn to systems like Lumavate. This system not only offers a DAM, but also includes a full product information management (PIM) solution and digital experience platform (DXP) within its setup. As businesses get established on the platform, they have a built-in integration that allows them to take full advantage of the product information management functionalities of the PIM and the digital experience platform in the DXP. Together, these different tools make it easier than ever to fully optimize the digital experiences for all users.

Lumavate’s DAM can also be quickly connected with product records in just a few clicks, thanks to this powerful integration. Businesses interested in creating optimized product experiences can map the customer journey and how they want customers to interact with their products at each step. Thanks to these easily integrated tools and functionalities, these experiences can then be brought to life quickly and easily, helping businesses seize the benefits of these systems faster than ever.

Is Google Drive a DAM?

As many people start investigating the potential DAM systems, they may wonder if the popular tool Google Drive is a DAM. While this system does provide storage functionalities, and businesses can use the cloud-based system to store their digital assets, it is not a full DAM.

Google Drive does not offer a variety of other features that businesses want to access when they register for a DAM. You cannot tag your assets so that other people can quickly find and utilize them. If you update something in one area, the system will also not automatically update in all the applicable locations.

In other words, while Google Drive makes it easier for people to collaborate and share documents and assets, it does not offer the functionalities that people look for when they select a DAM.

How to Choose a DAM: Picking Between the Digital Asset Management System Examples

With the number of different DAM solutions available to businesses today, selection from among them for your business can feel overwhelming. You want to find a system that will not only offer the functionalities your business needs to build a strong digital experience, but you also need a system that takes into account the needs of your business, your budget, and your internal capabilities. The system should help you produce an excellent ROI. Fortunately, there are strategies you can use to identify your priorities for your DAM so that you can find the best DAM systems for your business.

We recommend that companies consider the following five key questions when determining the best digital asset management system for their organization.

What is the primary problem you want to solve with the DAM? Consider where your business struggles with digital assets. Do people not have access to the product tools they need when they need them? Is updating your assets sloppily done so that some get updated but others don’t? Is there a lack of communication about assets between departments so that multiple versions of a similar creation exist, depending on who you ask?

How many digital assets do you have, and what types are they? Consider also the size and capacity of the platform you need to adequately organize your assets. The types and number of assets you have, and the ones that you will likely create, will impact how you structure your taxonomy and tagging system for your assets.

How will you structure the taxonomy of your digital assets? Knowing how you want to organize your assets can help you start to plan how you will use your DAM system and thus identify the system that optimally matches these goals.

What other systems do you need to integrate with? If you have other tools and solutions to build your product experiences and digital experiences, then you want to make sure all your systems can work well together. Noting the tools that you want to have integrated with your DAM might also help you narrow down your options to the most effective choice.

Where and how will the digital assets be used? Ask yourself, "What are the benefits of digital assets?" to identify and clarify the value you want to gain from your specific creations. Finally, consider the situations in which you will likely employ your digital assets and who will likely need them. Remember the different departments and outside agencies that will need some type of access to the system. Knowing the situations when people might call upon the different assets can also help you evaluate your system options based on usage and the accessibility it will offer.

How Much Does a DAM System Cost?

Now that you have seen the benefits of incorporating an effective DAM into your brand strategy, you likely have questions about how much these systems cost. Pricing for Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions can vary considerably based on the precise solution selected and its functionality. You might also have different packages available through the various options, with choices of add-ons, tools, and capacity available, which will all impact the rate you pay. Prices can also vary considerably based on special features, such as an on-premise solution versus a cloud-based solution.

Based on all of these different factors, it should be easy to see why you can have a wide range of annual prices for your DAM. Typically, prices can range from $1,000 to $250,000 each year. Businesses need to look at this wide range and consider the ROI they can achieve from the system and what fits their brand, budget, and goals well, so that they can find the solution that works for them.

For businesses evaluating their options, it helps to remember that Lumavate offers businesses like yours a full Product Experience Management (PXM) solution, including a built-in Digital Asset Management solution, Product Information Management (PIM) functionality, and Digital Experience Platform (DXP) within one platform. Additionally, customers get unique digital asset management features like text messaging and a custom form builder solution. Together, all these different tools can make it easier than effort for brands to build the digital experiences they offer.

While Lumavate offers all of these different capabilities in a single, easy-to-employ package, it is also typically about 75 percent more cost-effective than competitive solutions. Businesses that want to investigate the pricing features more closely can also easily access pricing information because Lumavate publically shares its pricing right on its website. In other words, as you begin to investigate your options, you can compare Lumavate’s upfront, easy-to-find prices with the quotes offered by other companies so that you can see how they compare and what will be the better value for your business.

Get Started with DAM and Your Business

Building positive digital experiences for your customers is key to helping them connect with your product and see your business as the solution to their pain points. You need to think carefully about all the interactions customers have with you and your products so that you can create these positive experiences for every step of the buyer’s journey. You can now answer the questions, “Why do you need a DAM system?” and "What is the value of digital asset management?" and can see the value these solutions offer your business.

Using a DAM system, particularly when paired with a comprehensive PIM, PXM, and DXP system, can help you create the digital experience you want your customers to have. You will quickly and easily check all the information related to your products, knowing that the information people interact with has been approved by the brand and reflects the most updated information.

Get ready to learn more about Lumavate and what this robust, powerful platform can do for your business. Discovering these integrated functionalities can help you maximize your interactions with customers and encourage more people to engage with your business. Get started today.