What Is a Digital Asset Solution?

very company has far more digital assets than the products they manufacture or sell. When properly managed, digital assets can be reused and repurposed to create new content that targets and persuades new and existing customers to buy.

But what is a digital asset, and how can you ensure you manage—and make the most of—every digital asset you own?

What Is a Digital Asset?

Your company likely has hundreds or even possibly thousands of digital assets already created. Digital asset examples are images, videos, infographics, documents, audio files, text copies, PDFs, and other assets that are only available in digital form.

Think about how many images you probably already have of all sides of each product, up-close shots of details and functions, 360-degree walkarounds, instruction videos, product descriptions, price lists, demonstration videos, user-generated content of customers using your products, customer reviews, and more. Each is a valuable digital asset you can use over and again to create brand-new marketing and sales materials to convert potential buyers into happy customers.

While you may have several different physical print versions of product brochures or catalogs stored at your premises, these can’t be counted as digital assets because, in their physical form, you can’t just pick one up and upload it straight to your website or social media. You’d have to scan it first to turn it into a digital asset before you could use it.

You can, no doubt, think of many different types of digital assets and their uses, but here are some examples of practical use of these assets:

• You could reuse existing digital product images or take new ones to create an up-to-date online product catalog. Add existing product descriptions, pricing, SKUs, possibly customer reviews, features and benefits, and you quickly have a catalog for customers to browse that will never be inaccurate. With a digital asset management (DAM) solution, every time you update a single digital asset, whether it’s the price or the latest image of a product’s controls, that asset will automatically update everywhere you have used it, with no need for you to go into the product catalog, your website, and more to manually update them one by one.

• You could take text that’s already written and break it up into short image descriptions or use it to create a step-by-step setup checklist.

• You could repurpose an old operating manual into a full, glossy product guide by updating the images, bringing in already written text, adding videos showing the product in use, showing comparisons between this product and similar products, and adding information on accessories and spares to help upsell customers.

What Is Digital Asset Management?

Digital asset management is the act of collating and bringing together into one place all digital assets so that they can be version-controlled, easily found and reused, and access given only to the people who need them. This could be done manually, but it would be a lot of work, even if you only had a hundred or so digital assets to manage. The best solution for digital asset management is to use a DAM solution.

This software can collect, collate, and manage every digital asset you own, of any possible format or type. You will have to spend some time initially uploading your assets, but you will save a huge amount of time once that’s done every time you want to look over your digital assets and use the right ones to create a quality product experience for your customers.

The DAM is usually managed by the marketing team to keep control of your assets and ensure everyone is using the correct version of each one. However, other teams throughout your business can also be assigned management and use of your digital assets as needed to produce any materials they may require.

What Is a Digital Asset Solution?

Digital asset management software (DAM) will save you hours of hunting for assets in different departments and different pieces of software. Everything is brought together and stored in one place for quick and easy access.

A DAM solution is often shared across multiple departments in the business as well as externally with partners such as agencies and channel partners so that everyone can be sure they have the most up-to-date and accurate digital assets.

Digital asset management solutions provide several benefits, including time-saving, automatic updates, easy version control, control of who can access, edit, and use sensitive or proprietary assets, editing control so that finalized items can’t be written over, and more.

You’ll never again send a price list to a customer only to find it’s already out of date and the customer will need to pay more. You won’t find your partners, agencies, and employees using the wrong version of your logo or a size, angle, color, or dimension that was never meant to exist. Your branding will be far more effective when you can guarantee that every digital asset is correctly branded with the right logo, fonts, colors, and styles.

Digital asset management tools can give you complete confidence and peace of mind when using your digital assets. You can then focus on providing excellent product experiences for your current and future customers.

What Is an Example of a Digital Asset Management System?

There are several digital asset management companies that produce quality DAMs, including Lumavate, Adobe, Bynder, Canto, and Brandfolder.

Apart from Lumavate, each one of these companies only offers a standalone DAM solution, and you would need to use a third-party solution or agencies/developers to create digital experiences. While they are excellent at what they do and some of the best DAM systems available, not all of them are tailored for manufacturers, and you can only store and control your digital assets. With these solutions, you aren’t able to use your assets to the fullest extent to create excellent experiences for your customers. In addition, the Adobe digital asset management solution comes with a high cost and a lengthy implementation time. You may also need to get outside consultants to assist with implementation, which can add even more to the cost.

When choosing a DAM, it’s best to look at a whole range of digital asset management system examples and find the best one for your company. Unlike the other digital asset management companies listed above, Lumavate’s DAM is quick to set up and has a short learning curve. It also includes far more than just digital asset management. There is a full product information management (PIM) solution, a content management system (CMS), and a digital experience platform (DXP) seamlessly integrated with the DAM to enable you to make the most of your digital assets.

With Lumavate’s DAM, you can associate your digital assets with your product records with just a few clicks, so that you can create product experiences that include related products, related accessories, and suitable spares.

You can manage every digital asset you own with Lumavate’s full DXP solution, including product manuals, instructions, product descriptions, and more in your PIM, along with images, videos, and graphics in your DAM. You can then easily use the DXP solution to quickly create powerful and high-quality digital experiences for your customers at every stage of the sales process, without any technical resources or IT assistance.