Digital Asset Management Ultimate Guide

Digital Asset Management Ultimate Guide

The world of digital content is changing and evolving at an crazy fast rate. New technologies are being developed every day, which means there’s a lot to learn about managing digital assets.

The following guide will provide you with the knowledge and insight necessary to manage your digital assets like a pro 🙌

Why do you need a DAM Software

With a Digital asset management (DAM) software you are organizing, managing, and protecting your digital files. It becomes a critical part of any business, as it allows you to store, access, and use your files in a variety of different ways.

Not just that, you become more capable of keeping track of all your creative assets, planning documents, articles, marketing materials, SEO-targeted pieces, email campaigns, onboarding information—really any digital asset.

The best thing about working within a DAM system includes:

  • Increased efficiency: With a DAM system in place, you can access your files from any location at any time. This means you can work faster and more efficiently, without having to waste time searching for files on your computer or trying to remember where you saved them.
  • Improved organization: A well-organized DAM system makes it easy to find the files you need when you need them. This can save you time and hassle, and help you to work more effectively.
  • Enhanced security: A DAM system can help to improve the security of your digital assets by password-protecting files and folders and by restricting access to authorized users only.
  • Greater flexibility: A DAM system gives you the flexibility to access and use your files in a variety of different ways, including printing, downloading, editing, and sharing.

Enable Your Sales Team with Content Camel

Sign up Now for Free

Types of DAM systems

There are a variety of different types of digital asset management systems available, each with its own set of features and benefits. In order to find the right system for your needs, it’s crucial to understand the different types of DAM tools!

The most common types of DAM systems are:

SaaS DAM

SaaS DAM is a cloud-based digital asset management software, which is accessible via the internet. This DAM is hosted by a third-party vendor. Thus you will not need to worry about the servers as you will be renting them on a subscription basis.

The fee of a SaaS DAM can vary from vendor to vendor. Some charge a monthly fee and some charge according to the number of users.

Moreover, you can access DAM from any device and any location. The vendors will be responsible for handling the security and maintenance of the DAM.

Remember: The vendors will have more control over DAM. So look for vendors who can provide proper visibility and security.

Frontify is an example of a SaaS Digital Asset Management solution that allows you to manage your assets on a centralized platform and create dedicated asset libraries to store, manage, organize, find and share your digital assets.

On-Premises DAM

Unlike SaaS DAM the on-premises DAM is installed on your local servers. But to install this DAM you will need more hardware and faster LAN speed. Since there will be no third-party vendor you will be responsible for handling security, IT, management, upgrades, and support of your system on top of having all your data on your local servers.

On-premises DAM is recommended for organizations that are handling large data with more restrictions.

With on-premises DAM you can have more control over your data.

PICKIT is an On-Premises Digital Asset Management software that allows you to control and manage your assets from one place. It’s ideally best for logos, photos, icons, audios, and videos, however, its a secure home for all types of digital assets including, documents, templates, licenses, media files, and other digital assets - giving you control over your assets.

Hybrid DAM

Hybrid DAM is a combination of both SaaS and on-premises DAM. The end product is one for users but behind the scene, there are two servers. One is cloud-based and the other is on-premises.

Hybrid DAM solution is ideal if you want to store data on-premises but enhance the access of data globally. JIRA allows you to manage your data and access it on-premises or in your cloud servers.

It is ideal for organizations that are operating at a large scale.

Resource Space is a hybrid DAM - an open source solution that helps you simplify your digital asset management, and customize the platform according to your business. Its the perfect enterprise solution for managing and accessing extensive digital assets.

Choosing the right Digital Asset Management System

When choosing a DAM system, it’s wise to consider the size and complexity of your business, as well as your budget because DAM systems can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars.

So it’s essential to evaluate your budget when making a decision and consider the following factors when choosing the right DAM System:

The number of digital assets you need to manage

The more digital assets you need to manage, the more complex the system you’ll need. IBM’s DAM system can help you efficiently store, organize, manage, retrieve, and distribute your organization’s digital assets.

Cloudinary does a good job at providing much-needed agility and flexibility to your content operations. And since it seamlessly integrates with the existing systems, it allows asset libraries to be connected to those specific systems to truly enable a central asset library.

The type of files you need to manage

The type of files you need to manage will determine the type of DAM system you need. If you need to manage documents, images, video files or any file, you’ll need a system that is designed to take care of all that.

Bynder is a great digital asset management solution that creates a central storage for all types of digital assets. You can access your assets anywhere and share them anytime anywhere with exclusive controls to ensure integrity of your assets.

The level of security required

If you require a high level of security for your digital assets, you’ll need to choose a system that provides password protection and restricted access.

IBM offers a DAM software that is known to have utmost security protocols in place to ensure the security of your data.

The level of flexibility required

If you need to access and use your files in a variety of different ways, you’ll need a system that provides a wide range of features. It should be scalable and flexible to allow growth according to your requirements.

Whether your data is growing or your teammates, it should be able to handle the growth like Extensis’s Portfolio DAM solution that makes organizing, finding, and sharing your media assets easy – even as your collection grows.

It should integrate with the existing system

The integration will speed up your workflow. Integration can save you from different hustles like exporting files from DAM just to upload them on a different platform. Your DAM should at least integrate with your existing system to ensure seamless experience.

Widen’s enterprise DAM solution is scalable as per your needs and offers integration for your digital assets across all platforms to ensure effective collaboration.

It should be customizable

Each organization and department has different needs.

And your DAM software needs to fulfill those requirements.

For instance, can it customize fields for arranging assets? Does it allow you to add your own logo in external portals? Can you change the interface according to your branding requirement?

If you are looking for a tool for Sales Content Management, for example, look no further than Content Camel. Our tagging feature allows you to create customized tags to organize your assets. You can also create custom short URLs to communicate with your prospects.

Once you’ve considered these factors, you’ll be able to choose the right system for your needs.

DAM Tools for Your Specific Needs

There are a number of effective DAM tools available on the market, each with its own set of features and benefits. In order to find the right tool for your business, it’s critical to determine the type of files you’re going to manage within your organization and the niche of your business to shortlist what’s the industry-wide best solution.

The most common types of DAM solutions are:

DAM Solutions for Sales and Marketing Teams

DAM Solutions for SME’s and Startups

DAM Solutions for E-commerce businesses

Crafting A Digital Asset Management plan

When you’re working with digital assets, it’s important to have a plan in place for how you’re going to manage them. If you don’t have a plan, you’ll quickly find yourself with a disorganized and chaotic collection of files that’s difficult to manage.

A digital asset management plan will help you to:

  1. Organize your files: A good DAM system will allow you to organize your files into folders and categories, making them easy to find and access.
  2. Protect your files: A good DAM system will provide password protection and restricted access, ensuring that your files are safe from unauthorized access.
  3. Use your files in a variety of different ways: A good DAM system will provide a wide range of features, allowing you to use your files in the way that best suits your needs.
  4. Access your files from anywhere: A good DAM system will allow you to access your files from anywhere in the world, making it easy to work on projects from any location.
  5. Keep track of changes: A good DAM system will keep track of all changes made to your files, ensuring that you always have a record of who made what changes and when.
  6. Reduce file size: A good DAM system will reduce the size of your files, making them easier to store and manage.

Best practices for organizing your sales content library

Great digital management software will give your team the ability to organize your content so that it’s always easy to find, update, share, and manage. Truly great DAM software can make this even better with smart links, tags, and custom sorting to always keep your assets where you need them.

We’ve built Content Camel to be the easiest, most powerful sales enablement software you can find, at a fraction of the cost of top sales enablement tools.