What Industries Use Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software?

The vast majority of businesses in today’s world are turning to digital solutions. Digital collateral such as logos, PDFs, images, and much more can be a hassle to organize within any organization, big or small. Luckily, there’s a solution to keeping these digital assets organized and manageable. The key is Digital Asset Management (DAM).

What is DAM software? Who uses it? What size of a company does it benefit?

Keep reading as we investigate these questions further.

What Is Digital Asset Management Software?

A digital asset management (DAM) system helps bring order to the chaos of digital assets by organizing them into one central location. A DAM platform has the ability to store, share, and manage all types of digital content from any device at any time anywhere. 

This can include files such as images, videos, audio files, animations, presentations, documentation, and any other multimedia or digital content. DAM software adds various features that make it easier and more automatic to keep your library of digital content organized.

Teams that frequently work with digital assets often build extensive catalogs of content that may need to be periodically accessed, often by people other than the content originators. If that catalog is not well organized, the team’s productivity can be seriously harmed. This can also cause a lot of frustration. DAM software makes working with digital assets easier than ever.

What is a digital asset?

A digital asset is any item that can be digitally stored. As mentioned above, digital assets can include anything from video, music, photos, documents, powerpoints, PDFs, and other media that may be used by anyone who has permission to access them.

In an organizational setting, every department uses or accesses digital assets to some degree. Marketing teams will create and collaborate on ads, social media posts, videos, and email campaigns. Business operations and service teams will create documents such as process documentation, blueprints, and workflow diagrams. Additionally, if you’re working with a network of suppliers, you might produce images and content for them to use on their own websites or allow them to have access to certain assets on-demand. 

In the end, every department will have some kind of relationship with digital assets—whether they’re marketing materials, customer service tools, or sales collateral.

How Does Digital Asset Management Software Work?

Every DAM solution works slightly differently. However, they all work on a similar basic principle. The digital asset management software stores all of the digital assets in a centralized library. Additionally, every file has associated metadata such as the file type, size, resolution, and description. Users can search the library to easily find files. It is like a special computer file system made specifically for the shared use of digital assets.

DAM software may have special organizational features beyond the metadata. For example, with MarcomGather, you can organize your files into collections. They can also be tagged to help the system know what the content of the file is. Better yet, artificial intelligence automatically suggests tags for each asset, helping to speed up the upload pipeline.

Software for larger teams can also help with common digital asset workflows. For example, Marcom Portal can have approval processes to ensure that every file used is on-brand. Rules can also be set for expiring certain assets when they become deprecated. In short, DAM software gives you the tools you need to be more organized as a team.

Why Do Companies Need a Dedicated DAM Solution?

In the past, organizations relied on internal servers for digital asset management. These were not the best days of DAM. Most internal servers were overcrowded, bulky, and disorganized. Also, one could only access the server from inside the office. Working from home was practically impossible those days.

Thanks to DAM software, employees can enjoy the convenience of accessing all their files at any time from anywhere. Digital asset management software makes this possible by keeping everything in a central, cloud-based server that staff can access depending on the permission levels set.

A DAM software not only guarantees a foolproof asset archiving and backup strategy, but also lets you monitor how each asset is being used.

Who Uses DAM Software?

Companies that are forward-thinking and strive for organization and collaboration use DAM software. Research shows that marketers spend over 60% of their time retrieving information or restructuring lost assets and other low-value tasks.

DAM software helps you get the most out of the different departments and teams. Since it streamlines your digital asset management, your employees no longer waste time sifting through assets, which allows them to be more productive.

Below are some of the industries that use DAM software and how it’s solving their challenges:

Higher Education

A strong visual presence is essential for higher education institutions to facilitate student engagement, funding, and drive recruitment. Universities and colleges have large amounts of digital assets from multiple channels and teams, and effectively managing them can be challenging.

However, with DAM, students and staff, whether on or off-campus, can access, download, and share files, improving the much-needed cross-campus consistency.

Real Estate & Construction

Real estate and construction are visual industries. Virtual tours, property photos, and content templates are used to attract prospects. Teams and agents must be able to access this content easily and at all times. However, this can be a challenge given the large file sizes and complex file types such as 3D models popular in the industry.

With DAM software, real estate and construction companies can store all of their digital assets in a central location from where they can easily distribute sales content to the staff across the organization.

Manufacturing

Manufacturing companies rely on their distributors and retailers to provide accurate information about their products to their consumers. But how do they ensure that their distributors access their most recent product details, photos, and collateral?

Enter DAM.

With a DAM system, manufacturers can create a one-stop library where all their partners can access all the information they need. They can search by product ID, SKU, and more, making the process as easy as possible.

Agencies

The competition in this industry is very high, and to survive, agencies must stand out as the best partner for clients. Clients look for agencies that provide easier access to final projects, have the best communication lines, and guarantee shorter turnaround times.

With a DAM, agencies can improve the creative production process between them and their clients and offer a point of access where clients can find their completed projects.

Technology

Companies in the technology industry must engage with clients across several relevant digital channels to stand out in this highly competitive industry. This is virtually impossible if their departments and offices are siloed.

DAM software helps them align their content by building a central source where departments can access the content, brand assets, and templates crucial for creating and sharing on-brand material.

Retail & eCommerce

For retail and eCommerce businesses, engaging content and high-quality product photos are a must to entice customers to click that ‘add to cart’ button. However, as they expand and increase volume, they may face a challenge streamlining and managing content creation.

Retailers can use digital asset management to efficiently oversee the creation and distribution of their brand materials between teams, partners, and departments. Whether it is in-store signage or eCommerce, DAM ensures consistency on every channel.

Additional Industries that Benefit from a Digital Asset Management

Non-Profits

For most non-profits, employees perform their duties off-site. Unfortunately, too much time goes to managing marketing material across different hard drives and PCs. But with DAM, employees or volunteers can access the assets from a central point regardless of where they are working from- ultimately allowing your content to go further.

By integrating a DAM solution within a non-profit, remote teams can organize marketing content by campaign name, region, years, etc. This allows employees and volunteers to find and re-use content, visuals, and media easily. This organized library of content helps grow its lifespan and maximizes its overall effectiveness.

Hospitality

• Hotels & Resorts- Managing a hotel chain with different products and locations can be difficult. However, DAM allows employees from different chains globally to access digital assets any time they need them.
  
  For example, a hotelier of a chain may have images of their building, rooms, and amenities. At the same time, someone else at corporate may have access to different images that may be outdated or inaccurate. A DAM solution would enable hotel groups access and management of digital assets from one central location anywhere 24/7. This allows for collaboration as well as the ability to get the most up-to-date information across the organization.

• Tourism- Employees in the tourism industry usually work with partners and agencies across geographical boundaries. DAM is used to consolidate siloed collections and as an online hub to promote customer engagement.

Franchises

Franchises need their franchisees to access their on-brand materials almost instantly. DAM enables the admin to place control and permissions on each item in the system, ensuring the franchisees can access the latest collaterals relevant to their location.

Additionally, a franchisee can use a DAM solution to communicate with their store, restaurant, or other business. If a franchisee notices that revenue is meager towards the end of the month, they would send out a promotional offer to entice more customers before closing out the month. Without a DAM solution, it would be typical for franchisees to create their own promotions that might be off-brand or out of line with the original offer.

The DAM solution would help franchisees find pre-approved promotions, templates, or assets that can help attract additional customers while staying within brand guidelines.

Local Government

Governments cannot risk their private digital files being accessed by unauthorized audiences. With a DAM, a government institution can have a greater focus on security and permission structure that guarantees the safety of their digital assets. In addition to organization management, a DAM solution built on secure cloud platforms offers top-notch security.

How Can DAM Software Add Value To Your Team?

Your digital asset management software can help your team work smarter than ever. These are a few of the core benefits of DAM:

• Organization: The main purpose of DAM software is to help your team get more organized. In particular, it will help your team collaborate on digital assets easily.
• Consistency: You can create collections and apply tags based on brands. This makes it easier to ensure consistency in your digital branding.
• Security: DAM software means that you have centralized control of your assets. Set access permissions and ensure that only the right people have your files.
• Efficiency: Using DAM software, your team can become more productive than ever. This can translate to time and money savings.
• More Useful Metadata: Normal file systems have basic asset metadata. However, with DAM software, you can see all the details you need for working with your digital asset library.
• Analytics: Your software can show usage analytics and other helpful information. This can be invaluable for managing digital asset costs.

Does My Company Need DAM Software?

In the current digital world, digital asset management software is a must-have for any company. DAM software enables you to maintain an organized digital capital, updated file versions, and consistent collateral across channels and departments.

It organizes the assets for central access, whether from home or office, and relieves the load on your servers. A DAM software allows your company to control and protect digital assets efficiently.

Efficiency is everything when it comes to business, and with a DAM solution, companies have the power to make their asset management as efficient as possible. As a result, your team can execute initiatives faster- saving you time and resources.