Content has become a cornerstone of all good marketing strategies. Marketing teams need to constantly deliver new and relevant content to keep their brand top of mind. Unfortunately, many teams are unable to act independently and rely on other teams or individuals to resize images for various channels, such as their website, social media, and more, ultimately slowing down their productivity and content creation.

With MediaValet’s new cropping tool, users can quickly crop images to any size directly within MediaValet, allowing them to alter images without needing creative team help.

In this post we will cover

• How Cropping Works
• Common Use Cases for Cropping

How Cropping Works

MediaValet’s cropping feature allows users to quickly freeform crop images. Using this tool, users can quickly set crop dimensions and download a cropped version of the image directly to their device.

And, we’re not done yet! Just around the corner, we’ll be releasing cropping templates and ratio cropping. With templates, users will be able to create and save custom cropping templates for social media posts, banner images, hero header images, blog posts, and more. Ratio cropping will allow users to crop images using default ratios for common file formats, or create custom aspect ratios that they can drag to a specific area of an asset.

Common Use Cases for Cropping

While the use cases are truly unlimited, the two most common use cases we see are content creation and asset management. Let’s dive into these two use cases in more detail.

Content Creation

Robert is responsible for creating a monthly newsletter for Travel North America, an organization dedicated to promoting travel across North America. While preparing the June newsletter, he finds an asset in MediaValet that he’d like to include – however, it’s not in the correct dimensions for the newsletter. Using the custom newsletter cropping template that Travel North America created, Robert is able to crop the image to the appropriate dimensions. He then downloads the image to use in the newsletter.

Asset Management

Jennifer is a Digital Marketing Specialist at Infinite Bio, a pharmaceutical company, and oversees the company website. Recently, two new executives joined the team that needs to be added to the “About Us” page on their website. The new executives upload their headshots to the DAM and share the photos with Jennifer, however, they’re in portrait format. Erin uses the MediaValet cropping tool to optimize the images for the website, cropping them to a standard 1:1 ratio. She then downloads the cropped headshots to her desktop and adds them to the company webpage.

Learn more about MediaValet’s cropping capabilities

Ready to see cropping in action? Watch our webinar “Boost productivity with our NEW cropping tool” for a live demo of the cropping tool and see first-hand how you can use this feature to achieve your business goals.

A consistent and well thought out keyword strategy is at the core of any successful digital asset management initiative. Your users’ ability to quickly and easily find their assets is essential in ensuring both productivity and consistency remain high. Keywords give users the power to label assets in a way that’s relevant to their unique business needs. If used incorrectly, they can seriously hinder the effectiveness of a DAM.

Below, we share some of the most frequently asked questions, asked when creating a keyword strategy that is consistent, clear and has the end-user in mind.

1. If I buy a stock image online, do the pre-existing keywords automatically transfer over when uploaded into the DAM?
Yes, any pre-existing embedded keywords transfer over automatically and will become instantly searchable. Additionally, if you’re working on a platform like Adobe Bridge or Adobe Illustrator, you can embed your own keywords within XMP, IPTC, and EXIF metadata fields, all of which will be automatically mapped into the DAM.

2. If a word is hyphenated or separated by a space, do I need to input the keywords as two separate words for it to be searchable?
No, anything separated by a space, underscore or hyphen will be treated as separate terms once searched. For example, you don’t need to have ‘tour’ and ‘tour guide’ as separate keywords. If you search the word ‘tour’ it will also bring up any assets labelled as ‘tour guide’.

3. Can I map over keywords from embedded metadata?
Yes, values embedded within the XMP, IPTC, and EXIF “Keyword” field will be automatically mapped over by default, which means there’s no manual work required to map over it.

4. What program would you suggest to set up keyword documentation?
At the beginning of mapping out your keyword strategy, a shared document can be quite useful as the whole team has access. However, for ease of reference and to ensure keyword continuity, the majority of people export the file and upload it into the DAM once everything is set up in terms of governance and policy.

5. Can special characters be used in keywords?
It’s recommended to avoid using any special or Mac/PC-specific characters to ensure searchability remains high. That being said, simple characters, such as a dash or underscore are fine to use.

Ready to optimize your keyword strategy? Take a look at our 30-minute on-demand webinar, where we highlight six best practices to help you better manage your keywords and enhance discoverability.

MediaValet is a leader in cloud-based digital asset management that helps organizations manage, organize and share their digital assets, improving productivity and increasing ROI.

Digital asset management is a tool used by organizations worldwide to help them manage their brand and scale marketing performance, but DAM wasn’t always the vital part of the marketing stack that it is today. Here’s how DAM for marketing transformed from a niche media storage tool to an organization-wide enabler.

• Evolution 1: A basic print and media library
• Evolution 2: A creative library for big brands
• Evolution 3: A key part of the MarTech stack
• Evolution 4: A storage solution for the whole company’s files

Evolution 1: A basic print and media library

DAM first emerged about 30 years ago as a specialized solution for media, publishing and print companies who needed a way to store and organize their videos and photos. At the time, these systems were mostly on-premise and only met the basic requirements of the DAM systems you see today. A few major tech companies were also in the market for these on-prem DAMS, but they required lots of customizations and a complex implementation process to meet the functionality the companies required.

Evolution 2: A creative library for big brands

It was only recently, in the last 5 to 10 years, that DAM reached its first evolution out of the basic media solution stage. With the growing importance of branding and visuals, DAM vendors expanded their storage offering to include graphics and visuals to meet this demand and the increase in asset production. With this new use-case, retail and major consumer brands started adopting DAM systems within their creative, photography and video production departments to allow for easy access to brand assets. It also became common for general marketers to use a DAM as a brand portal for sharing logos, ensuring brand consistency and enabling their team with on-brand visuals. But the DAM was still primarily focused on managing photos, videos and visual documents.

Evolution 3: A key part of the MarTech stack

In the last few years, with the rise of content marketing, asset types have become drastically more complex. Organizations started investing more money and time into developing brand visuals, and the need for more content had created a whole new priority: re-use.

As companies began spending more on developing and using content, it became vital to stretch each visual to multiple channels in multiple formats. This change made DAM essential to scaling marketing strategies and made metadata that much more important for automating the marketing process. This shift also meant DAM vendors began investing heavily in creating and improving integrations with key martech platforms, such as eCommerce, marketing automation and social media management tools, as well as content creation tools, such as Adobe Creative Cloud and Office Suite.

Evolution 4: A storage solution for the whole company’s files

It wasn’t until the last year and a half that DAM vendors truly began unlocking the potential for DAM to be an organization-wide tool. A few key changes were made that made this possible. First, media file storage expanded into nearly all digital file types, such as Autodesk AutoCAD files, and major improvements were made to the user experience (UX) around viewing multi-page documents. Second, the ability to work with digital assets in Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents was added, expanding DAM capabilities to the documents used in essential business activities. This change, along with pre-existing permission structures, made it possible for departments such as sales, HR and support, to enjoy the benefits of a DAM system. And with DAM vendors that offer unlimited users and training (sometimes for free), organizations had no barriers to extending the benefits to anyone that needed them. DAM became the tool for managing and distributing all company collateral, from sales presentations and training manuals, to onboarding documents and budget spreadsheets.

Evolution 5: The center of digital transformation

So where is DAM now? It’s certainly still being used as a cross-organizational tool, a creative library, and honestly, even just as a media solution, but with the emergence of “digital transformation,” it’s clear that DAM can be so much more.

DAM is now working towards not just enabling different departments with assets, but encouraging those departments to work in cohesion with each other. By breaking down these operational siloes and using a DAM to connect all internal and external platforms, organizations can have the ability to create a “consolidated ecosystem” that can provide all its customers with a seamless, consistent experience across all channels. By using a DAM to connect company assets and content to every touchpoint, from sales to support, companies can strengthen their brand identity and truly transform into a digital workforce.

Many companies are still in the early stages of digital transformation. If you’re looking to get started with a digital asset management system, make sure you check out Vendor Comparison Guide here.

Creating your category structure is arguably one of the most important steps during your onboarding. It sets the foundation for your metadata strategy and, ultimately, can make or break your DAM implementation. But, while taking the time to build a strong category structure is important, it can also be the cause of major delays in getting your DAM implemented.

As a Customer Success Representative at MediaValet, I’ve helped a large number of organizations with their DAM implementations and seen many projects get delayed due to category structure decisions. Here are the five common challenges I see organizations experience while developing their category structure, and ways you can anticipate, avoid and overcome them.

Not having enough information

As a DAM administrator, one of your tasks is to build a category structure that will represent multiple groups of users and departments within your organization. If you aren’t familiar with each team’s workflows, preferences, and processes, you may run into difficulties with setting up a category structure that’s beneficial to them.

To remedy this, speak with key system users and department champions to gather information on their workflow and current folder structure. With this new-found clarity, it’ll be easier for you to develop a category structure that aligns with user needs and enhances the user experience.

Quick Tip:
Sometimes it can be intimidating to approach department leaders when you know they’re busy but keep in mind that the purpose of the meeting is to better tailor the category structure to their team. A bit of effort from them in the short term will lead to less frustration in the long term.

Involving too many people

It can be difficult to come to an agreement on a final category structure when you have too many decision-makers involved. The definition of “too many” will vary from organization to organization, but if you find yourself in a multiple-week standstill as a result of an inability to come to an agreement, this may be your team’s downfall.

While a larger team can provide ideas and support in building the category structure, most of these users shouldn’t be involved in the final decision-making. The purpose of involving them is so you can gather information to help you make that final decision on your category structure – not for them to make decisions for you.

Quick Tip:
Depending on the size and complexity of your implementation, sometimes the best decision is to be the sole decision-maker for your organization’s category structure. Listen to each user’s advice and suggestions, but make decisions based on what you think will best benefit the organization as a whole.

Not dividing the project into tasks

Although you don’t want too many cooks in the kitchen, there’s value in slicing your pie into multiple pieces. Translating this into DAM implementation terms – it can be beneficial to split your category structure creation into smaller tasks.

Rather than setting a single completion date for the entire category structure, set shorter milestones for yourself to complete different tasks. It will help keep you on track and make the project less overwhelming. Plus, it’s satisfying to celebrate the small wins as you complete each milestone!

Quick Tip:
Logical category milestones can include breaking your categories down by business unit (i.e. Marketing, Graphic Design), subsets of users (i.e. Sales North America, External Vendors), geography (i.e. Washington, Kentucky), or asset theme (i.e. Branding, Product Images).

Starting from scratch

Oftentimes, DAM administrators make the mistake of starting their category structure with a blank slate. This can make the process feel infinitely more overwhelming and often lead to problems in the long run, as the structure is built entirely from a single person’s perspective.

The best place to start building your category structure is by using your organization’s current folder structure as a base. From there, you can analyze what works and doesn’t work, and add, remove, or adapt categories accordingly. This will not only reduce work for you, but it can also improve user adoption, as users will already be familiar with the structure.

Quick Tip:
If your organization is currently storing assets in multiple different places – such as on network drives and a legacy DAM – remember to consolidate the folder structures from each of these systems. It will provide you with a clear view of everything that you’ll need to store in your DAM.

Striving for perfection

As the DAM administrator, it’s normal to feel pressure to have your DAM set up perfectly right from the get-go. But, striving for perfection can stall your project and prevent you from moving on to subsequent steps, such as migrating your assets and creating user groups. Keep in mind that the category structure you implement within your DAM is not set in stone – there’s always the opportunity to make adjustments if needed!

Quick Tip:
Once you have your category structure in place, upload a sample batch of assets in your DAM and have key users experiment with it. Use their feedback to drive any changes and help you reach your goal of category structure perfection.

While developing your category structure can take some time and effort, it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. If you ever feel stuck and need some advice to get your project back on track, your Customer Success Manager is always here and ready to help.