A digital asset manager is essential in today’s content-driven organizations.

As digital content production accelerates across industries, organizations are turning to Digital Asset Management (DAM) software to bring order and efficiency to their content operations. But while software provides the infrastructure, it’s the Digital Asset Manager—the person—who ensures the system delivers lasting value.

What is digital asset management software?

A digital asset management system enables an organization to better organize, store, and distribute digital assets, such as images, videos, audio files, documents, and other content.

DAM software is becoming more widely used throughout a variety of industries and organizations. Some organizations employ a full-time digital asset manager due to the enormous amount of digital assets being created and used daily by businesses.

What is a Digital Asset Manager?

A digital asset manager is a team member who oversees, implements and maintains the digital asset management library; they are not the software itself. The responsibilities of a digital asset manager include acquiring, organizing and cataloguing digital assets. They also oversee the security of digital assets, such as:

• Photos,
• Videos,
• Graphics,
• PDFs,
• Presentations,
• And more.

What Does a Digital Asset Manager Do?

Since digital asset managers are essentially the administrators of DAM systems, you’ll often see their roles include governance – overseeing the guidance of the rest of the team, enforcement of DAM best practices, and even research and development. The day-to-day role of a digital asset manager includes managing all digital asset management tasks, including but not limited to:

• Managing asset access (setting up user groups and permissions)
• Encouraging user adoption
• Proving DAM training and retraining users
• Implementing and enforcing metadata strategies
• Organizing and cataloguing assets
• File naming and maintenance
• Optimization of asset metadata
• Approving (or denying) asset usage or changes
• Ensuring alignment with security and compliance
• Testing, updating and auditing policies

A digital asset manager typically works in the IT department under a senior director or manager; working closely with legal, creative, marketing and sales departments.

How do Digital Asset Managers Support Digital Asset Management?

A Digital Asset Manager brings structure, strategy, and long-term governance to your digital asset management system. While digital asset management software provides the technology, a Digital Asset Manager ensures that your content ecosystem actually runs smoothly.

Here’s how the role strengthens your DAM program:

How To Become a Digital Asset Manager

The core skills needed to become a digital asset manager include:

1. Project Management Skills: The role intersects with many different departments, often with various projects happening simultaneously. Excellent organizational and time management skills are a must.
2. Technical Skills: Familiarity with certain software and systems (such as CMS, PIM, ERP and project management tools) and markup and programming languages will often be needed to administer the DAM and set up certain integrations.
3. Interpersonal Skills: Because they will work with various departments across an organization, and also trains those who will use the DAM. They must have excellent people and communication skills.
4. Analytical Skills: As the individual in charge of file naming, organizational structure, maintenance and cataloguing, an analytical way of thinking is crucial to this position.

Role requirements include formal education and experience. Typically, a degree in information science, computer science or a related field is preferred, along with one to three years of related experience in an entry-level role.

Entry-level roles could include IT support, digital asset coordinator or product management. According to PayScale, the typical career path could include moving on to web development, then to software engineering, front-end development or senior web development.

Real-World Impact: Why Companies Hire DAM Managers

Any kind or sized company using a DAM could benefit from a full-time digital asset manager in the role. However, larger companies with more sizable creative departments typically have the most to benefit from hiring a dedicated person to manage the system, as a high volume of assets are being made and distributed every day.

They bring structure to content chaos, ensuring that:

• Teams find the right asset, the first time
• Content workflows move faster, with fewer bottlenecks
• Branding and compliance stay intact across regions and teams
• Assets are reused and repurposed strategically, reducing content costs

Even smaller teams can benefit from having a dedicated DAM administrator, especially as content volume grows or remote collaboration increases.

Is Now the Time for a Full Time DAM Admin?

The landscape of digital asset management software has changed. It’s not enough for enterprise organizations with various departments using a DAM to try and organize themselves and the system.

The digital asset manager acts as the system’s administrator, overseeing, implementing, training and retraining everyone using the DAM. The right person in this role can help an organization get the most from their DAM across all departments, by implementing effective governance, improving productivity and speeding up workflow

The term “digital asset” has become more common in marketing and creative communication – and with good reason. According to Venngage, 74% of marketers now use visuals in over 70% of their content. But, there is still a disconnect between what is considered a digital asset. Is it just any digital file? If not, what are the other criteria?

We explore the key elements of digital assets, share examples of digital assets, and explain how to evaluate their value and why digital assets are important to your business.

What are Digital Assets?

Gartner’s Glossary, define digital assets as digital material owned by an enterprise or individual including text, graphics, audio, video, and animations. Traditionally, people have considered digital assets to only include photos and videos. Over the years however, we’ve started including other digital files in our definition, such as documents, presentations, and spreadsheets.

The definition of a digital asset is constantly changing as new digital formats are emerging in business. It’s important to remember that the file format is only part of the definition. The other portion of the digital asset definition is derived from the value the asset brings to the company.

There are 3 key elements that make any single file a digital asset. A digital asset must:

• Be a digital file owned by an individual/company,
• Provide value to the individual/company, and
• Be searchable and discoverable (usually with metadata).

Digital Assets Examples

Here are some common digital asset types:

• Photos,
• Videos,
• Audio files,
• Presentations,
• Graphics,
• PDFs,
• Spreadsheets,
• Documents,
• Design files,
• 3D files,
• and more.

Digital Asset Example: eBook

eBooks are generally created for knowledge sharing, lead generation, and establishing authority.
An entire eBook is more challenging to replace. They often contain valuable, well-researched information. Keeping them secure ensures that your intellectual property is protected and your audience trusts the source.

Digital Asset Example: Ad

Ads are typically created for campaign consistency, reusability, and performance analysis.

Given their role as the face of your brand, secure storage prevents the loss of creative work and ensures quick access for future campaigns or audits.

Digital Asset Example: Video

Videos are primarily used for brand storytelling, product demos, and customer engagement.

As high-value assets, protecting them safeguards your investment in production and maintains the quality and accessibility of your content.

Digital Asset Example: Logo

Logos are typically created for brand identity, recognition, and marketing purposes. They are central to a brand’s visual representation and are used across various platforms and materials.

Storing logos securely ensures that the correct, high-resolution versions are always accessible for consistent use. Protecting these files also prevents unauthorized alterations or misuse, which could compromise the brand’s image and integrity.

Digital Asset Example: AutoCAD File

AutoCAD files are typically created for detailed architectural plans, engineering designs, and complex technical drawings. These files are often intricate and time-consuming to produce, containing precise specifications crucial for construction and manufacturing.

Storing them securely is essential to prevent unauthorized access or accidental loss, which could lead to significant setbacks in projects and potential financial loss. Secure storage ensures that these critical assets are easily accessible for future reference and modification.

Want to learn more about DAM software and assets? Get the free report here.

What is the Difference Between Digital Assets and Other Files?

To help identify the difference, Theresa Regli, a DAM industry expert, describes digital assets as “something represented in a digital form that has intrinsic or acquired value”. To simplify, the key difference lies in whether or not the file adds value to the company.

For example, an image from a photoshoot used in a social media campaign to raise awareness of an upcoming event and drive registration, is considered a digital asset. However, if a rough screenshot is sent in a one-off email to a potential client, the image itself has minimal long-term value and would likely not be considered a digital asset.

When evaluating the value of your digital assets, there’s more to consider than just the hard cost of them. It’s also important to consider 2 factors: the time spent producing it, and the ability to recreate it.

1. Time and Effort to Produce

When evaluating production value, consider the time, resources, people, and planning that it took to create the asset. Often, an organization’s most high-value assets are those that take a considerable amount of time and effort to create. Losing a single photo, while inconvenient, can be resolved quickly, by re-editing the raw file or selecting another. A fully-edited and ready-to-distribute eBook, however, will take significantly more time and effort to recreate and get re-approved. Even if you still have each individual asset. This is an incredibly common challenge. In fact, in our recent DAM Trends Report, 41% of organizations without a digital asset management (DAM) solution in place reported having to recreate or repurchase an asset.

2. Ability to Reproduce

Assets also become increasingly more valuable when they’re impossible to recreate. These types of assets usually come from one-time, never-going-to-happen again events, where even all the time and money in the world couldn’t recreate that moment. For example, as the marketing department of a sports team would know this all too well, a single photo of a game-winning goal can be extremely valuable and can’t be recreated if it’s misplaced. When just looking at the costs to create that asset, it’s just one of the hundreds of images taken by the photographers in a single night, but to the marketing team, this single photo is more valuable than gold.

Why Are Digital Assets Important?

The way that we do business is changing and emotions have always influenced buying behaviors, but now it’s about more than just producing cool ads to drive customer demand. It’s about who is connecting the best with customers, and how they’re doing it. In an increasingly digital world, most connections are happening across online channels: exactly where your digital assets come in.

At their core, they are the visual representation of your products, services, culture, and, ultimately, your brand. As the key drivers of online engagement, digital assets represent the connection between your company and your customers. They give you the ability to interact with customers how, when, and where they like.

How do Organizations Make Digital Assets Discoverable?

Assets are valuable only if they can be found. When you’re working with a lot of them, it’s important to take steps to make sure they’re discoverable and can be managed efficiently. This is done with the consistent use of metadata (keywords, titles, photographer name, etc.), and a smart taxonomy (category structure):

Metadata

Metadata is essentially data about data providing a variety of information about the asset, beyond its basic filename. There are two types of metadata that include the following:

1. Technical metadata: usually displayed automatically, such as resolution, photographer name, dimensions, and size.
2. Descriptive metadata: describing a resource for the purpose of discovery, such as title, description, and keywords.

Most commonly, people tend to associate metadata with keywords. Your keywords are key to powering asset search and give you the power to label your assets in a way that’s relevant to your unique business needs. Here’s a helpful guide to keywording.

Taxonomy

A taxonomy is a hierarchical structure that allows you to categorize and classify your assets to ease navigation, and identify relationships between assets. Using a taxonomy will help users intuitively browse for assets in a digital asset management system, especially when they’re not exactly sure what they are looking for. Here’s a helpful post about building a taxonomy.

While a basic form of both metadata and taxonomy can be done in-house, many companies take advantage of a digital asset management system. It enables true control of their digital assets and gives instant access to the people that need them.

Check out the free, self-guided tour of a MediaValet DAM here!

Better Manage Your Digital Assets With a DAM

Digital assets have become the essential tools of brand loyalty, with every digital interaction returning to visuals and copy. But your assets are only valuable if they can be found and used efficiently.

By implementing dedicated digital asset management software in your organization, you can elevate your digital asset game.

A DAM system comes with a ton of benefits including:

• Easy access to assets
• Enhanced organization and discoverability
• Improved collaboration, workflows, and processes
• Better brand consistency
• More secure assets

Interested in learning more about DAM and how it compares to other solutions? Check out these resources:

DAM vs Google Drive

DAM vs Traditional Online Document Storage

DAM vs MAM

DAM vs On-Premise

DAM vs Brandfolder

Do you want to find out how much a DAM platform could save your organization? Calculate your DAM ROI right here!

What is MAM? And what is the difference between a MAM and a DAM? Making the right choice, requires an in-depth understanding of the definitions and differences between each system. This knowledge is crucial to selecting the appropriate solution for your business.

Both digital asset management software and media asset management software allow organizations to manage digital assets, but their functionalities and integrations set them apart.

While we’ve already covered the major differences between DAM and traditional online document storage, DAM and CMS or a file-sharing platform, it’s time to tackle another asset management solution. Here. we’ll cover what is MAM? and we’ll compare digital asset management vs. media asset management.

In this blog post, we dive into the key differences between DAM and MAM and help you discover which is the best asset management software for your organization.

Since its inception, digital asset management software (DAM) and media asset management software (MAM) have often been referenced interchangeably. After all, with only a one-word difference between their names, it can be easy to confuse the two. But, while their names, and even definitions, are similar, their functionality is tailored to very different markets.

To understand the difference between the asset management tools, a good starting point is to look at the definition of each:

Media Asset Management Definition

Media asset management software is an online platform used to organize, store, and manage rich media, and digital rights and permissions.

A MAM is used to manage and distribute large-sized media files, typically focusing on time-based assets like videos and audio. It’s most frequently used by the broadcast industry to manage large video clips.

Digital Asset Management Definition

A DAM is used to organize and distribute media, visuals and content, typically focused on brand and marketing-related assets. It’s usually owned by the marketing team but can be accessed by multiple teams, including sales, product management, communications, and partners.

Let’s take a look at each solution more in-depth!

Digital Asset Management vs. Media Asset Management Software: The Key Differences

According to Firework, 82% of internet traffic in 2025 will be video, making it increasingly important for organizations to effectively organize and manage their growing libraries of rich digital media assets.

This has caused a variety of solutions to emerge, ranging from simple file repositories to enterprise-level digital libraries. But, with each vendor offering similar-sounding features, it can be difficult to nail-down which solution is right for you.

Let’s break down the differences between MAM software and DAM software.

What is MAM?

Media asset management originally emerged as a solution for managing video files and audio content for the television and movie industry. With production and distribution workflows focused specifically on building long-form (20 minutes or more), time-based content, it’s often the solution of choice for organizations dealing primarily with large-sized videos. As MAMs focus primarily on video, they also often have the most comprehensive integrations into the tools that video production teams are already using.

ImagenVP defines media asset management software (MAM) as:

“A single repository for storing and managing video and multi-media files.”

While a MAM provides in-depth management of video, it’s lacking the ability to effectively manage, preview and distribute smaller files, like documents, images and work-in-progress files. This means that, while it’s a great solution for production teams, it’s less viable for marketing and creative teams, who require the wider breadth of management capabilities that a DAM can provide.

Key Features of Media Asset Management Software

A media asset management solution has a ton of features, but its key features are:

• Storing and managing large-format video, audio files, and multimedia files
• Workflow management for video creation
• Providing permission-based access to content

The Bottom Line

Media asset management software (MAM) is best for teams with a heavy focus on long-form video and audio content and a large media asset library, with minimal use of other visuals, like images and design files.

What is DAM?

A digital asset management system is an integral part of the media content creation process, helping marketing teams organize, collaborate on and distribute their rich media files and visual media from within one central library. By providing a single-source-of-truth for all the important visual content within an organization, a DAM reduces internal bottlenecks and improves brand consistency across all channels.

TechTarget defines digital asset management software (DAM) as:

“A system for organizing, storing and retrieving rich media and managing digital rights and permissions.”

With a DAM, users can manage nearly any type of digital file. From within the system, users can perform a variety of functions, including re-sizing & re-formatting their media, tracking usage history and sharing large files easily with external parties. A DAM also provides organizations with increased media security, such as user permissions, compliance regulations and backups.

Key Features of Digital Asset Management Software

At first glance, a DAM can seem similar to a MAM, but it has some differentiating features:

• Storing and managing brand and marketing material (photos, videos, video and multimedia files, etc.)
• Enriching assets with custom AI-generated metadata, such as keywords
• Version control and history tracking for all media assets
• Manipulating assets into other forms, such as file type or size
• Access permissions for internal and external users
• Video Intelligence (AVI) to automatically tag, recognize, and transcribe media rich files.

Check out out free MediaValet tour here!

Why choose a MediaValet DAM?

MediaValet customers find that DAM has been able to satisfy their light-MAM requirements through our video specific feature sets and support, including:

• CI HUB enabling creatives and video editors to easily connect to their DAM library from within a variety of tools including Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects
• A high performing, infinitely scalable Azure PaaS back-end, ensuring persistent lightning-fast ingestion and querying of video assets, regardless of library size
• World-class support for viewing, streaming, and transforming video, leveraging Azure Media Services
• Audio & Video Intelligence tool (Built on Azure Video Analyzer)

According the 2025 DAM Trends Report, MediaValet users who use AI-powered features like AVI are seeing big benefits in their rich asset management.

In fact 100% of those using Video Intelligence are expanding their digital presence.

While a DAM provides great functionality for managing a wide breadth of digital assets, including video, its video capabilities are evolving and enhancing through AI-powered technology.

Fred Rogers Productions have used their MediaValet DAM’s audio-visual intelligence (AVI) to achieve incredible results with their huge repository of video! Read more about it here.

The Bottom Line

Whether you’re leaning towards DAM or MAM, the most crucial aspect is understanding your organization’s unique needs. Efficiently managing your digital assets can transform your operations, ensuring content is always at your fingertips.

A DAM is best for companies that need a better way to produce, store, collaborate on, share and distribute large amounts of marketing and creative content (photos, videos, audio, etc.)

Does a DAM sound like a better fit than MAM? Contact us today to find out how a MediaValet DAM can help your organization – book a demo here!

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.

Every day your teams waste time, money, and resources searching for misplaced files, re-creating assets that already exist, or struggling with brand consistency. This is costing more than just time; organizations are also losing revenue and competitive advantage. Organizations that implement digital asset management software solve these challenges in record time, but many organizations delay adoption until “later.” The reality of later? Costs growing exponentially over time.

In fact, waiting to adopt DAM can see huge productivity losses: in just 6 months, employees can waste 350 hours on asset-related tasks. But before we get to that, let’s discuss the ways DAM is essential in 2026 and learn how organizations can benefit from implementing DAM.

What is DAM and why does it Matter?

A Digital Asset Management (DAM) system centralizes your photos, videos, design files, documents, and brand assets in one secure, searchable hub. But it does so much more than that: it powers collaboration across marketing, creative, and operational teams, ensuring everyone works from a single source of truth. Beyond storage, modern DAM systems use AI for tagging, automate rights management, and integrate with the tools your teams already use.

The result: improved efficiency, faster campaign launches, stronger brand consistency, and reduced risk of compliance errors.

Why is Digital Asset Management Essential in 2026?

By 2026, several shifts in branding, technology, and regulation make Digital Asset Management more than just nice-to-have, DAM is crucial. Delay now, and the risks grow rapidly. Here are the key forces accelerating the need for DAM, and how they tie into brand consistency, AI, video, global content, licensing, and more.

Key Trends Driving DAM Urgency in 2026

These trends mean that by 2026, organizations without strong DAM systems will face compounded problems.

How Much does it Cost to Implement DAM?

Like any technology, DAM comes with upfront and ongoing costs. Understanding what a DAM price tag looks like helps to put “the cost of waiting” in perspective:

• Upfront investments: licensing, migration of existing assets, taxonomy/metadata setup, user training.
• Ongoing costs: storage, unlimited users or seat-based licensing, support, integrations, and security updates.
• Hidden costs: customization, change management, or delays due to incomplete onboarding.

While these may seem significant, the ROI payback often happens within months, because the alternative is bleeding time and money every single week without DAM.

What is the Cost of Waiting to Implement DAM?

Here’s where the conversation shifts. The cost of delaying DAM adoption isn’t always captured in a budget spreadsheet, but teams feel it every single day. Some of these are harder to measure, but no less damaging:

• Brand inconsistency: Without centralized, approved assets, outdated logos, mismatched colors, and off-brand messaging sneak into campaigns. Each slip chips away at trust and erodes the brand equity you’ve worked hard to build.
• Slower time to market: A holiday campaign delayed by even a week? That’s missed leads, lost sales, and opportunities your competitors are happy to scoop up.
• Regulatory and compliance risks: Assets without proper licensing or expiration tracking are ticking time bombs, waiting to trigger costly legal or financial consequences.
• Scaling pains: The longer you wait, the more your digital chaos multiplies. Every new photoshoot, every new video, every updated logo adds to the eventual migration burden—making future clean-up slower and far more expensive.

These are the intangibles—hard to calculate, but painfully obvious in day-to-day operations.

But let’s talk numbers, because the data makes the case even clearer. According to the 2025 DAM Trends Report delaying DAM adoption has a measurable impact on efficiency and budgets.

Now, apply these numbers to your organization:

• 6 months delay → That’s over 350 hours of productivity per employee lost (13.5 hours × 26 weeks). Multiply across your team, and the cumulative impact quickly runs into thousands of wasted hours and tens of thousands in unrealized savings.
• 12 months delay → Double the inefficiency. That’s 700+ hours per employee spent on low-value asset hunting and duplication. For a 50-person marketing/creative team, this adds up to 35,000 hours wasted in one year—time that could have fueled campaigns, innovation, or customer engagement.
• 24 months delay → The missed savings compound further, with brand inconsistency and compliance risks piling on top. By this point, the cost of waiting likely far exceeds the initial investment in a DAM system.

In short: every month you wait, you’re essentially paying for inefficiency, duplication, and lost opportunity, while competitors using DAM are pulling ahead.

Want to see how a MediaValet DAM works? Check out the self-guided tour here:

How can you Prepare for Digital Asset Management in 2026?

Here are actionable steps you can include in your blog as tips to get ahead:

1. Audit existing assets: Start cataloguing what you have, checking licensing/rights, version history, where things are stored.
2. Define brand governance and compliance policies: Clarify who owns what, who approves, who updates, usage rights, expiration, territory.
3. Choose DAM with AI capabilities: Auto-tagging, visual/voice search, metadata enrichment, integration with video tools.
4. Plan for video workflows: Transcoding, version control, localization/subtitling, rights tracking.
5. Ensure global/local readiness: Be aware of regulations, provide capability to localize, manage regional licensing.
6. Set metrics to benchmark: Time saved finding assets, errors caught, campaign launch speed, cost of duplication etc., so you can measure the return.

Delaying the implementation of digital asset management software doesn’t just postpone benefits, it multiplies inefficiencies, increases risks, and drains resources that could fuel growth. The data is clear: organizations that act now save money, reclaim valuable hours, and protect their brand. Every month you wait, the gap between you and competitors widens. Don’t let the cost of waiting hold you back, implement DAM today to set your organization up for lasting success.

Reach out to a DAM expert today to find out how MediaValet can help you!

When companies first start looking into DAM software to better organize their content, understanding digital asset management pricing models can quickly become complicated. What most organizations don’t fully realize in these early stages of searching for a DAM vendor is that their needs may change over time.

This means the initial price tag for a DAM may not stick for very long. It’s important to fully understand DAM pricing. What the initial cost includes, and what kinds of increases you’re looking at as you grow as a company.

But before you start planning, let’s explain digital asset management pricing in detail.

Digital Asset Management Costs

How much does a DAM cost? There are various factors at play when it comes to determining the cost of a DAM. The size of your organization, your unique use case, storage needs, and more can determine the DAM solution you need. Although there is a lot of information out there about the costs of DAM solutions, there are three main components:

• Subscription costs,
• Upfront costs, and
• Ongoing costs.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these costs below.

Subscription Costs

All DAM solutions have a base subscription cost, which is usually dependent on a combination of things. Storage needs, user numbers, administrators, and user groups. To receive an accurate quote for the subscription price for your DAM solution, you’ll need to answer these four questions:

1. Storage: How many terabytes (TBs) of digital assets will you store?
2. Users: How many people will use (or could use) the DAM?
3. Administrators: How many people will manage the library?
4. User Groups: How many different customized user groups will be needed?

Each DAM vendor has a slightly different approach in how they price their base subscription, as well as what they include with it. For example, MediaValet’s core DAM subscription-only charges for storage, and includes unlimited users, administrators, and custom user groups.

Understanding This Cost

This is often the most variable cost, so it’s important to consider how each vendor’s digital asset management pricing structure will impact your organization’s long-term growth. Some pricing structures can prevent organizations from extending DAM access to other users, such as additional departments or marketing agencies, as it would increase the price of the DAM’s base cost substantially. A subscription model that’s based on just storage, with unlimited users, can greatly improve the scalability and reach of your DAM. This should be a priority if you’re expecting to grow your user base.

Want a more personalized understanding of dam pricing? Check out our MediaValet Pricing page here.

Upfront Costs

There are often one-time fees to cover the upfront costs of implementing the DAM. First, an onboarding fee is an extra cost associated with the initial DAM setup for your organization and may increase with additional storage or integrations. Another is a consultation fee. Many DAMs will either offer consultation internally or have partners that can provide additional support with navigating more complex DAM implementations. Both of these fees are normal but can vary across vendors and quickly add up if they’re estimated based on an hourly rate. With MediaValet, the onboarding fee is a flat rate that covers the entire onboarding process, followed by unlimited training and support over the customer’s lifetime. We also have several partners that can help with additional implementation needs.

Understanding This Cost

In many cases, implementations can take longer than expected, so take care to understand what’s included with these fees to avoid getting caught with an unexpected bill. Make sure you understand if the onboarding and consulting fees are based on a set number of hours and the implications of going over and above what’s included. Understanding the kinds of services that are included also set clear expectations between the DAM vendor and you, the customer.

Ongoing Costs

A typical ongoing cost is for DAM training which involves booking time in with the DAM vendor to train new users on the platform or update users on how to take advantage of new features. This can be in the form of one-on-one training or group training sessions and is usually priced based on a set number of hours and/or sessions. Another ongoing cost is for DAM support, which covers technical challenges with the DAM (system bugs, setting up new users, recovering deleted assets, etc.). Like training costs, support costs are usually bundled or billed hourly. Both DAM training and support are critical to the adoption and usability of the platform, so it should be an expected cost. Again, with MediaValet, unlimited training and support are included in the base subscription cost.

Understanding This Cost

While “optional” training and support can be tempting to pass up, ensuring new users understand how to use the platform ensures better long-term adoption and increased ROI. It can also save you from wasting valuable time trying to solve technical problems yourself, only to make matters worse. In most cases, investing in training and support inevitably saves you time and stress down the road. With this in mind, consider using a vendor that offers unlimited training, or be sure to thoughtfully budget for this additional cost.

Want to learn more about how a DAM works? Take the self-guided tour of MediaValet here:

Digital Asset Management Pricing Comparison

When shopping around for DAM solutions, it’s important to ensure you’re comparing apples to apples. In this section, we’ll cover all the basics you should know about DAM costs before you start comparing digital asset management pricing structures. The three major considerations you’ll need to understand prior to comparing DAM prices are:

1. Features and Integrations,
2. User Needs, and
3. Ability to Scale.

Let’s take a closer look at each consideration below.

1. Features and Integrations

Since every organization has unique needs, the DAM you decide to go with should reflect that. A very important part of comparing the costs of different DAM solutions is only looking at systems that have the features you’ll need. Be sure to deep dive into the DAM’s features on asset organization, search capabilities, distribution solutions, archiving, security, and the ability to scale—and don’t forget to look into their training and support.

What’s the use of investing in a DAM if it doesn’t work with the rest of your tech solutions? Running into a problem with the right integrations can be a major roadblock in choosing a successful DAM. MediaValet integrates with many of the most-used programs like Microsoft 365, Adobe Creative Cloud, and much more.

2. User Needs

The right DAM partner will take into account how the DAM needs to work for your team, and how they can offer ongoing support that will boost user adoption, and foster confident usage. MediaValet offers a customer success program where you’re partnered with one of our customer success managers to make sure your DAM works the way you need it to with unlimited training and support.

3. Ability to Scale

Where you’re at today is not likely where you’ll be six months, a year, or five years down the road. Most organizations are looking to grow, making scalability an important factor to consider when comparing DAM vendors. It’s important to take into account how your costs may grow as your business does. Are these costs are sustainable? MediaValet offers unlimited users and user groups at no extra cost to help our clients who are looking to scale.

Whether you have a library of digital assets already, or you’re starting fresh, MediaValet works with you. We work to develop an intuitive and future-proof taxonomy that will scale and grow along with your business.

What’s Included in a DAM Price?

When embarking on a digital asset management pricing comparison, it’s important to understand how each vendor’s pricing works, as well as what features and benefits they provide. This will help optimize productivity, get the most out of your DAM, and avoid any unforeseen costs.

To avoid surprises and going over budget it’s important to:

• Map out features and benefits the DAM is providing,
• Take time to choose a partner that will help you find the right plan, and
• Make sure there’s room for you to scale up if needed.

Ensure you understand the subscription, upfront, and ongoing costs of your DAM. Also, clarify what’s included in what you’re paying for. It’s just as important to choose a DAM partner that you trust to find the right solution for you.

We believe in investing in the success of our clients by offering unlimited onboarding, training, support, users, and user groups. Why wouldn’t we help our customers get the most out of their DAM?

Get your custom MediaValet DAM pricing today.