What Does a Digital Asset Manager Do?

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?

A DAM solution 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 DAM; they are not the software itself (more on that here). 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 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 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