Over the last year, digital asset management systems (DAM) have landed on the radar for many marketing teams as they shifted toward remote work and dispersed teams. This new digital-first, content-focused environment has contributed to challenges for marketing and creative teams in properly managing their massive amounts of digital assets. In fact, a Forrester report found that 64% of global software technology decision-makers are adopting DAM in order to mitigate these challenges and work more efficiently.
Why are teams leaning into a DAM implementation to help them make the most out of their current situation? Here, we share some factors that demonstrate why DAM is an important and necessary investment for marketing teams in the coming year.
A New Marketing Environment
As we are all well aware, 2020 was an extremely transformational year, in more ways than one. For marketers, in particular, it was the year they were challenged to shift their mindset and experiment with new budgets, new channels and new initiatives. Even now, almost 2 years later, we are still seeing the impact.
As teams begin planning for the new year, there are four driving trends contributing to this new environment to be aware of:
1. Reprioritization of Digital
While some industries have been slow to make the move from traditional channels to digital, the happenings of the last year have forced their hand. With traditional channels, like events, billboard ads, etc. becoming less viable as customers stayed at home, these groups were forced to experiment with digital channels - and were pleasantly surprised with the ROI they achieved. Into 2022, many of these marketing leaders are reprioritizing their spend commitments to pure-play digital channels.
2. Adoption of eCommerce
The global number of digital buyers increased from 1.32B in 2014 to 2.14B in 2021, due to factors like increased access to the internet, convenience, and a global pandemic, of course. Even brick-and-mortar experiences are being increasingly influenced by online channels, with many customers using their mobile phones to review products and price compare – right in the store aisles. This boom in ecommerce means that companies who want to stay competitive will need well-performing, responsive, attractive websites that include accurate product imagery, descriptions, pricing etc. It also means that marketing teams need to invest more in creating content to ensure purchase confidence and prevent returns.
3. Increasingly Distributed Teams
As many organizations are forced to experiment with working remotely from home, and there is no guarantee teams will be collaborating with each other in the same office anytime soon, marketing teams will need to find new ways to work efficiently and effectively no matter where team members are located; ensuring that projects can be handed off seamlessly. As a result, leading organizations are reevaluating their existing processes and technology to ensure everyone on the team is supported, no matter where or when they’re working.
4. Fewer Resources
2020 led to massive budget cuts within many organizations - with the marketing department being the first to see a reduction in spending. Despite expectations, even as we near the end of 2021, the latest Gartner research has shown that this team will continue operating within their newfound budget - well into the future. As a result, marketing teams are reevaluating how to do their jobs with fewer people, capital and resources.
What Does This All Mean?
As marketing teams prepare for 2022, they need to find ways to address this difficult situation, where they need to create more content for more channels...but with less resources. Specifically, they need to find ways to:
- Create more media to enrich additional channels and initiatives,
- Ensure their technology stack can address global teams, and
- Make the most out of every marketing dollar they spend.
Given all of the challenges that marketing teams now face, there is no better time to implement a system to help organize, protect and maintain their content in order to maximize efficiency and achieve success as a company.
How a DAM Can Help
As mentioned above, marketing teams are investing more than ever in content for digital media, whether it be online ads, product imagery, videos, or website content. But, with a reduced budget, it’s critical to ensure that each of these assets are used to their full potential – and kept safe, yet accessible for those that need them. A digital asset management solution does just that, centralizing high-value media into a secure cloud-based library.
Specifically, a DAM addresses these five areas:
1. Centralize everything in one, easy-to-access location
As organizations become more global, it’s critical to ensure teams can access the branding and content they need to perform their jobs – regardless of their location. A DAM gives seamless access to these assets – from anywhere with an internet connection.
2. Ensure all content is organized and discoverable
When you’re working with less budget, it’s critical to ensure that every photo, video, graphic and other piece of content is used to its full potential. A DAM helps make rich media content more discoverable by enhancing them with additional metadata. In addition to storing assets in relevant categories, DAM users can also enrich assets with AI-created auto-tags, keywords and attributes (such as photographer name, campaign, etc.)
3. Give each person customized access
While everyone needs easy access from anywhere, opening up all of your assets to your entire organization poses a huge security risk. A DAM offers comprehensive and customizable permissions, allowing organizations to decide which categories any given user can access, as well as what actions they can perform, such as downloading, deleting, and sharing. They can even set permissions to enable users to download – but only with a watermark. A DAM enables you to gain the benefits of opening assets up to others, without compromising on security.
4. Enable easy distribution to digital channels
As marketing teams experiment with more digital channels and rich media, it can become more challenging to ensure seamless project hand-offs with agencies and coworkers. It can also be more difficult to distribute that content to relevant teams and distribution channels, without creating siloes. A DAM puts relevant content in everyone’s hands, from the social media team to web developers. Out-of-the-box integrations also enable these teams to access final assets from within the tools they already love (such as CMS, CRM and PIM).
5. Archive content for reuse and reference
When working on so many campaigns and channels, recreating the wheel every single time isn’t an option. After an initial project is done, a DAM keeps the source, WIP and final files safe for reuse down the line. A DAM ensures maximum ROI from any given project, photoshoot, etc.
As marketing teams need to be able to do more, with less, they also need to be able to maximize the ROI on all content by optimizing the use and reuse of those digital assets — getting creative with how each asset is (and can be) used...which is exactly where a high-quality DAM comes into play.
Get Ahead with a DAM
It is evident that over the last year, marketing teams have struggled to perform as a department with the ongoing challeges that have occurred through such unprecedented times. Now more than ever, it is clear that a DAM can help teams stay ahead of these challenges and aid them im performing to the best of their ability. By simplifying processes and centralizing all high-value media into a secure cloud-based library, a DAM will help teams maximize success in 2022.
The benefits that a DAM can provide to your team, however, do not end here. Learn more about how a DAM can help your organization by scheduling a demo with us today.
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. See MediaValet in action today.