What is digital asset management (DAM)?
Digital asset management is a process that improves efficiency in managing brand assets, images, videos, documents, and other digital files. Digital asset management is useful for organizations looking to improve content ROI, speed up content production and productivity, get content to market faster, and increase marketing scalability and agility.
The following teams benefit from efficient digital asset management:
Key highlights
- Digital asset management is a methodology used to manage content efficiently.
- Digital asset management systems are software used to store, organize, manage, distribute, and control content.
- DAM software is used by marketing, creative, and sales teams.
- DAM systems are used widely across various industries, such as retail, manufacturing, education, and media.
What is a digital asset management system?
A digital asset management system is software used to centrally store, organize, search, collaborate, and distribute content. Digital asset management platforms help teams work more efficiently and leverage digital content to achieve their strategic goals. DAM software includes many features for managing digital assets:
Managing digital assets is also easy since digital asset management systems have easily navigable interfaces.
Cloud-based digital asset management
Common content operation challenges are reduced significantly with cloud-based digital asset management:
Types of digital assets managed by DAM solutions
A digital asset is any type of digital file. DAM solutions can manage almost all digital asset types, including:
Why you need a digital asset management platform
There are numerous benefits of digital asset management, including productivity boosts, better collaboration, improved brand consistency, and even greater content ROI. Here are the benefits of a digital asset management system:
- Centralized asset management: With content in one location, managing digital assets becomes easy, increasing accessibility and searchability for all teams.
- Enhanced brand consistency: DAM platforms can store your style guides and control your brand assets in one place, enforcing brand consistency across channels and teams.
- Optimized asset discovery: Get the latest content search and retrieval tools like AI-powered search and AI facial recognition.
- Accelerated content production: DAM software speeds up the entire content lifecycle by connecting teams, tools, and your content library.
- Better asset utilization: Since digital assets are instantly searchable, teams can reuse content across new channels and markets, increasing content ROI.
- Maximized productivity: When managing digital assets becomes easy, teams can focus on higher-value work inside digital asset management workflows.
- Improved internal and external collaboration: Teams can intuitively work smarter with private digital workspaces and collaboration tools.
- Highly secured digital assets: Digital asset management solutions give you control over your digital assets so you can meet important compliance or regulatory needs.
- Enhanced content operations: DAM software scales to meet your organization’s content needs today and tomorrow.
- Automated distribution: Get content where it needs to go fast with automated publication to storefronts and platforms, shareable content collections, and share links.
How digital asset management software works
Managing digital assets gets a whole lot easier when you use DAM software functionality. DAM software simplifies and accelerates content lifecycle management, maximizing content production and content ROI. Here’s a sneak preview of how digital asset management software works:
- Upload digital assets into a centralized library: Migrate all your digital assets (and attached metadata and folder structure) into a single DAM library from your cloud storage platforms, on-premises servers, local storage, and other storage platforms.
- Organize content with AI tools and metadata: Next, use a DAM solution’s auto-tagging and optical character recognition (OCR) tools to generate additional metadata while populating custom metadata that can’t be captured, like campaign names and use case information.
- Search and access digital assets: To keep content searchable as your library expands, DAM software functionality includes metadata search and facial recognition tools. Some best-in-class DAM solutions also include AI-powered search to scan and retrieve media instantly.
- Collaborate on content projects: You need to work on content efficiently across time zones, languages, and work environments. DAM solutions streamline collaboration by providing a multi-language, self-service library, digital asset management workflows, private digital workspaces, comments, and annotations.
- Manage and control your brand assets from one place: Once content is produced, a DAM platform helps with efficiently managing digital assets, with intuitive tools like approval statuses and digital rights management (DRM) for handling licensed and copyrighted content.
- Distribute and analyze content performance: DAM software functionality also helps organizations speed up content distribution. Automate distribution onto storefronts and platforms with built-in CDN capabilities or create branded content collections via portals. DAM platforms include reporting features to analyze content performance for future content strategy.
- Archive or refresh content: Don’t let content get stale with DAM software. With a DAM solution, you can set expiration dates on content and guarantee it gets removed from circulation for sales, partners, distributors, and more. Content can also easily be refreshed for new campaigns, channels, and use cases. When content isn’t valuable anymore, you can move it to cold storage.
Digital asset management integrations
Digital asset management integrations exponentially multiply teams’ productivity. DAM integration places your content library directly into marketing stack tools like:
Key features of digital asset management systems
Digital assets management systems come fully loaded with the features every team needs to optimize content workflows and meet marketing goals. Features of digital asset management include:
Centralized repository for digital assets
A digital asset management system centralizes all digital assets into one organized content library. DAM platforms can store hundreds of file types. Here are a few key centralization tools that a digital asset management system includes.
DAM features:
H3: Advanced search and retrieval capabilities
DAM software can quickly locate specific files across any size asset library, helping organizations speed up content workflows and get content into the market faster. Here are a few crucial search and retrieval tools that DAM platforms include.
DAM features:
Pro tool: Some best-in-class digital asset management systems, like Canto, include AI-powered search tools to enhance and expedite media search and retrieval.
Metadata management and tagging
DAM software streamlines metadata management for creatives, content managers, and marketers. A digital asset management system helps reduce tedious metadata related tasks so teams can focus on higher-value work. Here are the top metadata management features.
DAM features:
H3: Workflows and collaboration tools
Digital asset management systems are built to handle efficient collaboration for teams of any size. Whether your team needs a digital space to collaborate on projects, faster approval workflows, or ways to bring together communication, DAM systems have it all.
DAM features:
Version control and asset history tracking
Digital asset management software simplifies content management, including tracking and controlling digital asset versions. With a DAM platform, you can ensure approved content makes it into the hands of the right teams. Here are the best version control features DAM software offers.
DAM features:
H3: Access control, permissions, and digital rights
Speaking of asset access and control, digital asset management systems give organizations complete control over their valuable digital and brand assets. Check out the following access and control features you gain from implementing a DAM system.
DAM features:
Distribution tools
It’s not enough to place approved content in your digital asset management system and hope for the best. Luckily, DAM systems come to the rescue with the features you need to distribute content to teams and channels.
DAM features:
Analytics and reporting
Digital asset management includes content reporting features organizations need to understand content performance and inform data-driven content strategy. Dive into these key analytics features below.
DAM features:
Canto AI Visual Search
See the latest in AI search
Popular digital asset management use cases
There are plenty of digital asset management use cases! DAM software can benefit almost any department within an organization. Here is a list of the top use cases for DAM software:
DAM for brand management
Organizations use DAM platforms as their source of truth to manage brand identity and brand assets across teams and channels.
DAM for marketing team
Marketing teams use digital asset management software to find and access on-brand marketing collateral and campaign files quickly, speeding up the launch of marketing initiatives.
DAM for creative teams
Creative teams use DAM platforms to accelerate creative production, reduce metadata management, and automate collateral distribution. These platforms also facilitate efficient approval workflows and collaboration with other teams.
DAM for content teams
Content teams use DAM solutions to accelerate content workflows, collaborate and distribute content efficiently to teams, and analyze content performance to direct content strategy.
DAM for sales enablement
Sales teams use DAM to find and access all training materials, product information, and sales collateral from one place, improving sales success.
DAM for external brand collaborators
Digital asset management software makes working with external brand collaborators a breeze, no matter the location. Internal teams can quickly gather content from agencies, photographers, and freelancers for ingestion and approval. Distributors, influencers, and partners can self-service preapproved and on-brand content.
Industries using digital asset management solutions
Wondering which industries are using digital asset management? We’ve got a list of the top digital asset management industries below.
DAM for agencies
With digital asset management, agencies can streamline creative operations by speeding up approval workflows, sharing branded file collections, and creating professional pitch experiences.
DAM for education
DAM is a single platform for education institutions to manage their content, streamline collaboration across departments, and protect their organization’s brand identity.
DAM for manufacturing
Digital asset management platforms help manufacturers streamline image and brand asset launch, boost sales, and strengthen their global brand presence.
DAM for media and entertainment
Media and entertainment brands use DAM to manage vast media libraries at scale, organize and retrieve media, and improve media delivery and brand consistency.
DAM for non-profits
Digital asset management helps non-profits launch world-class campaigns on a budget and maximize the reach and impact of every piece of content created.
DAM for retail and e-commerce
Whether selling skincare or camping gear, DAM includes everything retail brands need, including multi-channel product content launch tools, automated site and store publication, and brand controls.
DAM for travel and hospitality
Travel and hospitality brands use DAM software to empower teams and partners with fantastic brand imagery, meet sales and booking goals, and control their brand experiences at scale.
Best practices for digital asset management implementation
Case studies: Successful digital asset management implementations
Some of the largest brands in the world use digital asset management software, and it’s not hard to see why. Check out how these brand juggernauts are using DAM platforms to drive success for their organization:
Steps to successful DAM implementation
Here are the steps every successful DAM implementation should have:
- Meet with your implementation team, establish goals, and determine timelines.
- Establish a content and metadata plan.
- Migrate your content, then check data integrity and taxonomy.
- Train users how to use the platform and any purchased integrations.
- Establish roles and permissions for relevant teams and users.
- Handover account to CSM team for continued training, support, and success.
Best practices for onboarding and training
Ensure successful onboarding by providing adequate user training and documentation.
Ask your implementation team to provide your team with video and text tutorials on how to use the platform. Specifically, ensure that the tutorials cover all aspects of digital content management, including how to ingest, organize, search, access, control, distribute, analyze, and archive files.
Confirm that all power users understand the platform and capabilities adequately.
Also, ensure everyone using the platform and any integrations knows how to use all tools related to their core job functions.
Common DAM implementation challenges and how to overcome them
Many challenges may arise during or after DAM implementation. The most common include metadata and content migration, operational efficiency, and user adoption.
To combat these challenges, team up with the DAM implementation, support, and success teams:
Future trends in digital asset management
There are incredible advancements in DAM technology these days. For those interested in the future trends in digital asset management, check out this quick list below:
Want more details? Learn more about digital asset management 2024 trends.
The best digital asset management platform is Canto
Canto’s digital asset management platform has all the best-in-class features your organization needs to maximize content value, accelerate content to market, and maintain brand consistency at scale.
Beginner’s Guide to Digital Asset Management
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Frequently asked questions about digital asset management
What is the difference between DAM vs. CMS?
It’s actually best to integrate DAM with CMS! If you want to know more, check out our blog on DAM vs. CMS.
What is the difference between DAM vs. PIM?
It’s actually best to use both platforms with a DAM and PIM integration! If you want to learn more, check out our blog on DAM vs. PIM.
What is the difference between DAM and CDN?
Find out more about DAM vs. CDN.
What is the difference between DAM vs. Dropbox?
Find out more about DAM vs. Dropbox.
What is the difference between DAM vs. Google Drive?
Find out more about DAM vs. Google Drive.
What are the challenges of digital asset management?
Teams that manage content without a digital asset management platform face the following challenges:
What is a digital asset manager?
A digital asset manager manages and controls an organization’s content, including metadata management for assets, folder structure, and access permissions.
Need to learn more? Dive into our comprehensive blog on what is a digital asset manager.
What is a data asset management system?
A data asset management system (DAMS) is a platform for managing structured and unstructured data, whereas a digital asset management system is for managing digital assets and metadata.
Can digital asset management manage videos, audio files, and media assets?
Digital asset management platforms can manage many file types, including video assets, audio files, and rich media assets.
Is digital asset management secure?
Digital asset management (DAM) systems can be secure, but the level of security depends on the specific software design and implementation.
When choosing a digital asset management platform, it is important to ensure it meets company security standards and compliance needs. DAM systems can be designed with robust security and in-depth defense measures to protect digital assets continuously.