How to improve content lifecycle management with DAM

Managing content effectively, from creation to archiving, can be challenging for content managers, creatives, and digital marketers. With so much incoming and outgoing content, keeping track of everything can feel overwhelming. Content management, version control, and brand consistency are obstacles you probably face daily.

Without a system for managing content at scale, it’s easy for things to get messy.

But with the right tools, you can overcome these obstacles and ensure your content is always on point and delivered on time.

In this guide, you’ll learn solutions to ensure content progresses through each lifecycle stage efficiently and creates more value for your organization.

What is content lifecycle management?

Content lifecycle management (CLM) refers to overseeing the entire content production process, including creation, maintenance, distribution, use, and refresh or removal.

Effective content lifecycle management optimizes the process of handling content. When implemented correctly, it will improve your speed to market, content quality, and brand consistency. Plus, you’ll increase the overall impact and value of your content.

Why is content lifecycle management important?

Content lifecycle management is important because it increases productivity, decreases content production costs, and improves content ROI.

Efficient workflows

When teams follow organized workflows, it streamlines your content production. Your content teams will be more productive, and you’ll allocate resources more effectively.

Better content ROI

A streamlined content management process translates to a higher content ROI, because your team will use content to its fullest potential.

Consistent branding

CLM helps uphold brand messaging and quality standards across all platforms and channels. Since CLM helps with brand consistency, you can build trust with target audiences and strengthen your brand’s reputation.

Organize content

You can quickly find and use the right content and avoid the risk of duplicate content creation. With CLM, only the most up-to-date content is available.

Compliant content

CLM helps meet legal and regulatory requirements. When you use a structured lifecycle, it’s easier to control the content and reduce your legal risk.

Measure performance

CLM improves the overall tracking and analysis of your content’s performance by providing insights that guide future strategies, so you can create content that resonates.

Scalability

When you roll out large-scale marketing campaigns, CLM makes it easier to handle vast content amounts without sacrificing quality. A standardized CLM process also gives you a scalable marketing infrastructure as your organization expands and content needs increase.

Maintenance

With CLM, you can create built-in timelines to regularly update and improve content to align with your audience’s evolving interests and your marketing strategy. Regular updates also keep content accurate and on brand. And keeping your website up-to-date sends positive SEO signals to Google.

What are the stages of content lifecycle management?

There are six key stages to content lifecycle management. Keep in mind that content may not always follow these stages in order.

Planning

Planning is the foundation of any content strategy. Without it, even great content can miss the mark.

Begin by setting clear, achievable goals. Depending on your strategy, these goals may include increasing brand awareness, driving traffic, or boosting sales. Your objectives will then guide each decision you make.

Gain insights into your audience by conducting surveys, developing buyer personas, and using analytics to learn their preferences and challenges. As you understand audiences better, you can tailor content more effectively.

Organize your efforts with a content calendar outlining what content you’ll create and when to publish it. A well-planned schedule ensures consistency and keeps your team on track.

Creation

The creation stage is where your ideas come to life.

First, brainstorm with your team about what content to produce. Use what you learned in the planning stage to generate fresh ideas that will engage your audience and align with your marketing strategy.

You can use AI marketing to augment your existing team’s creativity. For example, you could quickly generate multiple copy and visual media variations to see what resonates the most with your audience.

Boost team productivity by making sure your content library and brand guidelines are accessible and shared with everyone. While you’re at it, double check your library has version control, so teams are always working with the latest content. That way, teams can modify existing content instead of starting from scratch, speeding up content production.

Then, set up a quick and easy approval process to collaborate on all content. Your library should also allow teams to collaborate, comment, and track changes in content without having to jump between tools.

A standardized approval workflow means content always meets your quality standards and stays consistent across all channels. After all, the best way to scale brand content production is to create pre-determined content workflows for all your content projects.

Management

The management stage focuses on keeping your content organized and easy to find.

Start by setting up a clear system for organizing your content. Use folders, tags, and categories to sort and catalog your content.

Next, make sure your content is accessible to the right teams. Use a centralized content library so your team can quickly locate and use the right materials without wasting time searching through multiple drives or cloud storage platforms. Many centralized libraries, like digital asset management (DAM) platforms, come with powerful search features that make finding content even easier.

Finally, regularly review your content to ensure it’s still relevant and accurate. Regular content audits keep your content fresh, on-brand, and aligned with your evolving marketing strategy.

Distribution

Now is the moment when you share your content with the world. Focus on getting your message out across the right platforms and channels.

Start by identifying the best platforms and channels for your content. Whether it’s your website, storefront, social media, email newsletters, or partner sites, make sure you’re reaching your audience where they’re most active.

Tailor messaging, themes, and topics for each platform and audience while maintaining a cohesive brand voice; you’ll reinforce your brand identity and engage your audience.

Rely on digital rights management (DRM) to meet regulatory, compliance, copyright, and license requirements. Some content libraries, like DAM platforms, have DRM built in.

You could also work with partners to expand your reach. Share content with collaborators who can help amplify your message and bring it to new audiences. Collaborations can also open up new content opportunities to further increase your brand impact.

Evaluation

Once you begin distributing, check how well your content performs. Then, use that information to shape future strategies.

Monitor your content’s performance across all platforms using analytics tools to track essential metrics such as engagement, reach, and conversion rates.

If you’re using a DAM platform to manage your content library, you’ll have access to reporting and analytics features to see what content is popular and what isn’t.

Analyze the data thoroughly to understand content effectiveness. Look at which pieces drive the most engagement and which ones fall flat. Some analysis here will help you pinpoint what resonates with your audience.

Take what you’ve learned from your evaluation and refine your content strategy. Focus on creating more of what works, addressing discovered gaps, and shifting resources as necessary.

Refresh, archive, or delete

Refresh, archive, or delete content to keep your library up to date. The archival process can be ad hoc or during a content audit.

Set a schedule to audit your content library periodically, ensuring everything is up-to-date and relevant.

First, identify outdated, inaccurate, or off-brand content. Find old blog posts, expired promotions, and any material that no longer serves your current goals or audiences. Regularly audit your content to see where you can make quick improvements to refresh content and determine when content is no longer usable.

Next, create an action plan for whether to refresh, archive, or delete content:

• Refresh low-hanging fruit like off-brand blogs and eBooks that will only take a minor lift
• Archive content that might be useful to reference later or that could speed up future creative projects
• Delete or move content to cold storage that’s irrelevant or could confuse your teams or audiences

Finally, organize your archived content. Use a system like a DAM platform that makes it easy to access and reference content in the future.

What tools do I need to streamline content lifecycle management?

You need the right tools in your marketing stack to effectively manage the content lifecycle. From digital asset management platforms to project management tools, here’s everything you’ll want to consider:

Digital asset management (DAM) platform

A digital asset management (DAM) platform like Canto optimizes the entire content lifecycle. A DAM platform is the best software on the market for managing content effectively. It creates a central library where it’s extremely easy to organize, find, distribute, analyze, refresh, and archive your content. DAM workflows are also included to manage all your content across the digital asset lifecycle. Additionally, DAMs integrate with your other marketing tools to further streamline content workflows.

The best DAM platforms will have these features:

• Centralized storage: Provides a single library for all digital assets, ensuring easy access and retrieval
• Metadata tagging: Facilitates efficient organization of assets through auto-tagging and facial recognition features
• Enhanced search: Uses powerful AI search features to visually scan and retrieve content quickly
• Version control: Organizes various iterations of assets, reducing confusion and ensuring team members use only the most up-to-date versions
• Collaboration features: Allow team members to collaborate on assets, track changes, and manage approval workflows in one place
• Distribution and performance: Share your content across teams and platforms and track content performance
• Integrations: Integrate your content library into many popular work management, creative tools, productivity, collaboration, marketing automation, file storage, social tools, and more

Content management systems (CMS)

A CMS schedules and publishes content so it’s easier for you to update websites and storefronts.

The CMS you choose should have the following features:

• Publishing tools: Features to schedule and publish content across websites and storefronts
• Templates and plugins: Customizable templates and plugins to enhance functionality and design

Pro tip: A DAM and CMS platform seem similar but serve different teams and purposes. Before you finalize your tech stack, take some time to understand the differences between DAM vs. CMS.

Project management tools

Project management tools help you in the content creation stage by keeping your content projects on track.

Any project management tool you use needs to have the following features:

• Task management: Assigns and tracks tasks so content-related activities get completed on time
• Workflow automation: Automates repetitive processes, reducing manual effort and speeding up content workflows

Analytics and reporting tools

Analytics and reporting tools evaluate how your content performs, giving you a clear view of what’s working (and what isn’t) with features like:

• Performance dashboards: Track KPIs like engagement and conversion rates

Canto is the best DAM for content lifecycle management

Canto streamlines content lifecycle management by providing a central platform to organize, manage, and access your entire content library. With Canto, you can efficiently manage content from creation to archival, streamlining content workflows, increasing content ROI, and boosting productivity to the max.

Canto has features that streamline CLM like AI Visual Search, Smart Tags and Smart Albums, facial recognition, unlimited Portals for sharing content, Workflows, built-in DRM, and more.

Ready to learn more about digital asset management? Download The Beginner’s Guide to Digital Asset Management today.