Managing content across various platforms is overwhelming, even for the most successful marketing and creative teams. Content demands are increasing exponentially and marketers and creatives are being asked to deliver more with less. Our recent survey of 600+ marketers showed that:
- 43% of marketing leaders feel overwhelmed by the volume of visual content that needs to be created to support their strategies
- 85% of marketers say the demand for speed in content and asset creation has increased in the last 12 months
- Content creation workflows are the #1 friction point marketers would like to fix
That’s why many brands are turning to digital asset management (DAM) platforms to simplify content creation from conception to completion – streamlining their workflows so teams can focus on strategy.
Here’s how digital asset management workflows operate and how you and your team can get more done.
The Centralized Organization System
Have you ever received a request for a piece of content, only to spend hours searching? When your team has assets saved everywhere, it can be hard to track down what you need.
Everything You Need, All in One Place: A DAM system serves as your team’s digital library. All of your team’s photos, documents, videos, and more – neatly stored in one place that everyone can access easily.
A Single Source of Truth: With everything in one central location, there’s no doubt about where to find the latest version of any asset. It’s about having that peace of mind, knowing that you’re always working with the correct file.
Secure and Accessible: External hard drives can be lost or stolen, and files on personal computers aren’t always backed up. A centralized DAM system ensures your assets are safe, secure, and accessible to those who need them whenever they need them.
Moving to a centralized DAM system isn’t just about keeping things tidy; it’s about efficiency, security, and simplicity. It turns the chaos of content sprawl into organized harmony, ensuring the right people have access to the right assets at the right time.
Searchability and Asset Discovery Simplified
Searching for digital assets should be better than looking for a needle in a haystack. Luckily, with the right DAM system, it feels more like magic than a mundane task. Here’s how a DAM system transforms the search experience:
Metadata Magic: Metadata is like a secret code that unlocks the power of searchability. By tagging assets with relevant information (like the date, project name, or content type), finding what you need becomes as easy as typing a few keywords. It’s like having a personal assistant who knows exactly where everything is.
AI Visual Search: Ever wished you could find an image just by describing it? With AI visual search, that’s not just possible; it’s incredibly efficient. This technology understands the content of images, allowing you to search based on visual elements. Looking for that picture of a blue car you uploaded months ago? Just type it, and voilà!
Branded Portal: Imagine entering a portal where every asset is perfectly organized, just the way you need it. That’s what a branded DAM portal offers. It’s tailored to your organization, making navigation intuitive and ensuring you find assets in fewer clicks. It’s about creating a user-friendly environment that reflects your brand’s structure and needs.
Organization at Its Best: Whether it’s sorting by categories, projects, or any other custom taxonomy, the system ensures every asset is right where it should be. It’s like having a meticulously organized digital library at your fingertips.
Finding content in a DAM system is no longer a time-consuming chore. With the help of metadata, AI visual search, and a well-structured branded portal, what used to take hours now takes minutes or even seconds.
Content Approvals and Creation Made Easy
Gone are the days when content creation and approval felt like navigating through a maze. With a DAM system, it’s all about streamlining and simplifying these processes, making everyone’s life a bit easier. Here’s how:
Seamless Integration with Adobe Creative Cloud: Connect your DAM directly to Adobe CC. Pull all your branded assets into your design environment without ever leaving Adobe. This allows you to keep your creative flow uninterrupted and ensure your designs are always on brand. Don’t use Adobe? Ensure your DAM integrates with the other creative tools you use.
Always the Right Version: Marketing teams no longer have to wonder if they’re using the latest version of an asset for their campaigns. The DAM ensures that only the current versions are accessible, eliminating confusion and maintaining brand consistency across all channels.
Instant Access for Social Media Teams: Timing is everything in social media. With instant access to assets, social media teams can ensure they’re always sending the right message at the right time to the right audience. It’s about being relevant and responsive without the wait. See how the Philadelphia Eagles leveraged DAM to boost social media engagement.
Collaborative Workspaces: Imagine a space where you can quickly share content, gather feedback, and make edits on the fly. DAM workspaces offer just that, enabling marketing teams to produce and refine content faster than ever. It’s about accelerating the feedback loop and making collaboration effortless.
Branded Templates for Everyone: Who said creating branded content is only for designers? With branded templates in the DAM, anyone in the organization can whip up on-brand assets without waiting for a designer. It’s about empowering all team members to contribute to content creation while ensuring brand guidelines are followed.
A DAM system is more than a storage solution; it catalyzes easier content creation and approval processes. By facilitating better collaboration, ensuring brand consistency, and speeding up the production cycle, DAM systems help teams work smarter, not harder.
AI-Driven Asset Organization
Artificial Intelligence is making the asset organization process not just efficient but remarkably intelligent. Here are six ways AI transforms your asset organization:
1.) AI Visual Search: The #1 Way to Maximize the ROI of Your Assets
Description-based Searches: Forget about painstakingly tagging every file with metadata. With AI visual search, you can find assets by simply describing them. It’s like having a search engine that understands your content as well as you do, ensuring no asset goes underutilized.
2.) Simplify Image Tagging
Automatic Tags for Every Image: Imagine uploading a batch of images and having them all tagged automatically with relevant objects identified in each photo. ObjectID does just that, saving hours of manual work and ensuring your images are effortlessly searchable.
3.) Highlight Your Organization’s VIPs
People Identification: PeopleID automatically identifies and tags VIPs in your organization’s photos. Whether it’s executives, special guests, or notable employees, this feature ensures essential people are always easy to find. All you need is a good headshot to get it set up.
4.) Keep Your Sports Team in the Spotlight
Auto-tag Players: Even if your team’s faces are not visible, RosterID ensures every athlete is recognized and searchable within your DAM. It’s perfect for sports teams and organizations where highlighting every player’s contributions is critical.
5.) Protect and Promote Your Brand
Logo and Brand Recognition: Need to keep track of where and how your brand (or your sponsors’ brands) is represented? BrandID automatically identifies logos and branding across your assets, making brand management a breeze.
6.) Create Accessible Videos with AI Subtitles
Engagement Through Accessibility: Video content reigns supreme, and making your videos accessible is crucial. This feature auto-generates English subtitles for uploaded videos, enhancing accessibility and engagement. It’s about getting quality, captioned content out to a broader audience faster.
These AI-driven features within DAM systems streamline the organization of digital assets and enhance their discoverability and usability. By leveraging AI, organizations can ensure their assets are organized intelligently, making every piece of content work harder and deliver more value.
Content Distribution Made Simple
DAM systems facilitate content distribution, making it a streamlined and efficient process for organizations.
Content Distribution Through a Branded Portal
Empowering Self-Service Access: With a DAM system’s branded portal, accessing content becomes a self-service affair. Users with the right permissions can easily find and retrieve assets independently. This means less time spent on requests and more time for creativity and productivity.
Tailored for Every User: The portal can be customized to reflect your brand, making it not just a tool but an extension of your organization’s identity. It ensures a consistent experience that aligns with your brand guidelines and values.
Simplified Access with Single Sign-On (SSO)
Streamlined Logins for Large Organizations: Managing access can be complex for larger organizations. Single Sign-On (SSO) simplifies this by allowing users to access the DAM system using their existing organizational credentials. This enhances security and improves user experience by reducing the need to remember multiple passwords.
Leveraging Social Media Content Distribution Systems
Expanding Your Reach with Socialie: Imagine being able to distribute your content directly to publishers, influencers, and social media platforms in just a few clicks. Platforms like Socialie make this possible, enabling your brand to tap into existing audiences and significantly amplify your reach.
The Power of Audience Extension: By distributing content through influencers and publishers, you’re not just sharing content; you’re extending your brand’s voice and reach. This strategic move can help brands achieve up to a tenfold increase in their audience, making every piece of content work harder and go further.
DAM systems transform content distribution from a bottleneck into a strategic advantage through these mechanisms. By providing easy access through a branded portal, simplifying logins with SSO, and harnessing the power of social media content distribution systems, DAM systems empower organizations to share their content far and wide, securely and efficiently.
Leveraging Analytics for Strategic Decisions
Analytics play a critical role in enhancing the value and impact of your content. DAM data can take your analytics to the next level in several ways.
Understanding User Interactions Through Analytics
Track Searches and Downloads: Imagine having a dashboard showing precisely what your employees or stakeholders are searching for and downloading from your DAM system. This insight is like gold—it tells you what content resonates with your users and what’s in demand.
Real-Life Example: Let’s say you’re a communications manager at a university. You notice a spike in searches for classroom photos. This is your cue to organize a photo session to enrich your DAM with the content your audience actively seeks, ensuring your digital assets remain relevant and valuable.
Measuring Content Effectiveness
Beyond Distribution with Socialie: Analytics take on an even broader role when using platforms like Socialie for content distribution. You don’t just send content into the world; you get to see how it performs. Which pieces are shared the most? What gets people talking, liking, and engaging?
Strategic Content Creation: This level of insight helps you fine-tune your content strategy. If a particular type of post consistently outperforms others, it’s a clear signal to produce more of that content. It’s about being strategic and data-driven in your content creation efforts.
Proving ROI of Your Content
Tangible Proof of Success: One perennial challenge in content management and marketing is proving ROI. You can show clear connections between content engagement and business outcomes with robust analytics. Whether it’s increased brand awareness, engagement, or leads, analytics provide the evidence you need to justify your content investments.
Incorporating analytics into your DAM strategy transforms it from a mere storage solution to a dynamic tool that guides your content strategy, proves the value of your content efforts, and ensures you’re consistently producing content that meets your audience’s needs. It’s not just about managing assets but maximizing their impact.
Simplify Your Content Creation and Workflows With a DAM
DAM workflows change how content is created, managed, and distributed, turning potential chaos into a streamlined process that boosts efficiency and creativity. DAM systems provide a foundation for businesses to build a robust content strategy that scales with their growth by centralizing assets, enhancing searchability, streamlining approvals, and simplifying distribution.
Adopting a DAM system is not just an option; it’s necessary for any brand looking to stay ahead in the content game. Ready to simplify your content creation and workflows? Get started with Photoshelter today.