Edward Boatman • May 12th
From small startups to large enterprises, every brand has a unique look and feel. Maintaining a consistent look and feel across multiple channels is one of the best ways to increase brand recognition and trust. From billboards to product packaging, everything you produce should represent your brand.
Brand asset management is an essential part of consistent branding. Some of the most well-known brands are instantly recognizable by their logo, typography, colors, and other visual elements. To achieve that consistency, you must have a repository for all your brand assets.
Creating a library of brand assets and guidelines for using those assets can help keep stakeholders and external partners up to speed. Even better, brand asset management is simpler than you might think. We’ll break everything down in this guide so you can level up your branding.
Brand asset management is the process of storing, managing, and using brand assets, particularly digital assets. Digital assets include items such as your company logo, color palettes, typography, and brand graphics.
A brand asset management system, also called a digital asset management (DAM) system, makes it easy to store and organize your brand assets. You can upload digital assets and organize them using folders and tags, making it easy for marketing and design teams to use your latest brand assets when creating content.
Brand asset management is important because it helps you save time and money while building a stronger brand. Whether you’re launching a new product or leading a marketing campaign, there are a lot of moving parts involved in branding. With a centralized library of brand assets and guidelines for using those assets, you can ensure everyone is on the same page.
Marketing teams use your brand assets to create ads that accurately represent your brand. If you're running ads using outdated logos or typography, you're not maximizing your marketing campaign's effectiveness.
When redesigning your website or creating graphics for social media platforms, your design teams need access to your latest digital assets. A digital asset library gives everyone access to the latest version of your company logo, typography, color palette, and any other assets they need during the design process.
Effective brand asset management helps you make your branding a central part of everything you do. Think about how instantly recognizable Apple or Gatorade commercials are. That’s because they convey a consistent brand message with visuals everyone knows.
Your brand asset library acts as a central hub to store all digital assets, including marketing graphics, typography, and color palettes. Your library of digital assets isn’t just a folder where you can store graphics and fonts, it’s a sophisticated storage solution that allows you to categorize assets to make them easier to find and grab.
Choosing the right DAM solution is an essential part of getting the most out of your digital assets. Let’s explore some of the features you should look for in digital asset management software.
If you can find a digital asset library that allows you to use a custom domain, it’s easier to share your digital assets. You can purchase a domain to use for your brand asset library, or you can use the domain you already own to point to your library. With custom domains, it’s easier to remember and share your URL.
For example, Lingo client Reddit uses their custom domain to store their kits for brand foundations, community resources, and press & broadcast items. Their URL — redditbrand.lingoapp.com — makes it impossibly easy for users to remember.
When your teams are creating content for various platforms, they might need access to convert a file to a compatible file type. With automatic file conversion, you don’t have to waste time manually converting each file. Instead, Lingo auto-generates alternate versions of your files so you always have what you need.
Security is a key concern when it comes to sharing your digital assets, so you should have control over who has access to your brand library. Download requests allow you to monitor who’s downloading your assets and approve or deny individual download attempts, helping you protect your assets against unauthorized use.
Normally, you’d have to tag each digital asset as you add it to your brand library to ensure it’s easy to find. With AI-enhanced search from Lingo, you can search for any photo you upload without having to worry about manually tagging and organizing everything.
Your brand guidelines are another crucial aspect of brand asset management. Your brand library contains all the assets you need to create marketing and social media content, but your brand guidelines let marketing and design teams know how to use those assets. A detailed set of brand guidelines helps you standardize the use of digital assets across multiple platforms.
You have a lot of options when it comes to brand guidelines. While you can create a PDF with your brand guidelines, we recommend looking for brand guidelines with some of the features below.
When you’re sharing a live version of your brand guidelines, you need to make sure everyone is on the same page. The version history feature allows you to select different versions of your brand guidelines, so you can revisit previous versions or make sure you’re looking at the latest guidelines.
Protecting your brand guidelines is important, but you also want them to be accessible to external design and marketing teams. Adding a password to your public brand guidelines is a great way to balance security and convenience.
Just like your brand library, your brand guidelines should support custom domains so they’re easy to find. Choosing a simple domain makes accessing your brand guidelines more convenient.
Brand asset management encompasses all the assets you use to represent your brand, from your core values to your brand logo. Let’s take a look at some of the essential assets you should have in your brand guidelines and library.
When you think of some of the most popular brands, you can probably picture the logos in your head. Your logo is a unique identifier that sets you apart from other brands, so your brand guidelines should always include the latest version of your logo. You can also include any other graphics your brand frequently uses, including alternate versions of your logo.
Fonts are another key identifier for consumers, especially if your brand uses unique fonts. When you’re creating your brand guidelines, make sure you include any fonts associated with your brand as well as guidelines for spacing, alignment, and hierarchy.
You might think brands like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola use the same shade of red at a glance, but most brands use unique shades that vary slightly from competitors. If you want to make your brand stand out, you need to have a palette of unique colors you can use for your website, social media platforms, product packaging, and more.
Consistent brand messaging is a key part of connecting with your target audience, and your tone and voice have a lot to do with that. Think about how you would describe your brand if it were a person. Is your brand playful, fun, and lighthearted? Is your brand more professional and trust-based? Answering these questions can help you convey a consistent message as a brand.
Your brand mission and values aren’t always obvious to consumers, but they play an important role in guiding your brand and building customer brand loyalty. Your brand mission statement essentially covers what you hope to achieve, while your values guide your actions.
If you want to get the best results from brand asset management, here are some tips you should keep in mind:
Brand asset management is an essential part of maintaining consistent branding and streamlining marketing and content creation. Whether you’re updating your website, creating social media content, or launching an ad campaign, your teams can use your brand guidelines and assets to create the best content.
With Lingo, brand asset management has never been easier. You can use custom domains for easy access, and download requests allow you to control who has access to your brand assets. Lingo even eliminates the need for manual tagging and file conversion, so you can streamline everything from simple social media posts to major projects.
Are you ready to transform your brand asset management strategy? Start your free trial to experience the power of Lingo, or book a demo to see how Lingo can simplify brand management.