Edward Boatman • Feb 12th
What is a digital asset manager? Digital Asset Managers (DAMs) are a category of software products designed to make project management, organizing, sharing, and using large digital asset libraries easier than ever. [test]
Since their conception, digital asset management systems have been made exclusively for the enterprise brands because these were the companies that needed to manage large digital asset libraries. Today, because of our increasingly digital and visual world, it’s not just the large enterprises that have digital asset management needs — it’s practically every small business who has any sort of brand assets as well.
Even though small businesses have digital asset management needs, legacy DAMs have not changed their products to accommodate for this new type of user experience. If you’ve spent any time looking at the existing DAMs, you’ve probably seen this for yourself.
Legacy DAMs are incredibly complex and expensive — they’ve overshot the needs of most businesses, which leaves small businesses having to resort to using complicated folder structures to manage their digital assets.
At Lingo, we saw this opportunity in the market. That’s why we built the first-ever easy to use but powerful DAM that’s built for smaller teams looking to scale their digital asset management efforts.
A DAM system allows you to store, manage, and retrieve digital assets that play a key role in your organization. These digital assets might include logos, brand photography, images created for social media, and the ability to share the contents of the DAM with others, both internally and externally.
A brand library includes the assets that are essential to your branding strategy. The brand library operates like a folder within your DAM system and allows you to separate multiple libraries (or folders) into one DAM.
Usually you’ll have several brand libraries but you will only have one DAM containing each of those libraries. Using a powerful DAM system allows you to keep your brand library up to date and ensure everyone who needs access to your brand assets has that access.
Your days as a business owner are busy. So digital asset management software is probably the last thing on your mind. And if you’re like most small business owners, you probably think just having access to a computer that stores media files and other collateral in folders is sufficient, but the truth is, it’s not. Let’s dive into how digital asset management (DAM) solutions can bring your business to a new level.
Rather than a disarray of files stored in folders on various devices, a DAM keeps everything organized and accessible. A digital asset management solution can:
It may be the same files, but DAM software for small businesses allows brands to organize, harness and access all the digital files and assets they already own.
Chances are, you regularly need to send and share common business files, media assets and marketing materials with employees across your organization or even external vendors. This could be done in the form of time-consuming emails. But that process is wildly ineffective. Rather than using antiquated tech, DAM tools can make simple tasks like distributing files along with contextual information about how the files should be used easier than ever.
Working as quickly and efficiently as possible is important for any business, but it’s especially critical for small businesses where you have limited resources. Rummaging through complicated folder structures to find the asset you need, and then asking someone else to convert and resize it is a huge waste of time and resources.
With Lingo, assets are automatically converted into different file types and users can resize them to their specific needs before downloading. This means everyone on your team will be empowered to create on their own which will increase your business’ overall productivity.
Keeping your brand’s assets safe is critically important. That’s why in Lingo you have full control over who can access your assets. You can create completely private asset libraries that only certain team members can access, or you can create public asset libraries that are meant for the whole world to see. Lingo even has Single Sign On (SSO) to make the process of managing many users simple, safe and secure.
Using a cloud-based asset storage and management system may seem counterintuitive in terms of security, but cloud-based storage is often more secure. Cloud-based systems can be monitored constantly, and your digital assets aren’t at risk if you have a cyberattack that affects local machines. Ultimately, using a DAM system is a more secure way of storing your digital assets.
Whether you’re collaborating with an internal team to create advertising and marketing materials or working with an external marketing team, DAM systems simplify collaboration and empower you to collaborate with anyone, anywhere.
When you use a DAM system to organize and manage your digital assets, anyone you share your brand library with can access the assets they need to create. If you make a change to one of your assets, that asset will be updated for everyone who has access to your DAM system. This ensures everyone has access to the resources they need to collaborate and create content — whether you’re working with an internal or external team.
Consistency is one of the biggest keys to a successful branding strategy. Think about some of the biggest brands in the world — what comes to mind first? When you think of Apple, you probably think about the simplicity of the logos, the TV commercials, and the products. Nike has been using the iconic swoosh and “Just Do It” tagline for decades. Even Jack in the Box has the immediately recognizable Jack Box mascot that was introduced in the 1990s.
If you want to build a brand that resonates with your customer base and becomes an immediately recognizable piece of culture, you need to maintain consistent branding everywhere. DAM systems allow everyone to use the logos, color palettes and fonts that currently define your brand, and those are elements people will immediately recognize your brand by.
Consistency isn’t just about your digital assets — it’s also about how you use them. Combining effective brand guidelines with a DAM system helps you and your team use digital assets in a way that aligns with your branding strategy.
Digital rights management (DRM) is always important when it comes to copyrighted material, but it’s even more important when you’re sharing your brand library with numerous internal and external teams. Since DAM systems often feature integrated DRM, it’s easier to protect your copyrighted assets from unauthorized use. You can use built-in DRM to limit who can download certain files or restrict access to certain files or folders within your DAM system.
When you combine DAM solutions with Digital Rights Management (DRM) software, you can use watermarks and document tracking to figure out who’s accessing or attempting to access files.
While DRM may not seem like a top priority for smaller organizations, it becomes increasingly important the larger your brand becomes. For major brands like Microsoft and Adobe, DRM plays a key role in protecting copyrighted content.
Many DAM solutions have analytics tools built in, which gives you a better understanding of how effective your content is and how it’s being used. You can use these analytics tools to see who’s using various digital assets and where they’re using them. You can also figure out which content has performed the best so you can use that knowledge to inform future content.
Content that performs especially well may have the potential to be reused or repurposed to save time and money in the future. The better you understand how your assets are being used and how they’re performing, the more you can optimize your content strategy and content creation process.
Keeping costs down is one of the biggest challenges for larger brands, especially when you’re implementing new tools like DAM systems. Because DAM systems essentially encompass all of your file storage and file sharing needs, you can eliminate any file sharing tools you may have used. If your DAM solution also includes DRM tools and analytics, you can save even more with a DAM system.
Digital asset management may sound more complex than it is, but DAM systems are essentially a more robust version of the cloud-based storage systems you’ve used before. You can use a DAM to store your digital assets just like you could with basic cloud-based storage, but that’s about where the similarities stop.
You start by adding all your digital assets to your DAM system, including graphics, videos, audio files, documents and any other digital assets your brand uses. Most DAM systems allow you to select files you want to upload or simply drag and drop them into the system.
When you upload your files, you can add tags and metadata to keep your assets organized. We recommend adding tags and metadata for everything you upload to a DAM system so it’s always easy to find what you’re looking for.
Once you’ve added all your files to your DAM system, you can use that system to search for files by tags and metadata. If you’re creating a banner ad and need to pull your logo and tagline from your DAM, just search for the corresponding tags to find what you need.
After your files are uploaded, you can set permissions to control who has access to what. You can also use analytics to see who views files, who downloads files and where files are used.
Online hair color company eSalon is the perfect, real-world example of how the power of digital asset management for small businesses can help brands evolve. As the first brand in the industry to offer custom hair color for home application, eSalon quickly realized that their in-house creative team needed help.
Their challenge? Content, like photos and video shoots, icons, and logos started filing folders, making the task of navigating, finding, tagging, and sharing content increasingly difficult for the team.
Lingo offered eSalon the ideal, one-stop-shop solution for all their digital asset management needs. In no time at all, they were able to use Lingo to establish and set up Kits for:
Lingo was effectively able to dramatically increase eSalon’s ability to be efficient and productive when it comes to their asset management. By allowing the team to search directly for a specific asset or document, countless hours of time have been saved. Cross-functionality has increased across the board, and the power of Lingo made it all happen.
If you’d like to discuss how we can help you execute a DAM for your small business like we did with eSalon, feel free to book a demo and we’d be happy to show you how we work.