Today, brands operate across a variety of markets, using a plethora of brand assets to communicate with their external stakeholders.
And with the increasing production of digital content (including images, videos, graphics, whitepapers, presentations, and infographics) these assets play a vital role in shaping the entire brand.
So no matter if you’re collaborating with distributors, investors, end sellers or suppliers – safeguarding these assets are critical to maintaining control of the corporate image.
The best way to achieve full control is by using a single source, such as a digital asset management (DAM) system, as the backbone for all digital processes across departments, business units, and digital channels.
Not only does one location to edit, manage and distribute assets help ensure brand consistency – it can also make sharing with those external stakeholders much more efficient.
But how exactly does a DAM facilitate easy sharing of assets with external partners?
In this article, we outline 5 ways DAMs make external collaboration simple – helping you avoid those pitfalls of constant bottlenecks or misunderstandings when it comes to branding.
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Table of contents
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How DAM offers easy collaboration with external partners
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Sharing assets with external partners made easy in 5 ways
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Secure access and sharing
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Collaboration and commenting
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Asset versioning and tracking
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Customizable branding portals
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Integration with third-party apps
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How DAM makes collaboration with external partners easy
Businesses often rely on a mix of internal and external resources, including agencies, to accomplish their goals.
Interestingly enough, about 25% of users of DAM systems are external collaborators.
While it might seem complicated to bring in outside help, with the right DAM tools, it can be a breeze.
Instead of wasting time trying to locate digital assets and managing access permissions, DAM enables external collaborators to quickly and easily access the files they need. This saves time and frees up your in-house staff to focus on their own tasks.
Safe & secure access and sharing to content
One way in which external collaboration becomes a breeze with DAM is through enhanced access permissions and user rights.
DAM makes it easy for companies to control users’ access to their digital assets by assigning the appropriate roles and permissions to different users.
For global retail companies for example, controlling access to digital assets is essential to maintain brand compliance and global messaging consistency.
A DAM system ensures that only authorized individuals have access to the right content, thereby preventing unauthorized access and any potential legal issues.
A good best practice when implementing a DAM system is establishing roles and permissions upfront. That way you ensure content is distributed appropriately, both locally and globally.
The result?
Companies can save time and add an extra layer of security to their digital assets, preventing potential copyright infringements.
Adding on: Large manufacturers dealing with multiple external stakeholders throughout the supply chain can also benefit significantly from DAM.
Lastly, most modern DAM systems offer advanced security features like two-factor authentication and customizable user authentication, which is based on role, location, and department.
Easy digital asset annotating and commenting
DAM makes the whole process of collaborating with external partners much smoother and faster. By using a DAM system, your partners can check out your digital assets, add comments, and even make notes in real-time.
Asset commenting is a neat feature that functions similarly to shared drive commenting.
The difference is that it allows you to mention other users related to the delivery of an asset.
For example, if you need to understand where an asset came from or ask the photographer who created it, you can conveniently do so through asset commenting.
These types of features help keep everyone involved in the loop about how an asset should look like and be used for.
In the end, you’re left with faster and more reliable sharing of assets – streamlining external communication and collaboration.
That way, you don’t have to go back and forth with tons of emails or arrange a bunch of in-person meetings.
It’s a great way to break down silos, speed up the content creation process and make sure everyone’s on the same page.
Versioning and tracking
File preservation and versioning is a common challenge that a lot of people face while using shared drives like Google Drive or Dropbox – amongst both internal and external teams.
It’s just too easy to accidentally delete a file, and once it’s gone – it’s gone forever.
Shared drives also don’t offer an easy or automatic way to create new versions of documents, images, or other assets, while preserving the original. This lack of automated version control can become a hassle really fast.
Luckily, a DAM platform can help you out.
With a DAM system, the original version of every file uploaded into it is automatically preserved.
And every time you make changes or create a new version of a file, the system creates an additional, clearly tagged new version that’s stored in the platform.
This is not just important for content creation and distribution, but it’s also critical for brand compliance. If you can’t clearly determine the correct version of a file you need to publish or distribute, you’re putting your company at risk.
In fact, having a reliable DAM system that ensures you’ll never delete or overwrite the original files is key for maintaining the best possible version control.
It’s not just an internal concern – your external stakeholders also benefit when you can provide them with the correct and most up-to-date files.
That means that investing in a DAM system is a smart choice for any company looking to streamline their content management and sharing process – whilst simultaneously mitigating risks.
Customizable branding and portals
Today, DAM software goes beyond just being a tool to gather all your digital assets in one safe and secure place.
They also provide the option to create personalized branding and portals for external partners, resulting in a tailored user experience that aligns with their brand identity and meets their specific needs.
As a result, external stakeholders can easily access the assets they require in a consistent and user-friendly way.
Suppose a team working for a manufacturing company needs to share an image with an external stakeholder, such as an end seller.
In that case, they can create a brand portal with the company’s assets and images, enabling the stakeholder to access the relevant content they require with ease.
Digizuite DAM offers brand portals as a platform feature that enables enterprises to create multi-brand experiences from a “single source of truth”.
Users can easily personalize the platform by creating visually distinct views of digital assets for different user groups.
DAM allows enterprise marketers to manage their own brand/product lines with the right assets, as well as creating unlimited brand or product portals, all from one user-friendly interface.
But that’s not all, brand portals also make it simple for various external partners, distributors, and internal employees to find the digital assets they need.
Integrations with third-party tools
Collaborating with external partners can be significantly improved by using a DAM system.
How?
By integrating the most frequently used communication and collaboration tools – which ensures smooth workflows and alignment among all parties involved.
The result? Breaking down barriers and keeping everything organized.
One of the significant benefits of this type of integration is consistent branding and messaging across all channels.
By linking authorized assets from the DAM system to communication tools, relevant content can be shared effortlessly with the appropriate people.
Regardless of whether working with internal or external stakeholders, updates, edits, or assets that require review or approval can be easily communicated.
Linking DAM platforms with collaboration tools like Wrike, Slack, and Microsoft Teams helps keep everyone informed.
Plus, it helps create a collaborative work environment that encourages innovation and creativity.
Conclusion
All in all – being able to efficiently share the right assets with your external partners is key for better brand management and overall success.
In this article, we outlined the 5 ways in which a DAM helps you share images, videos, audio files, and documents (the list goes on) with your external teams:
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Secure access and sharing
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Collaboration and commenting
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Asset versioning and tracking
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Customizable branding portals
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Integration with third-party apps
Want to learn more about how you can streamline asset sharing with all your teams – no matter if they’re inside or outside your organization?
Book a demo today.
