Today, the demand for content is increasing by the minute.
And as companies want to keep up with the demand from their customers, they need to produce more and more content – and as a result, be able to efficiently manage it.
Which will typically lead to more than just one content management challenge.
Challenges like working in silos, weakened productivity due to content disorganization and losing track of content are just a few of the many struggles facing enterprises today.
The result?
Companies are constantly looking for new solutions that help them scale alongside the demands for more content in the most efficient way possible – rising above internal content chaos and misalignment.
That’s where tools like digital asset management (DAM) come in – which is significantly growing in popularity due to its ability to keep all company assets safe and secure in one strategic archive – in other words – one central source of truth.
But regardless of DAM’s content management capabilities – investing in a DAM can prove to be costly if the need doesn’t seem to be too strong or necessary.
And when it comes to investing in a new solution like DAM for your business, there are some questions (or challenges) to keep in mind in regards to if you go ahead with implementing the tool or not.
If you check off for one or more of these challenges, it could be your sign that it’s time to go ahead with investing in the software.
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Table of contents
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5 challenges that calls for DAM
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1. Poor internal collaboration and communication
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2. Lack of asset security
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3. Lack of insights regarding asst performance
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4. Poor brand consistency
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5. Too much content
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Conclusion
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5 challenges that signal a time for DAM
We’ve outlined five challenges that call for a tool like DAM – and if they hit too close to home, you should know that a DAM could be the solution your team needs.
Challenge 1:
Poor internal collaboration and communication
You might recognize yourself in one, if not both, of these scenarios:
1. You’ve spent hours looking for one specific image – but you can only find the outdated one from three weeks ago
2. You’re looking through multiple shared drives and different computers after a file that someone sent a few days ago
If this sounds familiar, you’ve taken on one of the main problems that DAM tools help solve.
Without a DAM platform, it’s nearly impossible for marketers to make sure that content like videos or presentations are kept track of.
Content is dispersed across different databases that different people have access to – which unfortunately leads to not only the silo way of working but also the consequences of potentially delivering wrong or outdated content.
Take the example of a typical marketing manager of a large manufacturing company.
These managers have to work with multiple stakeholders like end sellers, distributors, suppliers, sales reps – the list goes on.
Being able to find, access and share the right content with the right person (at the right time) can be time consuming without a central repository of digital content. Of course, they might hold off time to look for that one file, but it does put a damper on productivity.
If you find that more than one employee within your organization is spending hours, if not days, on finding that one specific version of an asset, slowing down efficiency – then you know that DAM is the investment for you.
Digital asset management software will make it ten times easier to find the right content since everything is located in one place, updated in real-time, for all approved users to search and quickly find (thanks to automated tagging of metadata) the updated version of content they need. For either the person and/or channel they have in mind.
Challenge 2:
Lack of digital asset security
What could be an even bigger threat to your organization, apart from losing track of content and dealing with the wrong versions of files?
Phishing and email scams – which are considered to be one of the biggest cybersecurity threats facing companies today.
In fact, the cost of a data breach is roughly $3.86 million and constantly increasing.
If you find that your current level of security regarding your most valuable brand assets isn’t at the top – a DAM solution could be your best bet.
Why?
Because in addition to making sure that the storage of all things data and content is found in one place (meaning that it’s not all over the place, ready for the taking by third party scammers) – it also helps you assign the appropriate user rights and permissions.
In other words, with DAM’s rights management capabilities you can decide exactly who can access certain pieces of content and who can’t – increasing the level of security you have reading your assets.
Digizuite DAM lets you set permissions and access controls for all user roles (like for example creative teams, sales teams) – so that not only you enhance security, but also brand management.
This prime management is different from internal folders or shared drives – where assets can be edited, renamed, moved or deleted.
Digizuite DAM makes sures contributors can upload and tag assets where partners can view assets only.
Challenge 3:
Not knowing what works, and what doesn’t
In other words – you don’t have the right insights regarding how well your digital assets are performing.
Picture the following scenario:
You map out what you believe to be the perfect marketing strategy for your new retail product line.
Even though you’ve decided on which photos and videos to push on which channel at whichever time – there’s no way for you to know exactly how these assets are performing and if they’re even having the desired effect at all.
The pitfalls of that include constantly pushing out content that no one wants to see, and – not being able to improve your strategy all together for even better ROI.
If you recognize that you have no idea how your content is performing, or you’re using third party platforms like Youtube that keep your content analytics to themselves – a DAM solution might be for you.
Modern DAM’s include content analytics that help you see which digital assets are being downloaded, streamed and used the most across geographies and time zones.
How many people are actually sharing that one photo you swore to be the best from that new campaign?
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Digizuite DAM can help you analyze two different metrics:
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Single and grouped assets: Seeing which assets are download the most can help tailor your campaign to be more appealing
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How people search for assets: Digizuite DAM’s Power BI dashboard is an integration that can help you quickly make reports and view the location of where users are downloading assets – which can influence how you add metadata to certain assets.
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All in all, if you find yourself going on a whim about what content works and what not, investing in a DAM with content analytics capabilities could be your way of helping you make better marketing decisions.
Challenge 4:
Weak brand consistency
You already know maintaining brand consistency is highly important.
In fact, a consistent brand representation has demonstrated to lead to a 33% increase in revenue.
But with more and more content being produced, and more and more channels to keep up with and customers to address – making sure that the brand remains consistent can be easier said than done.
How often do you deal with different messaging from your sales and marketing teams?
For example:
Your marketing team decided that a new version (or rebrand) of one of your products is what it takes to increase sales fast.
You start to see calls coming in and demos are being booked, but unfortunately the sales team hasn’t gotten the memo, and have no idea what new product is being launched or promoted.
What comes next?
Most likely a drop in revenue during the time it takes your sales team to get with the program.
This example of a lack of brand consistency that needs to be improved in order for companies to remain competitive.
In other words…
Companies not only need to make sure all teams are on the same page…
But they also need to merge online, offline, self-service, print and digital – and provide the same personalized experience in every channel.
Rephrased:
Companies need to go omnichannel.
Which a DAM system can help companies achieve by ensuring that both external and in-house communications are in touch with customer expectations.
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In addition it will:
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Streamline asset distribution
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Align sales and marketing with the same access to marketing collateral and information
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Increase productivity
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Reduce risk through permissions and rights management
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Challenge 5:
Too many assets to keep track of (resulting in wasting content)
Another way of knowing you need a DAM is just by the sheer volume of content you have.
In other words, if you don’t have that much content, you probably don’t need a DAM.
But how much is too much content?
Well, one way of knowing is that you feel like there’s no control, and that you don’t have a strategic way of managing content (which 24% of companies admit they don’t).
You also find yourself wasting time duplicating content, because you have no control over what content already exists (thereby lacking within the repurposing part of the content lifecycle).
So how do you stop letting content go unused, and instead making the most of what you already have?
By investing in a DAM, which will help you make the most of your content, either it’s the editing, managing or distribution.
DAM makes it easier to keep content up-to-date, remove it when it hits the date of expiry, or help you repurpose it in the most efficient way possible to meet new trends or demands in the consumer market.
Because here’s the thing – maintaining content, making sure that it’s up to date and also making the most of it can take hours without content automation tools like digital asset management.
Conclusion
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So, taking the following challenges into consideration:
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Poor internal communication
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Lack of asset security
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Not knowing what content works and what doesn’t
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Poor brand consistency
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Too much content to make the most of
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If you see yourself struggling with one, if not all, of these – Digizuite DAM software could be a way for you to not only regain that control over your content, but also reach new heights of productivity both internally in your teams, and externally in terms of customer satisfaction.
Ready to invest in a DAM?
Book a demo here and a Digizuite expert will show you how DAM can support your growth ambitions.
