The Best Digital Asset Management Software
Content. It’s the lifeblood of modern marketing.
From captivating videos and social media graphics to stunning product shots and brand photography, your marketing team relies on a constant stream of visual assets and creative materials to get their message across to their target audience.
But this also means you need a system to manage these assets. Or you may find yourself scrambling around for a copy of the last product photos because the RAW files on your SD card got corrupted.
This is where Digital Asset Management (DAM) software solutions come in handy.
Think of a DAM as a central and accessible hub for all your marketing work—a place to store, organize, and share everything from brand photography to social media designs to product shots.
But why is DAM so important? Here’s the shocker: a whopping 83% of employees have had to recreate a marketing asset simply because they couldn’t find it. Talk about a waste of time and resources!
A DAM system eliminates this frustration by making it easy for your team to find exactly what they need whenever they need it.
Repurposing last season’s campaign graphics for a new promotion? No problem. Hunting down that perfect brand photo for a blog post? Easy peasy.
Knowing about DAM is a great first step. But with so many options on the market, choosing the right DAM software can feel overwhelming. That’s where this guide comes in. We’ll equip you, the marketing leader, with the knowledge to select the perfect DAM tool for your team.
Here’s a hint: We’ll be digging into digital asset management and its value a little bit more, as well as the essential features you should look for in a DAM system to empower your team. Also, expect an overview of some of the top DAM options on the market and why DROP (DROP.space), with its intuitive interface and powerful features like auto-tagging and visual organization, might just be the perfect fit for your marketing needs.
What is asset management in digital marketing?
Digital asset management (DAM) is both a process and a tool that helps marketing teams organize, store, and easily access all their digital content in one place. This includes a vast range of assets, like:
• Images (logos, product photos, social media graphics) • Videos (commercials, explainer videos, customer testimonials) • Documents (white papers, case studies, presentations) • Social media content (posts, templates) • Audio files (podcasts, music for ads)
Managing these various assets is crucial because it helps prevent an issue marketing teams often face: content silos.
When this happens, marketing assets are scattered across employees’ personal drives, email attachments, and various cloud storage solutions. Finding the right file is a nightmare, hindering collaboration and slowing down campaign execution.
Cloud storage solutions have tried to solve this issue but haven’t succeeded. While they help with considerable storage space, they don’t have enough organization and collaborative features to help marketing teams deal with the sheer amount of content pieces they produce.
Modern DAM systems, however, have evolved to fill these gaps.
The evolution of DAM systems
The first DAM systems were basic file repositories. You could store digital files (mostly image files). However, their limited collaboration and categorization capabilities meant searching for assets was a drag.
The next step in the DAM evolution was the inclusion of metadata schematics, which meant teams could categorize assets or easily retrieve them. With the introduction of metadata structures came approval workflows and version control capabilities.
The rise of cloud-based solutions accelerated DAM’s march forward. Cloud-based DAMs meant the systems weren’t limited to on-premise deployments. This increased accessibility and scalability. It also improved the ability to connect with other software solutions in the marketing ecosystem.
With AI, today’s DAM is the content hub of an integrated martech stack, allowing marketers to retrieve, tag, and deploy assets across various channels and tools without leaving the DAM environment.
Ian Matzen, Senior Brand Asset Manager at ICP, puts it best:
“As we head into deeper levels of personalization, there will be more opportunity to find value in your existing asset library. For example, if a company has an old advertisement that works for a certain group of people around the holidays, you can reuse it for that group at that time of year.”
What to look for in a DAM platform for marketing
- Searchability and organization Finding specific assets can sometimes feel like a frustrating scavenger hunt. You find yourself wasting valuable time digging through folders and endless email threads.
DAMs are designed to deal with this chaos. However, it’s important that you prioritize options with robust search functions and asset organization.
A DAM platform should allow you to search by filename, keywords, tags (e.g., “summer campaign,” “product launch”), or even the content within the file itself (think captions in images). This saves time and ensures you find exactly what you need.
DAMs should also let you create categories, subcategories, collections, and groups of related assets. On top of that, look out for the availability of custom tags and deduplication features to keep your assets neatly organized.
- Visual browsing Traditional storage systems make managing visual content a chore. You’re hopping from one folder to the next, scrolling endlessly, or hoping the filename of the asset you’re after is descriptive enough.
A good DAM system solves this by offering visual browsing. Think Pinterest-style boards where you can browse images by thumbnail, filter by color or theme, and even find similar visuals with a click. This lets you find the right image fast, keeping your marketing campaigns on track.
- Automation Marketing teams constantly battle repetitive tasks that devour valuable time. Imagine the hours spent manually tagging countless images or sifting through duplicates of the same logo. This is where a DAM platform shines.
Look for automation features that streamline your workflow.
Powerful DAMs can automatically tag your assets with relevant keywords based on content recognition. This makes finding specific assets a breeze. Plus, auto-deduplication eliminates the clutter of duplicate files, ensuring your library stays organized, and storage space isn’t wasted.
- Collaboration tools Marketing is a team sport. However, managing assets can be chaotic when multiple internal and external stakeholders juggle responsibilities.
A good DAM system streamlines collaboration by allowing you to invite external parties like agencies and freelancers easily.
Look for features that foster teamwork. Annotations and comment tools let everyone provide feedback directly on specific assets or sections. Built-in chat allows for real-time discussions, keeping everyone on the same page. Version control ensures everyone works on the latest version, eliminating confusion and wasted effort.
By focusing on these essential features, you can ensure that your marketing team is equipped with a DAM system that not only meets their needs but also enhances their efficiency and productivity. Check out DROP (DROP.space) for a DAM solution that offers these capabilities and more.
