Generally speaking, DAMs have been designed in order to help companies and other organisations solve some of the common business problems related to storage, management and distribution of their digital assets, primarily diverse pieces of content.
There are five such problems; let’s have a closer look at them.
Five problems DAMs can solve
If you’re looking for a DAM tool for your business, you need to ensure you pick the solution that will help you deal with problems you encounter when managing online assets. Typically, these problems are as follows:
- Inefficient asset management: Many teams worldwide have problems with locating and accessing files they need for a specific project. Ensure you get a tool that provides a single effective and searchable repository for your files.
- Lack of control: You should retain full control over your digital assets, including metadata management, different file version control, as well as rights management. The goal is to use all of your resources effectively and lawfully.
- Problems with collaboration: If your team is dispersed all over the world, collaboration and sharing files can be tricky. Make sure you use a platform that enables seamless collaboration on many different projects, regardless of your team members’ time zones and locations.
- Tracking performance: You should know how your assets are used and to what end. Advanced DAM systems offer analytics and reporting features so that you can easily and quickly verify the performance of a given piece of content. Use this knowledge to plan future content marketing activities.
- Large-scale projects: If you run a large international corporation, there can be tens of thousands of files in your digital asset repository. Ensure your future platform offers sufficient capacity so that you’re not limited by bandwidth or storage room.
These are five crucial problems your DAM should help you solve. But there are also other features you should pay attention to when selecting a DAM tool for your business.
Important DAM features
The most advanced DAM platforms offer features far beyond standard digital asset management. Some of the common features that are useful in most cases comprise:
- Metadata management
- Ability to work with different file versions
- Integration with other systems (e.g., your CMS or e-commerce platform)
- Content management and editing features
- Workflow and collaboration features
At this point, perhaps you’re thinking about cloud-hosted file storage, provided, e.g., by Google Drive. What’s the difference between these two platforms? For one thing, DAMs are more advanced. Companies use them not just for storing but also for managing and editing all of their digital assets, including texts, audio files, videos and images. It’s a centralised repository that often also works offline. Moreover, DAMs frequently offer access to creative software.
Put shortly, we can say that although both solutions can be used for similar goals, DAMs are more advanced and flexible when it comes to storing and editing files. But sure, for a small company with rather standard requirements, typical cloud file hosting can be sufficient.
Do you want to know more about DAMs? The next step is to compare available DAM tools. In the full version of this article, you can find a comparison of five of the most popular and flexible DAMs. Take a look at it: A DAMn good solution to rule your company’s digital assets.