When it comes to marketing and communications, some signs just can’t be ignored. Image research taking too long? Digital files scattered across your various storage spaces? Media not being used correctly? Resources duplicated or even deteriorated? These are more than enough reasons to suggest things are getting out of hand. But before anything like that happens, learn to spot these 7 signs that prove you need a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution!
#1: Your hunt for digital assets is taking too long
As soon as you realize you need to get hold of a certain digital asset, you feel as if it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Best case scenario: your range of assets is full of obscure titles. Worst case scenario: your storage is split across multiple servers, networks, or media. But what’s the alternative? One-stop-shop storage where you can find what you need right away.
#2: You never know who is supposed to do what on a project
There are several steps to the content process: briefing, creation, validation, storage, conversion, enrichment, and distribution. And you never know who needs to do what to which file! That means lengthy email exchanges, lots of passing the buck, and a schedule that ultimately goes out the window – not to mention a dwindling ROI. With a DAM solution comes a guarantee that you can access the history for all of your content, with features that allow you to manage media with precision and keep workflows under control.
#3: You can never work out when your media will expire
Just like food products, some content has an expiry date. Once the usage rights or copyrights have expired, you need to archive the content, update it, or renew the rights – otherwise it could cost you big time and hit your business’s reputation hard. So how do you know what media expires when? Thankfully, you can rely on digital rights management, included in your DAM solution! This allows you to schedule notifications and manage the accessibility of the files in question.
#4: Content is available in as many copies as there are devices
With so many ways to share content nowadays – such as websites, blogs, emails, text messages, and social media – it’s so easy to duplicate assets. You end up wasting time recreating or reproducing existing media, clogging up your organization’s hard drives, and risking the scorn of your CIO! A DAM solution allows you to store all your media in one place – making it easier to access and reducing the risk of duplication.
#5: Anyone can access your digital assets
Is your Media Center like a sieve? Can anyone just help themselves to your image stock? Are you finding that your files are often missing or damage? The problem is that all your employees have the same access rights to the resources. With a digital asset management tool, you can control who has access to what.
#6: You don’t know how to demonstrate the effectiveness of your campaigns
At the end of each month, management asks you for a report on the efficiency of your marketing campaigns. And every time, you struggle to gather the data you need to show your assets are being used well! A Digital Asset Management gives you access to statistics on media and devices at any time, so you can see which ones are the most used, the most effective, and the most profitable. That will put management’s mind at ease when it comes to your ROI!
Your team is already using a free cloud platform to manage its digital assets. After all, they do have a lot of advantages, especially if you haven’t got that many assets. But when you’re juggling thousands, if not millions, of files – needing to convert content into the right format, distribute it across multiple channels, and control access to sensitive material – you feel like tearing your hair out. Now is the time to migrate to a professional and tailor-made solution to manage your multimedia library!
Recognize any of these signs? Do you want to boost efficiency in managing your digital assets? Then there are no two ways about it: you need a Digital Asset Management tool and you need it now!
