What is digital asset management?

Digital asset management can refer to both a business process and a form of information management technology or a digital asset management system. A DAM solution helps an organization create a searchable, centralized repository where teams can access media assets. It also enables an organization to control user permissions, access control, versioning and metadata management.

The digital asset is a key component of the DAM process. It is any file type of value that is owned by an enterprise or individual, comes in a digital format, is searchable via metadata and includes access and usage rights. There are many types of digital assets, including but not limited to:

• Documents
• Images
• Audio files
• Video content
• Presentations
• Animations
• Media files
• Graphics
• Any digital media that includes the right to use

DAM software can streamline asset management and optimize the production of rich media, particularly within sales teams and marketing teams, by creating a centralized management system for digital assets. It enables stronger brand management and brand consistency through automatic asset updates and reinforcement of brand guidelines, providing a single source of truth within businesses and a more consistent user experience to external audiences.

Modern digital content management teams and marketers also rely on DAM to repurpose creative assets, reducing unnecessary production costs and duplicate workstreams with its invaluable search features.

Given the high visibility of brand assets and marketing assets through digital channels, such as social media, brands must remain consistent in imagery and messaging to build brand authority and generate business growth. As a result, it’s no surprise that digital asset management platforms are becoming critical components of digital transformation efforts. Organizations can implement a DAM solution on-premises, in a cloud computing ecosystem or in a hybrid topology.

“Digital asset” is also used to describe digital currencies and tokens, such as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum or non-fungible tokens (NFTs). These are a different type of digital asset and are not managed in DAM systems.

Using digital asset management software involves several steps:

• Creating the asset
• Encoding and indexing
• Workflows
• Governance through permissions
• Auditing

Creating the asset: Standardized templates and file formats prepare digital files for encoding even before they are created. This standardization streamlines the ease of document search and retrieval.

Encoding and indexing: To simplify the search for assets, metadata enables the identification of digital content through attributes such as asset type (for example, white paper), version (for example, new), media type (for example, video) and technology used (for example, Photoshop). These identifiers create an index, grouping assets that have common tags to improve searchability.

Workflows: This indexing can then be used for rule-driven workflows, enabling task and process automation.

Version control: Version control becomes increasingly important to the automation of workflows, as it makes sure that the latest, most up-to-date asset is being used within an existing workflow. As new workflows are established, version control features within a DAM system can be used to set expiration dates, helping to make sure that only the most current version is accessed and carried forward for review and use.

Governance through permissions: Governance through permissions sees to it that only those who have been granted access are able to use the asset in the manner in which it was assigned to them. This capability protects organizational assets from theft, accidental corruption or erasure. 

As organizations and asset libraries grow, a greater number of team members will need to access, edit, collaborate on and track these assets, making permissions and access control vitally important.

Auditing: Internal audits help organizations evaluate the effectiveness of DAM and identify areas for improvement. Likewise, regulatory bodies can audit a DAM solution to make sure that an organization’s technology and processes comply with regulations. Both types of audits occur regularly in highly regulated industries such as finance and healthcare.

When reviewing DAM platforms, it is important that organizations evaluate whether the solutions they select provide capabilities that support both current and future use cases. An organization might also consider non-technical features, such as the degree of customer support offered or the interface’s ease of use.

Leading DAM solutions generally provide the following capabilities:

• Asset lifecycle management and role-based permissions
• Integration
• Bidirectional flexibility
• Stable storage and transfer infrastructure
• File transfer efficiency

A DAM solution should enable an organization to manage its digital assets from idea to conception and throughout their lifecycles. It should also provide access rights management and permissions with the granularity that the organization needs to preserve the integrity of its assets.

A DAM solution should integrate with other technologies that an organization uses to manage, organize and distribute rich media, such as content management systems (CMS) or product information systems (PIM), as well as any systems that the organization might add in the future. For even greater flexibility, organizations should consider the available application programming interfaces (API) that can be used to create custom DAM integrations.

A flexible, agile DAM solution provides the search functionality for assets in any direction. Bidirectional flexibility enables organizations to search metadata, such as brand, to find an asset, or search specific assets to find metadata. This capability supports the search and repurposing of assets by other functional groups within an organization.

The DAM solution that an organization chooses is just as important as how and where the assets are stored and the ability to share files and transfer the assets wherever they are needed. Whether an organization chooses on-premises software-defined storage or cloud-based storage, it should consider the reliability, flexibility, scalability, performance and recoverability offered to protect its assets.

Speed and efficiency of file transfer are important because they directly affect the speed of business. The ability to share assets and use them when and where the organization needs them will help to define the effectiveness of the chosen solution.

A digital asset management system and a content management system are both used to manage digital content, but in different ways.

A DAM solution is a centralized repository where all a company’s digital assets are stored. It is primarily used for enterprise-wide file organization, collaboration and information sharing. It is used to house a wider variety of digital file types than a CMS and offers more advanced capabilities, such as advanced organizational and version control capabilities.

A CMS is also used to manage digital content, but a CMS is primary used for managing and publishing content on websites and other online platforms. For example, Wordpress is a popular CMS.

• Used to manage an enterprise’s entire library of digital assets in one centralized location. Can be used to manage assets for multiples brands or companies within the same organization.
  
  
• Enables cross team collaboration on asset creation and review and promotes brand consistency across multiple channels.
  
  
• Used to manage and distribute a wide range of materials, including photos, videos, logos, audio files, marketing materials, sales decks, metadata and more.
  
  
• Like a CMS, DAM software often includes user permissions and analytics tools that help teams track asset use and engagement.
  
  
• Offers advanced features such as the ability to organize assets by department or campaign and the ability to add tags and metadata to assets. DAM software also provides robust version control and change tracking capabilities for assets within the DAM system.
  
  
• Often used by creative teams, marketing teams and digital asset managers.

• Used to manage and publish content on websites, blogs, social media and other digital platforms.
  
  
• Generally used to manage text-based content, product images and videos, icons and logos and other file types often published on websites.
  
  
• Provides templates for web page construction, and other tools such as staging and preview capabilities, that assist in the building of websites and the digital publishing process.
  
  
• Offers basic analytics for web page performance and user permission features to control page and publishing access.
  
  
• Often used by web managers, content creators, marketers and others who frequently publish to an organization’s website or social channels.

Effective digital asset management provides several benefits, including:

• Reduced production costs and better resource allocation
• Greater organizational transparency
• Increased conversion and customer retention
• Improved brand consistency
• Governance and compliance

The centralization of assets within a DAM system enables organizations to find and reuse assets, driving production cost savings and reducing duplicate workstreams. Reduced costs encourage the allocation of resources in other areas of the business. The resulting efficiency gains help to bring assets and solutions to the market faster.

DAM provides users with a clear, comprehensive view of digital assets, creating a positive impact on project management, content planning and execution. It can increase collaboration across various stakeholders or introduce more impactful workstreams through the elimination of redundant projects.

When businesses organize content appropriately based on the user’s stage of the buyer journey, they can serve on-brand content and marketing materials at the right time for their target audiences. DAM enables organizations to personalize the customer experience to establish and nurture stronger relationships. This process helps move potential and existing customers through the buying cycle faster and more effectively.

DAM promotes consistency in messaging, positioning, visual representation and other means of brand identity adherence. With DAM, functional areas and business units can reuse creative files and other assets to gain efficiencies and present cohesive messaging to the market.

Licenses, legal documentation, archives and other assets can play key roles in meeting industry-driven or governmental regulatory compliance demands. The ability to organize and rapidly retrieve these materials can save organizations time and money and mitigate the disruption of core business processes.