What's in it for us? Pitching the perks of digital asset management

“You reckon brands are struggling to stand out these days?”

Glancing up from her frothy flat white, designer Nat’s interest was suddenly piqued.

“Yeah, I think they’re so bogged down with the day-to-day, they haven’t got time for strategies that give them an edge. There are tools that can help, though. Digital asset management (DAM) systems look after all the time-consuming stuff so teams can focus on creativity. It keeps brands consistent and helps remote teams collaborate from wherever. Pretty cool, actually.”

The lift doors open; another day at the agency begins.

OK, so that’s the elevator pitch out of the way.

But if you find yourself busy trying to stay on top of infinite iterations of company assets throughout your day-to-day, there’s a good chance you’re already sold on the idea.

However, it can be hard to get buy-in from other stakeholders in the business - especially with so many MarTech solutions vying for their attention.

So, what about the benefits of digital asset management (DAM) systems for your specific manager or team? Here’s how to pitch those perks to some of the most common key players in an organisation.

The director

OK, let’s start with the most senior decision-maker there is. Your director finds themselves busy wrestling with the bottom line, keeping up staff morale and ensuring brand perceptions are consistently high.
No easy feat.

So, what’s the problem?

Basically, there are way too many moving parts. The director is facing pressures they’ve never felt before; having to adopt a remote working model, keep staff and board members happy and still ensuring the business is working efficiently.

And how’s a DAM system going to help?

Investing in a DAM solution enables staff to work more efficiently - increasing productivity and profitability in the process.

Because as we’ve mentioned previously when talking about how a DAM system can help your organisation work with a clearer conscience, if sixty staff members save ten minutes per day not searching for files, a business could save up to £3,000 per month with the platform.

To put this into context, an entry-level DAM system can cost as little as £400 per month for 60 users.
It also ensures that teams can collaborate and stay better connected - wherever they are in the world. So that’s a big tick for both productivity and morale.

So what else are they going to be interested in?

Well, the director’s got a talented team - you know, like you - to do the research and due diligence. But they’ll definitely be interested in the company’s pedigree and credentials; among Bright’s 900 clients are the likes of LinkedIn, Water Aid, Just Eat and ITV. So they can rest assured, their business is in good company.

Marketing manager

In a role that shifts as often as the digital tides, your marketing manager’s no stranger to new technologies. But being so well versed in the marketplace, any new solution has got to be worth its salt to stand a chance.
So, what’s the problem?

Juggling data, creativity and technology, the marketing manager’s got to back up every decision with insight. They know what the strategy is but if they can’t agree on what “success” looks like within the management team, they face an unenviable task.

And how’s a DAM system going to help?

Our DAM solution, Asset Bank, has in-depth reporting functionality that helps a marketing manager justify bringing the platform onboard. And these reports cover everything from searches and downloads to duplicate assets. For example, finding out what search terms are working for your team and creating the most efficiencies.
Saving more time for the important stuff…

After all, campaigns that resonate best take creativity, and a good DAM system allows content marketers, designers and social media managers to spend less time on admin and more on ideation. Features like auto-tagging mean marketers only ever have to worry about doing the time-sapping task of tagging once.
P.S. they needn’t worry about putting together another report either; these can be scheduled to run automatically, so there’s no adding to anybody’s workload.

Brand manager

The brand guardian: nothing gets past these guys without some scrutiny - with good reason. An inconsistent brand feels inauthentic and, today, you’ve only got a finite amount of time to make the right impression.

So, what’s the problem?

These managers may feel confident they know the ins and outs of the brand - it’s their job to. However, this isn’t always the case across an entire organisation. Because according to our research paper, ‘The Great Suppression - Why Marketing Teams Need More Freedom’, 42% of the group surveyed could confidently say where their brand guidelines were saved and 46% admitted that they couldn’t fully describe their current company logo.

And how’s a DAM system going to help?

You can customise the system so that it’s a shining example of what your brand should look and feel like. It allows you to add collections of promoted assets too, so the whole team is on the same page about what media you should be putting out into the world.

But the biggie for a Brand Manager really is that a DAM system centralises all assets. No more shared drives or saving on the desktop; just one coherent space full of consistent assets. And if the brand manager wants to run an even tighter ship, they can set up permissions so that nothing’s uploaded if it isn’t on brand and approved. But if something does slip through the net, a decent DAM solution will have duplicate detection so that it’s removed automatically. What’s more, they can forget that creeping dread that comes from license expiration dates; the system will pick those up too.

IT manager

No one has felt the adjustment over the past year more than the IT Manager. For some, being out of the office and away from any nagging server or user issues may have been a blessing; others might have felt a paralysing lack of control over systems and security.

So, what’s the problem?

With more and more staff opting to work from home using their own devices, there are serious concerns around security. Some systems that are used in-house might already be outdated, so the IT manager is not necessarily opposed to new tech. But how does it play with existing solutions and is it going to end up creating more support tickets? These are the things that keep an IT manager up at night.

And how’s a DAM system going to help?

There are lots of technical ways that a DAM system could help the IT manager sleep a little easier. Sure, it’s a centralised hub for all company assets, stopping those safety-breaching or server-breaking zips.
But a good DAM solution has much more to satisfy those Agile appetites...

For example, Asset Bank includes:

• Single sign-on (SSO) - using staff email addresses, this is an easy one-click alternative to those forgetful passwords (the most common support ticket there is).
  
  
• Content Delivery Network (CDN) - using Amazon CloudFront CDN ensures every member staff has the same speedy browsing experience - wherever they are in the world.
  
  
• Integrations - the system safely works with a number of leading content management systems (CMS) that your team’s already using, e.g. WordPress.
  
  
• Test/staging instance - our sandbox environments allow the IT team to safely test these integrations or updates before they go live. Phew.
  
  
• Rest API - our API feature allows external applications to connect to Asset Bank too. This allows staff to perform tasks like searching, retrieving/adding assets and metadata much more easily. Consequently, this means fewer queries for the IT department. So yeah, bonus.

Not quite covered everyone? No worries, we understand that every organisation works a little differently. So, whether you’re building a case for your communications, project or design manager instead, we can help.
Just get in touch for a chat.