Marketing is the process of making a product or service known to potential customers and persuading them to buy it. It is an essential part of the business world. Marketing is also called advertising, public relations, and sales promotion.
The marketing industry has changed significantly in recent years. There are many new ways to market a product or service, such as social media marketing, mobile marketing, content marketing, and email marketing. Marketers need to be aware of these new trends and how they can leverage them for their own business goals.
What is the marketing challenge?
The basic challenge of any marketing department hasn’t really changed. The marketing challenge is to create a campaign that will resonate with their target audience. Marketing problems include: reaching out to the right people, creating a campaign that will resonate with their target audience, and getting them to act.
What has changed is the rapid increase in the number of files needed to generate a successful marketing campaign. Files can include the actual ad or email marketing piece, the proof (or scan) of said media piece, the final report that shows how effective the media piece has been, and detailed information about how and where it was distributed. This is why a digital marketing campaign needs to be more organized for it to be as efficient as possible.
The Trouble With Managing Digital Assets
In the past, different departments within an organization worked in isolation. Things would be created and stored in separate folders, and some may even have been forgotten about completely. Furthermore, as companies work across sites and often countries, brand consistency is harder to manage. Ensuring that all sales departments are using the latest version or that every instance of a document is up to date is getting harder as the number of customer touchpoints increases.
Now, companies want to ensure their marketing campaigns are stored digitally and can be accessed on their computers, mobile devices, and cloud storage. Organizations have turned to simple file management systems to help them do this. Tools such as Dropbox, Basecamp, and Google Drive have been used in an attempt to make files more accessible.
The issue with such tools is that they don’t overcome the issue of duplicate files, version control, or make assets easily searchable. Undoubtedly, this is a problem in any marketing department and leads to productivity issues.
The Solution is a Digital Asset Management Solution
To overcome these issues, companies need a full Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution that uses proprietary digital asset management software such as Brandfolder DAM.
A DAM solution has all the components of file management solutions and is, in fact, the next step up from this. A DAM solution enables companies to work collaboratively, which improves efficiency and productivity. Organizations can have greater control over digital content, which means less time spent on repetitive tasks and more time for innovation.
10 benefits of a DAM
If you’re not sold on the idea that your business would benefit from DAM, consider the following benefits:
1) A single source for all digital assets
No longer will you be working in isolation. A DAM solution allows you to get all your content into one place. This means when a new campaign comes on board, it’s not just a matter of looking at files and copying but rather seeing the complete content the campaign is going to use.
2) Flexible metadata
Many DAM solutions include descriptive metadata that ensures files are tied to campaigns and can be easily searched via search engine platforms. This ultimately increases productivity and eliminates the need to re-key assets.
3) Increased security
Digital asset management solutions offer tools that enable you to encrypt files, seal them with digital signatures, or even geotag them. The use of these features enables businesses to better protect all their digital assets.
4) Redundant storage
Many DAM systems allow users to store both encrypted and unencrypted files in the same space. This means if a business were ever hacked, they’d have at least two copies of their data which would minimize damage.
5) Greater control and audibility
Over time small changes can accumulate into big problems or even into unauthorized creations that could harm business operations. Tracking changes across companies and knowing who made changes is important.
6) Improved collaboration
There are many benefits to being able to share data across a company’s departments. Sharing these files with colleagues, partners, and customers allows employees to collaborate easily while also allowing your business to grow.
7) Faster response time
Accessing all the digital content you need on-demand saves time because it eliminates the need to set up a new campaign or wait for that email response. Consequently, you can craft campaigns instantly and easily get responses in real-time with this type of solution.
8) Easy automation and tracking of digital content
A DAM solution provides the ability to automate tasks and track how well a content campaign is working. This enables businesses to increase their overall revenue by measuring their digital assets’ effectiveness.
9) Lower costs
Lower costs and more effective spending of marketing budgets. A DAM solution allows a company to accurately calculate the spend on each campaign, making it easy to eliminate waste.
10) Better reporting and analytics
A DAM can provide all sorts of reports on how content is shared across the various platforms a business uses, such as on email, social media, or mobile devices. This enables businesses to track what’s working best for them and ultimately increase the effectiveness of that particular campaign.
Businesses need to have access to all their digital assets whether it’s for an upcoming campaign or a new sales proposal. A Digital Asset Management Solution enables businesses to have everything they need in one place and makes these assets easily accessible via any browser, mobile device, or computer. A DAM solution provides greater control over assets and content because it allows companies to collaborate with other departments, monitor changes, and track content performance. This ultimately increases the productivity of your organization which means more sales, faster response times, and more profits.
