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Brand Assets and DAM: How to improve productivity and make the most of your creative spend by using a DAM system

First of all, we should probably talk about what your brand assets are. One of the mistakes entrepreneurs frequently make is they think their brand assets are just their logo. However, your logo files are just the tip of a much larger iceberg. The reality is your name, your trademarks, the images you use in advertising, your tagline, and even the icons you have developed to promote your brand all fall into the category of brand assets.

In truth, you have a lot more brand assets than you realize. More importantly, the way you track them has a bearing on your operational efficiency (think about how many times you’ve had to recreate a document because you couldn’t find the original), as well as your brand safety, its integrity, and even your expense ratio. 

If you’ve ever hired a designer or graphic artist, you know exactly how expensive recreating brand assets can be. That’s why it is so important to keep them safe, organized, and easily accessible by your team.

Studies show that using a DAM system can have a number of benefits for brands, including saving time, improving efficiency, maintaining consistency, delivering a better customer experience, increasing brand loyalty, and saving money.

  1. Using a DAM system can help brands save time and improve efficiency in managing their digital assets. According to a survey by Widen Enterprises, 71% of respondents reported that their DAM system saved them at least an hour per week, and 45% said it saved them at least three hours per week. (Source: Widen Enterprises)
  2. A DAM system can help brands maintain consistency in their branding and marketing efforts. A survey by Bynder found that 73% of respondents said their DAM system helped them maintain brand consistency, and 66% said it helped them improve the quality of their marketing materials. (Source: Bynder)
  3. Using a DAM system can help brands improve their customer experience and increase their brand loyalty. A survey by Bynder found that 63% of respondents said their DAM system helped them deliver a better customer experience, and 44% said it helped them increase brand loyalty. (Source: Bynder)
  4. A DAM system can help brands save money by reducing the need for external storage and by streamlining their workflow. According to a survey by Widen Enterprises, 51% of respondents said their DAM system helped them save money on external storage, and 37% said it helped them streamline their workflow. (Source: Widen Enterprises)

Brand assets come in many forms

So many things can be considered a brand asset. The broad category can be defined as any visual or element that defines your brand’s identity and creates value for your business. Let’s go over five of the most common brand assets.

Core messaging

The way that you use your messaging is unique to your brand and needs to be consistent. You want to make sure you have your key brand messaging organized in a single place where those who need it can easily access it and share it with other stakeholders securely. Messaging includes things like your mission, your vision, your brand promise, your brand offer, unique selling propositions, your brand story, and your brand values. These are the things you use consistently across all communications and keeping them close means putting an end to reinventing the wheel every time you need a new marketing piece. This also allows you to check your competitors and make sure they’re not ripping what you have created. 

Visual assets

Your business has a face and an image with your customers. That face is defined by colors, color combinations of gradients, fonts, the different versions of your logo, and iconography. You may also have developed icons to go with your website, some icons used in brochures, or even your internal employee materials. These are also important and expensive items you want to access easily, share them with the right parties, and be able to find them when building different marketing communications. 

This also includes the illustrations you developed to convey different concepts of what you do or how your product works and photography that you use for your brand. Whether it’s product shots, headshots of you and your team, client photography, and other photos, including stock images that you are using across different marketing channels and in different activities and campaigns. No one wants to search across cloud storage, Dropbox, SD cards, thumb drives, and your freelance team’s folders just to find that one shot that really shows the product well. 

Video assets

If it involves moving pictures to sell our goods or services, it’s a video asset. This includes explainer videos, whiteboard videos, screencasting videos, interviews with clients, video product reviews, even a short tip video or an unboxing video on social media. If it is applicable to your brand, you need to keep those videos in one place, making sure the raw footage and the edited footage are both available in the same folder. It is important to track those assets so they can be found easily and used to generate more ideas or be re-edited into more assets. There is nothing worse than reshooting something you know is sitting in a folder somewhere, but you can’t find it.

Advertising and marketing materials

This is a different type of animal. These materials stand out from a business’ core content or graphics. Source files and print-ready files for brochures, one pagers, flyers, rack cards and business cards all need to be organized. If your team is running Facebook ads, Insta ads, or Google ads, organizing these ads and creating a sort of swipe file for them is important. Because, again, whatever takes time and money to create will take more time and money to recreate. It is so much easier to take what has already been done and edit it. One good way to do that is creating a folder in Google Drive for ads. That allows you to keep the finished ad, its photo and copy, and the targeted keywords together in one place that can be shared with the people who need it. Folders for campaigns can also be created with sub-folders for individual ads. This will keep some of your most expensive brand assets at your fingertips.

Organizing your brand assets into a digital asset management (DAM) system

Keeping everything in one place is more than a good habit, it’s a best practice everyone should follow. The best way to get into that habit is set up a single place, where all of those assets can be stored and accessed. One place where everyone goes to file new brand assets and find previously used ones. Then make sure your team knows if they create a new one or receive a new asset from a freelancer, it goes into the DAM library, with no exceptions. This is especially true for brands that post heavily on social media because that requires a ton of graphics, icons, infographics, and ads that you will want to use again in similar projects. You just never know when those things will come in handy. 

We have said it before, but it is worth noting again: You’re putting the time, energy, and money into creating these resources. Make sure that you’re not wasting time, energy, and money looking for them or having to recreate them.

Make sure that files are named clearly and consistently and tag all of your files. Create a standard naming protocol for files that includes their name, creation date, and medium in which it was used. It can be so extremely difficult to find items even in well-organized folders, which makes consistent naming a lifesaver. 

Popular DAM tools

There are several popular digital asset management (DAM) systems :

  1. BrandFolder: BrandFolder is a digital asset management (DAM) system that helps businesses manage, organize, and distribute their digital assets. BrandFolder offers a range of features and tools for managing digital assets, including the ability to upload, organize, and tag assets; create and share custom asset libraries; and set permissions and access controls for different users. It also provides integrations with other tools and platforms, such as Adobe Creative Cloud, Slack, and Google Drive. BrandFolder is often used by marketing and creative teams, as well as by other departments that need to manage and distribute digital assets. It is a cloud-based platform and offers both free and paid plans depending on the needs of the business.
  2. Adobe Experience Manager (AEM): AEM is a comprehensive DAM system that offers a wide range of features for managing, organizing, and distributing digital assets. It is often used by large organizations with complex content management needs.
  3. Widen Collective: Collective is a cloud-based DAM system that offers a range of tools for managing, organizing, and distributing digital assets. It is often used by marketing and creative teams.
  4. Digital Asset Management (DAM): DAM is a cloud-based DAM system that offers a range of features for managing, organizing, and distributing digital assets. It is often used by marketing and creative teams.
  5. MediaBeacon: MediaBeacon is a comprehensive DAM system that offers a range of tools for managing, organizing, and distributing digital assets. It is often used by large organizations with complex content management needs.
  6. Celum: Celum is a cloud-based DAM system that offers a range of features for managing, organizing, and distributing digital assets. It is often used by marketing and creative teams.

There are several free or low-cost digital asset management (DAM) options available for small businesses. Some examples include:

  1. Dropbox: Dropbox is a cloud-based file storage and collaboration platform that offers a range of tools for managing and organizing digital assets. The basic version of Dropbox is free, and there are paid plans available for businesses with more advanced needs.
  2. Google Drive: Google Drive is a cloud-based file storage and collaboration platform that offers a range of tools for managing and organizing digital assets. The basic version of Google Drive is free, and there are paid plans available for businesses with more advanced needs.
  3. Microsoft OneDrive: OneDrive is a cloud-based file storage and collaboration platform that offers a range of tools for managing and organizing digital assets. The basic version of OneDrive is free, and there are paid plans available for businesses with more advanced needs.
  4. pCloud: pCloud is a cloud-based file storage and collaboration platform that offers a range of tools for managing and organizing digital assets. The basic version of pCloud is free, and there are paid plans available for businesses with more advanced needs.
  5. MediaValet: MediaValet is a cloud-based DAM system that offers a range of features for managing, organizing, and distributing digital assets. It has a free plan available for small businesses, as well as paid plans for businesses with more advanced needs.

It’s important to note that while these options are free or low-cost, they may not offer the same level of features and functionality as more comprehensive DAM systems. It’s worth considering the specific needs and requirements of your business before deciding on a DAM system.Regenerate response

When you go to create your DAM library, create it somewhere where team members can easily access it and access can be revoked if someone leaves the organization. If you are working with freelancers, you may want to consider using Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox as a way of limiting access to your internal drives. Once the work is created, it can be moved to your internal DAM by one of your full-time employees.

Another option is to use a project management system like Monday, Trello, or Asana. You can use boards to store information and create tasks. You can attach files and photos with links and keep a library of assets in one place.

Ultimately, no matter what tool you choose, the most important step you need to take is getting organized. Every day you put it off is another set of assets you need to track down and more time you will spend dealing with the same issue. Managing brand assets in a digital asset management tool is more than an efficiency program. It is how you protect your brand as you make the most of your marketing budget. It’s another way for you to drive sales and maximize profits.