Determine the right timing to implement or improve your DAM
If your organization doesn’t already have a system in place to manage its digital assets, it’s time to zoom out and look at how assets are currently stored, organized, and used. Aprimo suggested you may need a DAM if:
- Assets are stored in multiple locations
- Different teams are using different assets
- Finding what you need is hard
- Assets get recreated because they can’t be located
- Compliance with regulations and brand guidelines is challenging
If you already have a DAM, you might still benefit from zooming out. Does your current DAM:
- Assets are stored in multiple locations
- Deliver the capabilities you need as you scale?
- Report on asset performance?
- Come with comprehensive service from your DAM vendor?
- Build in compliance?
- Get used by everyone across your organization?
If not, it might be time for an upgrade.
Know that it can be easier than you think
“Implementing or replacing a DAM solution isn’t as complicated as it might seem,” Aprimo says. “A modern DAM should be flexible and allow you to get started quickly, even at a high level.
To ensure your transition is smooth, they recommend the following order of operations:
- Get clear about the goals for your DAM — and capture them
- Assign roles as far as who will own and be able to contribute to the DAM
- Develop a plan to train people on the DAM — and manage change as needed
- Determine the right structure for your DAM and how that will be maintained
- Get information from stakeholders, including future users of the DAM
- Research industry standards
- Develop your taxonomy and metadata structure
- Review that with your stakeholders
- Test, review, and validate
That should give you a straightforward process, but implementing a DAM or transitioning to a better solution does require time and focus. If your team doesn’t have the bandwidth for that right now — but sees the benefit of an improved approach to digital asset management — consider bringing in a consultant. A team like ours can help you walk through each of the above steps while keeping excess work off your plate.
Plus, as DAM implementation and integration specialists, we can offer our expertise to help you choose the right solution. Then, we can ensure it works seamlessly with the rest of your martech stack and train your team on using it. In fact, Aprimo says, “Working with experts is the best way to make the most of your DAM.”
Leverage AI
Tagging makes all the difference when it comes to a DAM’s long-term functionality, but it can require a lot of work. At least, that’s the case if you don’t implement AI. With an AI-supported DAM, though, you can get benefits like:
- Automatic asset tagging based on image recognition
- Speech-to-text transcription
- Optical character recognition
Think through governance
Any good DAM comes with a governance plan, or per Aprimo, “a simple set of rules for adding, organizing, and managing assets within your DAM.”
Without this critical piece, your DAM can fall apart, quickly becoming a mess of disorganized, hard-to-use assets. Fortunately, our team can not only help you find and implement the right DAM, but we can also develop a scalable governance plan for you.
With countless DAM vendors out there today, your organization has options. In fact, there are so many choices out there that it can feel overwhelming. We can help. By partnering with best-of-breed DAM vendors, our team has the ability to connect you with the best fit for your organization — both now and as you grow.