The Guide to Manage your Digital Assets

Digital assets are meant to be used and shared: a coherent and strong digital asset management system is much needed to organise, store, access, and share your files easily.

Digital asset management (DAM) is the process and technology designed to manage your digital assets throughout their lifecycle, from the moment of creation, through distribution, and onto archiving.

A DAM solution enhances the efficiency, security, and accessibility of your digital assets ensures brand consistency, and fosters collaboration between its users. This article will delve into the essence of digital assets, the key components of a DAM system, how to implement a DAM solution, and the best practices for managing your digital assets.

Understanding Digital Assets

What are Digital Assets?

A digital asset is any item that exists in digital form and is accompanied by specific rights of use or permissions.

Digital assets include a broad array of files in various formats:

• Images of your products or services — JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, RAW, etc.
• Videos featuring customer testimonials, tutorials or promotional content — MP4, AVI, MOV, WMV, etc.
• Audio clips from your podcasts or music — MP3, WAV, AIFF, etc.
• Documents like reports or contracts — PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
• Packaging and catalogue files - PDF, AI, InDesign etc.
• 3D models of your designs or prototypes— STL, OBJ, FBX, etc.
• Web pages and code for your website or app — HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.

Why Digital Asset Management is Crucial

While making your assets accessible to users and collaborators, a DAM system is essential for your business to thrive. A DAM system centralises your digital assets, solving the issues of scattered and duplicated files.

This centralisation boosts productivity by making it easier for collaborators to locate and utilise needed assets. Plus, it allows you to make sure all your assets adhere to your brand guidelines, it enables you to maintain consistency across channels and platforms, bolstering your brand's recognition and reputation.

Moreover, by minimising the need for external storage, software licences, and bandwidth, a DAM system can reduce IT expenses; and it helps avoid legal complications and penalties by preventing the loss or misuse of digital assets.

Key components of Digital Asset Management (DAM)

Digital Asset Management (DAM) Systems

A digital asset management system is a platform designed to store, organise, find, and share a variety of digital files. As the single source of truth, these solutions ensure that all stakeholders are accessing the most up-to-date content, supporting the entire lifecycle of digital assets — from its creation, its distribution, to archiving, reusing, and its retirement:

• First, a DAM system facilitates the upload of files from diverse sources (computer, mobile device, cloud storage, or external platforms).
• This type of system should also offer cloud storage, enabling access to files from anywhere, at any time, and on any device.
• With a DAM system, organising your files will be possible using folders, tags, metadata, and other descriptive information, making it easier to locate the files you need.
• Furthermore, using a DAM ensures the protection of your files from unauthorised access, loss, or damage through encryption, backup, recovery features and the creation of authorised access.
• Last but not least, a DAM system can be used with other tools and platforms, such as content management systems, social media, email, and analytics.

Organising your digital Assets

Effective digital asset organisation is crucial for saving time, money, and avoiding hassle, by ensuring your files are easy to find, use, and reuse. Digital asset management solutions can provide a structured digital format for storing and accessing files, facilitating efficient search and retrieval of your digital assets.

Here are some best practices for organising your digital assets:

• Start with the assets you use most: Identify and prioritise the assets that are most frequently used and relevant to your business.
• Create a folder structure: Develop a folder structure that mirrors your business workflow, and logic, and employ subfolders to establish a clear navigation.
• Label your images with metadata: Use metadata to provide descriptive information about your files.
• Create a system for versions and alternates: Manage different versions or alternates of your files, such as sizes, formats, etc., to prevent confusion and duplication.
• Keep file numbers down with download options: Always keep an updated DAM system.

Steps to Implement a Digital Asset Management System

Assess Your Needs

The first step in implementing a DAM system is to assess your needs and requirements for managing your digital assets. Here are the elements you should be looking for when choosing a DAM solution:

• The types of digital assets you need.
• The number of digital assets you have or need.
• The way you organise your digital assets.
• The access and sharing of your digital assets.
• The use and reuse of your assets.
• The protection and security of your digital assets.

Choosing the Right DAM System

Next, choose the DAM system that meets your needs and expectations. With many DAM solutions available, each offering different features, it's crucial to compare and evaluate your options to select the one that provides the best value for your business.

Criteria to consider include:

• Features and functionalities: Ensure the DAM system offers what you need
• Scalability and flexibility: The system should accommodate your evolving needs.
• Usability: Look for a user-friendly system with good support and training resources.
• Cost and value: The DAM system should fit within your budget and offer a good return on investment.

Implementing and Training

The final step is to implement and train your team on using the DAM system. This includes migrating existing digital assets, integrating the system with other tools and platforms, and training your team for effective use.

• First, prepare your digital assets for migration: Clean, organise, and label your files, delete unnecessary files, create a folder structure, and add metadata and tags.
• Then, migrate your digital assets to the new system, with the help of a third party if needed.
• Third step, integrate the system with your other tools and platforms: Use built-in integrations or APIs, to ensure seamless workflow improvement.
• Finally, train your team on how to use the system via its training resources with internal procedures.

Best Practices for Managing Digital Assets

Regular Audits and Updates

One of the best practices for managing your digital assets is to conduct regular audits and updates of your digital asset library. This will help you to ensure that your digital assets are relevant, accurate, and consistent, and that they meet your current and future needs, allowing you to:

• Eliminate outdated or obsolete files.
• Update and optimise existing files.
• Add new and relevant files.

Having an audit and an update realised within your own managing team can be great for your business. It allows your collaborators to be part of the project and to analyse what needs to stay in the DAM or what elements must be taken out, depending on the objectives. Keep in mind that an up-to-date DAM is essential for your company’s image and reputation.

Ensuring Security and Permissions

Ensuring security and permissions for your digital asset library is another essential practice.
This way, you safeguard your digital assets and prevent potential legal, financial, or reputational risks.
Steps to ensure security and permissions include:

• Using encryption and backup features of your DAM system to secure data.
• Managing and controlling access to your digital assets.
• Creating user groups and profiles, assigning roles and responsibilities to all parties.
• Defining and enforcing guidelines for using and sharing your assets.
• Monitoring and auditing access and usage of your digital assets, addressing any issues or violations.

Future Trends in Digital Assets Management

AI and Automation

AI and automation are revolutionising the management of digital assets, a trend poised to not only continue but also accelerate. These technologies significantly enhance the efficiency, accuracy, and quality of managing digital assets by automating tasks like tagging, categorising, and describing them.

One standout application is AI-powered metadata tagging. This involves adding descriptive keywords and information to digital assets—such as product name, category, colour, size, or style—facilitating improved searchability and discoverability. This allows users to filter, sort, and browse digital assets with greater ease.

Plus, AI-powered tagging harnesses features like image recognition, facial recognition, sentiment analysis, and more, enriching digital assets with additional context and information.

Integration with Emerging Technologies

The integration with emerging technologies—such as augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR)—represents another significant trend in digital asset management.

AR and VR offer immersive and interactive experiences by overlaying digital content onto the physical world (AR) or creating simulated environments (VR). These technologies can transform digital asset management, enabling more engaging and realistic creation and consumption of digital assets.

Streamlining Workflow

Streamlining your workflow is a key practice for managing digital assets effectively. Workflow includes the creation, management, and distribution of digital assets.

By streamlining your workflow, you can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your digital asset management process, reduce time and costs associated with digital asset creation, storage, and distribution, and increase the quality and value of your digital assets.

You can integrate your DAM system with other tools and systems, such as PIM, CMS, or ERP, to maximise your team’s productivity. Some DAM systems allow you to plan the automation of repetitive tasks (uploading, tagging, or distributing assets for example).

Conclusion

Managing digital assets effectively is crucial for your brand identity, user experiences, and sales and marketing performance. However, managing digital assets can be challenging (time waste, misplacement, duplication, misuse, security breaches, lack of version control and brand consistency).

A digital asset management system allows you to counter all those challenges and also provides you with tools to edit, collaborate, distribute, and analyse your digital assets.