The Intersection of Digital Asset Management and Content Operations
Multiple departments touch branded content every day, from marketing teams creating the content to sales teams accessing collateral and key stakeholders reviewing and overseeing everything. This journey of creating and distributing content is known as content operations. Along this journey, it’s essential to store content assets, which may include documents, images, videos, and more, in a way that’s easy for everyone to find and access.
Digital Asset Management (DAM) is a system teams use to improve the storage, retrieval, and usage of all the company’s digital assets. DAM software offers a platform for all these operations to take place, including relevant functional elements like organizational tools and workflow capabilities. As such, it leads to faster and more efficient content processes from creation to approval and distribution.
TL;DR: DAM as the Engine for Content Operations
Digital Asset Management is a critical system for optimizing content operations, which covers every aspect of creating, distributing, and analyzing content. DAM streamlines content operations by providing a singular, organized place for all relevant assets to live and enhancing collaboration among teams through automated workflows. DAM uses intelligent metadata and version control to ensure assets are easily searchable and teams are always using the newest file. This increases efficiency and speeds up content time-to-market, which is a great way to prove ROI to stakeholders.
What Is Content Operations?
Content operations is a term that covers every aspect of creating, distributing, and analyzing content. In today’s business landscape, optimizing content operations means distributing content effectively across a multitude of available digital channels. If companies fail to leverage multi-channel marketing campaigns, they risk falling behind fierce competition.
Many companies struggle with managing content effectively because several professionals and stakeholders from different departments often must collaborate on creating, editing, approving, and posting or distributing content. Facilitating communication and workflows between these several departments can prove challenging because many team members need to touch a content asset before it goes out to the public. Fortunately, a DAM system can be used to facilitate better communication and optimized processes within content operations.
The Synergy Between DAM and Content Operations
DAM streamlines content creation and distribution through a variety of methods. It provides an efficient organizational system that allows team members to find the assets they need to work on or review quickly.
- Metadata for Searchability: A DAM system uses metadata, or a summary of what a particular asset includes, to help ensure consistent organization and improve content searchability. Companies should create tags that make intuitive, logical sense to the personnel who need to access content.
- Version Control: DAM often stores every version of an asset while displaying only the newest version up front. Users can access this feature on most DAM software by uploading a new version with the same file name as the old one. This feature is critical for keeping collaborators on the same page. Metadata can also help identify duplicates and suggest combining them.
- Automated Workflows: DAM systems enhance content collaboration among teams through workflows. For instance, users can set workflows that automatically send the content piece they’re working on to the next team in the creation and approval process once they mark their part as complete. These workflows can remind other departments when it’s their turn to review or work on an asset.
Benefits of Integrating DAM in Content Operations
Integrating DAM into content operations increases efficiency and saves time and resources through robust workflow capabilities and enhanced communication.
Benefit | Impact on Content Operations |
|---|---|
Operational Efficiency | Employees can reference assets faster in everyday operations, making short work of finding what they need using advanced search capabilities. Creative teams can use AI content coaching to discover new ideas quickly. |
Collaboration and Communication | DAM allows users to comment and communicate directly in the software without switching to other applications, which boosts collaboration. Teams can comment, review, and revise directly in the asset file. |
Branding Consistency | DAM software stores the most up-to-date branding guidelines in an easy-to-find place, helping marketers be consistent with branding across all marketing channels and campaigns. |
Seamless Accessibility and Security | DAM software stores all assets in one secure place, where role-based permissions allow the right people to access the assets they need. |
Distribution Speed | Integrating DAM with pre-existing tools can help companies move to the distribution phase seamlessly once content is internally approved. |
Digital Rights Protection | The DAM system enables companies to track who approved which assets for use and where. By keeping close records, businesses can more easily prove when someone uses their copyrighted digital assets illegally. |
Overcoming Challenges and Best Practices
When implementing a new DAM platform in content operations, companies may struggle with rolling out the new processes and ensuring that all personnel consistently understand and follow them.
Best Practices for Adoption and ROI
- Prioritize Training: Create a thorough training program that addresses all departments’ concerns regarding their pre-existing workflows. Provide thorough training for all users tailored to different roles.
- Measure Time-to-Market: To prove ROI to stakeholders and mitigate initial investment concerns, measure content time-to-market before and after DAM software implementation. This metric shows how DAM software speeds up the time it takes to create, edit, and get content out to the public.
- Organize Systematically: The organization system within the DAM should mirror a company’s structure and existing workflows regarding content creation, approval, and distribution.
- Encourage Feedback: Leaders should motivate team members to develop innovative ideas for using the DAM to its fullest potential. No one knows the pain points of content processes better than the employees who work with content daily.
- Regular Management: Implement policies for maintaining the quality and relevance of digital assets in the DAM system, and regularly review and purge outdated or unused files so the system doesn’t get bloated.
Bottom Line
DAM is a key component of effective content operations, providing the structure and tools necessary to manage the complex content lifecycle from creation to distribution. By prioritizing organization, workflow capabilities, and version control, DAM helps teams deliver content faster, maintain brand consistency, and ultimately scale their business. When selecting a platform, look for one that fits your operational requirements today, and has the scalability to grow with you tomorrow.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is content operations and how does DAM relate to it?
Content operations is a term that covers every aspect of creating, distributing, and analyzing content. Because content creation involves many stakeholders and departments, DAM provides a singular platform with organizational tools and workflow capabilities that lead to faster and more efficient content processes from creation to approval and distribution.
How does DAM use metadata in content operations?
DAM uses metadata, or a summary of what a particular asset includes, to help ensure consistent organization and improve content searchability. This organization system is crucial for enabling employees to reference assets faster in everyday operations.
What is "content time-to-market" and why is it important for DAM ROI?
Content time-to-market refers to the speed at which content is created, edited, and released to the public. Measuring this metric before and after DAM software implementation is a great way to prove ROI to stakeholders, as it shows how DAM software speeds up content processes.
How does DAM streamline the content approval process?
DAM enhances collaboration through workflows. Users can set workflows that automatically send the content piece they’re working on to the next team in the creation and approval process once they mark their part as complete. This eliminates the need for cross-platform communication and reminds departments when it’s their turn to review or work on an asset.
What is a key best practice for implementing DAM in content operations?
A key best practice is to organize and categorize digital assets so the organization system within the DAM mirrors a company’s structure and existing workflows regarding content creation, approval, and distribution. It is also crucial to create a thorough training program that addresses all departmental concerns regarding pre-existing workflows.