An increasing number of digital marketers are realizing the need for a robust digital asset management (DAM) system. It’s becoming much more critical for marketers to have easy access capabilities, as well as adequate storage that doesn’t hinder findability, for the many files and assets they must manage on a daily basis. This is especially true for growing companies.
Digital Marketing Today is Increasingly Complex
Competing in a global marketplace means digital marketers must be ahead of their competitors, always. But great marketing is multi-faceted, encompassing:
- Data
- Processes
- Teams
- Products
- Channels
- Content
With the growing number of social media channels, there is also a corresponding need for more marketing content. Audiences demand content that’s relevant to them, meaning content must be customized for the channel, the medium, and the individual “ in other words, you can’t post the same content on Pinterest that you post on Instagram. With a DAM system, digital marketers can centralize all their assets, guidelines, materials, and anything else that fuels brand-building initiatives.
Benefits of DAM Solutions
Digital marketers understand the importance of keeping all verbal and visual content and communication on-brand. In order to ensure on-brand messaging, the most recent and updated assets must be readily available “ from anywhere, at any time. Then, you must factor in all the time digital marketing teams spend searching for the right assets, only then distributing them to the right people. DAM solutions improve efficiency, making it possible to distribute the right content at the right time, consistently, without missing key opportunities to engage your audience.
Since there are a larger number of touch points and channels for digital marketers to reach, similar iterations of the same content must be created. These might be minor changes, but keeping on top of it all “ manually “ can quickly become a headache. Instead, utilizing DAM software can help digital marketing teams track changes and create multiple assets quickly “ with fewer errors “ while keeping storage costs manageable at the same time.
Digital marketers who want to reap the benefits of digital asset management have no shortage of vendors to choose from. Below, we’ll compare a few of the best DAM vendors for digital marketers.
MarcomCentral Enterprise
Digital marketers enjoy MarcomCentral Enterprise because it makes it easy to find, manage, personalize, and share digital assets. All files are managed to be compliant with government regulatory guidelines, reducing the compliance headaches that some marketers are plagued with. It’s an SaaS solution, so storage and access are a breeze. In addition, it can be configured to match the company brand.
Features:
- Approval process control
- 24/7 online and phone support
- Filtered search
- Watermarking
- In-document searching
- Usage tracking
Bynder
Even with all the media storage options on the market today, digital marketers still need a reliable central repository to store, organize, manage, distribute, and access files. The right DAM solution can be the single source to bring together people and processes within the digital marketing team. With Bynder, you get support for all file formats and easy integration with any existing systems you currently use. Moreover, security features have been well-received by current customers.
Features:
- Drag-and-drop uploading
- Auto-formatting for channels and file types
- Central hub for all assets
- Real-time editing
MerlinOne
MerlinOne helps digital marketers break out of the silo doom by offering a user-friendly, centralized asset management system. One notable feature is the Google Vision Autotags, which is just one of the many ways MerlinOne easily integrates with a wide number of systems.
Plus, MerlinOne makes it easy to view usage rights related to assets on a version control basis. Digital marketers can use MerlinOne to significantly speed up time to market with all content and related materials. You can even work directly with MerlinOne right inside of Adobe Photoshop. Then, you can instantly convert files to any format from PNG to PDF, to JPG, and more.
Features:
- 99.99% uptime guarantee with free upgrades
- Option for Amazon AWS and other cloud configurations
- Completely HIPAA-compliant
- Customizable to your industry
- Metadata management
- AI capabilities
- Single sign-on (SAML)
Xinet
This DAM solution is popular because it easily integrates with widely-used applications in the digital marketing space such as Adobe and Creative Suite. Whether your team is located in one region or across the globe, Xinet is reliable and available. You can easily track specific files such as logos. Moreover, you can edit and resize images without disturbing the original file.
Features:
- Notification of asset expiration so that you don’t use outdated assets
- Manages all versions of digital assets
- Developed by product domain experts
- Combine metadata fields for robust searching
- You can customize the user interface
Resource Space
Resource Space helps to improve productivity since it is an easily-accessible, web-based DAM solution. What makes this solution unique is it is open source software. As a result, you aren’t on the hook for license fees. There is also a free version and a free trial. Resource Space is widely used by academic and not-for-profit organizations. Despite the affordable cost, you still get many of the same features as the higher-end DAM options.
Features:
- Easy collaboration
- Filtered search
- Online proofing
- Version control
- Watermarking
- Metadata management
Third Light IMS
This feature-rich DAM application is cloud-based and offers a budget-friendly price for all of its many features. In fact, you can get a free trial to ensure this is the right solution for your company. With Third Light IMS, you can quickly and securely find, organize, tag, share, and edit files.
If needed, you can also select their licensed version. Plus, Third Light IMS supports an unlimited number of users.
Benefits:
- In-document sharing
- Version control
- Filtered searches
- Video management
- Cataloging
- Brand control
Today’s Digital Marketers Need Robust Digital Asset Management Solutions
With such a high cost associated with losing assets, manually searching for files, and losing brand control, there’s no question that a DAM solution is necessary. All of the above vendors have proven offerings that can work well with a wide variety of businesses and industries. Now, you can get a single view into all of your resources, marketing data, teams, and channels.
