From idea to impact: shorten your time to market with smart asset management
As a marketer, you struggle daily with a difficult challenge: How do you launch creative and effective campaigns faster while your budget is under pressure? A seemingly impossible task. Yet a solution exists that combines these objectives. In this blog, Sebastiaan from Comrads explains how a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system helps you work smarter without compromising on quality.
Why marketing teams get stuck in their processes
You know that feeling? Your team has a brilliant idea for a new campaign, but then the search for the right files begins. Where is that new product image again? Who has the latest version of the video? And has anyone checked the rights for that footage? Before you know it, you're days away - valuable time during which the competition may have already passed you by. This is not an occasional problem. Research shows that marketing professionals spend an average of three weeks a year searching for digital files. For some, this even runs to six weeks on an annual basis.
How centralized asset management shortens your time to market
A DAM system works like a smart digital library where all your marketing materials are in one place. Unlike traditional folder structures, where you have to remember where you stored something, a good DAM system helps you find what you're looking for - no matter how you search. Through smart categorization, tags and metadata, you can find files at lightning speed without endlessly flipping through folders. This saves time immediately:
You'll find what you're looking for in seconds thanks to intuitive search filters and smart metadata
Teams work simultaneously on projects without sending files back and forth
Approval processes are streamlined through automated workflows
Martine van der Meulen, content manager at Aidsfonds, experiences this daily in practice. The DAM system gives her team direct access to over 40 years of campaign imagery through smart metadata tags. "For example, if I now search for content from Project X in South Africa about orphans living with HIV, I can easily find it," she says in an earlier article.
More creativity through less administration
Perhaps the greatest benefit of a DAM system is in the time freed up for what really matters: creativity. Because your team spends less time on administrative tasks, it frees up time to devise and develop distinctive campaigns. Imagine: no more endless e-mail exchanges about the correct version of a logo. No more hassles with WeTransfer links that expire before anyone has downloaded the files. And no more panic if a file is suddenly untraceable because someone moved it.
Unexpected cost savings that give your budget air
In addition to saving time, a DAM system also delivers significant cost savings. By making existing content easily findable and reusable, you avoid duplication of effort and save on production costs. With better management of digital rights, you keep track of licenses, which prevents costly mistakes. You also reduce external production costs by using existing resources more efficiently. All this contributes to a healthier marketing budget that you can use for activities that really make an impact.
How do you get started with more efficient asset management?
To really speed up your marketing processes, start with these steps:
Map out where you currently lose the most time in your work processes
Identify which content is used most often and make sure it is managed properly first
Involve your team early in the process - they have to work with it, so their input is indispensable
Choose a system that fits your needs, not the other way around
In a previous blog, I already took you through the world of DAM systems and the different choices you can make. Read this blog again if you want more insight into which type of solution is best for your organization.
Experience the difference yourself
A good DAM system transforms how your team works. It gives you the tools to launch campaigns faster, be more creative and save costs. Want to discover how this works specifically for your organization? Request a free consultation and discover how your marketing processes can be more efficient.