Today Web Anatomy SEO will be discussing what digital assets are, how to manage them, why they are important and how they benefit your business.
What are Digital Assets?
Digital Assets:
Are all the data or content that is in a digital form (PDF, JPEG, HTML, Videos, Newsletters, Datasheets etc.) that belongs to a specific person or entity. Digital assets must exist in a digital form, be identifiable and provide value to its owner. An asset is anything that is valuable or useful and thus digital assets must be useful or valuable.
Most Common Digital Assets:
- PDFs
- Websites
- Back-ups
- Audio Files
- Design Files
- Spreadsheets
- JPEGs or PNGs
- Images or Photos
- HTML documents
- Marketing Content
- Word or Google Documents
- Company Branding i.e. logo, brand assets, etc.
What is Digital Asset Management?
Digital Asset Management:
This is the control, management, and storage of your business’s digital assets. Digital Asset Management can be done in three ways;
First you can use a digital asset management software (DAM). DAM software is a software that provides a centralized system that assists your business with the creation, deployment, tracking and management of your digital assets. The DAM also provides basic network security for your digital assets. Once the software is correctly installed it will perform most of its tasks without prompt, however these softwares are common targets of hacks and updates.
Or you can hire a Digital Asset Manager, this is an individual who is in charge of your all digital assets. They create storage files and provide administrative support by monitoring your digital assets production, implementation and maintenance. Digital asset managers are skilled in organization, data interpretation and network management. However these managers are humans too and can make mistakes.
This is why most businesses make use of both a DAM and a digital asset manager. The digital asset managers monitor the DAM software while ensuring it is being correctly used by the rest of the businesses employees. In the technological age we are currently experiencing digital assets and data are constantly increasing. Often vast amounts of data can become too difficult to manually control, however it can also be dangerous to only use a DAM as softwares has its own disadvantages such as being hacked or having a system failure. Thus most businesses use both a DAM software and a digital asset manager to effectively manage their digital assets.
What are the benefits of Digital Asset Management?
Firstly when your digital assets are managed correctly they are easy to locate, which speeds up productivity and avoids employees recreating old materials they couldn’t find. Digital Assets are generally saved on servers or on external service providers such as Google Cloud, this means that the digital assets can be accessed from a variety of devices and from any location. Meaning your employees can work from anywhere, which with the current pandemic is proving to be invaluable.
Secondly correctly managed digital assets ensure your brand maintains consistency, as your logo, brand identity and aesthetics are easily accessible for use in marketing campaigns. This function is pertinent for your sales and marketing teams. As one of the biggest downfalls for these teams is effectively collaborating on approved concepts or ideas. With the correctly managed digital assets collaboration on sale pitches or presentations becomes effortless.
Digital Asset Management also monitors the expiration dates and when the last different materials were used. This ensures that older materials are not reused and that expired products or services are kept away from customers. This assists your legal teams should you run a business where expired products such as medicine or chemicals can become dangerous.
Digital Asset Management (DAM) software generally synchronizes well with Content Management systems which means easy access and data sharing between the two. This means it is painless to locate PDF’s spreadsheets, presentations, reports, etc… And to share it with other employees or even potential investors, suppliers or customers. Basically, Digital Asset Management speeds up productivity and minimizes time-wasting.
An effective DAM software and manager is able to determine which assets are performing the best, are bringing in the highest return on investment, have reached the most amount of new clients, are valuable to the business, identifies where assets can be reused and transforms tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. These are just a few of the benefits of efficient digital asset management.
For assistance with your Digital Asset Management speak to a friendly Web Anatomy Consultant by emailing us on: [email protected]
