How to Successfully Integrate a DAM System: With Structure and Transparency for Better Work

1. What is Digital Asset Management (DAM)?
2. What do you need to consider when integrating a DAM system?
3. These are the benefits of DAM integration
4. What integration solutions can you use with a DAM system?
5. These are the best DAM tools
6. Finally order for your data

If you're being completely honest with yourself, you probably know this problem too: The content on your computer is constantly increasing. Pictures, infographics, PDFs, texts - it's easy to lose track. Sometimes it seems easier to find the needle in the haystack than the content for the current campaign or the newly added location. However, the publication of the appropriate, personalized content is essential for a consistent customer journey.

After all, over 80% of customers from a current Salesforce survey indicate that the experience a company offers them is just as important as the product being advertised itself. This means for you that you need to structure your content. This is easiest for you with Digital Asset Management software. In this article you will learn what a DAM system is and what you need to consider when integrating it. You will also get an overview of the advantages of integrating a DAM tool, what integration options there are and which are the best DAM tools for your company.

What is Digital Asset Management (DAM)?

You can understand digital asset management, or DAM for short, as the central storage and management of cross-channel digital content. This technique thus allows you to store, manage and publish your content in one central location. Many DAM platforms offer you additional functions for image transformation, text recognition, document analysis, batch processing as well as video transcoding and auto-tagging. Using a DAM tool in your company makes sense if you have many documents that are played out to your customers across various channels. In addition, it is worth using if you want to optimize the experiences your customers have during their customer journey with your brand.

The DAM has similar advantages and functions as a Product Information Management System (PIM) or a Media Asset Management Tool (MAM), but differs from them. In contrast to a DAM tool, the PIM system is used for the storage and maintenance of product information. With a PIM tool, you manage your internal product information for your inventory management system, your online shop and other sales platforms. The Media Asset Management deals with the management and creation of image, audio and video files. The goal of such software is to simplify and make the work of creative teams scalable by streamlining work processes.

What do you need to consider when integrating a DAM system?

The decision which DAM tool to buy, requires careful consideration, as it directly influences different areas of your company - namely those that work with your digital assets. To make the right decision, you should talk to the affected teams in advance and determine their needs. It is also important to be aware of how often content is shared and updated within the company. This affects not only technical documents and press releases, but also web images, banners, e-books or videos.

Also find out whether you need to synchronize your content across channels and how many portals and platforms this affects. Even before the decision-making process, it is important to determine which workflows you can do without in the future, which processes can be streamlined or even automated. Last but not least, you need to deal with the issue of security and compliance. Do you need to implement checks to comply with current regulations and legal regulations? If this is the case, you must take this into account when integrating your DAM system.

These are the benefits of DAM integration

For your internal and external processes to be competitive, a consistent interaction of various systems and technologies is necessary. To prevent any disruption from one program to the next, it is sensible to not operate a DAM system in isolation, but to integrate it with your existing ERP, CMS, PIM or CRM software and link it to them. Only then can your customer journeys become success stories.

One major advantage of the DAM is the central storage of all files. The tedious job of collating campaign images, texts and graphics in various formats and resolutions from different storage locations becomes a thing of the past with this integration. All employees who need to work with this content have a complete overview of the available materials at all times. You can also track changes you've made and restore previous versions if necessary. The uniform storage location saves you and your colleagues time and nerves, as you can be sure that you will find everything you need and are allowed to use in your DAM.

In this way, your social media editors can create their posts with just a few clicks and even the colleagues who take care of maintaining the product information in your online shop can make use of the files without having to wait for feedback from third parties. This way, you minimize the necessary resource usage and also reduce the workload of your marketing team. In addition, you reduce the susceptibility to errors that arises when using different storage locations.

You can be sure that the latest texts, images and videos are always available to you. Since all content - from creation to publication - is stored centrally, you can create a seamless and engaging customer journey that will be reflected in increasing conversions. AI-driven automations can provide additional support.

What integration solutions can you use with a DAM system?

If you decide on a Digital Asset Management software, you can link it with other systems that you are already using in your company.

• CMS tools: By linking it with your content management system you ensure that your content is brand compliant and can be published. You also always have the right format ready as soon as it has been uploaded in the DAM.
• PIM tools: More than half of all consumers now prefer to shop online rather than in local stores. This makes it even more important that your products stand out in e-commerce and their data is up-to-date and correct. With the integration of your DAM system, you can better integrate your digital assets and create a comprehensive content experience. You can keep your web presence up to date automatically, without having to manually collect the product texts, dimensions and images. With comprehensive access to your digital content, you can create varied, personalized content for your e-commerce channels that will convince your customers of your products.
• DXP tools: DXP stands for Digital Experience Platform and gives you a complete overview of and access to all processes - in real time. This enables you to create a continuous and consistent customer dialogue, convincing your potential buyers of your brand with personalized experiences. By centrally storing your content, you can access all of your content flexibly and achieve your goals even better.
• Marketing automation tools: These software focus on increasing efficiency and automating marketing tasks, such as social media postings, email marketing, or lead generation. By linking with a DAM, you create and publish your content even more efficiently and can tailor it precisely to your online target groups. This way, you streamline your processes and save valuable work resources. At the same time, you will be able to launch your marketing campaigns even faster in the future.
• Design tools: Employees who are responsible for creative work in your company often need to create a large number of online media in different formats and tonalities in a very short time. Integrating DAM with design and creative tools can accelerate content creation and centralize your creative processes. This way, your creative heads can focus on their design process without worrying about sensible content management.

These are the best DAM tools

The more you read, the more you know it: Your digital assets are just waiting to be managed and centralized in your new DAM tool. For your Digital Asset Management we can recommend various software solutions, reviews and experiences of which our users have published on OMR Reviews. Just click through the user feedback and find the DAM system that fits your needs perfectly.

Among the most popular DAM tools are:

Frontify

AdmiralCloud

Canto

Kontainer

4ALLPORTAL

pixx.io

snaatch

CELUM

Finally order for your data

Order is half the life - this also applies in the digital world. The faster it becomes, the more important it becomes to bring calmness into your workflows with a well-structured system. A digital asset management system helps you to automate workflows and make them more efficient while creating the best possible experience for your customers. This way, even the most chaotic person will quickly become a digital order lover.