Why is digital asset management important? First, how does one define a digital asset?
Digital assets can be defined as any content that can be stored digitally. In today’s rapidly evolving digital climate — for banks, in particular, as they navigate the age of the enhanced digital experience — there’s no limit to what a digital asset can be.
Consider the types of files and assets that are routinely created and shared across your organization. The marketing team, for example, creates and collaborates on print ads, social media content, videos, infographics, white papers, and much, much more. And if they’re working with third-party vendors or providers, you want the content they’re creating to be easily accessible. But only to those who should have access.
So why a DAM solution? Canto.com says: “51% of marketers waste time and money recreating unused or missing assets. Effective digital asset management requires companies to organize and govern every digital file in their media ecosystem. Everyone can relate to spending too much time looking for a single file. This is the case for most companies operating without a DAM solution.” A digital asset management solution gives your team the ability to create, manage, publish, and share content with anyone inside or outside your organization.
1. Compliance, security, and consistency
Brandfolder.com reminds us that “customers are more likely to purchase from a brand they recognize and because of this, Fortune 500 companies make a proactive effort to maintain brand consistency in their marketing and advertising campaigns.” Maintaining and communicating a brand identity is easier when you have a DAM platform. You can restrict access to legacy files — ensuring that only the most up-to-date assets are accessible — with the result that only those assets that meet brand and compliance standards can be accessed and shared. For example, once your creative team has finished creating an asset that meets brand and compliance standards, they can streamline production (while safeguarding compliance) by saving the layout as a template in the DAM system. As time goes on, approved users can make changes, share the changes for review, and add comments to the file, to name just a few
In order to streamline a bank’s marketing messaging around mortgage loans, for instance, the DAM platform facilitates the sharing of mortgage lending materials with only those members of the lending team who are designated to collaborate. When the lending officer logs in, the platform can be configured to present only mortgage marketing materials and will enter the individual’s personal information automatically. Brand and industry regulation compliance are never issues. Speaking of compliance, when it comes to regulators, a DAM solution is exactly what you need when they decide to pay you a visit.
2. Time and dollars wasted
Without a DAM solution, digital assets are rarely managed properly. In many cases, the wrong people are using the wrong assets at the wrong time. A DAM system establishes workflows, manages access, and streamlines the approval process so the right files get into the right hands.
If your team is spending precious time searching for mislabeled or disappearing assets, that’s time lost focusing on growing and scaling your business. In addition, your team may also be missing out on the opportunities presented by the repurposing of content. As important as freshness of content is to Google algorithms when it comes to ranking your content on SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages), you can still (and absolutely should) be repurposing your content instead of “starting from scratch” with every new marketing asset.
Plus, the importance of quick and easy access to approved assets cannot be overemphasized. Today’s highly competitive and evolving marketplace demands a marketing department’s ability to “shoot at the ducks while they’re there,” that is, to respond quickly and turn on a dime when necessary.
3. Free your team for other critical functions
Lastly and probably most importantly, a digital asset management system frees the members of your marketing team to perform other critical functions. A DAM solution does much more than enable sharing, uphold brand and compliance standards, and enhance your ability to respond to marketplace shifts. It allows your team to focus less on managing your marketing messaging assets and more time taking a hard look at messaging performance and learning from it. Sure, developing and placing strategic, relevant content is important, but knowing how and why it’s working (or not) is even more important. A DAM solution gives your team time to monitor KPIs, better understand your current and potential customers, and apply that learning to future campaigns.
To sum up, we here at bankmarketingcenter.com know exactly how critical a DAM platform is to a bank’s marketing department. That’s why we created one!
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject.
About Bank Marketing Center
Here at BankMarketingCenter.com, our goal is to help you with that vital, topical, and compelling communication with customers; messaging developed by banking industry marketing professionals, well trained in the development of effective marketing communication, that will help you build trust, relationships, and revenue. And with them, your brand. Like the below “Internal Awards” ads, for instance, recently added to our library of content. 
To view our marketing creative, both print and digital – ranging from product and brand ads to social media and in branch signage – visit bankmarketingcenter.com. You can also contact me directly by phone at 678-528-6688 or via email at nreynolds@bankmarketingcenter.com.
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