Guide to Marketing Asset Management

We all know that the ability to effectively manage marketing assets is crucial for success. With fierce competition and an increasing focus on digital channels, mastering marketing asset management (MAM) can give your business the edge it needs to thrive.

So, ready to discover the definitive guide to MAM? If yes, let’s begin!

Short Summary

Marketing Asset Management (MAM) is the process of organizing, storing, and managing marketing materials.
MAM software provides an effective means to optimize asset usage, maintain brand compliance and improve campaign effectiveness.
It offers features such as customizable templates, comprehensive search capabilities, and analytics for efficient asset management.

Understanding Marketing Asset Management

Marketing Asset Management is all about organizing, storing, and managing marketing materials. It ensures easy access and brand consistency using a marketing asset management system and plays a vital role in efficient marketing operations and collaboration.

MAM software provides tools to facilitate the organization of files, adherence to deadlines, and the availability of files.

To determine the ideal MAM solution for your business, it’s essential to consider your:

business model,
existing infrastructure,
and specific needs.

The initial step in MAM is selecting a single location to store assets, such as a content library or tools like Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive.

This central repository helps maintain identity and streamlines the process of locating and accessing approved assets.

The Importance of Marketing Asset Management

Shortly speaking:effective MAM is essential for ensuring brand coherence, eliminating redundant work, and optimizing marketing processes.

Without a centralized and organized system, marketing teams may struggle to maintain accurate information, which leads to wasted time locating assets and the risk of repeating work.

Also, marketing asset management software helps align sales and marketing teams, ensure consistency in marketing messages, and manage sales enablement assets.

In essence, a marketing asset management tool boosts efficiency, productivity, and return on investment, making it an indispensable resource for marketing teams.

Types of Marketing Assets

Marketing assets encompass a wide range of resources used by organizations to promote their products, including brand assets like:

images,
graphics,
videos,
copy,
audio files,
and more.

They can be categorized into internal and external marketing assets, with internal assets being resources owned by the company for internal teams and collaborators, while external assets are available for the target audience.

If you want to effectively manage media assets, it is really good for organizations (especially their marketing department) to have a clear understanding of their resources and how they can be utilized for maximum impact.

It's also crucial to use the right platform.

Example

Video digital asset management software is designed to manage all your video content, making it a crucial component of media asset management. It helps in the production and distribution of high-quality, on-brand video assets quickly and easily across multiple channels. What's more, when utilizing a digital asset management platform, organizations can swiftly create, update, store, and distribute video assets in a central repository.

Therefore, a digital asset management system is essential for maintaining control over your valuable video assets.

Marketing Asset Management vs. Digital Asset Management

While MAM focuses specifically on marketing-related assets, Digital Asset Management (DAM) covers a broader range of assets across different departments.

DAM is a process that involves the storage, organization, security, and distribution of digital assets within an organization.

DAM software, therefore, provides a more comprehensive solution for managing assets, offering advantages such as centralizing digital assets, streamlining workflows and tasks, advanced search capabilities, and controlling permissions and security protocols.

The key distinction between MAM and DAM lies in their target audience and scope.

MAM is geared toward marketing-oriented assets and teams while

DAM encompasses a wider range of assets and caters to various departments within an organization.

When to Use Marketing Asset Management

MAM is ideal for organizations looking to:

organize and regulate valuable digital content,
centralize content,
simplify creative workflows,
and enhance collaboration among marketing teams.

That's because it allows for the efficient management of various marketing assets and ensures streamlined marketing campaigns.

Moreover, it typically includes analytics and reporting, version control, and approval processes that may not be found in digital asset management solutions.

This makes marketing asset management software a powerful tool for marketing teams aiming to optimize asset usage, maintain brand consistency, and improve campaign effectiveness.

Going All Digital

When to Use Digital Asset Management

On the other hand, DAM is suitable for organizations that require a more comprehensive solution for managing assets across multiple departments and functions.

Enterprises and organizations with a high volume of digital media files can greatly benefit from a structured approach offered by DAM software.

A digital asset management system typically offers features such as:

file storage,
asset tagging,
version control,
access control,
and analytics and reporting,

which enables organizations to effectively manage their digital assets, boost marketing efforts, and optimize their asset ROI.

How to Implement Marketing Asset Management Software

Implementing MAM software can greatly improve the organization and management of marketing assets. And thanks to choosing the right one, marketing teams can guarantee efficient access to assets, seamless integration with other tools, and improved collaboration between team members.

#1 Look for Needed Features

Key features to consider when selecting MAM software include asset tracking, cloud hosting, user-friendly interface, app compatibility, asset audits, search functionality, metadata management, and access control and user permissions.

Also, look for software with robust search capabilities, customizable templates, and analytics features to ensure efficient asset management.

Customizable templates provide marketing teams with increased flexibility in content creation while maintaining brand consistency, enabling creatives to quickly locate and customize the templates they need.

Further, comprehensive search features can greatly improve locating and managing assets and boost productivity.

#2 Connect with Integrations

Choosing MAM software that integrates with other marketing tools, such as content management systems, analytics platforms, and project management tools, is crucial for optimizing marketing workflows.

Integration methods like API, webhooks, and others can be used to seamlessly connect your MAM software with other marketing tools for a more cohesive and efficient marketing process.

When integrating MAM software with other tools, organizations can facilitate streamlined workflows, enhanced collaboration, and improved asset performance.

Flexible Integrateable Platform

#3 Organize and Manage Assets

Organizing marketing assets involves creating a central repository, using consistent file naming conventions, and implementing tagging systems for easy search and retrieval.

Creating a Central Repository

Establishing a central repository is crucial for streamlining access to marketing assets and improving collaboration. To create an effective central repository, it is essential to implement user roles and permissions, delineate access levels, and establish a system of accountability.

Also, creating a hierarchical folder structure and using consistent naming conventions can greatly improve the organization of marketing assets, making it easier for team members to find and manage assets efficiently.

File Naming Conventions and Tagging

Consistent file naming conventions and tagging systems make it easier to find and manage assets, maintain brand identity, and reduce the risk of using outdated or incorrect materials. And implementing a tagging system lets teams easily categorize and search for assets based on asset type, use cases, publishing channel, and more.

#4 Streamline Collaboration and Workflow

This step involves sharing assets with team members, controlling access, implementing version control and approval processes.

Therefore, establish effective processes and workflows for marketing tasks so you can optimize collaboration, reduce backlogs, and improve overall efficiency.

Automation can also play a significant role in streamlining workflows for both marketing and sales teams. Thanks to identifying repetitive tasks that can be automated and implementing automation tools and software, you can save time and resources and improve your overall marketing performance.

Sharing and Access Control

Sharing and access control features in MAM software allow for easy collaboration and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive materials. So, configure user roles and permissions and assign appropriate access levels to different user types, and you will ensure that only approved personnel have access to confidential assets.

Utilizing sharing and access control features not only guarantees asset security but also enables effortless collaboration between sales team members, thereby improving outcomes.

Version Control and Approval Processes

Version control and approval processes guarantee that only the most recent and approved assets are used in marketing campaigns. With comprehensive features, teams can - for example - store all asset versions in the same place, view change history, and track team comments for each asset.

Incorporating approval processes into your MAM system also makes sure that all assets are thoroughly reviewed and approved before being used in campaigns.

#5 Measure Marketing Asset Performance

Measuring marketing asset performance

Measuring marketing asset performance is essential for recognizing areas of potential optimization, maximizing asset utilization, and amplifying return on investment.

With analyzing usage data and identifying areas for improvement, you can optimize asset usage and increase ROI.

Also, monitoring asset performance across channels, examining asset usage patterns, and employing analytics to enhance campaigns can help marketing teams make data-driven decisions and improve campaign effectiveness.

Analytics and Reporting

Analytics and reporting features in marketing asset management system provide insights into asset usage and performance, helping teams make data-driven decisions and improve campaign effectiveness.

You can track metrics such as engagement numbers, views, downloads, shares, and online asset usage, and this will allow your teams to determine the success of their assets and campaigns.

With this step, you can identify which assets are achieving success and which ones are not. Use this data to construct more effective campaigns and optimize their marketing strategies.

Improving Asset ROI

Analyze asset performance data and:

identify areas for improvement,
optimize asset usage,
and - as a result - increase ROI.

Strategies for increasing sales and revenues or raising prices include focusing on marketing and advertising, creating new products or services, increasing the prices of existing products or services, and exploring opportunities to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

Moreover, ensuring effective training and promoting sustainability can further contribute to improved asset ROI.

Provide instruction on asset usage, maintenance, and safety, so you can encourage employees to use assets responsibly and reduce waste. Thanks to this, you will be able to optimize marketing asset performance and improve the bottom line.

Notable Marketing Asset Management Solutions

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Notable MAM solutions include censhare, Brandfolder, Bynder, Canto, and Widen, each offering some unique features and benefits for different business needs.

These solutions provide centralized platforms for managing digital assets, along with automated workflows, asset tagging, and analytics features, catering to the unique requirements of various organizations, including enterprise companies.

However, carefully evaluate the features and benefits of different MAM solutions, so you can select the best tool for your specific needs.

When seeking a reliable marketing and digital asset management solution that seamlessly empowers your workflows, censhare is always a safe bet.

With its comprehensive suite of tools and user-centric approach, censhare is poised to be part of your content management systems, enhance collaboration, and drive your digital initiatives to success.

Summary

Mastering marketing asset management is essential for organizations to thrive in 2023 and beyond. Therefore, implement a comprehensive MAM system, organize and manage marketing assets effectively, and leverage analytics and reporting tools, so you can finally optimize your campaigns, increase ROI, and drive business success.

With the right MAM solution in place, your marketing team will be poised to conquer the world of marketing and achieve unprecedented heights.

Visit censhare and try our demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is asset management in marketing?

Asset management in marketing enables teams to take control of their assets, organize content for easy use and reuse, and reduce the time wasted searching for files. It helps teams to be more efficient and productive and ensures that the right content is used in the right place at the right time according to your content calendar.

What are the benefits of marketing asset management?

Marketing asset management offers numerous advantages, including improved efficiency and cost savings, better control over assets, and greater flexibility. It can also help brands create a unified customer experience across multiple channels.

What are the 4 principles of asset management?

Asset management is based on four principles: value, alignment, leadership, and workplace culture. These principles ensure that assets provide value to the organization and its stakeholders, translate organizational objectives into technical and financial decisions and budget plans, and create a supportive environment for realizing this value.

What is a marketing asset?

Marketing assets are tools used by an organization to promote and educate people about its products, services, or brand. These assets can range from physical items such as brochures or signage to digital elements like website design, social media accounts, verified email addresses, and videos.