We all know how hard it is to keep up with the admin of storing and organising digital assets. The hard truth is it isn’t going to get any easier.  

We often turn to traditional sharing platforms like SharePoint and OneDrive when we first kick off our business – they’re simple, easy to use and easily integrate within the stock-standard business suite.  

But the trick is staying on top of the influx. That takes intelligent management, especially when large volumes of digital assets come flooding in. And while there is a plethora of sharing platforms that you could adopt, you should explore what something specialised, unique and custom can do for your business.  

Welcome to Digital Asset Management.  

Here, we’ll look at everything you need to know about digital asset management software for small businesses – what it is, how much it costs and the benefits it offers. 

Firstly, What Is Digital Asset Management?

Digital asset management (or DAM) is more of a solution than software. It acts as a single source of truth, collating your entire digital asset library. 

Imagine having simple access to every document, file, video, license, agreement (you name it) in one secure cloud platform. There’s no need to remember what it’s called, what folder to look in or its location. In fact, with an intelligent DAM solution, users can find any digital asset they need by searching custom tags, unique to your business. You can search by colour, object, acronym and almost anything.  

And this is just the start.  

DAM is so much more than a virtual filing cabinet because it supports every stage of the digital asset lifecycle. This means asset creation, editing, review & approval stages, sharing and archiving.  

And better yet, a solution like Collaboro doesn’t just integrate with most platforms, it is custom-built from the ground up, so it’s specially designed to fit in with any platform. It’s perfect for growing businesses, if you have a steady momentum of digital asset handling, or if the admin upkeep is becoming unmanageable. 

How Can DAM Benefit My Small Business?

We get it, a DAM solution is a big investment. But your DAM ROI goes beyond just the monetary savings, it’s more about the time and resources you’ll save from the change. Here are a few benefits to take note of:  

1. Collaboration Is Fast & Effortless

As a small business owner, you’re probably working with some form of graphic designer, marketing agency or resellers who all need secure access to your digital assets.  

While you can collaborate using your traditional Google Drive and DropBox platforms (or even simple email chains) the endless back and forth bogs down your productivity and time to market. Especially when you’re dealing with different time zones, out of office hours or trouble with sharing access.  

With an advanced DAM solution like Collaboro, creating, editing, reviewing and sharing all happen on a single platform accessible to both internal and external parties. Users can generate custom share links to securely share assets with external collaborators and set permissions to determine exactly what content they have access to. 

Collaboro’s DAM solution is purpose built to make collaborating with internal teams and external stakeholders a breeze. You’ll no longer have to worry about assets getting lost in email chains or waiting hours for a client to approve access to a file. Every company asset is secure, easily shareable and accessible, empowering your teams to effortlessly maintain a cohesive digital presence across multiple platforms and stakeholders.  

2. Integrations Boost Time To Market

Time is money, especially for small businesses.  

To remain competitive, you need to be able to deliver a consistent, quality product or service to your customers. But with a growing number of assets to create, edit and approve, doing so in a timely matter quickly becomes a headache for any small business.  

We all too often find ourselves sacrificing quality or quantity in order to meet never ending consumer demand.  

Instead, businesses need an asset management solution that compliments existing software and caters towards rapid editing, resizing, reformatting and sharing of your digital assets.  

At Collaboro, we build our DAM software from scratch to ensure seamless integration with your existing programs and workflows. This means instant access to your entire asset library from within your existing tools like Slack, InDesign and Photoshop. 

Creating, editing and approving assets can all take place on your DAM platform, transforming a once time-consuming back and forth process into a smooth, efficient workflow. This saves your team countless hours lost through systematic inefficiencies, meaning faster time to market for your small business. 

3. Ensures Brand Compliance

When building a name for your small business, brand recognition is everything.  

When customers easily recognise your brand through consistent imagery, logos or slogans, they’re more likely to trust, engage with, and ultimately purchase from your small business. Yet without an easily accessible source of quality, market-ready assets, it’s difficult to maintain a memorable, consistent brand message across multiple touchpoints.  

DAM acts as a single, easily searchable source of truth for all company assets. Instead of files scattered across Google Drive or SharePoint, DAM empowers your employees with easy access to a rich library of on-brand, up-to-date and copyright compliant assets.  

Marketers, sales and creative teams confidently use assets from your DAM system to tell a cohesive brand story across all channels. There’s no risk of inconsistencies, outdated logos or poor image quality. Your teams only have access to market-ready, approved assets, so you’ll no longer need to personally approve every asset before it’s put to market. 

4. Support Is There When You Need It

It’s all well and good to have a nice shiny piece of DAM software. But what most small businesses don’t realise it that without regular maintenance and admin, your DAM system will quickly become an unorganised, untagged mess of digital assets.  

From ingesting, transcoding, uploading and tagging, DAM systems require a lot of work in order to run smoothly. And small businesses often can’t afford, or simply don’t have the time to be digital asset managers.  

That’s why it’s crucial to look for a DAM vendor that offers more than just the software and an instruction manual. 

At Collaboro, we offer 24/7 Australian based support at every stage of the pre, during and post implementation process of your DAM software. We’ll even provide you with your own dedicated account manager to reach out to if something goes wrong, an invaluable service for any small business. 

We also provide ongoing training for your employees and take care of essential DAM admin tasks like ingesting, transcoding and tagging assets. This frees you to focus on growing your business instead of getting bogged down in time-consuming admin. 

How Much Will It Cost?

The cost of digital asset management software is so much more than a dollar figure. The true ROI of a DAM solution is hidden in automating workflows, enhancing user experience and reclaiming company time and resources. 

That’s why it’s important not to focus on DAM pricing alone. 

While a stock standard, off-the-shelf product may be cheaper, a lack of customisations, integrations and features will ultimately cost your business more time, money and resources in the long run.  

When searching for a DAM solution, you’ll want to look for a vendor that offers your business the support and assistance you need for the software to truly have a positive impact. It’s these post-implementation services like employee training, onboarding and asset tagging that transform your DAM platform from a piece of software into an end-to-end solution.  

Collaboro does exactly that. Our best-in-class DAM support takes the burden of time-consuming admin off your shoulders, giving you more time to focus on running and growing your small business. 

And that’s priceless.  

To find out more about how much a DAM system will cost for your small business, see our helpful article here.