Best Digital Asset Management Software
Digital asset management (DAM) software stores, organizes, and distributes rich media files in a central location. Rich media files can include photos, creative files, video, audio, presentations, documents, and more. Businesses large and small invest in DAM software for various purposes, often to manage marketing content. DAM software helps businesses get more value from their digital assets by storing them in a centralized digital library, providing employees, clients, contractors, and other key stakeholders controlled access to digital assets.
DAM systems are often implemented by marketing and operations teams across various industries for help in defining and managing their online brands. They can also be used by product teams who require up-to-date assets when building products or by sales teams who need to leverage brand assets when creating presentations. Externally, DAM systems provide PR firms, partners, distributors, retailers, franchisees, or agencies with controlled access to digital assets for on-brand content creation.
These products can also be used to reduce the duplication of an organization’s assets, maintain up-to-date collections, and control security of assets with role-based permissions. Some businesses assign specific individuals as DAM administrators or “librarians" to oversee these assets, build and enforce the taxonomy, tags, and metadata used to organize them, and ensure they follow established brand-specific guidelines. Many modern DAMs include rules-based automation and machine learning to ease administrative overhead.
The value of a DAM system is amplified when it is integrated with other tools in the business. DAM systems are often at the core of creative processes. They connect creative, collaboration, and project management tools to streamline the creation process. They can also connect web content management software, enterprise content management (ECM) software, and marketing automation software to streamline the customer experience process.
While the foundational DAM functionality revolves around storing, organizing, and distributing a company’s digital assets, some products provide advanced organization and search capabilities. Select products utilize AI to autotag assets, provide suggested tags, and automatically organize assets that are uploaded to the DAM based on how similar assets are already organized or based on metadata.
To qualify for inclusion in the Digital Asset Management category, a product must:
Featured Digital Asset Management Software At A Glance
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Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Learn More About Digital Asset Management Software
What is Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software?
At one point known as media asset management, digital asset management (DAM) software allows users to create, review, approve, store, and use branded content from one comprehensive application. The goal of a DAM system is to provide structure to the workflow and lifecycle of a business’ digital assets, including videos, images, audio files, design files, and presentations. Thus, it is often used as a brand management tool to ensure that internal teams are adhering to brand guidelines and maintaining brand consistency. Many products are configurable and will offer additional features such as workflow automation, usage tracking, and integrations with other software, including content management systems.
While most content management systems are used to create, file, and store any type of content generally, DAM software is intended specifically for branded rich media files. Because DAM platforms are built to handle larger files, they provide more cloud storage space than typical content management systems. They also have more powerful importing and exporting capabilities to account for the size of the files being moved.
An early step when considering DAMs should be to determine which kinds of files constitute the company’s media library. The organization might mostly store images and photographs, or perhaps the buyer is looking for an efficient way to browse and manage video and audio clips. Some products support only one medium, and some are optimized for rich media better than others, in terms of file type support and performance. Buyers must investigate which platforms can handle all the file types with optimal performance and management features.
For a system not designed to support a large library, increasing the number of assets can compromise a DAM system’s performance and functionality. For large, unwieldy collections, it is advisable to choose a product that can scale accordingly, not only in terms of data requirements and performance but also one that supports metadata and organizational schema that will make navigating the collection easy and useful for users. Large-scale products can become costly, however, so finding the sweet spot of capabilities, performance, and affordability is the end goal of any discernment process.
What Does DAM Stand For?
DAM stands for digital asset management. While the primary purpose of DAM software is to store and organize digital media assets, it also offers additional functionality such as workflow automation, usage tracking, and integrations with other software.
What Types of Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software Exist?
Brand asset management (BAM)
BAM software is an integrated part of the DAM software and allows for easy and reliable management of brand assets (e.g., logos, images, marketing collateral, etc.). BAM solution provides context and engagement around the brand asset so that they are used effectively and consistently across the organization.
Production asset management (PAM)
PAM software focuses on the production and editing process in a media file’s lifecycle. It allows for workflow automation which helps to keep track of who is working on each asset and how they are doing so. PAM software helps manage continuously changing assets, especially in digital media production, such as film, video games, and animation.
Library asset management (LAM)
LAM software is designed for the storage, organization, and retrieval of a large number of infrequently changing digital assets.
What are the Common Features of Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software?
While DAM solutions will have myriad features depending on the individual product in question, these are the basic features that all, or nearly all, DAM software will have.
Importing and exporting: Users are able to import and export their digital files into the DAM system. When an asset is imported, the user can manually tag and catalog it, or the system will do so automatically using metadata.
Indexing and search: This feature allows users to easily find their assets via a searchable index that sorts media by its content or metadata. Users can return to their cataloged assets and find them using the aforementioned criteria.
Access control: Access controls provide varying levels of access to content based on predetermined but fluctuating roles.
While all DAM systems will include the previously mentioned features, these functions are featured in many offerings, but not all of them. In some cases, these features are becoming more popular with time, especially in the case of metadata and versioning.
Metadata: DAM software automatically adds descriptive metadata such as file size and upload date, can extract XMP, IPTC, and EXIF metadata, has standard metadata fields like keywords, and allows the definition of custom fields and vocabulary.
Versioning: Versioning offers version control to keep track of incrementally changing versions of the same asset.
File preview: The file preview feature allows users to preview large image files and video storyboards.
File transformation: The software automatically or manually converts files into different sizes or file formats within the system.
Workflow management: Workflow management creates rules that automate processes, such as converting assets into certain file types or routing projects to certain users for review and approval.
Many digital asset management systems will also offer the following features:
- Digital asset management software with brand portal capabilities
- Digital asset management software with digital rights management capabilities
- Digital asset management software with expiration capabilities
- Digital asset management software with creative software integration capabilities
- Digital asset management software with marketing software integration capabilities
- Digital asset management software with advanced AI capabilities
What are the Benefits of Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software?
Elimination of cost of lost or misplaced work: With large amounts of new assets being created daily, they may be misplaced easily. DAM systems eliminate the costs associated with recreating these assets by allowing for secure storage and organization of media files, making them easier to locate. These systems also save all versions of assets, making it possible to go back to an older version if a performed change was incorrect.
Reduction of workflow redundancies: DAM systems provide a complete view of the organization’s assets, making it easier to reuse and repurpose them. DAM software also allows for cross-team collaboration by providing a central repository for all digital media files, reducing the possibility of miscommunication.
Maintain brand consistency and integrity: DAM software has version control functionality to ensure that the correct and most recent versions of assets are being used internally and externally by directing everyone to a single content repository. This consistent use of correct assets strengthens the organization’s brand messaging at each customer touchpoint, thus enhancing customer experience.
Who Uses Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software?
Organizations in many different industries implement DAM solutions—each with its own requirements and parameters. News organizations will likely need a product with powerful editing capabilities (especially for photographs) and definable workflows for approvals. A marketing department will likely look for an easy-to-use product that can transform all creative marketing materials into different file types and sizes and that can share assets outside of the organization. A government institution will have a greater focus on security and permission structure.
Many DAM products specialize in providing certain industry solutions and claim to be optimized for those specific use cases. Other products specialize in certain functionalities, or they offer a flexible platform to customize own solution. The organization’s industry standards are a great reference point to begin defining a list of critical features.
Teams that work with DAM software include:
Creative teams: Creative teams can begin the ideation process collaboratively within many DAM systems, and some even provide tools that allow content creation to occur on the platform. After the assets have been designed, these creative files can be imported into software. Metadata is then applied to these assets for them to be found later by operations teams and marketers once they need them.
Operations: Many large companies will have operational staff handle their DAM system to further ensure clear taxonomies and correct versioning. Some operations teams even have dedicated team members who handle DAM system curation.
Marketers: A centralized DAM platform can help businesses streamline marketing assets. Marketing teams can pull brand assets from the DAM system at any time to any supported device or software. The powerful export capability of DAM solutions allows users to then pull these assets on to web pages, presentations, or in print.
Software Related to Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software
Related solutions that can be used together with DAM software include:
Web content management software: Many DAM systems will integrate with web content management software to make posting brand assets easy for marketing teams and web designers.
Website builder software: Similar to web content management software, website builder software will often provide integrations with DAM solutions so marketing teams can easily pull over digital assets to be presented on a company website.
Content marketing software: Many content marketing products will integrate with DAM systems to smooth the process of posting digital content like videos and images to social media sites or ad spaces.
Challenges with Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software
Software solutions can come with their own set of challenges. Issues to consider include:
Requires a dedicated librarian: While this is not always the case, oftentimes companies are handling terabytes worth of digital assets that must be curated. Without a dedicated curator, it can be difficult for a team to take time to understand how to handle a full DAM system. A digital asset coordinator will know when and how to organize a company’s digital assets, and without one, a large business may feel lost in its DAM system.
Integration with other tools: For a DAM system to work efficiently and achieve company-wide adoption, it must be integrated with other software and tools within the organization. Most DAM systems have built-in integrations, but it is impossible for them to integrate with every platform. Hence, a DAM system also requires an API, which allows for the creation of custom integrations that connect digital assets with existing productivity and desktop solutions. APIs give organizations the flexibility to choose the right DAM vendor for them, even if they don’t have the required integration.
Metadata requirements: A DAM system is only as useful as the speed and ease by which users can search for what they need. To achieve this efficiency, assets must be tagged with metadata. Metadata is essentially data about data; it helps to organize, find, and understand data. To ensure the long-term effectiveness of a DAM system, an organization needs to invest time into planning the structure of the tagging system. The recent growth of artificial intelligence technology makes it easier to tag assets, reducing the manual work required.
How to Buy Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software
The first step in deciding which DAM system is right for the organization is performing an audit of existing content and digital assets. Once there is a cohesive view of the assets, the business can identify which ones are valuable and must be kept and which are no longer relevant. This clear picture of the amount and type of assets will help to identify system requirements, which is an essential part of ensuring that the selected DAM system is right for the organization. Here are some areas to evaluate:
Infrastructure integration: How does the DAM system need to integrate with the current infrastructure that is in place?
Security and access: Does the organization have sensitive information to protect that will require the solution to support different levels of access and sharing?
Analytics: How will the organization’s use of analytics impact digital assets?
Once the system requirements are in place, buyers will need to determine business requirements:
Customer workflows: Does a pre-built solution work or will the business need a customized solution? This will depend on the users and how they will be using the DAM solution.
Scalability: Will the business experience growth and require the DAM system to quickly scale?
Cloud-based or on-premises solution: To determine this, buyers must think about how the organization will need to scale in the future, the available IT resources, and other factors that impact the way the organization operates.
Compare Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software Products
Create a long list
There is an extensive amount of options when it comes to DAM software. Once buyers understand the requirements, they should search for solutions on g2.com and create a long list of viable options. G2.com offers real user reviews, G2 Grid® reports that compare vendors, and the ability to save software selections to “My List” to reference them later.
Create a short list
Next, buyers should research further into the long list of solutions to create a short list. G2.com’s compare features will help to stack software up side by side to compare specific features and learn how real users rate these features. G2 also offers quarterly reports highlighting users’ perception of return on investment (ROI) of specific software, usability scores, the software’s average implementation time in months and more.
Conduct demos
Demos are a great way to get a firsthand look at potential solutions and the ability to ask the right questions to determine which product is right for the organization. Many vendors enable buyers to contact their sales teams directly from the G2 website by clicking the “Get a Quote” button on their product profile. Buyers should be sure to prepare for each demo by having a standard list of questions and clarifications to ask each vendor.
Selection of Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software
Choose a selection team
DAM software is used by various parts of the business, particularly creative teams, operations, and marketers. Thus the selection team should include a total of three to five people from such teams.
Negotiation
At this stage, it is important to discuss pricing and ask if any discounts are available, whether it be for purchasing a larger number of licenses or for a longer duration. Buyers should explore payment options and implementation and onboarding services at this time as well.
Final decision
Now that buyers know which software solution they want to purchase, they should ask for a trial run of the product to test how it will be implemented and adopted by their teams. If it is able to be well integrated with existing technology and the teams receive it well, the buyer can be confident that the purchase will be successful.
Digital Asset Management (DAM) Software Trends
Increased DAM system adoption: Video is rapidly becoming the most effective marketing tool compared to other types of advertisements. However, videos are much larger than images or text files, necessitating more storage space and export power than other types of content management systems. DAM systems will become an absolute must for companies looking to effectively market themselves in a video-popular future.
Artificial intelligence: Artificial intelligence has multiple possible uses within DAM systems. The technology has the ability to evaluate assets and automatically create relevant metadata tags, which further shortens the time spent organizing DAM systems.
