How DAM is evolving to solve the Content Crisis

The weight of content demands on organizations has greatly increased due to customers expecting unique brand experiences in place of outdated, impersonal marketing tactics. The Content Crisis is the overwhelming challenge organizations are facing to meet these content-heavy CX demands in order to appeal to their customers on an individual level across the channels they choose to use. And with volume, expectations, and velocity ever-growing, companies are finding that their traditional content marketing systems are no longer meeting their production and publishing needs.

You can’t solve your Content Crisis by simply working harder when your systems don’t scale to support your efforts. You need a plan, a process, and the technology to help you deliver. Companies now need a content management platform that will cover every step of the content lifecycle.

Most companies putting out high volumes of content already know how valuable a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution can be for keeping the marketing organization’s content organized. A common use case for a DAM system is to store completed media files for marketing teams to easily access. But creation of the content and the distribution of it are traditionally in separate systems — often siloed. By solely using a traditional DAM system to manage content at the volume of today’s demands, companies will encounter disadvantages:

• Inefficient parallel work streams
• Few opportunities to reuse content across channels
• Overlapping efforts due to delays in communication
• Higher risks of inconsistencies

We are now facing a shifting paradigm of what a DAM is and its role in content production, management, and publishing – because digital experiences have become all about personalization. We are now needing to do more than store our content. The name “DAM” is still applicable, but the ability to take content from start to finish is being addressed and included in new content management developments. We’re seeing new solutions, such as Product Content Management (PCM), Content Marketing Platforms (CMP), and Marketing Resource Management (MRM), for example. The key is ensuring your DAM system integrates with the solutions you use across your content management lifecycle. Having your DAM as part of a single Content Hub platform will let you collaborate and produce content in one centralized place from beginning to end.

Silos in content creation and distribution result in a disconnected process and have a domino effect causing inefficient use of time, slowing time to market, and poor customer experience. By utilizing an all-encompassing Content Hub that integrates with your DAM, the process is clarified. You will no longer be slowed down by version control issues or unnecessary back-and-forth between systems, and your important collaborative conversations don’t get buried in your inbox. By implementing a Content Hub, the creation and management of content can be a more concise and structured process for any business. And creative teams and marketing organizations can easily get their jobs done.

Are you experiencing a Content Crisis? Already utilizing a DAM solution but wishing it offered more? Fortunately, developers have been busy building marketing solutions that can tackle the problems your marketing team is facing today. This digital transformation will also require a cultural rewiring of the way you are thinking about your content management strategy.

Here are four factors to consider when deciding if a Content Hub is right for your company:

1. Content no longer lives in the channels
An integrated, CX-driven content management strategy means forgetting about the practice of creating content for specific channels and realizing the potential for a content piece to function in an omnichannel way. Creating one standard piece that can then be modified for various formats, such as a newsletter, webpage, or an Instagram post is the cornerstone of a Content Hub.

2. Content creation needs a defined process
The process of content creation – from ideation to publication – can be clearly defined when its lifecycle is managed in a single, integrated Content Hub. Approvers, stakeholders, and creative teams have the needed visibility and access for streamlined collaboration across the content workflow.

3. Technology is not a roadblock
A content management system, by design, is intended to make content creation, production, and publishing simpler; but not all systems are created equal. A Content Hub has all the components in one platform for marketers to manage the full content lifecycle, plus integrate seamlessly with downstream solutions, like commerce.

4. Content strategy must be part of the business landscape
An effective marketing team drives key business decisions. And data empowers marketing teams with the information needed to scale and adapt strategies to effectively boost the bottom line. A single, integrated Content Hub enables marketing teams to have a 360-degree view of content and its impact on the business.

The most exciting thing about a Content Hub is that it’s making it easier than ever for companies to produce high quality, collaborative, omnichannel content at scale. It’s supporting the work of marketing departments and, in turn, supporting entire businesses. When a company supplies its employees with a single, integrated Content Hub, the possibilities for creativity and productivity are boundless.