More than just a DAM – Making a case for Content Hub

By Amir Setoudeh, Technical Director of Sitecore, WayPath Consulting

In an ever-evolving digital marketing world, the need for some form of a Digital Asset Management (DAM) platform is one that most marketers can agree upon. In choosing a technology partner, making presumptions and asking the wrong questions can lead to costly pitfalls.

For example, marketing teams often seem to synonymize the concept of a Content Hub with a DAM system. As a popular technology category, it tends to lead marketers towards a “DAM” project at initial stages. However, as needs are evaluated and requirements are further defined, the project tends to gain life and head in a direction of a technology solution that will check more boxes. In many cases, the true question of “how do we deal with our content marketing and omnichannel strategies?” surfaces and we quickly realize that what’s needed is much more than just a DAM.

If we reach that realization too late, much time, effort, and money will be lost. Wrong decisions may be made based on inferior DAM vendors, and the thought process will be forced into fitting inside the constraints of a DAM system.

In this article, we will look at anticipating the needs and making a case for Sitecore Content Hub, and why it’s much more than just a DAM. We’ll focus on true ideals behind content marketing and omnichannel strategies and how Content Hub can eliminate the disjointed experiences.

No more disjointed systems – Bringing it all together

To begin reaching the full potential of an ideal content marketing and omnichannel reality, Content Hub can be used to eliminate disjointed applications and create an ecosystem where a marketer can thrive and succeed. Content Hub creates a single source of truth for your organization’s entire content lifecycle and will help solve the common problems with fragmented processes across multiple systems, on personal computers, and in software that is not always controlled by the marketing team.

Furthermore, the need for creating more relevant and focused content is becoming prevalent across all industries. Without a Content Hub, this content is often spread across enterprise resource planning (ERP), marketing resource management (MRM), product content management (PCM), DAM, and other systems. Content Hub enables you to bring all your organization’s content under one roof by allowing you to create custom domain models and data structures that are traditionally inflexible and difficult to customize in other segregated platforms.

Content Hub allows not only for gains through a better ROI but can add value to the overall company, as well as help achieve excellence by transcending strategic goals. In a fast-paced, ever-changing environment, achieving speed to market while adhering to budgets and satisfying initiatives does not have to be a daunting task. In fact, often troubling issues that seem to have no clear resolution — such as dealing with the scale of content marketing and omnichannel strategies, creating a dialog with a marketing community, and making collaboration effortless — can be handled with precision and purpose using Sitecore Content Hub. Content Hub is often a catalyst for positive change, empowering existing teams and facilitating operational excellence. These and many other features are what makes Content Hub much more than a DAM.

Control over your content landscape

In most industries, marketing content is often all over the place. With Content Hub, marketing teams can begin to take control of all these assets, combine them with intelligent and intuitive tools, and produce a platform that powers the solution to the most challenging needs. With Content Hub, marketing teams can:

• Control all their digital assets, product data, media, documents, and other content in one central place.
• Take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to tag content.
• Integrate with Sitecore’s experience and commerce solutions to create robust brand experiences that utilize personalization.
• Take control of governance, policy compliance, planning, scheduling, and organization of content by using built-in workflow and security components.

Often, content also comes from external sources. With Content Hub, you can inspire your marketing teams by making content from outside sources available to your team. Content Hub is also extremely extensible, allowing the marketing team to collaborate with IT and development teams to enhance the product using robust and intelligent tools. Full-powered APIs, along with connectors and a series of integration points using scripts, actions, and triggers, are everything a developer will need to bring needed enrichments to an already proficient product.

Efficient collaboration – A recipe for success

When marketing teams can effectively plan, manage, and collaborate on content strategy, they can achieve great things. Teams can maximize the business value of stronger content by expanding the speed, scale, and quality of their assets. They can begin to streamline the orchestration of simultaneous work streams and optimize content usage. Sitecore Content Hub allows teams to:

• Proactively identify gaps in asset availability and empowers them to prioritize content production for a true omnichannel experience for their audience, regions, and campaigns.
• Visually track strategies by defining target audiences utilizing strategy boards and customizable dual-pivot views.
• Create and plan campaigns, publications, and track their status.
• Eliminate bottlenecks in production and ensure scalable on-time content delivery.
• Reduce overhead and duplication of content, while enabling reuse of existing content.
• Work in a uniform environment for all stakeholders, including creators, editors, curators, and consumers.
• Visually annotate, approve, and reject content through a robust workflow.

The final word

Sitecore Content Hub is the missing member of your digital team. It is the glue that binds disjointed applications and processes together and does so without imposition or breaking apart your existing infrastructure. In fact, it empowers your entire organization, from your marketing and operations teams, management, IT, development teams, and leadership. It drives them all towards operational excellence and does so with poise and a sense of pride evident in all Sitecore products.

To learn more, download the “Making the case for a Content Hub” full-length guide or visit the WayPath page.