Gone are the days when we needed to schedule a meeting to discuss business plans and updates, or to make an appointment to pitch a sale. If not all, almost all business transactions can be done remotely, even more for businesses involving digital assets.
Domain owners and other digital asset investors know that the best way to manage their digital valuables remotely is by having a digital asset management system. But how do you use it to make it more efficient for remote supervision and operations?
Below are some implementation strategies to help you maximize the benefits of your DAM for remote management. But first, let us define what DAM is and identify the advantages of using one for remote management.
What is Digital Asset Management?
Digital asset management (DAM) is basically a bank of your digital assets. It is a software that is used to store, retrieve, and organize digital files. It is integrated with a secured systematic solution for managing large amounts of digital assets.
These range from the basic ones, like documents, images, spreadsheets, and videos, to more valuable digital possessions such as NFTs, cryptocurrencies, domain names, etc.
Benefits of DAM for Remote Management
24/7 Access
With the round the clock accessibility of digital assets with DAM, you will reduce constant follow-ups and emails from internal and external users. No need to wait for large files to be sent, which may also take time to download. With DAM as a central location, those who are permitted to access your digital files may do so anytime. Timezones are not an issue as well.
Work Productivity
Digital files are automatically synced when accessed or modified in DAM. This helps in collaborations to speed up the work of internal users.
Consistency
The easy and fast retrieval of files will help you monitor your assets closely. Moreso, the guidelines you integrated into your DAM solution will assist users in maintaining the consistency of your domain portfolio and other digital assets. Instead of externally searching for digital files for certain tasks, internal users can use pre-approved assets or files in your DAM that are already in line with your brand.
Systematic Content Sharing
Being a central location of all your digital assets, users won’t need to email you and ask for the files. All they have to do is search and access their desired file or asset. You can also modify and control the list of collaborators for each asset to safeguard them from unauthorized use. Likewise, your established workflow improves content sharing. Your digital valuables will not get lost or misdirected in someone’s email.
10 Strategies for an Efficient DAM System for Remote Management
1. Team Consultation
If you have a team under you who will be using your digital asset management system, it is smart to consult them before choosing your DAM. Let them state the challenges and blockages they experience without having DAM.
Aside from the downside of not having it yet, ask them what they need to increase productivity. This will present you with the solutions that you need to look for in a DAM software.
2. Digital Assets Inventory
Auditing your digital assets is useful in knowing the required capacity of your DAM. How many digital files and assets do you have? What types of digital assets take up a large part of your storage? How large are they? This is to make sure that your DAM will be able to handle all of them in a single platform. Plus, it will give you an idea of how to organize them in DAM.
This strategy includes cleaning up your storage as well. By doing an inventory of your digital files, you will also be able to identify and delete unusable or duplicate files.
3. DAM Provider
Many domain investors are using DAM. But that does not mean that you should jump right into it. You should not choose the DAM provider based on what is commonly used by other investors. You have to take into consideration strategies 1 and 2 to determine the features and tools you will need for your own DAM.
Inquire about the various DAM offers and their attributes before choosing your provider. Your digital asset management must be aligned with your needs and the type of digital assets you would use it for. Furthermore, external users must be able to use it easily to promote great UX (user experience).
4. Classification and Metadata Structure
Organizing your domain investments and digital assets by category will be beneficial in searching and retrieving. Create a structure for your DAM on how digital files should be named and arranged. And just like hard copies in the office, files can easily be found if they are sorted systematically.
Additionally, tagging them with metadata will speed up the time in locating them. Form a metadata structure for tagging your domain investments and assets. Some metadata may include the date it was created, file type, category, expiration date, and other keywords that would greatly help in finding and retrieving them.
5. Roles and Permissions
By assigning roles to your team, you will be able to create a workflow that would speed up tasks. Knowing their roles will assist you in setting up asset and file permissions. Some users may only be allowed to view files, while others may be permitted to edit.
Enhance the security of your domain investments from unauthorized access and modification of your digital valuables by customizing permissions for each role. Access approvals should be set for external users for protection and security.
6. Training
Do not expect your internal users to be familiar with your DAM system right away. Train them and give them some time to familiarize themselves with how it works. Present them with the workflow you built for them to know their roles and responsibilities within the system. Let them know what assets they can access and what they are authorized to do with them. Orient them with DAM’s features and your integrations.
For example, some DAM systems have comment sections for each file for user suggestions and for indicating updates. Once they access the file, they do not need to ask if it was modified. They can easily read the comments to get acquainted with its lifecycle. Teach them to utilize this feature to avoid wasting time in creating email threads.
7. Standards
Build standards in naming, tagging, and categorizing files and assets. Doing this will keep your DAM organized for easy access and retrieval. This is to prevent users from creating file names irrelevant to the file itself. Having a standard brings consistency to your digital assets and your whole system.
8. Review and approval
Since your business often runs remotely. Integrate a system that would let you review and approve updates on files and assets. This is to prevent unnecessary uploads that are taking up space in your storage.
9. Analytics
Digital asset management software has analytics tools. Take advantage of this tool to know your assets better. You will be able to know the domains that are accessed the most, who your top users are, the location of your users, and their engagement with the asset.
On the contrary, using this tool will also help you point out your weakest investments. Knowing them would help you determine the next steps to improve them.
10. Evaluation
Digital asset management is also considered as an investment. For this reason, you must also evaluate the efficiency and benefits it brings to your business. Otherwise, if not utilized properly and strategically, then you are just wasting your money.
To know if the system is effective, analyze if your goals are being met. Were the problems when you had no DAM solved? Did it increase productivity? Did it speed up the process? Are there still roadblocks in the workflow?
To help you better with the evaluation, consult with your users. By gauging the performance of your DAM, you will be able to adjust and customize it according to the needs of your users and your business objectives.
Conclusion
Now that you know the benefits of leveraging the digital asset system for your domains, it is important to note that the efficacy and efficiency of DAM still rely on your implementation. By following the strategies suggested above, managing your digital investments and supervising your team remotely will increase productivity and fast-track deals with clients.
Since several DAM systems are in the market, you have to study the features and tools offered by these solutions. Make sure that your choice would meet your business needs and goals. Likewise, users must be able to work around it with ease. Maintain consistency and structure within your system and maximize the benefits of using its reporting tools.
It is also important that you keep your DAM updated. For your diverse and continuously growing domain portfolio, digital asset management will greatly help you to monitor and control them remotely. If your domain business is becoming too much to handle because of clutter, delays, and lack of storage, the best plan of action for you is, DAM it.