Your team’s spent weeks preparing all the assets for your latest marketing campaign. Finally it’s gone live, but now you spot it — one batch of social media ads is using the company’s old messaging and branding.
These sorts of mistakes are hard to avoid if your team is forever jumping between tools and platforms, without one central, connected space to store and organize brand assets. Which is why an integrated digital asset management system is an essential part of a company’s tech ecosystem.
A digital asset management system (DAM) is a central online home for storing, organizing, accessing, and sharing brand assets and digital content. DAM integrations connect it to other tools, making it easy for team members to access files from the DAM while working in those tools. These integrations help teams across the business use brand assets as needed, making it easy to collaborate and create on-brand materials and assets efficiently and consistently.
Why DAM integrations are key to better digital workflows
Media files like photos, videos, audio, brand elements and icons are the building blocks of all your company’s digital marketing efforts. But managing all these files (and the campaigns they’re used in) can be a real headache for companies.
Worst case, they’re using a series of disconnected tools to create, store, and share these assets. Files clog up email inboxes and employees spend hours searching for the correct version of the company logo.
But an integrated digital asset management solution can cure that organizational headache. DAM integrations allow companies to connect their digital asset management system to other tools, creating a joined-up creative ecosystem which makes it easier for teams to store, organize, find, and use digital assets in lots of different tools. The right integrations can unlock several benefits for the whole business.
More efficient workflows
The DAM is the central, single source of truth for all your brand assets. Everything gets added to the DAM and syncs for all users, so everyone can see and use the latest brand assets. DAM integrations mean all brand files can be accessed across different tools and systems, without needing to upload multiple times. This streamlines workflows that typically involve multiple tools and systems.
Integrations reduce the manual work of switching between tools by seamlessly connecting them instead. This enables smoother collaboration so teams can create new brand assets more efficiently, managing approvals and distributing finished assets across the organization more quickly.
For example, your marketing team creates new product visuals for the website. They upload it to the DAM, which has a native integration with your CMS. Your web team can access the DAM directly from the CMS and can easily find these new product visuals. They’re added to the website without wasting time switching between tools or going back and forth over email to confirm they’re using the right assets.
Greater brand consistency
Integrations improve brand consistency by ensuring all new assets meet your brand guidelines. Your designers can access brand elements like colors, fonts, images, and videos living in your brand portal, directly within their creative tools.
DAM integrations also reduce inconsistencies by making sure users only have access to up-to-date files. DAM owners can replace outdated brand files with the latest versions, and these will sync across different tools and systems for other users. For example, if you’re updating core brand messaging, you can sync these changes from your DAM to your global brand portals so teams in different markets have access to the latest messaging and assets.
Time savings through automation
DAM integrations can save your brand team huge amounts of time by automating manual tasks. They used to spend hours each month emailing updates when new marketing materials were ready. But with the right integrations, they can simply add the assets to the relevant DAM library, and that will trigger an automatic message in your communication tools to let everyone know the files are ready to use.
Integrations can also automate and reduce time spent on other repetitive tasks such as asset tagging, resizing, or file versioning. All these automations add up to deliver significant time savings across the business.
Data-driven decision-making
DAM integrations with analytics tools support data-driven decision making. Integrations with your DAM provide data on asset usage, guideline access, brand portal access, and campaign performance across the business. This data can support your brand-building efforts, optimize brand strategy, and improve your return on investment in brand initiatives.
Scalability for growing organizations
Integrations allow businesses to scale their brand management and marketing activities by supporting multiple regions, languages, or sub-brands. DAM integrations support localized content distribution which is essential as businesses scale into new markets. Global brand teams can be confident their local teams are accessing the correct media assets, streamlining brand governance in regional markets.
For example, brands can integrate their DAM with marketing automation platforms, and set region-specific permissions so that assets for each region are used in the relevant marketing campaigns.
The key integrations every DAM needs
While a DAM is a great addition to your company’s tech stack on its own, it’s most powerful when you connect it up to the tools your teams already use every day.
There are a few different types of DAM integrations:
- Native integrations: The DAM provider has developed a direct connection between their DAM and specific tools so they work together seamlessly
- Third-party integrations: You can connect your DAM to other tools via a third party API, service or platform
- Custom integrations: Some DAM providers will help you set up custom integrations to connect their DAM with specific tools, for example if they don’t yet have native integrations.
But whether you’re looking at native, third-party, or custom integrations, connecting your DAM to other tool types brings huge benefits. Frontify’s DAM platform delivers even more value to our customers when they add our powerful integrations. Our integrations have helped companies like Uber and Bosch improve brand consistency, boost efficiency, strengthen brand governance, and streamline collaboration.
Here are some of the most popular integrations for digital asset management systems.
Content management systems (CMS)
Connecting a DAM platform with a CMS like Wordpress, Webflow, or Drupal means teams can directly access brand content and approved assets for publishing on web pages without switching between tools. Website editors can access the DAM from within the CMS to search for brand assets, and upload them directly onto the website.
You can also create a reference link between digital assets in your DAM and where they’re used on your website. So if you’re updating product images, you can replace the file in your DAM and it will automatically update on your website. Teams can update website content more efficiently and reduce inconsistencies on your website.
Design and creative platforms
Integrating DAM software with design tools like Figma and Adobe Creative Cloud makes it easier for creative teams to work with the assets and brand elements in your DAM.
Designers can access elements like logos, fonts, icons and product imagery directly from their creative tools. Once their designs are ready, they can add items to the DAM, ready for use in campaigns or other business activities.
Spring Health uses Frontify’s integration with Adobe InDesign to easily get its creative files print-ready — adding crop marks and saving files in the correct format to send to printing vendors.
Creative teams can control which assets are ready for general use, and which are still works-in-progress, by updating access permissions in the DAM. So they can easily share finalized designs that are ready to go, or share draft versions for the feedback and approvals process.
Integrating your DAM with creative tools also streamlines version control and content iteration. When designers update assets in the DAM (say, from draft to the final version), it updates automatically for all users to improve consistency and ensure everyone can access finalized brand assets.
Project management and collaboration tools
These integrations streamline the production, feedback, and approvals process, and help reduce time-to-market for brand projects.
Connecting digital asset management software with project management tools like Trello or Monday.com helps creative projects run more smoothly. Designers can embed asset previews or direct links to brand assets into task management boards. This saves time jumping between tools to review or find creative assets, as project managers can view and access the assets they need within their PM tools.
And by integrating your DAM system with collaboration and communication tools like Slack, you can also embed asset previews into conversations. This helps keep teams updated in real-time. For remote or distributed teams, this improves alignment and reduces communication delays which can otherwise hold up creative projects.
Marketing automation systems
Integrating DAM solutions with marketing automation tools like HubSpot, Marketo, or Salesforce Marketing Cloud help marketing teams execute faster, more targeted campaigns.
Marketers can quickly access approved brand content which has been saved in the DAM, directly from their marketing automation platforms. They can save time switching between tools, and more easily build tailored and personalized campaigns. For example, they can find relevant, on-brand assets for marketing emails, social media posts, digital advertising campaigns, and lead generation campaigns, without leaving the marketing automation platform.
E-commerce and Product Information Management (PIM) systems
E-commerce businesses can connect their DAM with their PIM systems like Shopify, Magento, or inriver.
This integration creates a link between the media assets in your DAM and the related product information. It helps maintain consistent product imagery and descriptions online — on your website and storefront. If you update an image or file metadata in your DAM, it will sync those changes across to your storefront, keeping your product information updated.
This makes it quicker and simpler to roll out updates for seasonal campaigns (for example, if you want to add seasonal variations of your product images), or to roll out new product launches at scale. It’s also easier to reuse content assets in your PIM by updating them rather than adding new ones.
Step-by-step DAM integration checklist
Integrating your DAM software with other apps used by your organization can unlock significant efficiency and brand consistency gains. But to get the most value from your DAM integrations, you need to take a strategic approach rather than jumping straight in. Otherwise you risk causing disruptions and problems for other teams while you try and get the integrations working correctly.
These steps will help walk you through the process of setting up DAM integrations, smoothing the transition and ensuring teams align on your new ways of working. They will help organizations of all sizes, and can be adapted to fit your unique workflows and goals.
1. Start with an audit of your digital ecosystem
Begin by evaluating your current tools. Look at your existing workflows and the pain points they cause for your teams. For example:
- Where do your team lose most time switching between tools?
- What causes bottlenecks in brand projects or content creation?
- Which tools are used most frequently?
An audit of your existing digital ecosystem might shine a light on manual processes which could easily be automated, or disconnected systems you should try to connect. It should also help you prioritize your DAM integrations by highlighting the biggest bottlenecks for your creative teams.
2. Get stakeholder buy-in
Next you need to get buy-in from key stakeholders across the business. Clearly explain the benefits of DAM integrations for each department, such as IT, marketing, creative, and leadership.
Explain the anticipated time savings, increased functionality, and productivity gains, with concrete examples relative to each department. This will help different stakeholders understand the business value of integrating your DAM with the rest of your tech stack, and help you secure the budget and resources for an integration project.
3. Pilot integrations before full-scale rollout
When setting up integrations between your DAM and other tools, take a phased approach rather than rolling out everything at once.
Approach it as an initial pilot phase, followed by the full-scale rollout. Start by selecting specific tools or teams to take part in the pilot phase. For example, you could set up the integration for your most used creative or collaborative tool first — the one you expect to be most used by the team. This should bring some “quick wins” for your integration project and help teams adjust to the new workflows and processes.
If you can demonstrate early success with this initial phase, it will be easier to get buy-in for implementing all your DAM integrations and ensuring long-term scalability for your systems. It can also reduce friction and resistance to the changes these integrations bring.
4. Measure success with analytics
Once you have rolled out your integrations, track analytics data to measure the initial adoption and ongoing use. This data will help you identify potential adjustments and improvements you can make — both to the integration setup, and to team training and education — to maximize the effectiveness and value of your DAM integrations.
Some metrics to track include:
- Integration usage
- Asset usage
- Brand guideline usage
You can also track other performance indicators such as:
- Campaign delivery times
- Time saved in workflows
- Volume of content duplication
- Asset creation time.
Tracking data related to your most common use cases will help you understand how the DAM adoption levels vary across the business, so you can continue to improve the user experience for your teams.
Evolve your DAM strategy with Frontify integrations
Many companies adopt a DAM to help centralize and organize their brand assets. But once that first phase is complete, they realize they can get so much more value from their DAM with strategic integrations.
Connecting your DAM to other tools drastically streamlines creative and administrative workflows, boosts brand consistency, and increases efficiency, whether users are creating or using brand assets. Frontify offers native and third-party DAM integrations to many design, collaboration, productivity, and communication tools that businesses use every day.
See Frontify’s integration capabilities in action: book a demo today.
