A recent study shows that without the option of a Digital Asset Management (DAM) platform, 77 percent of marketers still turn to Google in search of the assets they need. Have you Googled your company lately? Everything from your very first logo to an early office beer pong game probably shows up.

You want your brand’s first impression to be its best, and that’s where DAM can help. You spend too much blood, sweat, and money on the creation of Brand assets like logos, for them to be misused, mismanaged, or not used at all. Here are five ways digital asset management can help you get more from your logos.

But First, Here’s What DAM Actually Is …

Digital asset management is a safe, secure, and easy way to store brand assets like images, logos, and videos. It’s all housed in the cloud, which means you can access your assets anytime, anywhere. Plus, most digital asset management solutions integrate with the tools you already use, so you can get your work done faster, without spending time searching through email, internal servers, or Google Drive to find what you need.

How Digital Asset Management Increases the Value of Your Logos

1. DAM Provides Easy Access to Your Brand Guide

Your logo is a reflection of your brand. And your brand probably has a voice, visual identity, and brand identity all wrapped up in your brand guide. More than likely, that guide is a PDF, and chances are, you’re storing it where all brand guides go to die — your internal server.

Your brand guide is a living, breathing thing and it needs to be displayed in a living, breathing environment. With DAM, you can store your brand guide where everyone can easily access it to see how your latest logos, color palettes, and fonts should be used. When you have a new partner or freelancer, you can share your brand guide with them in a single click. Don’t want them to see the rest of your asset library? That’s okay. DAM makes it easy to share only certain assets with certain people. You can even give them a simple password that expires at a given date and time.

The best part? You can stop fielding emails from your colleagues and partners asking which version of the logo should be used where and in what color. Trust me, it’s a satisfying feeling to tell Barb from Biz Dev where she can go… right to your DAM.

2. Ensure Correct Logo Usage

Speaking of Biz Dev Barb, having a DAM also makes it easy to track who’s using what assets when. Limit access of more sensitive assets to just you and your team. And include directions for use alongside each logo and asset your upload to your DAM.

Never worry about your logos being stretched or too small, because your DAM will provide formatting options that maintain the integrity of your assets at all times, whether logos, videos, or images. That means you can easily share your DAM with partners or non-creative colleagues, without having to worry about them formatting your logo outside of your set parameters.

Plus, see which assets are used the most, and track who’s accessing which assets, to ensure that your logos are always being used correctly. You work hard to create your logos and the brand that they represent. Make sure that your hard-earned brand equity isn’t being tarnished by well-meaning colleagues who don’t know any better.

3. Be Better Than The Gap (and Google Drive)

Tired of those 4:59 P.M. pings on Fridays? You know, the ones requesting last-minute access to files you have stored on Google Drive, Dropbox, .

With DAM, your colleagues already have access to the logos and other assets they need, which means you’re free to head to happy hour a few minutes early. It also means that they’re more likely to search for the assets they need because DAMs are built to be easily searchable and beautiful!

C’mon, no one likes looking at file names in your server, Dropbox or G-Drive. DAMs display your assets visually, instead of hiding them behind folders. You can also include metadata and tags along with each asset. That means if you want Logo_1 to come up when people search “email logos,” “newest logo,” or “Logoz_1,” you can make that happen.

4. Enhance Organization & Communication

A common problem my colleagues and I would run into in my B2C days was that we wouldn’t see each other’s work until it was time to put everything together for creative review.

Design worked in their bubble, as copywriter, I worked in mine, and our marketing team was busy coordinating 10 other upcoming promotional campaigns. With no central, visual place to store work-in-progress assets, it wasn’t easy to be in-the-loop on where certain projects were.

The result was that our finished work was “good” when we wanted it to be “great.” With DAM, we could have uploaded assets in real time and left notes, edits, or updates for each other with ease. Copy, design, and marketing could have watched the progress of the project, and our executives would have been able to leave input earlier in our timeline.

This is equally as important when you’re in the early stages of designing logos and other assets that serve as the backbone of your brand. There’s almost no greater time suck than edits after your creative review. With DAM, your executives can see the process of asset creation in real time, allowing them to speak up if they see a red flag early on. The ROI on that? Priceless.

5. Enjoy Accurate Press Coverage

Have you ever been excited for the release of a highly anticipated article about your company, only to find that they used your logo from five years ago? Or maybe your company has recently rebranded but don’t have time to alert every media partner you deal with that they should be using a suite of new assets?

Instead of scrambling to alert your media contacts, or letting valuable press coverage slip through the cracks, simply give interested media on a link to your DAM, packed with formatted, approved, and updated assets you’ll be proud to see your brand represented by. Even better? Have your DAM embedded in your website, so that it’s easily accessible to anyone.

Whether you’re a huge corporation or a small shop just starting out, it’s important that your brand is represented in a polished and professional way. DAM gets you there.

Get More From Your Logos With DAM

Platforms like Logojoy make it infinitely easier to create logos that represent your brand perfectly. Make sure you protect those logos with a digital asset management solution that’s right for your company’s needs. The results will be a healthy, long-lasting brand that thrives.

Meg is a Content Strategist at Brandfolder, a powerfully simple DAM platform for storing, sharing, and showcasing your brand assets. Her background is in copywriting, she has a love-hate relationship with grammatical correctness, and she just can’t quit the oxford comma. When she’s not writing about cool brands, she can be found exploring her adopted hometown of San Francisco with her two pups and fanning the sometimes-literal flames of her fledgling cooking skills.

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