Who has access to your company’s marketing assets? Version control and access management can easily become unmanageable without a marketing asset management system in place that establishes roles.
Marketing materials are often created and handled by numerous individuals, sometimes in different locations or on different work schedules and it can be difficult to keep track of who has what. Collateral can be spread across multiple computers, offices, clouds, and hard drives, making it almost impossible to track.
The First Step Is to Create an Inventory of Marketing Assets
In order to get a handle on your assets you should create a detailed inventory of content. This can be a challenge at first, especially if you have years of material to track down, or your content creation has changed leadership often. It can help to ask the people who are currently responsible for editing and creation where they are referencing existing documents.
- What storage and backup methods are used to save your content?
- Who has access to these documents and what programs do they use to create or edit them?
- How do teams and collaborators communicate? Is it all through email, a company messaging system, or some other method?
What do Your Assets Look Like, Are They Outdated?
As part of establishing best practices for marketing asset management, you will need to define what types of marketing assets you have, this is anything used to promote your brand, products, or services. This can include but is not limited to presentation materials, digital assets for email campaigns, brochures, videos, ads, web pages, and much more.
Start by making a list of all the different kinds of media you have and whether they are outdated and need to be updated. This can include:
- Photos
- Graphics
- Informational pieces
- Blog material
- Branded content.
Make a List of All The Different Channels your Company Should be Using
What channels are effective at reaching customers? Are there some you’ve been missing? Digital media is growing every day, and it’s very likely that there are some new opportunities out there that your company hasn’t started using yet. It can help to have a few brainstorming sessions with your team to come up with new ideas and strategies for reaching customers. The more creative power you have involved in your asset management system the more gaps you will be able to fill. You should come up with some unique content ideas that will help your brand stand out from all your competitors.
When Was the Last Time your Marketing Materials were Updated?
Can’t remember? Then it’s definitely time for a review. Do your sales brochures include services you no longer offer, or fail to highlight new products you’ve developed? Once you’ve done a comprehensive review and revision as necessary, you also need to have a process in place for regular review of these materials to keep them current.
Where Do You Store Your Marketing Assets?
Hopefully you have an inventory that accounts for every piece of collateral. Now that you know what you have, you can keep it in one central location where everyone who needs it can access it at any time. This prevents important content from getting lost if a team member is out sick or leaves the company. A comprehensive library of material will help you make important marketing decisions in a coordinated manner.
Leverage the Power of Marketing Asset Management Software
One of the most effective ways to manage your marketing assets and bring your marketing strategy into the modern age is to implement an asset management software. The right asset management software will save you money and offer the perfect central hub where all marketing content can be stored, and can be accessed from anywhere your team members are located.
Every item can be reached from a cloud server and any changes made will update in the document for every user. Collaboration will become much simpler as there won’t be a delay in communication.
Asset management software will also allow you to include crucial style guidelines so that everyone will know what can be changed and what cannot. File names will be consistent, access can be controlled, changes can be monitored, older versions of content can be organized and available for reference, and content can be more easily reused when needed.
Start Saving and Boost Your Marketing Impact
Velocity Print’s custom online storefronts have helped customers take control of their marketing assets, and have the power to print on demand, ship trade show items to and from a show, and so much more.
Get started by giving us a call: 888-372-3487 or contacting our team, today!