Understanding how digital assets are used in your organisation

Has anyone in your organisation created a report on the usage of your digital assets? If they had, they would have been surprised by who is using these assets and which ones are underutilised. They would also see the potential to increase the return on this investment by creating better access and increasing usage.

Understanding the risk of how you currently manage your digital asset collection

Does your organisation have centralised storage and manage your digital asset collection, or are many assets stored randomly? Do you control the assets you have paid external providers to create, or have you left this in their hands? Do you control who is using your images, videos and brand assets through a centralised, auditable, secure solution? Do you have final approval over usage? Do you have a way of managing rights? Without having all of this in place, your brand is exposed and vulnerable to abuse (benign and otherwise) and litigation.

Taking charge of your digital asset collection

The first step in taking charge of your collection is understanding its financial value. You also need to understand your current risk profile, who uses your assets, how they are used, and where. With this information, you are then able to decide which Digital Asset Management solution best fits your organisational needs.

…One last thought

If you can demonstrate that your Digital Asset Management solution can pay for itself through improved efficiency, convincing your team of its value becomes simple. Lookatme™ has built a DAM ROI calculator that provides you with a customised report to help you better understand the value of your images, videos, and brand assets. The report also includes information on how much your new Lookatme™ Digital Asset Management solution can save your organisation from day one.

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What is the correct way of using stock photography?

Always read the licensing conditions associated with every image you purchase. Usage rules can change dramatically between stock libraries and even individual images within these libraries. In many cases, usage is limited to 'editorial only'. This means you cannot use the image on something you intend to sell most of the time. Sometimes you can extend the length of usage of an image, the usage terms or even purchase the image outright. However, you need to check the conditions on every image you are buying.

How does a stock library or photographer know how we've used images?

Most of the stock images you used will be used online or in PDF format. There are tools (e.g. Google Images) that allow stock libraries or photographers to search the entire web for instances of an image. When an image is misused, or without authorization, the financial and other consequences can be severe. With the growth of AI and machine learning, the incorrect use of images will become even simpler to discover. If you want to protect your brand and organization, you must have a Digital Asset Management Solution like Lookatme™ to help.

What is a Digital Asset Management Solution?

A Digital Asset Management Solution is what a stock library uses. Brands worldwide use Digital Asset Management Solutions (or DAMs) to collect, curate and control how their images and brand assets are used. They use a Digital Asset Management Solution with a payment gateway. It just happens that the perfect way of managing your stock photography is the same solution to manage all your digital assets.

Why is Lookatme™ the ideal solution to manage our stock photography?

Think of the story about the three bears; in this case, you're probably either using stock images too much or too little. If you're using stock images in ways or within time frames for which you are not licensed, your brand is at risk. If you're not maximizing the value and usage of these images within the scope of your license, then you're not maximizing the value of your investment. Lookatme™ can make sure you're using stock photography 'just right'.

When you upload stock photography in your Lookatme™ DAM

When you upload stock photography in your Lookatme™ DAM, you can automatically include all the metadata embedded in the images when you purchase them. This often consists of the search tags that helped you discover the image. It usually also includes the rights management data, such as the expiry date of usage and the creator's name. It may also include specifics about how you can use the images. Once this information is in your Lookatme™ DAM, it becomes practical for you to manage who has access to these images and how they are used.

Increased accessibility and creativity

With a Lookatme™ Digital Asset Management Solution, you have your own secure, cloud-based image (and video) library. It's a way of aggregating all your images, videos, brand assets and stock photography in one place, with centralized control and management. Your brand's Lookatme™ Digital Asset Management Solution will change how your people work, driving greater efficiency and creativity. It will also protect your brand from misuse and ensure you're maximizing the return of your investment in stock photography.

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> DAM ROI calculator

> Digital asset management software vs file storage

Remote access - work from anywhere

While your people may be socially isolated, they are still connected. Your digital asset management solution allows them to work remotely, accessing the digital assets they need to remain productive. It will enable them to work with outside teams and maintain brand standards and consistency of messaging. 

Centralize control and security

In a crisis, relationships with external content providers can fracture and break. You may even have to make decisions to reorganize your internal team. You'll only have certainty if you maintain centralized, secure control over the assets you have invested in so heavily over time. Your digital asset management is the best way to ensure that you retain control over your branding and messaging when working remotely.

Use what you already have

Repurpose your existing images, videos and brand assets to stay connected. In a crisis, you may not have the time, resources or access to create new images or videos. Your digital assets management solution is unlike other file management solutions. It allows for easier discovery, allowing you and your team quickly to unearth previously unused or underused digital assets that your team can readily repurpose to meet your current communication needs. 

Pivot at a moment's notice

In a crisis, response times are everything. There may be a fleeting moment when you can make a difference. Your digital asset management solution allows you to respond rapidly by enabling teams to access the resources they need to communicate with those who matter. From website updates to emails, MMS, social media, sales and presentations, documents and videos, webinars and podcasts, visual content drives every aspect of how we connect. Ensure you and your team can respond faster using the digital assets you already have today, using your digital asset management solution.

Team management with Teambox™

The very best Digital Asset Management solutions take cloud-based project management to another level. In the case of Lookatme™, there is Teambox™, the 'lightbox' for teams. Teambox™ allows teams to make content selections for projects and make comments and changes on the fly. It will enable organizations to arrive at consensus faster and provides an audit trail. Teambox™ is an invaluable tool in crisis and when teams need to work remotely.

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> Digital asset management software for collaboration

> Digital asset management software vs file storage

> Some DAM solutions are patently better than others

Why marketing and communications are so important now

It is widely accepted that businesses are built in the downtimes, with rewards collected in the up times. The alternative to building your brand's profile today is stagnation, where your inactivity creates space for your competitors to capture the attention of the market and, most importantly, your existing customers. Now is the time to build your brand to be ready for the inevitable recovery.

How others are approaching the COVID-19 crisis

One of the hardest-hit industries has been tourism, where the most common response was a siege mentality. Now, the most successful and progressive government tourism brands are preparing four-year tourism recovery strategies. They understand that the foundations they build today will allow them to recover better. 

What can you do today?

There are many things your business or organization cannot do today; however, one thing you can do is maintain a communication strategy. With a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution, you can collect and curate images, videos and other digital assets. You can also use your DAM to centralize management and access to assets, empowering your remote team members and reducing the risks of losing or failing to leverage assets from outside providers. Once you have collected and curated your digital assets, you can build marketing and communication strategies by repurposing or utilizing existing assets. 

The future

With a Digital Asset Management solution established and all your digital assets at your fingertips, you can implement a new, agile marketing approach. 

It can make social media management easier, sales and pitch document creation simpler and faster, and create a more agile, organization-wide communication approach. This will allow you to continue to adapt and respond to changing market conditions well beyond the current COVID-19 crisis.

Funds are tight. How do I fund a Digital Asset Management solution?

A Digital Asset Management solution, such as Lookatme, is well within reach of most businesses and organizations. The time-saving and risk mitigation alone make such an investment worthwhile. However, if you need help, governments around the globe recognize that companies and organizations need financial assistance to survive this current crisis. In response, many offer loans and grants to help fund activities that will make organizations survive and thrive. Check what is on offer in your country.

What does the right Digital Asset Management for me cost?

Digital Asset Management solutions vary significantly in cost and quality. Choosing the right fit for you and your organization can be challenging, so Lookatme has created a comprehensive ROI calculator that helps you understand what the right DAM is for you, what investment you need to make and what benefits you will receive.

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> DAM ROI calculator

> Digital asset management software for collaboration

> Digital asset management software vs file storage

> Digital asset management for tourism

> Digital asset management for professional services businesses

> Some DAM solutions are patently better than others

> Stock photography management

> Social media image management

Understanding the risks of your current images and brand asset management strategy

There is a simple five-minute process you can undertake to understand the value of your images and brand assets. It will also help you know who is using these assets and how. At the end of this five-minute process, you will have a report customised to your specific business and your people. You will understand the risks of continuing down the same path and the rewards of investing in a solution that will protect you today and set you up for the future.

'How much will this process cost?'

It's a free service provided by the Lookatme™ team. Lookatme™ saw customers struggling to understand the importance and value of their digital asset collections and set about building a tool that would provide them with a comprehensive understanding of the problem and the opportunities to upgrade to a Digital Asset Management solution.

'Why is this a priority today?'

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's hard to predict change. The right digital asset management solution can support your people while working remotely, protect your assets from external threats, and maximise your investment value. It can also streamline workflows, enhancing both the frequency and quality of customer and target audience engagement. This is the ideal way to review your current marketing and digital asset management strategy for any business reviewing their business continuity strategy.

> Book a free online demo

> DAM ROI calculator

> Digital asset management software for collaboration

> Five reasons to secure your brand assets with a DAM solution

> Digital asset management software vs file storage

A “Single Source of Truth” for All Your Digital Assets

Although organisations usually use a centralised file management system, many of them may not be utilising a system that is optimally equipped to handle the unique demands of digital assets such as images, videos, and brand assets, resorting instead to a generic content management system.

The intricate management and versioning of these assets require the specialised capabilities offered only by a cloud digital asset management solution. The process begins with collecting and curating these digital assets in a secure, cloud-based location. This step alone helps you understand the potential of your collection – by taking control of these assets away from content providers, you can have complete control over them.

For instance, a design agency that centralises its image, video, and brand assets using a cloud-based digital asset management solution, ensuring they have complete oversight and governance over assets, streamlining workflow and maintaining brand consistency across projects. 

Control Over Your Marketing and Digital Asset Investment

Once you understand your collection, you have a greater chance of reducing duplication of assets and ensuring future investments go where they are needed. Rather than pay for another shoot or buy more stock images, you may find you already have those assets in your collection. 

You can also expand the usage of approved assets by role or other criteria, thereby increasing the return on your investment. You can even do the inverse – limit who has access and how they can use these assets. This is an effective risk mitigation tool, ensuring that you do not breach copyright or mismanage sensitive content.

For example, an advertising agency employs a DAM solution to manage marketing assets, avoiding duplication and optimising investments. By expanding approved asset usage and restricting unauthorised access, they mitigate risks and maximise their ROI efficiently.

Better, Faster, More Intelligent, More Intuitive Discovery

Technology works best when it feels natural. Unlike a document with a particular purpose, your team can use digital assets countless times for many different purposes. For this reason, intuitive and visual discovery – something that is lacking in most file storage systems – is critical.

This is where DAM solutions like Lookatme™ excel. Using AI tagging, metadata and visual discovery, asset re-usage and repurposing increase exponentially. With incredible speed and accuracy, you can now empower anyone on your team with your digital asset library, designed to work the way you and your people like.

Other Functions of DAM Software

Have you or a team member been working on a project only to find out that an important image or video is in the wrong format? Have you used the wrong image in an important document because the title did not have enough of a description? Has someone used an unauthorised or outdated logo or brand asset that has caused great embarrassment or loss?

A secure cloud-based DAM solution protects against all these risks. For example, a marketing team manages to prevent the inadvertent inclusion of outdated logos in a high-profile client presentation, safeguarding the firm's reputation and ensuring brand consistency using DAM software.

“Is an Organisation of Our Size Suited to Having a DAM Solution?”

There is a tipping point when DAM becomes an essential piece of business software, and that tipping point is about 800 digital assets. That may seem like a lot, but once you start collecting all your logos and brand assets, every image and video used throughout your organisation, every stock image, illustration, ad and countless other marketing assets, most organisations find they are well past that threshold.

Upon reaching the 800-asset mark, growing organisations that implement a DAM solution to streamline access to their expanding library of branding materials and marketing assets enhance collaboration and ensure brand consistency across all departments and external partners.

ROI on Your DAM Investment With Lookatme™

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, investing in robust DAM infrastructure remains a strategic imperative for staying ahead of the curve in the competitive professional services industry. By leveraging a Lookatme™ cloud-based digital asset management software effectively, businesses can unlock the full potential of their digital assets, empower their teams to collaborate more efficiently and deliver exceptional value to clients.

Lookatme™ DAM software will cost you the equivalent of a few chargeable hours per month – a small price to pay for the peace of mind it can deliver and is nothing compared to the time and resources saved. So, take your first step towards making a strategic investment by clicking the button below to book a free online demo with one of our experts and discover how you can optimise your digital asset management.

> DAM ROI calculator

> Effective image management

How should marketing for Financial services & Insurance respond?

FinTech companies are marketing savvy. However, they lack an advantage you have. You have longer and more enduring customer relationships. You also have had years to collect customer data. Use this data to create more targeted messages, and make sure you use strong, compelling visual content to drive engagement. Contact customers via email a minimum of once per month and use social every week to stay connected and extend your reach to potential new customers. 

The role of visual content in Financial services & Insurance marketing

So many successful social media posts, pages or emails start with a compelling image. It takes the brain 13 milliseconds to recognise an image. That's a blink of an eye. 

When you consider that the average attention span of consumers worldwide is only six seconds, the argument for visual content becomes louder. Whether by commissioning images and videos or using stock content, there are countless opportunities for Financial Services & Insurance businesses to supercharge their marketing strategies with visual content.

The relationship between brand integrity and consumer trust

Consumers perceive your company or brand through its products, services, image, and reputation. Building, managing and protecting that brand integrity is a top priority for every Financial service & Insurance business. The more you build your brand integrity, the more you build consumer trust. Brand integrity is also an essential element of business resilience and risk mitigation and is the reason your business needs a Digital Asset Management solution.

What is Digital Asset Management?

Digital Asset Management performs three essential functions. It allows companies like yours to collect and curate digital assets such as images, videos, audio files, documents with visual content and brand assets in one secure, cloud-based location. It allows for simple, fast, intuitive discovery that increases the value of each asset by enabling reuse and repurposing. It reduces risks associated with loss or incorrect use of assets. 

What can Digital Asset Management do for your business?

Digital Asset Management software allows you to take charge of your marketing for your business. It also allows you to support and manage broker's and reseller's networks with authorised usage of your brand and marketing assets.

With a Digital Asset Management solution like Lookatme™, you can take charge of your brand and marketing, protecting your business from incorrect and unauthorised use of your brand assets. 

You can also bring everything you've commissioned under your control, protecting your brand and marketing investment from any issues that may impact your content creators' businesses. And you will have the confidence that Lookatme™ allows you to maintain your company's compliance with the latest Information Security standard in your jurisdiction.

Standing out in a crowded market

Brand integrity underpinned by compelling visual content is essential in crowded, established markets. The Lookatme™ Digital Asset Management solution is a secure and critical business tool that will allow you to transform your business, revitalising your brand with consumers, brokers and sales networks. 

The most effective way to transform how consumers perceive your brand, products and services is personalised digital and social media marketing. To do this cost-effectively, you will need a solution like Lookatme™.

> Insights for Professional Services

> Insights for Transport

> Insights for Utilities

The role of visual content in communication

Patients and consumers of healthcare services tend to skim online information, looking for cues that lead them to their desired answer. More than 50% of your target audience will read your content for less than 15 seconds, so using visual content is an essential ingredient in gaining the viewers' attention. 

The power of visual communication

It takes 13 milliseconds to recognize an image. That's a blink of an eye. Visual content is easier to consume and offers the opportunity to connect with a viewer's experience or needs instantly. Visual content is much more than decoration. It determines who commits to reading and understanding information that can be important and complex. Can your target audience see themselves in an image? Do they identify with the subject matter? Does it reflect their concerns or desires? Your visual content makes emotional connections that drive more in-depth discovery and engagement.

How to build and manage your visual marketing collections

Your target audience understands the importance of visual communication, and they look down on brands that don't, no matter what the sector. The temptation for healthcare services is to underinvest in visual assets, resulting in the same small group of images and videos being overused. Stock images and video can fill the void when the budget and timeline don't allow for the commissioning of works. Other times only original, branded commissioned content will fill the need. In all cases, managing your visual asset collection is essential to maximizing the return and security of your investment.

The fundamentals of managing visual content for marketing and communication strategies

Healthcare service providers face the same challenges as all marketers when using visual content (digital assets) in the digital environment. These issues include usage rights management, compliance (both regulatory and business) and access management. Many in your sector have embraced Lookatme™ Digital Asset Management (or 'DAM') software as a solution to manage their digital assets. 

Why Lookatme™?

Your Lookatme™ DAM software allows you to build a 'single source of truth' for all your marketing and branding digital assets and images and videos you may use for training, presentation, education, or any other use. By managing your digital assets in the cloud, with one of the world's most respected and loved DAM software solutions, you can centralize your digital assets, reducing the risk of loss of assets developed by content providers. Your Lookatme™ DAM is also an effective risk mitigation tool, reducing human error and providing an audit trail for content use. Lookatme™ can even automatically manage updates of visual content across multiple touchpoints.

> Book a free online demo

> DAM ROI calculator

> Digital asset management software for collaboration

> Digital asset management software vs file storage

> Some DAM solutions are patently better than others

> Stock photography management

> Digital asset management for professional services businesses

> Digital asset management for retail and consumer businesses

> Digital asset management for tourism

Priorities for Local Government communication strategies

Social media provides an excellent and cost-effective way to engage with your community. Email is yet another channel where Local Governments can quickly educate and engage. The common denominator with successful communication strategies on these channels is keeping your messaging simple, segmenting databases to target the right people with the right messaging, posting regularly, and placing visual content at the heart of your strategy.

Why is visual content so important

The average person's attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds today. In other words, you have just a few seconds to grab attention. You compete in channels where messages are measured in characters, not words. Where images always come first. Nothing works better than visual content. It would be best if you had a foolproof way to capture and hold your viewers' attention.

The science of visual content

The average headline can take three to five seconds to read, and that's if the readers are paying attention. An image takes only 13 milliseconds to understand. That's the blink of an eye. Copy alone cannot compete in an environment with so much competition for attention. Visual content must be at the core of every message you create.

Understanding how information is absorbed  

Sit next to someone on a bus or train. Watch people in public places. See how they scan through their social media feeds. See which emails are deleted and which ones are read. Watch which videos are viewed. See what printed material is read and which is recycled. In every case, the content that captures the attention of viewers and readers uses compelling visual content. If you start with visual content as part of your storytelling, you have a much greater chance of getting your message across.

How Local Governments need to manage visual content

Your images, videos, brand collateral, and other digital assets are valuable and should be treated as such. They should be securely stored in a single location, with backup redundancy. There should only be secure, user-controlled access to these assets, even if they need to be sourced remotely. Every image, video, brand, and other digital asset commissioned should have the correct usage rights and attribution data to ensure you remain compliant. Images and videos should have accurate descriptions and titles to prevent misuse and mistakes. Managing all this is the role of Lookatme™.

The Digital Asset Management solution preferred by Local Government

Lookatme™ delivers one of the most popular cloud-based Digital Asset Management solutions globally used by local, state, and federal governments. Its success is a product of advanced technology and high security. It is loved and preferred by users who have little or no previous experience with digital asset management. It is also one of the most cost-effective ways for Local Governments to control their digital assets and amplify their communication strategies across constituents, community groups, the media, and other stakeholders.

A few of the benefits of Lookatme™

Imagine the efficiency of reducing the time it takes to find an image, video, or brand asset by as much as 85%. Imagine the time savings of having a central resource that allows you to discover and rediscover assets to use in campaigns in just a few seconds. Imagine sharing those assets between team members, both within your organization and those outside, to help you receive your goals. Imagine supercharging your social media engagement and, more often, reaching your targeted audiences with critical messages. Imagine how you can educate and inform better. Imagine the saving you can make by repurposing assets and ensuring only the rights assets are used. Imagine a system that uses AI to tag assets to make them simpler to discover. These are just a few reasons why Lookatme™ is the Digital Asset Management solution for Local Government.

> Does anyone in your council know how many images you own?

> Australian-made Lookatme™ digital asset management solution

> DAM ROI calculator

The potential costs of not correctly managing your content

In some markets, as many as 1 in 6 small businesses will close in 2020. Many are content creators-designers, photographers, videographers, and ad and PR agencies. If you made the mistake of not managing the assets created by these providers or keeping copies of the content you had entrusted to them, you might have already lost those assets. The full impact of the fallout of these losses may not be known for years. If you made a wise investment in a cloud-based, centrally managed Digital Asset Management solution, you probably avoided this disaster's worst.

How Digital Asset Management helps you maximize the value of your marketing assets

If you were to follow the recommended posts for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you need to create 600 posts per month. Even if you intend to make 100 posts across all your social channels each month, you'll need a lot of visual content. 

A Digital Asset Management solution helps you see what images and videos you have in seconds with visual and metadata-based searches. Once you know what assets you have, you can quickly choose and repurpose content to use multiple times across your social channels. If you're like the most innovative retailers, you will repurpose your content five times or more, increasing the value of these assets and reducing your marketing cost.

How Digital Asset Management helps you increase the frequency and reach of your marketing

Research shows consumers are happy to receive as many as ten emails per month off-season and daily emails for event-based consumer offers, if they target their needs or interests. Your Digital Asset Management (or 'DAM') allows you to centralize management and control of your images, videos, and brand assets, making it much easier to coordinate with content creators and team members to create effective and targeted campaigns. Your DAM allows you to easily streamline the creation and repurpose hundreds of assets and campaigns for peak and off-peak times. It's the secret to increasing engagement with existing and potential customers.

How Digital Asset Management helps with marketing resource allocation

Once you have all your digital assets in your Digital Asset Management solution, it's easy to evaluate what you have and what you need. Only invest in shoots or content creation when you need them. Repurpose content or store images and videos supplied by brands you represent in your DAM. Maximize the value of the assets you access and increase the frequency and reach of your marketing and increase revenue across the board.

Understanding your existing digital asset investment and risks

Many retailers and consumers have little understanding of the value of the marketing assets they have accumulated, how they are used (or not used), and those who use them. Even less understand how risky their current digital asset management practices are to their businesses. To help you build a clearer picture and determine if a Digital Asset Management software solution is a wise choice for your business, Lookatme™ has created the world's most advanced Digital Asset Management ROI calculator. It's free and very informative. Click on the link below to create a comprehensive report that will help you decide.

DAM ROI calculator

> The importance of digital asset management today

> The value of digital asset management in a time of crisis