This Valentine’s Day, Don’t Stand in the Way of Your DAM and PIM Systems Working in Harmony

This Valentine’s Day, do not object to the true love between digital asset management (DAM) and product information management (PIM). Enabling these lovebirds to get together can unlock efficiencies for your marketing and sales and solve the growing pains of scaling, writes Jake Athey, VP, marketing & customer experience, Widen Enterprise.

When it comes to digital asset management (DAM) and product information management systems (PIM), love is in the air. You read that right.

Break out the wine, cheese, and chocolate and start googling winter getaways because your whole marketing ecosystem is about to connect in a way it never has before.

When DAM and PIM systems get together, it is a foundation built on trust, shared goals, and complementary skill sets. These two lovebirds bring together everything needed for a healthy relationship.

DAM and PIM Have a Lot in Common

We have all watched the sitcoms where two polar opposites fall in love in season 2, and it all falls apart by season 4, only to come together again in the very last episode. Ross and Rachel, Ted and Robin, Nick and Jess…

No knock on sitcoms, but it is possible to find love from the start that just makes sense – no breakup mid-season, no last desperate chase against time as the show wraps up. Just pure, perfect harmony from day one.

Enter: PIM and DAM systems. Bear with me here.

Learn More: Build Your Brand’s Bottom-Line With Cloud-Based Digital Asset Management (DAM) Solutions: Q&A With Widen

The Growing Pains of… Growth

As your organization grows, asset management becomes a bigger and bigger task. Suppose you do not have a plan in place from day one. In that case, the complexity of managing your content – photos, videos, documents, creative files, and all the many shapes and sizes of different product information – can get overwhelming.

Your past decisions can come back to haunt you like a surprise party full of your exes.

If you plan correctly and invest the time and energy needed into establishing an effective DAM system, then you can skip these growing pains and jump straight into a mature relationship with your assets.

Imagine a world where any time your marketers or partners need to find, share, resize, or reshape an asset, you can effortlessly search and find it.

That is the power of a well-implemented DAM system, and it can save you hours, dollars, and breakup-magnitudes of frustration from your teammates.

Now, Put Yourself in a Potential Customer’s Shoes

 We all know product metadata is the key to getting your products found in a search. Google has been telling us that for two decades, and your marketing team has likely played this out in many-an-A/B tests.

As you grow and scale, the importance of that same DAM system of internal management becomes just as important externally through a PIM system.

Ensuring the audiences you are trying to attract in your SEO efforts, and SEM-focused campaigns are able to find your products and choose them over your competitors typically comes down to a question of product metadata.

That is where a well-implemented PIM system can make all the difference. You are able to find the product data you want to test, update it quickly, and present it to your audience in just a few quick steps.

No needless bottlenecks, no endless searches that feel like another Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Lost Product Information sequel, and a lightning-fast input-to-market turnaround. 

Love at First Data Request

 The real power lies in having these two systems working together. They are a love match that even eHarmony could not resist pairing.

Imagine a request from a member of your marketing team for an asset. Let us say it is a product testimonial video. One quick search, and you have found it. However, you realize it has got an old version of the logo, the copyright date is from 2017, and you no longer use the same font for those lower thirds.

You quickly pass it off to get those elements updated, then add that video back into your perfect DAM system. It is delivered directly into the hands of that marketer, who, using the PIM system, can quickly update the metadata to match what has been driving the most engagement.

These two love-drunk systems just worked in perfect harmony to locate, update and distribute your marketing assets and product information in record time.

After all, the bedrock of any stable relationship is healthy communication.

Learn More: The Challenges of DAM-less Content Creation: Alleviating the Pain With Automation

What This Newly Found Love Affair Means for Your Marketing

Getting the right systems in place – ones that work seamlessly with each other – is one of those ‘nice-to-have but we have-never-tried-it’ in most organizations. Switching systems can take time and be expensive, and sometimes even require different skillsets.

In the case of DAM and PIM, managing your assets well can equip your marketing team to work faster and more efficiently. That means less time spent wasted trying to navigate your own infrastructure and more time actually driving results.

The costs of getting these types of systems in place and working well together will pay off exponentially in the form of skipped inefficiencies down the road.

To quote Ross, sometimes you have got to Pivot!

Do not force these two systems into a long-distance relationship. They are meant to be in love, empowering your team to work at its best.

Instead, release the doves and connect your assets from start to finish. Invest in DAM and PIM systems that are in sync, and you will get to watch these lovers do wonders for your marketing and sales.