By Al Falaschi, Customer Marketing Manager, Widen Enterprises

If someone said they could find you a “super-employee” for less than minimum wage, you’d probably be skeptical. Things that are “too good to be true” tend to be just that, but this “super employee” really does exist. Who is it, you may ask? It’s a digital asset management (DAM) system and it can dramatically improve the marketing experience by providing quick access to digital images and files that would normally take a long time to navigate.

Customer experience is the new marketing battlefield. To capture customers’ attention, brands have to evolve, respond and actively engage with their customers. This requires understanding who that user is, and relating to them with relevant content in the moment. As a result, marketers juggle an average of 13 content tactics and six social networks, with a growing torrent of content to feed each tactic, audience, platform and channel. While 97% of marketers say integrated tools are“important” or “essential” for growth, only 40% say their current systems are adequate. This is a big problem, because broken content systems equal broken customer experiences.

DAM can solve these problems quickly and affordably, which is why the market is expected to be worth $4.12 billion by 2019. Let’s explore three ways that DA can be considered an all-star employee.

1. They understand your needs.

Imagine that you have a super-employee who functions as a sort of administrative assistant. They know exactly where everything is located and have a strong organizational system in place. All it takes is few descriptive words from you, and they can immediately present results and help you narrow down your search until you find the exact file you are looking for. Even if the files are in different formats, and you need special programs to convert the file, your super-employee has all of these programs on-hand, and the expertise to get you what you need in the format you need it, instantly.

That’s what DAM can do. A DAM ensures that content files, versions, usage info and approvals aren’t scattered all over the place, making them impossible to track down. It keeps everything indexed and searchable, so whether you are in the creation, management, or distribution stage of your project, you have the digital assets you need at your fingertips in order to deliver a relevant, accurate and meaningful representation of your brand across all touchpoints, every time.The result of your super-employee’s understanding is that marketers spend less time digging, and more time being productive. In fact, 97% of marketers who invest in a DAM solution report increased productivity by 10% or more, with 34% reporting increases of 40% or more.2. They are a tireless worker.

Your super-employee never runs out of steam. They constantly make themselves available to you, as well as your entire department, organization, and even your external partners. They work all day every day, without burning out or charging overtime. Your super-employee even has the intelligence to know that not all of your coworkers or partners should be able to see all of your files, so they only show people what they are supposed to see. A DAM solution is this tireless worker. Entire companies can rely on the system to fulfill their needs and never have to worry that they don’t get the help they need when they need it.

3. They track and analyze everything.

As part of their unrelenting work ethic, this super employee also tracks everything happening within your organization. They document every interaction they have with a coworker and are ready and willing to give you updates on what they’re doing with interactive charts and graphs. By collecting and analyzing data at all hours of the day, your super-employee enables your organization to be better, smarter and faster in their workflows and decision-making.

In addition, DAM is proactive and thinks about security and safety so you don’t have to. It makes copies of everything and puts them in different places, and even has a documented plan to get the files back in case something unexpected happens. You never have to worry that files will get accidentally lost or deleted. The collective knowledge and productive output of your organization is preserved, enabling marketers to always find the right content and deploy it in the right format for the right audience at the right time.

These tasks are way beyond their “pay grade” and are completed without even having to ask. There can’t be too many organizations that wouldn’t make the investment to hire this person at that price to get all of that in return. [author] About the Author: Al Falaschi is a digital media professional and has been working with audio, video, and digital asset management solutions for close to two decades. He is currently the video subject matter expert and customer marketing manager at Widen Enterprises, Inc., a SaaS cloud-based provider of Digital Asset Management software. Al helps global brands develop strategies for managing their digital media. He is a digital media lifer, and is energetic and passionate on the subject. [/author]