The vast majority of businesses have digital assets. Put simply, this refers to any valuable content that you store digitally. These assets can be used for various ends, from online marketing to client presentations or just simple branding. In some cases, they’re actually the product of your business, which is sold as an asset to other companies or individuals.
However, not all assets are used to their full potential. If your assets are underutilised, you may be missing out on extra profit or even losing money. Read on as we explore the world of underutilised assets.
There are a wide range of asset types available which vary in size, cost and how long they take to produce:
Some companies, such as creative agencies, will have lots of media assets like photos and videos, which are all very large. These files typically take longer to produce and perfect, costing thousands of pounds and taking days or even weeks.
On the flipside, other companies will simply have word documents and spreadsheets. While smaller in size, these assets could be equally valuable, containing vital data or guidelines for staff to use on a daily basis.
Naturally, these different kinds of assets all have different uses. But one thing that’s becoming common is how they’re misused or underutilised. A report by Adobe and IDC found that a third of marketing assets go underutilised or completely unused.
Why? In some cases, staff can’t retrieve the files they need. A huge 76% of companies reported difficulty finding assets. Elsewhere, 64% of companies said they had duplicated effort, when two or more teams would unknowingly be working on developing the same asset at the same time.
Having two or more teams working on the same asset means wasted time – and wasted money – for businesses. Similarly, if staff can’t find the asset they need, it typically needs to be created again. Both instances result in unused assets and extra costs.
Digital asset management (DAM) can help with the utilisation of assets by providing a central repository for all your assets. Multiple teams can access, edit and update the assets they need with ease. With sophisticated metadata tagging for a range of criteria, there’s no chance of assets being lost.
This has a measurable impact on both revenue and expenditure. According to the same report by Adobe, 97% of businesses have reduced asset creation costs by 10% or more since moving to DAM. Because of the increase in productivity, 79% have also increased revenue by 10% or more!
If you’re looking to reduce expenditure and increase revenue by making the most of your assets, iBase can help. Our state-of-the-art DAM system allows you to organise, manage, store, share and retrieve digital files with ease. Best of all, you can even try it for free before signing up for a paid account.
