Let’s face it. Producing content is no easy feat for marketers and creatives – especially when you’re launching a new campaign. From organizing a creative project to designing and reviewing a logo, to sharing it out and storing it for later access, teams need the right set of tools for collaborating, managing and sharing content efficiently and securely. Having the right technology stack in place can help you reduce costly miscommunications, shorten creative rounds and allow your team to meet stringent deadlines.
If you’re ready to accelerate your team’s content production, be sure to include these essential solutions in your creative toolkit:
File sharing and storage tools
We’ve all been there. We try to share a proof quickly with a colleague, and the file is just too large to send. This is where file sharing and storage tools are crucial, supporting the transfer of files that are too large to send over email such as video and images – the file types marketers work in all day long. A file sharing tool should not only allow recipients to access files without requiring a login, but should also help organizations remain compliant through rich security features.
Content authoring applications
Creatives are under a lot of pressure to produce growing volumes of inspiring content. Content editing and authoring tools, such as Sketch and Adobe’s Creative applications, are a must-have for every creative team. Whether designing logos, packaging or animated web experiences, creatives can quickly and easily capture, create and edit content with the right set of authoring tools. Tools can be tightly integrated with DAM solutions, providing the designer the luxury of not having to leave their favorite desktop creative tool to find the right image or work on a job or review assigned to their queue.
Project management systems
Project managers are haunted by growing workloads, paired with shorter delivery deadlines. That’s why many teams have turned to project management systems to manage creative requests, assign resources and map out schedules. They also help managers understand the status of a project at any given time, often serving as a team’s system of record for project updates, next steps, and to-dos. There are many different project management systems available on the market today ranging from small workgroup to enterprise solutions. Your team needs to decide how deep down the rabbit hole of project management you are willing to travel. Some DAM and creative collaboration solutions provide a good level of project management in the context of the assets shared and reviewed and can be part of the workflow for the asset creation lifecycle. If you can break your project down into a series of tasks that are part of a job, with calendar dates and assigned team members, you may be just fine with the standard out-of-the-box capabilities of a DAM and creative collaboration solution.
Creative collaboration software
Many teams use a cumbersome mix of email, messaging applications, and meetings to manage review and approval of their digital assets. The resulting miscommunications often result in extra review rounds and, ultimately, project delays. Creative review and approval software automate the feedback collection process, cutting creative rounds, and speeding up project delivery. Finding an application that allows you to track real-time, precise annotations will help keep everyone on the same page.
Digital asset management (DAM) platforms
Without a single source of truth to store the volumes of creative assets produced to support their campaigns, marketers often end up reproducing lost assets, pushing project deadlines, and ultimately reducing time to market. DAM platforms store and manage digital assets like videos, images, and marketing collateral. They make content more organized, accessible and searchable while optimizing brand consistency. With integrated AI-driven tagging for both images and videos, finding that specific image or portion of an hour-long video where your CEO talks about their new growth plans, are now easily accomplished. Hours saved no longer searching and retrieving content can be spent focused on producing great content.
So, how does your technology toolkit stack up?
I look forward to talking about this more at Creative Operations San Diego 2019, where I will be participating in the panel ‘What Should be in your Technical Toolkit’. Join me there to share your thoughts and learn more.
