In the first part of this three part series, we discuss why you should consider using a visual content management system for your social media.
Historically, outbound marketing strategies such as print, TV and radio advertising were the tried and tested ways of enticing customers to make a purchase. Although, this approach hasn’t quite gone the way of the dodo, it is seen increasingly as old hat. An ever increasing number of brands is pouring dollars and human resources into inbound marketing such as blogs, podcasts and social media channels.
A survey of CMOs by Accenture reveals just how big a player digital is to become. Within the next five years, 37% of respondents expect that digital will account for more than 75% of marketing budgets and that mobile will take up more than 50% of marketing spend. What’s more, nearly a third of CMOs surveyed believe that marketing campaigns will begin unfolding in real time.
The most effective campaigns are nimble and agile and as social media marketing relies more heavily on rich media files, Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions for Social Media know as Visual Content Management systems are vital for an organised, consistent and effective campaign.
They allow firms to swiftly and easily search, curate and organise their social media content. With a well-oiled social media machine, companies are much better equipped to increase audience engagement with this powerful complement to their paid marketing endeavours.
Digital Asset Management (DAM’s) are widely used in many areas, but so far the take up with social media is slow. However, given the colossal amount of visual content people are creating this is changing.
Using DAMs for Social
Without Visual Content Management solution a marketing campaign with a strong visual content becomes difficult and time consuming to manage and track. Finding visual content in folders, across various networks and in external agencies is time consuming and counterproductive, often costing a company a lot of money in wasted hours.
Something they can ill afford. A 2011 study by the Association for Information and Image Management reported that 37 minutes or 8% of each working day is spent looking for a file. That is an incredible waste of time and money.
Visual content management is a key organisational tool to manage, catalogue, store and retrieve rich media, both the files and their accompanying metadata. It can tame the vast amount of data that companies need access to and provide marketers with opportunities to be even more creative.
Visual content is at the core of social media marketing initiatives and Visual Content Management solution allow organisations to optimize budgets to make their marketing spend go much further. Instead of wasting time tracking down content from myriad other sources, you can quickly and easily find images for your posts and tweets by going to one central location.
Here are some of the key benefits of visual content management system:
Improves organisation – any tool that helps users to quickly find, retrieve and repurpose material for marketing purposes can give them an edge over their competitors.
Reduces duplicate content – if you cannot find something it is effectively not there. This leads employees to create something again. Knowing what you have and where it is located, prevents this duplication of effort.
It also saves you money by not having to buy assets you already possess. The average creative person looks for a file on 83 separate occasions during an average week and fails to find them 35% of the time. Research indicates that Visual Content Management cuts that percentage figure down to 5%.
Reduces the lead-in time for marketing campaigns – there are hundreds of platforms out there and it’s important to be on several, but accessing material can be an overwhelming task involving more time and resources than some organisations are willing or capable of devoting.
When material can be found speedily, swifter decisions follow that can get marketing campaigns out to various channels in much shorter timeframes. What’s more, visual content is transferred to social platforms in a matter of seconds.
Maintains brand consistency – Visual Content Management enables greater control of brand management through every marketing channel. Consistent use of approved content is a solid foundation from which to build a strong brand. If non approved assets get out, they can be damaging to your reputation.
For example, in April 2014 US Airways sent out a tweet that included an X-rated image of a woman doing something with a toy airplane that is not on the list of recommended uses. The airline apologised for the inadvertent posting, but this kind of carelessness doesn’t do companies any favours at all.
Improves collaboration and communication – Visual Content Management allows marketers, creatives, and other employees to access the best and most current visual content to help them do their jobs of getting customers to your ecommerce site or through your front door.
Reduces organizational costs – there are immediate cost savings in being able to quickly locate and retrieve images etc. Resources can then be deployed to other important areas of your business.
Provides global access – organisations spread across several countries can easily access material from wherever they are located, via secure web access.
Automates processes –Visual Content Management systems can save countless hours by automatically resizing visuals and converting high resolution content into web and mobile-friendly versions. Standardizing visual content is achieved in seconds as opposed to hours spent manually formatting pictures and videos.
Marketing intelligence – Visual Content Management lets you find out which assets are working for you, who’s using them and how. By tracking impressions and sources, visual content management solutions provide a clear picture of the effectiveness of social media campaigns.
With a Visual Content Management system, companies can drill down into the details of which pieces of social media content and which channels are garnering the most engagement. The information can be used to tweak campaigns as they are in progress or to design more effective promotional pushes next time round.
Visual Content Management Essential
Many organizations have now come to realise the incredible marketing power of social media. Ultimately, visual content management processes create a more productive marketing ecosystem that easily and effectively gets visual content out where they can be commented on. A VCM ensures that the right content is delivered to the target audience at the right time.
Brands are setting themselves up for failure by not being able to control, repurpose and track the important visual components of their social campaigns. This will become even more crucial as we move into an era of real-time marketing where more brands maintain continuous dialogue with their followers.
To stay relevant and connect customers to their brand, organisations will need to produce and publish even more assets and ensure they move to where they need to be more fluidly.
Whether it is launching a new company, product or service, promoting an initiative or just keeping consumers informed, a well-run, organised and agile campaign is crucial. Leveraging assets quickly, enhances the customer experience and delivers more people into your sales funnel.
MavSocial is an industry leader in visual content management for social media. If you would like to learn more about how a Visual Content Management can help your social marketing, request a demo of our platform. You will soon discover how you can save time and money.
To read the second article in the series Best Practices To Ensure Visual Content Management Success click here
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