Content automation to achieve your business goals: here's how to start

In this article, I shed some light on one of the core technologies that enables an efficiently functioning Content Value Chain, namely the one for your visual assets. I discuss how this technology is an important key to content automation, innovation and differentiation. This is also the "engine" for an Atomic-Content model, and therefore the engine for the described business goals of content differentiation and personalization. 

Technology for Digital Asset Management as the engine 

Where you prefer to store your product information in a Product-Information-Management System (PIM), a Digital-Asset-Management System (DAM) is where you can best manage your visual assets. As a powerful technology, a DAM adds value for any level of content ambition: 

• Automation - Even if you're not yet ready for advanced content applications, such as the Atomic Content already mentioned, structuring, organizing, enriching and automating your content already delivers immediate benefits: more efficient work processes and reduction of search, manual and duplication of effort; lower risk of compliance issues by being able to enforce rights and roles; and higher conversion and customer satisfaction by making it easier for your content to get to the right time and channel or touchpoint through managed distribution. 
• Innovation - If you have the basics in order, your DAM can support you to make your content processes even more efficient and flexible, for example by using digital twins combined with computer-generated images instead of product photography. This is managed in a so-called 'Digital Twin Library', a specific application for these formats within DAM. You can also have some or all of certain images created in a controlled way by Artificial Intelligence. This contributes not only to an efficient operation but also to the quality and reusability of the created content. 
• Differentiation - Also to enable ultimate content relevance, a DAM is an important cornerstone: it allows you to store your marketing assets in modular, enriched layers that you can make respond to external (customer) triggers such as location, weather, time of day, behavior, purchase history, preferences and more to build hyper-personalized content experiences in the most scalable way ever, whether in familiar environments like websites, apps and physical places, or in "new" applications like virtual and augmented reality and conversational AI. 

Is a DAM enough? 

In order to realize your content ambitions, in addition to your core technology and the technical aspects that go with it, you obviously need to pay attention to the content itself, data óabout the content (such as taxonomies, tags, metadata and performance), the processes and the people working within these processes. Moreover, as we have already seen, you also have other types of content than visual assets. A healthy Content Value Chain hinges on an integrated approach, designed with the end goal in mind. It's okay to start small, but at least consider the following elements: 

It is worthwhile to properly formulate and validate your content ambitions prior to the purchase or configuration of a DAM (e.g. do you primarily want to work more efficiently and have more consistency in your content and are you primarily aiming for automation, or do your ambitions extend further and is content differentiation actually important for achieving business goals?). 

In addition, always evaluate where you are now on the four quadrants above. Where are the biggest pain points? To what extent are the organization and your team ready for this issue? What does and how do you define success? Next, start planning how you want or need to grow in each quadrant to achieve your ambitions, and at what investment and effort. In doing so, surround yourself with both experts and knowledge holders in each of the four quadrants and generalists who can oversee the whole in a cross-functional team, to achieve your next step in a harmonized way. 

Foundation

Content plays a crucial role in achieving business goals in today's online society. A healthy Content Value Chain is a prerequisite for this, and a modern DAM system is a logical technical foundation for this. Whether your ambitions are modest or reach to the sky, a good alignment of content, data, organization and processes and technology is always a good idea. Streamlining the content process makes it easier to automate that content, innovate content production and then differentiate it for different audiences.