DAM Best Practices: 5 Helpful Tips On How To Tag Your Content
How important is it for you to get the results you are looking for when you go on Google? It is equally important for your team to find digital assets within your Digital Asset Management (DAM) tool when they search for digital content. That is why I thought you might be interested in learning more about DAM best practices for tagging.
I previously covered what is DAM and how it differs from a content management system (CMS). This time, let’s go into more detail about the inner workings of DAM software and figure out if there’s a right way to approach tagging.
What Is A Tag In Digital Asset Management (DAM)?
A tag is a label that you place on media assets to help you identify what’s in that item. For example:
This picture, perhaps stored in a DAM tool for photographers, might have tags like beach, palm tree, ocean, or sunset. They are what is also known as descriptive metadata. Things you see in the image that help you form a picture of what it is. Proper categorizing of digital files with relevant tags improves searchability and enhances the overall user experience.
Why Is Tagging Important In DAM?
Asset tagging is vital to keeping your digital asset library organized. These tags will eventually serve as search terms for you and your team members. Therefore, the more tags, the better (potentially - I’ll explain in a bit). Going back to our example, imagine someone in your company is working on a new campaign for this travel agency you have as a client. They want to recycle brand assets developed a few months back for a pitch presentation and type in the search bar “beach sunset with palm trees.” The tags that we previously placed on the image above would make it show up in response to that query.
When you tag your digital files appropriately, you increase the chances of that asset being found. You repurpose and easily share digital assets across marketing campaigns.
Read more: Are you using a DAM as part of your events marketing strategy? Check out our list of Digital Asset Management Tools for events.
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Is Tagging in DAM Manual or Automated?
No. Tagging is not entirely a manual procedure. In fact, automation is playing a major role in how digital asset management (DAM) systems operate today. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has taken over most of our conversations at work, our social media feeds, and many of the tasks we thought were impossible just a few years ago. Well, here’s another reason for you to talk about AI-powered tools at tomorrow’s meeting!
Most modern digital asset management software uses AI-powered automation to assist in tagging assets you upload to the system.
Here’s how it works: when you upload an image, the software’s integrated AI analyzes the content, extracts information from it, and suggests potential tags you could add to the asset. You are then able to choose from those suggestions or manually add tags to complement what the AI missed.
Who Should Tag Digital Assets In A DAM System?
Tagging content is mostly the responsibility of the person who uploads the content. Every employee who uploads media assets to the DAM platform should apply relevant tags. However, is it just tagging whatever I see and adding as many tags as I can? Not really...
The DAM is only as good as the tagging setup. If people don’t follow the process, nobody will find the content, and they’ll start saying ‘this system doesn’t work.
Having the right process in place is vital as you don't want an endless number of tags. Having the right process in place is vital as you don't want an endless number of tags. Too many irrelevant tags can harm searchability and confuse user roles. There is a thing such as having too many tags, and the impact of that is that assets can start appearing in non-relevant queries. For example, adding the tag ‘summer vacation’ to the image in our example might be overkill as we are describing something that is based on the consequence of a thinking process rather than describing what’s in the image.
This can depend on the digital asset lifecycle process you've implemented. So, how do we keep things under control?
How To Create DAM Governance Policies For Tagging Consistency?
Before you get too deep into tagging workflows, it’s worth stepping back and thinking about the bigger picture: who’s responsible for what, and how you’re going to keep everything consistent over time. That’s where governance comes in.
A DAM governance policy is essentially your rule book. It sets expectations for how your DAM system is used, how asset usage is managed, and how tags are applied across the organization. Without it, things can spiral into chaos quickly, especially as more users upload content and try to navigate the system.
If you want to implement this in the best way possible, you should consider getting a digital asset management certification. However, if you are more of a YOLO person and want to DIY it, here are a few key elements to consider when creating your governance policy:
- User access and permissions: Define who can upload assets, who can tag them, who can delete or archive items, and who can approve changes.
- Tagging rules and metadata standards: Define consistent naming conventions and file naming structures. Make it clear what kind of tags should be used, how to handle required vs. optional metadata, and how to avoid over-tagging.
- Version control and expiration dates: Prevent outdated content from appearing in search results.
- Ongoing oversight: Ideally, someone—like a digital librarian or DAM administrator—owns the policy, and does regular audits and reviews to keep the policy aligned with how your team works.
Even if your team is small, a little structure goes a long way. Having these policies in place supports brand consistency, and ensures rights management. It prepares your system for scalability without having to untangle a mess of inconsistent tags and permissions.
What Is the Role of a Digital Librarian in DAM?
If you thought this was a dying profession, surprise! Let me introduce you to the evolution of the job that was responsible for keeping all books in a building easy to find using the most confusing system on Earth.
A digital librarian is someone who is responsible for keeping your asset management solution in order, managing version control, supporting the creation of a DAM taxonomy, monitoring the database, and making any changes required to make the assets available to everyone.
Additionally, the librarian will train employees on how to use the DAM system and select the appropriate tags, where to find documentation, and help individuals who need clarification after the fact.
Now, if you don’t have the budget to hire a librarian, you must incorporate some of their best practices into your daily use of your DAM tool.
What are The best practices Of Asset Management?
1. Define guidelines for past and future content
It's important to know how you are going to handle the digital assets you've created in the past. Should you add a tag like ‘old content,’ ‘to be sorted,’ or any other identifiers? Maybe handling it as new content is too much lifting in the beginning if you have been generating content for a while.
Now, the next best practice is for your current and future content.
2. Create a taxonomy
Think of how you are going to classify your content moving forward. This is a very important step, as you don’t want everyone tagging content with whatever comes to mind. Defining file type, content category, and subcategory will make it easier for you to find content in the future.
3. Develop a nomenclature for manually tagging your content
Establish naming conventions for tagging (e.g., "PRJ-clientname-asset") to boost searchability. Let your people know exactly how you would like to see the manual tags written. Maybe you want them to add one tag that includes the three-letter code for the project, followed by a dash and the name of the client. Maybe you want them to do everything lowercase except for account names. Whatever your rules are, you should try to be as clear and consistent as possible.
4. Create training manuals
Once you are done with your guidelines, it’s time to create documents and/or videos that will help you train people across the company. Develop training and tutorials for your team members. These should include clear instructions on where to find information, who to contact in case they have questions, and examples of tagging situations they might encounter and how to go through them.
Remember that these manuals will go to both tech-savvy and non-savvy users, so try to keep it as simple as you can. Since you have been swimming in DAM-related information, you can fall victim to the curse of knowledge.
5. Get feedback
This final one is easy to forget. Once you deploy your solution, schedule regular audits and health checks with stakeholders and invite feedback to see if it works for people. At the end of the day, there are many users who will upload content, and some of the guidelines you have defined may not be the most efficient for every user. Knowing how people are feeling and modifying your guidelines is better than people secretly ignoring how they should tag and creating chaos in your beautiful system.
How DAM Integration Affects Tagging and Workflow Efficiency
If you’re only using your DAM in isolation, proper tagging is already important. But once your DAM is connected to other systems your team uses every day—like your CMS, CRM, or product information tools—those tags become critical to how work gets done.
Integrating your DAM with other platforms allows digital assets to move seamlessly between systems. For example, marketing teams working in a CMS can pull in approved images directly from the DAM without needing to re-upload or search manually. Sales teams using a CRM can access the most up-to-date content for client presentations. Product teams connected via a PIM can keep visuals and documents aligned across multiple channels.
The goal is to make your DAM the single source of truth, which facilitates better content creation, faster workflows, and consistent messaging across your brand.
That’s why investing in consistent tagging isn’t just about keeping things tidy inside the DAM. It’s about making your entire tech stack work better together.
Benefits Of Consistent Metadata And Tagging In DAM
These practices are aimed at ensuring accurate tagging. Accurately tagging your content can help with:
- Improve asset reuse
- Reduce search time
- Prevent data duplication
- Maintain brand consistency
- Optimize workflows
- Reducing expenses related to recreating content
What Is The Best Digital Asset Management Software?
When considering a DAM implementation in your organization, I recommend creating a digital asset management RFP to help you compare your options. Consider features such as user-friendly interface, strong access controls, integration with APIs and authentication and security. These features help streamline operations and improve the functionality of your entire content ecosystem. Although I cannot tell you exactly which software has the best functionality for your situation, here’s a list of digital asset management software options currently on the market you can get started with. Read about them, look for a trial or prepare for a demo, and find which one suits you best!
Final Thoughts On Improving Your Digital Asset Management Strategy
Tagging your assets properly is one of the core pillars of a successful digital asset management system. With a solid DAM strategy, consistent tagging, and the right DAM solution, you can create a scalable system that supports everything from asset creation to rights management.
If you have not heard of DAM software before, read more about what is DAM and what the ROI of DAM software is.
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