When you’re looking for a new spot to eat, you likely turn to review sites like Yelp or check out the restaurant’s Google reviews.
People use review sites like Yelp because they’re better than the alternative — which is just choosing a place at random and hoping everything turns out well. By checking out a review site or a Google review, you can gain insight into the food quality, atmosphere, service, pricing, and more.
However, the problem with these reviews is that they are highly opinionated. What someone considers mediocre food, you may think it is quite delicious. What someone deems as slow service, you may deem as fast.
The good news with restaurants is that even if you didn’t make the right choice on where to eat, the worst that happens is maybe you leave a little dissatisfied.
But — for decisions that have a little more weight — it’s essential that you do more research than only looking at Yelp.
Today, we’ll focus on one of those decisions — finding the right digital asset management (DAM) system for your company. When it comes to DAM software, there are a couple different types of resources to help start your evaluation.
First, there are professional research companies that put out reports on which DAMs are the best of the best.
Second, you can look at review sites that list reviews from actual users of each DAM software.
Let’s break down how to best sift through each of these resources to ensure that you’re finding a digital asset management system that works for you and your team.
When it comes to using 3rd party research reports for your DAM search, it’s a good rule of thumb to use these reports to help begin your search. However, you shouldn’t solely rely on them and you should make sure they are relevant to your industry and needs.
This is because many of these research companies use a “pay to play” format. In short, this means that DAM providers will pay these research firms to be in their report. This means there is a risk of bias being present. So, tread lightly.
Digital asset management is also extremely specific to each organization. These reports are typically very general and not specific to the use cases for your company.
Furthermore, Some research companies focus on specific industries when creating their reports (for example, food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, etc.). So, make sure to keep that in mind because the importance of different features of a DAM system can differ based on your industry.
Some of the most common DAM reports providers are:
Before making any decisions, make sure to reach out to the actual DAM vendors to ask them questions about their product and whether or not they can fulfill all your organization’s needs.
Review sites for digital asset management software can be beneficial when you're trying to learn about something specific.
For example, on review sites like Capterra, you can see specific ratings for "Ease of Use," "Customer Service," "Features," and "Value for Money."
The "value for money" is especially important. This allows you to assess each DAM based on the value they bring, not the price — which can be deceiving. For example, it may be wise to pay a little more for a DAM solution if it will increase your ROI, as opposed to paying for a cheaper one that won't improve your revenue as much.
When scouring online DAM review resources, you should keep in mind that not every single review is relevant. So, instead of just looking at the overall rating, make sure to read each review's comments (or as many as you can if there are a lot).
Let's say a DAM has 22 reviews and an average rating of 3.8 out of 5. It's worth checking out what the comments say in terms of the pros and cons of the DAM. Perhaps one of the reasons the rating isn't a little higher is because many users wanted more features. But, if you're a smaller company that maybe doesn't need hundreds and hundreds of features, that DAM might be the perfect fit for you.
In other words, you should look for the specific features and benefits you want out of your DAM when looking at these reviews. The overall ratings can be a bit deceiving.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the most recent DAM reviews tend to be the most accurate to the current product offering. This is because DAM vendors can change and even make improvements over time.
For example, there are a bunch of 2 and 3-star ratings from five years ago for a DAM product. But, they have a lot of 4s and 5s from the past year. So, it's likely that those most recent reviews are closer to what you can expect if you went with that DAM vendor.
You should also be paying close attention to who the digital asset management reviews are coming from. Some review sites will let you know whether or not the reviewer was "incentivized" to post a review there.
However, you can try and vet viewers on your own as well to determine the validity of the review. For example, a review that is very vague or contains just a few words might not be from an actual user of the DAM software.
Or, if a couple of reviews contradict one another in terms of the features, it's a good idea to do some digging to see which review is more accurate.
Just like with the reports, you shouldn’t base your decision just on the DAM reviews. However, they can really help you narrow down your search and decide which vendors are the best to contact for more information.
Some common DAM review sites to check out:
MediaBeacon is a uniquely user-centric DAM that allows you to store all your assets in one, centralized location where everyone on your team can find what they are looking for with ease.
With MediaBeacon, you’ll receive the following features, as well as many, many more:
Contact MediaBeacon today and sign up for a free demo to see why we’re one of the top DAM solutions on the market today!
