Why your business needs a comprehensive branding library

Highlights

You’ll learn about the importance of brand libraries:

• Consistent branding

• Centralized assets ensure uniformity
• Enhances brand recognition

• Streamlined workflows

• Ready-to-use assets save time
• Encourages creative focus

• Secure collaboration: A single source of truth prevents version conflicts

• Scalable operations: Quick onboarding and efficient campaign deployment
• Version control: Track and update asset versions

Invest in a DAM system to build your branding library and elevate your brand's impact. 

Keep reading to learn more!

In the current ecosystem of startups, small and medium businesses and enterprise companies— everyone seems to prioritize brand guidelines and messaging standards—often overlooking one the most important guardrails called branding library or asset library or digital asset library. 

With a brand library, your design and marketing teams can ensure all your brand assets are accessible, organized and used across all communication channels—eliminating the need to share ZIP files of fonts or the latest marketing templates and assets via Slack or Zoom. 

Branding libraries ensure the right brand assets are where your teams need them the most. Invest in DAM systems to build a digital asset library. A DAM is a central repository that allows everyone in your organization to access assets like videos, images, logos, or font files.

But before understanding how DAM helps build a library, let’s explore what a branding library is and why it’s crucial for every business handling digital assets. 

What is a branding library?

A branding library is a digital storehouse where you store content or assets that you or other teams reuse. These include brand images, logos, PDFs, legal disclaimers, videos and other marketing collaterals. Your brand library enables your users to access these assets from anywhere securely. By using brand libraries, busy marketers create unified communication across multiple channels, giving a competitive advantage.

A brand library is not a place where you store your brand assets. It’s a tool for managing your digital assets efficiently and securely. When you provide teams with a digital library, all your marketing efforts align with your brand guidelines, and you ensure every step in your customer journey is consistent. This builds brand awareness and trust. 

Bynder and Brandfolder, a part of Contentstack’s marketplace, offer advanced features to create, share and organize the complete digital content lifecycle in the cloud. These features help streamline sharing and managing digital assets across multiple platforms. 

As DAM offers version control features, a brand library built with DAM helps you make changes across all the connected web properties. For instance, if you have a brand image and want to change it, you need to edit or update it once in the brand library and your new version will be reflected on all your marketing channels or wherever the image is used.

How Extu used Contentstack to streamline multilingual content and digital assets?

Extu, specializing in through-channel marketing, partnered with Contentstack to overcome challenges related to multi-language content management and integration with proprietary technology. The company uses DAM from Contentstack's marketplace to streamline workflows and integrate with their technology for quicker campaign delivery. 

The adoption of Contentstack has simplified the entire process of content creation, translation and distribution. By consolidating all digital assets in a single, accessible interface, Extu has improved efficiency and reduced workflow steps by 21% and campaign launch time.

After using Contentstack, Tara Yukawa, VP of Marketing Solutions at Extu said:

“Simply put, Contentstack met all of our requirements. As a headless CMS system, it integrates well with our full stack of technology and services, including a DAM, a translation provider, as well as our through-channel marketing platform that’s our proprietary technology. We also loved the fact that we could manage user workflows across multiple teams in Contentstack itself without having to have a separate project management tool. And I have to tell you, we made the right choice.”

Read the complete case study here.

What are the benefits of a brand library?

Ensures consistency

Imagine seeing a brand's ad on Instagram, visiting their website and getting an email from them, all of which look completely different. Confusing, right? Consistency in marketing ensures all materials are uniform and aligned with the brand's identity. This creates a cohesive and recognizable brand presence across all platforms, building trust with the audience.

Streamlines your workflows

Marketing efficiency comes from having ready-to-use assets and guidelines. Streamlining your workflows encourages your team to use their creativity rather than getting bogged down by administrative tasks.

Makes secure collaboration

With remote teams across different continents, your team may work collaboratively on a single digital asset. But what happens when everyone is working on a different version of the same document? You may end up reworking the asset from scratch—making a brand library a must. 

As a single source of truth for all brand-related materials, a library ensures everyone is on the same page. 

Helps you scale

As your business grows, so does the need to produce more brand assets in a shorter time frame. Comprehensive branding libraries allow for scalable operations. They ensure that new team members from multiple departments can quickly get up to speed, marketing campaigns can be rapidly deployed, and brand consistency is maintained irrespective of the team size or geographic location. 

Empowers you to publish brand-approved assets

With a brand library, you can keep track of every version change—ensuring your teams always use the most updated version. Maintaining a branding library means you update your assets once and publish them everywhere. 

Steps to build and manage a branding library

You cannot build a branding library in a day—it requires proper planning and these steps:

Know your brand guidelines

The primary purpose of any branding library is to store digital assets to ensure consistency in messages and marketing materials. Establishing brand guidelines is the starting step. Before creating a library, have guidelines that cover every aspect of your brand, including color schemes, logos, image styles, fonts, typography and usage rules.

For instance, you can create a style guide on how and where to use your logo and colors to ensure your brand sends consistent messages.

Define the file naming convention and use metadata

File names should be such that your team can infer the file’s content without opening it. Encourage using standard naming conventions to ensure consistency and easy understanding of the digital assets. You can even use metadata to identify your digital assets.

Suppose you want to add a digital image to an HR presentation or social media; you would use keywords like employees, HR or human resources to get a relevant picture. You can discover the image much faster if your metadata has these keywords.

Centralize your assets

Keep all your branding assets in one central spot for your team to access. Use tools like digital asset management systems like Brandfolder to make this happen. For example, create folders for different types of assets like logos, images and templates and update them regularly. DAM systems categorize and store your digital assets in a centralized storehouse.

While there are numerous DAM systems, choose one that serves your requirements and is compatible or easily integrates with your content management system (CMS). If you’re using Contentstack as your CMS, select a DAM from their marketplace to streamline your publishing while maintaining consistency in branding assets. 

Educate your team

Only when your team knows how to access and use your brand’s library can you maintain consistency in communication. Educate your team by running engaging workshops, creating user-friendly training materials and keeping everyone updated. Host a webinar to review the brand guidelines and show how to access and use the DAM and brand library.

Best practices for maintaining and updating the branding library

Regular audits and reviews

Keeping your branding library relevant and accurate is a must. Conduct regular audits, ideally every quarter, to assess your current assets and guidelines. Identify outdated elements and refresh them to match your current branding strategies and market trends.

Version control

A solid version control system helps you manage, update and avoid inconsistencies. Track every change to ensure your team knows about the latest versions of assets and guidelines. 

Documentation

Keep thorough documentation of all branding guidelines, procedures and updates. Your documentation comes in handy when queries arise. Using the document, you can transition during team changes or scaling operations.

Security measures

Protect your assets with strong security measures. Use secure login systems, regular backups and data encryption to prevent unauthorized access or changes.

FAQs

Why is library branding important?

Library branding is important because it ensures consistency in all marketing communications, creating a familiar, identifiable brand. It also helps your team members work together.

What is a brand asset library?

A brand asset library is a centralized storehouse that stores all your brand's visual and digital assets. It includes logos, color palettes, typography, imagery and other elements that define your brand's visual identity.

How to do a branding book?

A branding book or a brand guide details the rules and standards for using your brand assets. To create one, compile all brand assets, develop guidelines and organize the information into a document.

Learn more

Build your brand library to give your teams easy access to digital assets from anywhere. Creating a branding library is necessary for every company that wants to maintain consistent and effective brand management. By using the right tools, following established strategies and adhering to best practices, you can ensure your brand remains strong and recognizable.

Talk to us today to see how Contentstack builds and maintains a successful branding library.