The Top 4 Challenges Faced by Your Staff, Partners, and External Users in Accessing Your Brand Content

(llustration from the Brandkit.com website)

Accessing brand content is a critical part of daily operations for internal teams, partners, and external stakeholders.

Yet, it’s often harder than it should be. The need for speed, reliability, and accuracy in brand communications means that when content is difficult to access, people get frustrated, and standards slip. Here are the top four challenges faced by staff, partners, and external users when trying to access your brand content—and how to solve them.

Pain Point 1: When We Need Brand Content, It’s Not Obvious Who to Ask

For external partners, collaborators, or even internal teams, knowing who to approach for brand content can be confusing. Is it the marketing team? The brand manager? A project lead? Without a clear point of contact, valuable time is wasted trying to figure out who holds the keys to the content kingdom.

Solution:

To eliminate confusion, create a centralized repository for all brand assets.

A digital asset management (DAM) platform acts as the single source of truth, making it clear where users can access the content they need - without having to hunt down a person.

Empower your teams and external partners by giving them direct access to approved and up-to-date materials in an organized, user-friendly system.

Pain Point 2: When We Ask, It Takes Forever to Get a Response

Once users do figure out who to ask, the next hurdle is often the wait time. Requests for brand content can sit in someone’s inbox for hours, days, or even longer. Whether it’s because that person is busy or because the process involves back-and-forth communication to clarify what’s needed, the delay can slow down important projects and initiatives.

Solution:

Automating content access can eliminate these bottlenecks.

A DAM platform allows users to search for, download, and share content without waiting for approval or a response from a contact person. By automating access, you ensure your content is always available when it’s needed, and you minimize delays caused by human response times.

Pain Point 3: Our Contact Inside the Brand Is Away from Their Desk for a Few Hours, a Few Days, or Maybe Not There Anymore

When key content gatekeepers are out of the office or have moved on from the company, access to brand assets can come to a complete standstill. Teams that rely on a single person for content access may find themselves in a holding pattern when that person isn’t immediately available.

Solution:

Avoid single points of failure by implementing a cloud-based DAM system that allows multiple team members to manage content access.

Even if someone is away or no longer with the company, your content remains accessible to those who need it. Set up clear user roles and permissions to ensure that access isn’t restricted to just one individual, keeping workflows moving no matter what.

Pain Point 4: We Often Can’t Wait, So We Resort to Something Unofficial

When people are under time pressure and can’t get the official content they need, they may take matters into their own hands.

This can mean using outdated materials, non-approved logos, or even low-quality images found elsewhere. While it might get the job done in the short term, unofficial content usage risks brand consistency and can damage your reputation.

Solution:

Preempt these problems by giving your external users and staff access to approved, up-to-date assets at all times.

With a DAM system in place, you can ensure everyone is working from the same set of materials - no unofficial versions or guesswork involved. Regularly update the platform with the latest assets and remove outdated content so users can trust they’re always using the correct files.

Final Thoughts

Your staff, partners, and external collaborators rely on having quick and easy access to your brand content to keep their work moving. By addressing these common challenges and implementing a digital asset management system, you can make content access seamless, reduce frustrations, and safeguard your brand’s consistency across every channel.

Brandkit is a Brand and Digital Asset Management platform that can help unlock all four of these pain points. Learn more here.

Happy branding 🙏