Integrating Adobe Tools for a Seamless Content Supply Chain

The ability to manage, create, and distribute content efficiently across multiple platforms is crucial for businesses hoping to maintain a competitive edge. This process, known as the content supply chain, has enormous potential for helping brands drive personalized, more engaging customer experiences.

Still, many content supply chains fall short of their potential because they lack the key tools and processes needed for seamless execution. Research on content supply chain challenges shows that businesses spend 70% of their time managing manual tasks in disparate systems, and 31% of creatives and marketers say their biggest hurdle is difficulty sharing assets with stakeholders.

Adobe tools can dramatically increase collaboration and communication across the content supply chain, but this requires thoughtfully designed workflows and high user adoption. Emerging technologies like AI assistants and search tools can also ease the task, but this is another area where brands are struggling to integrate and drive user adoption effectively.

Here, we’ll discuss how businesses should really be thinking about content supply chain, then share tips on how to integrate Adobe tools for a more streamlined, effective system.

Why brands struggle to optimize content supply chains

According to McKinsey research, 70% of businesses using AI say they’ve encountered difficulties with data, and just 18% have a board making decisions about AI governance. When it comes to small businesses, the challenge is even greater. Nearly 80% of small businesses say they haven’t integrated AI due to a lack of understanding or uncertainty about the benefits.

So although Microsoft AI tools like AzureAI Search and Copilot can greatly enhance the content supply chain, too many businesses find it difficult to unlock ROI and leverage the tools to create more personalized, data-driven content.

Ultimately, the content supply chain isn’t just about buying a product or even a full set of products. It’s about creating a holistic process tailored to unique business needs and goals. This mindset shift can help brands better manage, store, and distribute content, while also optimizing that content for better customer experiences.

Creating a streamlined solution with Adobe tools

A truly seamless content supply chain only comes after getting to the core of how business processes work. Companies must take time to identify gaps in processes, and then discover the right tools to help bridge those gaps. Whether it’s an all-Adobe shop or multiple products, an effective content supply chain will leverage a tech stack to streamline everything from content creation and delivery to content repurposing and reiterating.

From Ideation to Content Creation: Adobe Workfront + Adobe Experience Cloud

With this approach, Adobe tools can help streamline workflow from ideation through execution. First, Adobe Workfront can help marketing teams create and manage content briefs, approvals, and all necessary information for content creation. From there, creative teams can design assets using tried-and-true tools from Adobe Creative Cloud, including Photoshop and Illustrator.

When teams manage these workflows using Adobe Workfront, all communication stays within one ecosystem, allowing teams to create content, capture messaging, and manage deliveries within a single source of truth.

Automation and Storage: Adobe Experience Manager + Adobe Target + Adobe Campaign

Once created, assets are stored in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), which acts as a central repository for approved creative assets. AEM also automates time-consuming, repetitive workflows like the tagging and management of assets, giving marketers easy access to content for tailoring and distributing through AEM, Adobe Target, or Adobe Campaign.

When tools are integrated with Adobe Analytics, brands can measure and optimize content performance. All too often, brands send content out into the abyss, never taking the time to analyze and improve content based on data. Adobe Analytics allows marketers to create a loop of continual refinement, so they can optimize content for future use.

Key benefits of Adobe tools for content supply chain

Effective integration of Adobe Tools offers numerous measurable improvements in the content supply chain, helping to increase efficiency, improve content quality, boost customer engagement, and more. Here are some of the key benefits and results found when leveraging Adobe tools to the fullest.

Collaboration + Communication

Adobe tools eliminate silos and facilitate seamless communication across teams. Everyone from marketers and creatives to IT departments can stay tuned into the entire process, ensuring timely delivery, proper security measures, and accurate execution of content needs. Adobe Workfront allows teams to create a campaign, pull assets, and design all within one environment, and that level of visibility and collaboration continues throughout the entire content supply chain.

Streamlined Workflows + Time Savings

Data and AI drive automation throughout the content supply chain, helping teams search, find, categorize, and manage assets. The latest AI features use smart logic to accelerate batch editing, image tagging, and more. AI can even generate personalized marketing messages tailored to brand voice and tone, freeing up marketers' time for other strategic activities. Likewise, Adobe Experience Manager automates tasks like resizing and formatting to dramatically reduce manual labor and keep creatives focused on truly creative tasks.

Content Optimization

Adobe Target can measure effectiveness across different sets of content, such as one image or phrase versus another, and Adobe Campaign can measure the effectiveness of ads. When these tools are integrated with Analytics, teams analyze results and get recommendations on how to execute high-performing content. Combining these three tools helps highlight what resonates with audiences and what needs tweaking, and then provides data to create hyper-personalized experiences customers actually want. Brands can even integrate these tools with non-Adobe Product Information Management (PIM) systems to enhance e-commerce experiences and easily share assets with trade partners.

Get more out of your content supply chain

When combined with the power of Adobe tools, a thoughtful, holistic approach to the content supply chain can amplify your marketing messages and create more engaging, personalized customer experiences.

If you need help getting more out of your existing Adobe tools or discovering the best tools for your needs, get in touch with Rightpoint today. As experts in Total Experience, we’ll work with you to identify core goals, streamline processes, and leverage Adobe tools for a seamless content supply chain.