How to distribute marketing assets to dealers and resellers
This page is a rollout template for distributing marketing assets to dealers, resellers and distributors through a portal instead of by email and ZIP files. It is free and complete on this page: no sign-up form and no email gate. Answer the scope questions and tick off the launch checklist here; your answers are saved in this browser and export as CSV. The other tables hold example rows to replace with your own after the export.
The template assumes one thing: dealers get files from a maintained source, not from copies. A file sent by email stays in the dealer's inbox after it is replaced. A file fetched from a portal is the current one each time. Every table below follows from that.
1. Scope
Answer each prompt in one or two sentences before choosing a tool.
| Prompt | Your answer |
|---|---|
| How many dealer or reseller companies will use the portal, and how many people in each? | |
| Which markets and languages do they work in? | |
| Which asset types do they ask for most often? List the last twenty requests. | |
| How do they receive assets today (email, ZIP, shared drive, FTP, sales rep)? | |
| Which assets carry a licence, an expiry date or a territory restriction? | |
| Who approves an asset for dealer use today, and is that recorded anywhere? | |
| Which systems stay as they are (dealer management, PIM, ordering, co-op funds)? | |
| What is the date of the next launch or campaign that dealers must receive? |
The last twenty requests are the most useful input. They show what dealers need, which is often different from what head office expects them to need.
2. Audiences and roles
List every group that will open the portal. Give each group one role. Keep the number of roles small: most dealer networks need four or five.
| Role | Who | What they do in the portal | Access method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand owner | Central marketing team | Uploads, approves, retires assets, edits portal pages | Named account, full rights |
| Regional marketing | Country or region managers | Adds local assets, sees their region's material | Named account, scoped to region |
| Dealer marketing contact | The person at each dealer who produces local advertising | Browses, searches, downloads print and web files, adapts templates | Named account or protected link |
| Dealer sales staff | Showroom and field sales | Downloads product images, spec sheets and price lists | Protected link or public page |
| Agency working for a dealer | External designers | Downloads master files for a specific campaign | Expiring link for that campaign |
| Press and public | Anyone | Downloads logos and press images | Public page, no account |
3. Choosing the access method
Three access methods cover almost every dealer network. Decide per audience, not once for the whole portal.
| Method | Use it when | What you can record | Cost to run |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public page, no login | The content is safe for anyone: logos, published product images, brochures | Download counts | Lowest. No accounts to manage |
| Protected link (password, or a list of allowed email addresses or company domains) with an expiry date | A defined group needs material for a limited time: a launch, a season, a trade fair | Which link was used, and by which address when the link is restricted to addresses | Low. One link per audience or campaign |
| Named account, with single sign-on where the dealer is large | People return every week, need material scoped to their market, or need editable source files | Each person's views and downloads | Highest. Accounts must be created, reviewed and removed |
A rule that avoids most problems: give a named account only to people who return regularly or who need restricted files. Everyone else gets a link.
4. Permissions matrix
Fill one cell per role and asset type. Use four values: None, View (preview only), Web (download a web-size or watermarked copy), Full (download the original or print-ready file).
| Asset type | Brand owner | Regional marketing | Dealer marketing contact | Dealer sales staff | Dealer's agency | Public |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Logos and brand marks | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full | Full |
| Brand guidelines | Full | Full | Full | View | Full | View |
| Product images, published products | Full | Full | Full | Web | Full | Web |
| Product images, unreleased products | Full | View | None | None | None | None |
| Campaign key visuals, current | Full | Full | Full | Web | Full | None |
| Editable templates (ads, social posts, point of sale) | Full | Full | Full | None | Full | None |
| Layered source files (PSD, INDD, AI) | Full | Full | None | None | Full | None |
| Video masters | Full | Full | Web | Web | Full | None |
| Price lists and spec sheets | Full | Full | Full | Full | None | None |
| Licensed photography with territory limits | Full | Own territory | Own territory | View | Own territory | None |
| Retired or expired assets | View | None | None | None | None | None |
Three checks on the finished matrix:
- Every "Full" in a dealer column is a file you accept seeing in a local advertisement without review.
- Unreleased products are "None" for every external role until the launch date. Write the date next to the row.
- Expired assets are "None" for every external role. If the tool only shows an expiry warning and still allows the download, the matrix is not enforced.
5. Collection plan
Dealers look for material by product range, campaign and market, not by file type. Plan the collections before uploading.
| Collection | Contents | Markets | Languages | Owner | Review date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand basics | Logos, guidelines, fonts, colour values | All | All | Brand owner | Yearly |
| Product range A | Pack shots, lifestyle images, spec sheets | All | All | Product marketing | Each model change |
| Current campaign | Key visuals, ad templates, social formats, video cutdowns | Per market | Per market | Campaign lead | End of campaign |
| Point of sale | Posters, shelf strips, window stickers, print-ready | Per market | Per market | Trade marketing | Each season |
| Launch kit: [product] | Everything for one launch, published on the launch date | Per market | Per market | Launch lead | Launch plus 6 months |
| Previous campaigns, still approved | Material dealers may keep using | Per market | Per market | Brand owner | Every 6 months |
Keep the list to what fits on one screen. If a collection has no owner, do not publish it.
6. Metadata each asset needs before it is published
A portal that filters by market only works if every asset records its market. Check these fields on every asset before it is visible to dealers.
| Field | Why dealers need it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Product or range | To find everything for one product | Model X, 2026 |
| Market or territory | To see only what they may use | DE, AT, CH |
| Language | To get the right version of a text asset | German |
| Campaign | To find the whole set for one campaign | Spring 2026 |
| Status | To separate approved from draft | Approved |
| Usage rights | To know where the asset may appear | Print and online, no outdoor |
| Valid from, valid until | To keep unreleased and expired assets out | 2026-03-01 to 2026-12-31 |
| Format or purpose | To pick the right file for the job | Print-ready PDF, A4 |
7. File formats by dealer job
Dealers lose most time on files in the wrong size or format. Decide which rendition answers each job, and offer that rendition by name.
| Dealer job | File to offer | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Local newspaper or magazine ad | Print-ready PDF or high-resolution TIFF, CMYK | State bleed and trim in the description |
| Dealer website | Web-size JPEG or WebP, sRGB | Offer two or three fixed widths |
| Social media post | Square, portrait and story sizes, ready to post | Provide an editable template if dealers add their own details |
| Showroom screen | Video in 1080p MP4 | Offer a version without sound |
| Email newsletter | Small JPEG or PNG under 200 KB | Large images slow the email down |
| Trade fair or sales visit | PDF contact sheet or portfolio of the range | Useful offline |
| Dealer's agency | Layered source files and fonts | Only through an expiring link |
8. Launch checklist
Work through the steps in order. Each step has one owner.
| # | Step | Owner | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The scope table in section 1 is filled in and agreed | Brand owner | |
| 2 | Roles and access methods are agreed with sales or channel management | Brand owner | |
| 3 | The permissions matrix is signed off by whoever manages image licences | Brand owner, legal | |
| 4 | Collections are created, each with an owner and a review date | Brand owner | |
| 5 | Every asset for the first release has the fields in section 6 | Asset owners | |
| 6 | Expired and superseded assets are removed or hidden from external roles | Brand owner | |
| 7 | Renditions for the jobs in section 7 exist and are named clearly | Brand owner | |
| 8 | The portal shows your logo, colours and domain, not the vendor's | Brand owner, IT | |
| 9 | Portal pages exist in each dealer language | Regional marketing | |
| 10 | One test user per role confirms what they can see and download | Brand owner | |
| 11 | A test with an expired asset confirms that external roles cannot download it | Brand owner | |
| 12 | Three pilot dealers use the portal for two weeks and report what they could not find | Regional marketing | |
| 13 | The gaps from the pilot are closed | Brand owner | |
| 14 | The announcement in section 9 is sent, and the portal link is added to dealer onboarding documents and email signatures | Channel management | |
| 15 | The old shared drive or ZIP link is set to read-only and shows the new address | IT | |
| 16 | A monthly review is in the calendar: downloads, failed searches, assets close to expiry | Brand owner |
Steps 10 and 11 are the ones most often skipped. They take an hour and they are the only proof that the matrix in section 4 is enforced.
9. Announcement to dealers (copy and adapt)
Subject: New address for [brand] marketing material
From [date], all approved [brand] marketing material is available at [portal address]. You will find logos, product images, current campaign material, point-of-sale files and templates there, in [languages].
What changes for you: please download files from the portal each time you need them, and do not reuse files saved earlier. The portal always holds the current approved version. Material that is no longer approved is removed.
How to get in: [open the link / use the password below / sign in with the account we created for you].
If you cannot find something, write to [contact]. We use these requests to decide what to add next.
10. What to measure after launch
| Measure | Where it comes from | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Share of dealers who downloaded at least once in the month | Portal analytics | Whether the portal is in use across the network or only by a few dealers |
| Most downloaded assets | Portal analytics | What dealers need, to plan the next production |
| Searches with no result | Search log | What is missing, or which words dealers use that your metadata does not |
| Asset requests received by email | Marketing inbox | Whether the portal replaced the requests it was built to replace |
| Outdated material seen in dealer advertising | Field checks, sales reps | Whether old files are still in circulation |
Record the number of email requests before launch. It is the baseline for the fourth measure and cannot be reconstructed later.
Which kind of tool does this
Three kinds of software are used for dealer distribution, and they cover different parts of the job.
| Kind of tool | Covers | Does not cover |
|---|---|---|
| Shared drive or file-transfer link | Sending files | Versions kept current, expiry, per-market access, usage figures |
| Digital asset management system with a brand portal | Approved files, metadata, rights and expiry, per-audience access, renditions, usage figures | Co-op funds, lead distribution, dealer orders |
| Through-channel marketing or partner relationship platform | Co-op and market development funds, campaign execution on behalf of dealers, lead management | Usually relies on a separate asset library for the files themselves |
Many networks run a DAM for content next to a dealer management or partner platform for orders, funds and leads. The template above covers the content part. If you are still choosing the asset system, the DAM requirements checklist and the RFP template cover the evaluation, and the brand portal software checklist covers the portal itself.
How this maps to Freedam
We make Freedam, a digital asset management system, so read this section as a vendor's description. Each row of the template corresponds to a documented feature:
- Access methods. A public portal for visitors without an account, share links open to anyone, restricted to listed email addresses or company domains, or protected by a password, with start and expiry dates, and named accounts with Google or Microsoft sign-in.
- Permissions matrix. Access rules combine user conditions with asset filters and set, per match, whether an asset is visible, whether its preview is full or watermarked, and which download resolutions are allowed. An access tester shows what a given user or a guest gets for a given asset.
- Collections and pages. A collection can be published as a page, and custom pages are grouped in spaces with their own address, default language and theme.
- Offline material. A selection exports as a ZIP archive, a PDF portfolio or contact sheet, or a CSV of the metadata.
Freedam does not manage co-op funds, leads or dealer orders. The dealer distribution page shows the workflow with screenshots, and the demo is a working library where you can test steps 10 and 11 of the checklist.