Aligning the motivators you have identified with the real benefits digital preservation can deliver helps you to frame your ‘ask’ in terms that matter most to your stakeholders.
Stakeholders are most likely to respond well to messages that speak directly to their priorities. Framing digital preservation around outcomes such as reduced risk, strengthened accountability, improved efficiency, or increased innovation helps position it as a strategic enabler, not a complicated problem or a technical obligation. This shift moves the conversation away from systems and workflows and towards value, impact, and organizational goals, making your ‘ask’ positive, clear, relevant, and persuasive.
Below is a set of sample messages for the most commonly occurring motivators identified above, each highlighting a key opportunity created by digital preservation.
|
Tool tip: Copy the language directly where useful, but this will work best when you tailor the examples to match your own context and combine with the Message‑Building Template. |
|
Access Digital preservation enables the right content to be accessible in the right format at the right time, for as long as necessary.
|
Accountability and Transparency Preserved and accurate digital records create a transparent audit trail that supports robust accountability and governance, enabling organizations to demonstrate compliance with regulations, policies and ethical standards while ensuring confidence during external audits and public scrutiny. |
|
Authenticity and Integrity Digital preservation protects the integrity and authenticity of records by ensuring they remain unchanged, verifiable, and fully traceable over time, enabling the detection of unauthorized alterations and reinforcing trust in their evidentiary and historical value. |
Business Continuity Preserved digital assets can be restored quickly after an incident, minimizing downtime and enabling organizations to resume operations without significant disruption. |
|
Compliance Preserved digital records maintain clear audit trails to protect investments and demonstrate compliance. |
Community/ Corporate / Cultural Memory Access to a complete set of reliable records enables brand integrity and evolution, or integrity to a mandate or community cause, as well as informed business decisions. |
|
Cost and Efficiency Digital preservation reduces long‑term storage costs through planned disposal and managed deletion, while data format management enables automation, interoperability, and more efficient workflows across modern systems with data always available in the right format, at the right time for as long as required. |
Crisis Management Digital preservation provides secure backups and sustainable formats, enabling quick restoration of critical records after cyberattacks, system failures or natural disasters. |
|
Data Sovereignty Digital preservation strategies provide control over national and organizational data by ensuring critical records remain under the jurisdiction and governance of the organization or country and preventing dependency on external entities. |
Reproducibility and Reuse Digital preservation ensures consistent results over time by ensuring data, methodologies and supporting materials remain intact, enabling others to reproduce findings accurately and reuse with confidence in their integrity. |
|
Risk Management By safeguarding information against cyberattacks, disasters and system failures, digital preservation strengthens organizational resilience and minimizes operational and financial risks. |
Security Digital preservation strengthens organizational security by protecting data from loss, corruption and unauthorized change, safeguarding operational continuity, regulatory compliance, and public trust. |