You can’t brand your business without marketing assets and materials. From promo products to printed material, direct mailers, and digital material. There is a need for consistency, and that can be difficult to achieve when you have various locations or many employees. The most successful companies work with a brand portal to make the process more efficient and protect their brands.
A brand portal is a secure website with branding guidelines and marketing materials. It may also be referred to as an ordering or print portal. It is customised to the business and holds digital assets, such as brochures, images, logo artwork, and images. It also features articles and written information, whether blog posts or press releases. Additionally, there are often links to additional online content, other web pages, sites, or social media posts.
What Does A Brand Portal Provide?
It is accessible around the clock for all employees and franchises and from any device. It is the simplest way to ensure your branding remains in place and makes ordering marketing material simple.
An administrator, or many, can manage which users can access what materials and identify areas of the marketing materials that are editable. For example, a new store manager can sign in to order a batch of business cards, which they can edit to include their name and job title, as well as franchise location, email address, and phone number. But a new employee won’t be able to access that same product. Both, however, might be cleared to download logos and signs, but perhaps only the store manager can order brochures.
It provides consistency, efficiency, increased revenue, business growth, and decreased waste because nobody knows which materials they need more than those doing the job hands-on.
The Core Components
- Guidelines
Every piece of marketing material should be used in a specific way, and branding guidelines are necessary to ensure that this use is consistent. Your guidelines provide employees with a clear guide to the market and brand.
- Standards
A written brand standard is a necessary step. It provides everyone with details in writing as to the brand’s foundation and how branding should be used and communicated. This standard should be part of the training process, but it should always be available on a brand portal as well.
- Digital Asset Management System
DAM is a digital library. You can upload your brand assets to the brand portal and make them available to your team. You can also easily update content and track how often each item is downloaded or used. Additionally, you can set up different administrators to allow them to restrict access for different stores or teams, provide your branding materials in various languages, and offer the ability to create templates within the system.
Many different organisations have jumped on board with brand portals, and it isn’t just businesses.
VisitScotland’s Media Centre provides images, videos, and media resources to highlight the country’s beauty to entice more people to visit. The Boston Ballet also uses a brand portal with videos of The Nutcracker, which includes a link to buy tickets. Citizen Watch uses a brand portal that bundles all relevant marketing materials per product. They feature print ads, web banners, commercials, and even billboards.
Whether expanding your business or selling franchise rights, a brand portal is the most effective way to protect your brand identity.