BrandLink Portal Support

We are committed to offering the best support possible. All core topics for using your brand portal are covered below for your convenience.

If you are experiencing a technical issue with your portal or just have a question about how to use a feature, simply submit the support request form below and we will get right back to you.

User Types

Your brand portal consists of three types of user accounts:

Manager

Users assigned to the Manager group are able to access the administrative control panel at your chosen URL (e.g., https://portal.mydomain.com/admin) and perform the following tasks:

  • Create and edit content for any Section
    Experience, Identity, Creative, Style Guides as well as any Custom Sections
  • Post Announcements
  • Manage Globals
    Company Info, Resources, Company Info
  • Create and edit the FAQ items
  • Create and manage other Users

The user who signs up for your BrandLink portal subscription will automatically be assigned Manager permissions.

Staff

Users assigned to the Staff group are only able to access the front-end of your brand portal at your chosen URL (e.g., https://portal.mydomain.com)

Vendor

By default, users assigned to the Vendor group have the same permissions as Staff users. These groups only help distinguish what types of users are accessing your portal. However, we can edit the Vendor group to limit access if, for example, you have content that should only be available to Staff users.

Creating New Users

To manage users, login to your administrative control panel and go to ‘Users‘ in the navigation sidebar.

To create a new user, click the ‘+ New User’ button and fill in their information:

  • Full Name: Enter the users full name
  • Photo: Optionally upload a user photo
  • Email: Enter the email that this user will use to login to their account.
  • Location: If your portal makes use of locations for brand management (e.g. regions, states, cities, specific location, etc) select the appropriate location from the list.

Next, click the ‘Create and set permissions’ button and select the appropriate User Group for this user. You will be required to confirm your password before continuing.

Finally, click the ‘Save and send activation email’ button. The new user will receive and email instructing them to activate their account. The new user account will be shown in the user list with a status of "Pending" until they activate their account.

Managing Existing Users

To edit an existing user, click on their name in the user list. If you have lots of users, you can narrow the list by clicking a specific group. You can also find a specific user by entering their name or email in the search field.

You can change the user’s Full Name, Photo, or Location.

If the user requires assistance with resetting their password, click the ‘…’ button and choose one of the following:

  • Send activation email.
  • Copy password reset URL and provide it directly to the user
  • Require a password reset on next login

User Suspension and Deletion

To control a users access to your portal, click the checkbox next to their name in the user list and select the appropriate option from the ‘Gear’ icon:

  • Suspend: limits access to the portal and/or administrative control panel
  • Unsuspend: restores access to the portal and/or administrative control panel
  • Delete: Permanently deletes the user and their data.

Resetting Passwords

The first time any user attempts to access either the portal front end or admin area, they will be required to set their password.

If a front end (Staff or Vendor) user forgets their password, they can perform a password reset from the portal login page (e.g., https://portal.mydomain.com/login).

For security reasons, if a Manager forgets their password, another manager must assist with the password reset by either:

  • Sending a password reset email

or

  • Requiring a password reset on the next login attempt

If you only have a single Manager for your portal, please contact support using the form below and we can assist with your password reset.

To post an Announcement, log into the administrative control panel at your chosen URL (e.g., https://portal.mydomain.com/admin)) and go to Entries in the left sidebar. You will see a list of all entries associated with your brand portal. Announcements are essentially a date-based blog and can be found under “Channels”. Click the ‘+New entry’ button to create a new Announcement.

Creating an Announcement is as simple as filling out a form. Here is a quick explanation of each field:

Important: Enabling this option will designate this Entry as important and pin it to the top of your “Latest Announcements” on the portal dashboard as well as featuring the post on the Announcements listing page.

Feature Image: You can optionally upload an image to be displayed on the Announcements listing page as well as the top of the page when viewing the full Entry.

Summary: Enter a short summary to be displayed on the Announcements listing page. This text will not be shown when viewing the post.

Post Content: This is a standard WYSIWYG editor for writing your announcement. You can apply basic text formatting without straying from the portal design as well as embedding links, images, and media.

Post Categories: You can assign your Entry to as many categories as are relevant to the content.

Related: If your Entry relates to other portal items, such as a new campaign or asset, you can add these relations and they will be displayed as links at the end of the Entry.

Regardless of which section it belongs to, each content item is referred to as an Entry.

To add or edit your content entries, log into the administrative control panel at your chosen URL (e.g., https://portal.mydomain.com/admin) and go to Entries in the left sidebar. You will see a list of all entries associated with your brand portal. For now, we are only concerned with the default and custom sections that make up your brand content. These sections are listed under “Structures.” Click any section name (e.g., Creative) to view all entries in that section. You can edit any existing Entry by clicking the Entry name or add a new Entry by clicking the ‘+New Entry’ button.

Whether you are creating a new Entry or editing an existing one, it is as simple as filling out a form. These Entry forms are designed to ensure that each Entry adheres to your brand portal design standards. Each field includes clear instructions and restrictions to help avoid common mistakes. Here is a quick explanation of all the fields for each default section:

Experience

This section consists of structured text that defines the perception of your brand in the minds of consumers, influenced by various interactions and touch points. Each Entry in this section will appear on a single page with navigation links. You can drag entries to reorder them on the Entry list view.

Title: Enter a title for this content Entry.

Document Content: This is a standard WYSIWYG editor for composing your content. You can apply basic text formatting without straying from the portal design as well as embedding links, images, and media.

Related: Click the ‘+Add an entry’ to include links to other items in your portal that are relevant to the current Entry item you are working on. This is especially useful for relating entries such as assets or style guides to the current content.

Identity

Also compiled as structured text, the Identity section outlines the blend of visual and content decisions that constitute your company’s character. It depicts the face of your brand as presented to your audience. Like the Experience section, each Entry will appear on a single page with navigation links. You can drag entries to reorder them on the Entry list view.

Title: Enter a title for this content Entry.

Elements: Click the ‘+ New Entry’ button to insert various types of elements and build the page content as needed. Once created, elements can be dragged to reorder and build the page to your preferences.

Section Heading: Add a heading for each major section of this Entry. This will be presented in large headline text (H2).

Section Subhead: Add a subheading for each sub section of this Entry. This text will be presented in a slightly smaller headline text (H3).

Text: This is a simplified WYSIWYG editor for writing your announcement. You can apply basic text formatting, but in order to retain formatting consistency, embedding links, images, and media is not allowed in this field.

Full Width Image: An image uploaded to this field will be displayed at the full width of the Entry copy.

Image Group 3: Upload three images to have them inserted in a single row spanning the full width of the Entry copy.

Image Group 2: Upload two images to have them inserted in side by side spanning the full width of the Entry copy.

Left Image: Upload an image, click ‘…’ next to the image name and select ‘Edit Asset’ to use a a simplified WYSIWYG editor to add text to accompany it. The image will be aligned to the left of the text.

Right Image: Upload an image, click ‘…’ next to the image name and select ‘Edit Asset’ to use a a simplified WYSIWYG editor to add text to accompany it. The image will be aligned to the right of the text.

Code: You can use this field to include code in your Entry while maintaining raw code without rendering. You can choose the code language for proper display. A Code ID is required in order to avoid conflicts with other code snippets in your Entry.

Color: Use this field when you need to display a color sample along with various color models: Pantone, CMYK, Hex, and RGB.

Creative

This section serves as your asset library, presented in the form of a media gallery. The content here can be filtered by purpose (e.g., collateral, specific campaigns, market segments, etc) and type (e.g., logo, photography, template, etc), enabling your users to locate the assets they require with ease.

Asset Type: Select the type of asset for this Entry to help users filter your library. The default asset types are: Font, Logo, Graphics, Photography, Illustration, Video, Audio, and Template. We can easily edit these options to suite your specific needs. Simply contact support using the form below.

Asset Item: Use this field to upload the actual asset item for the user to download. Acceptable file types are PDF, image (jpeg, png, webp, etc), or a ZIP archive to package multiple files together (e.g. an InDesign layout with fonts and links or an HTML files with associated css, js and images).

Preview Image: Upload a 1280x1024px image to be displayed on the asset download page. Images not adhering to the designated size will be scaled to fit, but may leave unwanted white space if not cropped to the correct 5:4 aspect ratio.

Notes: You can enter a brief note about this asset to provide usage guidelines are any other information the user may need.

Embed Code: If your asset type is Audio or Video, you can include embed code in addition to providing a downloadable file.

Related: Click the '+Add an entry' to include links to other items in your portal that are relevant to the current Entry item you are working on. This is especially useful for relating assets to style guides or campaigns.

Tags: Enter appropriate tags to categorize this asset for additional filtering by users. New tags will be created automatically if not already in use by other asset Entries. Be careful to avoid creating similar tags by using different spellings and try not to create too many tags. Organizing your assets with concise and accurate tagging will yield a better user experience.

Style Guides

Style guides typically provide very detailed guidelines covering specific areas of focus such as copywriting, imagery, web elements, and print layout. Each style guide occupies its own space as a document within this section.

Feature Image: You can optionally upload an image to be displayed on the Style Guides listing page.

Blurb: Enter a short blurb to be displayed on the Style Guides listing page. This text will not be shown when viewing the full style guide page.

Elements: Just like the Identity section, you can insert various types of elements and build the page content as needed. Click the ‘+ New Entry’ button and select the desired element type.

Related: Click the ‘+Add an entry’ to include links to other items in your portal that are relevant to the current Entry item you are working on. This is especially useful for relating style guides to assets.

Custom Sections

Custom sections are available for any special use case you may have that falls outside our default sections. For example, you might want a custom “Operations” section, accessible only by registered Staff users. This section might include policies and procedures documents, special downloadable assets, and requisition forms.

You can request custom sections at any time during your subscription term by visiting https://my.brandlink.io/custom-section.

To edit FAQ Entries, log into the administrative control panel at your chosen URL (e.g., https://portal.mydomain.com/admin)) and go to Entries in the left sidebar. You will find an Entry under “Singles” with the title of “Frequently Asked Questions”. If you chose to have your portal include Demo content, the Entry will already populated with placeholder FAQ Items. You can easily edit these or click the ‘+ New entry’ button at the bottom to create a new item.

Each FAQ Item only consists of two fields:

Question: Enter the FAQ question.

Answer: This is a simplified WYSIWYG editor for writing your FAQ answer. You can apply basic text formatting, but embedding links, images, and media is not allowed in this field.

Globals are snippets of information or assets that don’t belong in a full Entry. Globals may differ from those shown below, depending on how your brand portal was initially set up.

To add or edit Globals, log into the administrative control panel at your chosen URL (e.g., https://portal.mydomain.com/admin) and go to Globals in the left sidebar. You will see these default Globals which can be easily edited:

Company Info

This is where you can update all of your general company information.

Company Name: Your Business Name

Website: Your Business Website

Email: Your Primary Business Email

Brand Manager Name: The Name Of Your Brand Manager

Brand Manager Email: The Email Of Your Brand Manager

Phone: Your Company Phone Number

Address 1: Your Company Mailing Address Line 1

Address 2: Your Company Mailing Address Line 2

City: Your Company Mailing Address City

State: Your Company Mailing Address State

Zip: Your Company Mailing Address Zip Code

Landing Page

This section contains various information that can optionally appear on your Brand Portal landing page.

Heading: Your desired welcome heading

Introduction: The introductory paragraph

Tagline: Your company tagline

Resources

Brand Handbook: Your downloadable brand handbook

If you require additional resources that do not fall within your Brand Portal Content sections, please contact support using the form below.

Submit A Support Request

We normally respond within 2 hours.

Your Name

Please enter your portal URL

Please be as detailed as possible with your request. The more information we have, the better we’ll be able to help!