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I’ve shared tips and tricks on using Trello for a project management tool, now I want to share another way you can use Trello—collateral boards. If you read my previous blog about maintaining a consistent brand, you know how important consistency is to your business. Trello is a great place to create brand guidelines and share them with your entire team. Using Trello’s endless options, you can create a brand collateral board — or just a collateral board for quick access to information you need.
Before we dive into using Trello for a collateral board, here is a quick reminder on the structure of Trello. Trello arranges their system with a basic hierarchy — Boards, then Lists, and then Cards.
What exactly do I mean by collateral? Businesses of all types have collateral, and it can vary from company to company. Primarily when I’m discussing collateral, I’m focusing on marketing collateral (any media material used to promote a company’s products or services). I also like to think a little beyond marketing materials, to anything that helps supports the business.
We live in a digital age, so I find items like login information for accounts many people may access “collateral” for the business from employee to employee. Or maybe it is email lists or information all employees may need to quickly access. Collateral Boards will help streamline large and small businesses with information employees need regularly.
It keeps all this information in one place! This means it is easy to access and easy for everyone to find, saving time on searching through emails or asking for something you need over and over.
For a Brand Collateral Board, your team needs easy access to the brand guidelines, or they will not follow them. Without a team dedicated to your brand and following guidelines, consistency will be hard to come by for your organization.
There are so many ways to use Trello — here are some ideas on how you can organize a collateral board for your brand.
Make a list that houses cards for each of your different logos. You should have different variations of your logo — full color, one color, horizontal, vertical, favicon, etc. Each card can have a different variation, along with the different file types you may need in business. See my blog about file types to learn more!
Use a list for colors, broken down by cards for each color’s information — or card for each of your categories such as primary, secondary, accent, etc.
This will be super helpful when making sure your colors are correct across all platforms. Use a card to clarify the color information in the card description or comments so you can copy a web code or send to a printer.
Fun / Pro Tip: Create an image (I like to use 500px x 300px) filled with your branded colors and make it the card ‘cover’. This will add a visual element to your board!
When you setup your branded voice it is important everyone follows it. Make a card with adjectives that describe your voice. Have a card with keywords you brand focuses on for SEO. Have a list with various cards for key messaging you share often—your company’s mission, vision statement, social media bios, etc.
If you have a library of images, patterns, icons, general graphic you use for your branding, consider housing them in a list on Trello. This is a great way to share staff headshots and other branded imagery that speaks towards your branding.
Does your company have documents, one sheets, infographics, etc. you share often? These are great pieces to have in a list with cards for the various pieces. Make sure these are the LATEST versions of these documents and notify the team if something is no longer to be used or has been updated.
This is a great place to store font files you may need to share with your team and/or designers. You can also use cards to show differences in print fonts and web fonts.
Maybe a bit more obscure when thinking about “branding,” but email is a vital part of a consistent brand. Organizations will want to be sure their email communications look consistent, so consider creating a list with some of the following:
If you are diving deep into the world of Trello and now have multiple boards, you can brand each board to keep track of which one you are working on at any given moment. I like to make backgrounds (1440px x 900px) with colors and logos of my clients so I can navigate quickly from board to board.
Thinking beyond your brand board, what other types of collateral may your team need quick and easy access to every day? Or if it is just you, what information could you save time with by having in one central location?
Have a card with some simple things like mailing address, phone number, business account numbers, etc. I like to make sure I keep general information along with quick access links I share often on one card. This is a great resources when onboarding staff members, somewhere they can find all the basic information they may need while learning your business.
If you have a large organization or just don’t want to type out emails all the time, keep a list of emails for easy copy/paste! Take is a step further and save the person’s name, title, and email—or whatever information you share frequently—all together so you can copy/paste when needed.
How many times do you lose login information for business accounts? Or do you have accounts using generic company emails and can’t remember what the username is or who has access to the email? Keeping notes like login information can be a huge help!*
*Keeping login information in an unsecure area does come with risks! Don’t share information with individuals you don’t know or financial information. I like to keep “notes” to help me remember login information, such as an email address associated with the account or password hints.
When people share kind words about your business, don’t be afraid to share that with others! A great way to keep a database of testimonials is make a list and add cards for each testimonial. If you get a lot of reviews and they vary by topic, use the card cover feature to divide up the list into sections for easy reference. This is a great for marketing purposes!
The possibilities with Trello are endless, but I hope this blog provided some guidance on how you can use Trello for a collateral board—particularly a brand collateral board to keep your brand consistent—and streamline your business.
Remember, you can structure you boards however you like and you can add Power-Ups to make Trello work for you. Maybe you don’t even need an entire collateral board, you just need a list divided up with cards. Do what makes sense for you and/or your business.
Not sure where to start? Let me know and I’d be more than happy to help you!
