Branding Your Community
There are many places where you can brand your community and provide a consistent look and feel for your members.
Domain
You can be creative and strategic in selecting a domain for your community. You don't have to include Gradual in the URL, and can customize it to fit your community's brand, name, etc.
Work with your team to decide on the right domain, and the Gradual team will configure it for you.
Changing your domain is difficult and will result in previous promotions, links and communications leading to a dead link. Consider the ramifications before making a change!
Community Name & Description
In Community settings, you can add or edit the community name, description and slogan. Each of these items appears on the homepage on the front end if a user is not signed in, or in browser searches.
Any changes to your community name and description will be logged in the admin activity log so you can track all changes to this setting.
Logos & Colors
Your logo and favicon appear in several places throughout your community. You will load all of these logs within the Community settings tab.
Because Gradual's default template is in 'dark theme' we ask for logos with dark backgrounds and light backgrounds to populate correctly and provide high contrast.
You can also upload a default cover image for social sharing to public websites at the base of this page as well.
Any changes to your logos will be logged in the admin activity log so you can track all changes.
Square logos
Recommended format: 400x400px | PNG | Up to 2 MB
Wide logos
Recommended format: 800x400px | PNG | Up to 5 MB
Favicon
Recommended format: 32x32px | PNG | Up to 5 KB
Social Sharing Image
Recommended format: 800x418px | JPG | Up to 5 MB
Here is an example of our social sharing image:
Branding Theme Color
The branding theme color will be consistent throughout the platform and appear as buttons and hyperlinks. This should be a color that is in high contrast with the dark mode of the platform, while also working with the white text of the buttons throughout the community.
You will be able to enter a HEX color or select your color from a color spectrum.
Note: Gradual’s default template is a ‘dark theme’ so we suggest choosing a color that provides high contrast meeting the WCAG 2 accessibility standards but also works with white text in the buttons throughout the platform.
Page customization
You can customize and brand various pages in your community: the sign-in page, the home page to visitors and when users are signed in, the events page, and the tools page within your community. All of these can be managed within the Customization settings tab in the dashboard.
Sign-in Page
This page is what users will see when signing up, or logging into the community. You will upload the image that appears to the left of the sign-in block.
Here is an example of our sign-in page:
Home Page
Before users sign in (Visitors' homepage)
Banners
The homepage for visitors, or before users sign in can support three different banner style options. These graphics appear at the top of the page, with the community title, slogan, and the 'Join Community' button.
Default: a gradient background based on your branding color
Custom background: custom uploaded graphic
- This can be a JPG or GIF graphic
Custom sticker: custom uploaded sticker or graphic block that populates to the right of the text
- This can be a PNG graphic
Adding, editing, and managing the banners is done in the Settings tab of the dashboard → Page Customization → Home Page before sign-in.
Here is an example of our homepage using the Default gradient background:
Footer
Customize the text that appears at the base of your homepage for visitors. This text can be no more than 100 characters, and by default will read "Ready to get started? Join our community".
Community Button
Change the text that appears in the join button. This text can be no more than 20 characters and by default will read "Join community".
After users sign in (Members' homepage)
The homepage after users sign in is elevated with the addition of optional hero banners. These banners promote and link to other parts of the community or external sites and can be fully customized to match your branding.
These banners can be JPG images, moving GIF graphics, or mp4 videos. If more than one is uploaded and visible, they will carousel and change every few seconds. There is a limit of 20 banners that can be visible and enabled at one time.
Adding, editing, and managing the banners is done in the Settings tab of the dashboard → Page Customization → Home Page after sign-in. sign-in.
Learn more about banners here.
Here is an example of our homepage after sign in:
Events Page
This page appears when users select 'Events' from the main menu, and you can customize the banner that appears at the top of that page with an image, a title, and a subtitle. This banner is recommended format: 2560x230px | JPG | Up to 5 MB.
Here is an example of our events page:
Automated Emails
Gradual makes welcome communication and event reminders easy by providing standard email templates sent out by the platform. While these templates are not editable, your community name, logo and theme color will be used and they will be sent by your email sender name and address.
Learn more about these emails and what they look like here.
Ads
Ads are attractive graphics that catch your members' eyes and serve as great tools to drive users to register for upcoming events, engage in content, or link to your website. Ads appear on the right-hand side of your Content pages and if more than one is loaded, they will rotate automatically to catch your members’ attention and drive traffic and engagement.
Learn more about how to build and customize ads here.
Ads
Recommended format: 690x900px | JPG | Up to 5 MB
Event Graphics
Brand your events and provide users with an appealing home screen and events page with event posters and covers. While not mandatory, event covers can be loaded in Event Setup for all your events. The event cover image or poster is recommended format: 624x326px | JPG | Up to 5 MB
💡 Pro Tip: Set up virtual tickets for livestream or in-person events. Once enabled, these tickets create a virtual ticket graphic and a personalized page for each registrant that encourages them to share their participation in the event and allows you as the event administrator to track referrals. Learn more here.
Content Graphics
The content section of your community can be customized and curated to fit your brand and your content collections.
Each content piece (Videos, Blogs, Resources and External Content links) requires a poster or cover image. They all follow the recommended format: 1600x900px | JPG | Up to 5 MB.
Collections
Collections are like playlists in Gradual. They allow you to combine different types of content into a group that can then be featured on the content page of your community. You will design the Collection's cover graphic and follow the recommended format: 588x470px | JPG | Up to 5MB for each graphic. You can also feature a collection that will populate the content pieces within the collection front and center on your content page.
Learn more about Collections here.
Customization
You can also customize which content is featured at the top of the content page by enabling 'Featured' on this page. You can Edit and change which content pieces populate in which prominent spots, or have the system automatically load recently published content for you.
Learn more about content Customization here.
Tools
Tools provide an opportunity for you to feature sponsors, partners or portfolio companies and their content at the community level, from the community homepage. There are tiers of Tools that allow you to provide engagement like roundtables, or feature content like PDFs and videos that are grouped by company or team.
Tools can be customized for your use case, and must be enabled on your account before you can create booths in the dashboard, and share on your community's front-end.
Reach Out To Us If You'd Like This Feature Enabled.