Businesses need to play on their A-Game when proposing ideas to clients or investors. This is where a visually strong presentation helps you deliver your message efficiently and captivate the audience. A presentation or deck serves as a visual tool that engages viewers and quickly conveys information. In a heavily digitized world, presentations now can be made on various software, from Microsoft Powerpoint, Google Slides, Prezi, Canva, and more. Regardless of what software you prefer to use, making a compelling presentation demands you to know the right aspects to consider. Here is a step-by-step guide to creating an amazing presentation.
Step 1 . Decide the Color Palette
Choosing colors that complement the general topic of your presentation will engage the audience better. The easiest way to decide your color palette is to look at your corporate logo, product color, or theme color of the event to which you are going to present. For example, a blue color palette is expected from a company like HP for its logo, while a pink color palette may be used for presentations about Breast Cancer Awareness Day. Try to maintain the colors of the typefaces and diagrams similar to the background theme. Another approach to make your presentation stand out is to use contrasting colors that draw the audience’s attention to emphasize an important point.
Step 2 . Choosing a Background Theme
Have you ever seen a presentation with unreadable text because the background image or color is too bright or too dark? In most cases, you probably have. That becomes the reason why it is crucial to choose the right background theme. In doing this, you do not have to only use solid colors; you can use images too. You may choose an image with colors that reflect your product or occasion theme, but remember to reduce its opacity so it will not block the actual title or text. Your background color should not be the same as the font color. Also, ensure that there is enough vacant area in the image for you to add text.
Step 3 . Font Matters
If your brand does not have a designated or signature font to use, then you need to be careful in selecting fonts for your presentation. Consider the presentation’s subject, level of seriousness, as well as readability. You need to also avoid using italicized or typewriter fonts, like Lucida Typewriter or Baskerville for subheadings or bullet points. Although these two may look quirky, they are not very readable from a distance. If you simply do not have time to choose, then go for the most common ones, such as Calibri, Gill Sans, and Century Gothic. These are all license-free and available in all applications. Although it is not wrong to use Times New Roman for your presentation, try to avoid it since it is too formal and may look unappealing in a presentation. Additionally, make a clear distinction between titles (heading) and contents (subheading) by using bolder fonts for the title on each slide.
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Step 4 . Different Layout for Different Purpose
The layout or the placement of the textbox in the deck matters; what works on title-only slides may not work on bullet points slides. Therefore, you need to prepare a different layout for different purposes. If you only have a title slide, place the textbox in the middle of your slide instead of on the top, leaving the middle-lower part blank. This also has something to do with the placement of illustration. For example, if you keep using the same illustration on the right or left side, it may look boring for the audience. It is okay to experiment a bit to make it more compelling.
Step 5 . Keep the Number of Slides Compact
Having either fewer slides or more slides is not a guarantee that your presentation is a good one. Often overlooked, keeping the number of slides compact is actually important to keep your audience engaged. If you have plenty of materials to present, but you cram them in just a few slides, audiences may not get the point since there will be too many words on each slide. On the other hand, if you have only little materials to deliver, but you divide them into too many slides, hoping that you can explain a lot more in spoken words, your presentation may turn out to be redundant. The easy formula is to give one minute for every slide so you can deliver adequate information in a relatively stable way.
Step 6 . Visual Speaks Louder
People digest information more effectively through visual material. Thus, make use of visuals such as photos, illustrations, videos, and even gifs to keep the audience’s attention. The thing with more text on a slide is that it gives difficulties for the audience to concentrate and read through, since it may look cramped and monotonous. If you are presenting statistics, consider utilizing graphs, charts, or other infographics to make the numbers look more interesting. You may create customized infographics using easy services like Canva, which provides a variety of templates to get you started.
If you have a make it or break it pitch deck coming up, you can always go the extra mile by adding a customized short animation. This is not to be mistaken as all your presentation should be about, as the content and structure are far more important. However, if you already have your content, font, color palette, and styles settled, animations can be a really great addition to your presentation. This helps your client to be more engaged, especially if the animation is something customized that they have never seen before. There is always a chance that your effort in customizing a dedicated short animation for your deck can positively influence your clients or investors in the decision-making.
Presentations are one of the most important pieces of aid to help business communication be more effective. Presentations, be it for a sales or investor pitch, teaching a class, or a college project, will keep the audience involved and help them quickly digest the information. Designing a presentation or deck may seem like a usual thing everyone can do, but designing an awesome one definitely needs extra aspects to consider. Now that you already have these tips in creating a presentation that stands out in a good way, you are in the clear.
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