Unlocking Your PowerPoint Potential
Depending on your industry, the Fall can be an extremely busy time for pitches, proposals, meetings, and conferences. And if staring at a blank deck stresses you out, or you’d rather be using that time doing one of the million other things on your to-do list, know you’re not alone.
Even if you don't have your own in-house design team or PowerPoint specialist to help spruce up your slides, there's a few easy steps that you can take to create a streamlined presentation that not only looks good, but engages your audience!
So for anyone who will be living in PowerPoint over the next few weeks (or months!), here's a few tips to keep in mind when you create your next presentation:
When You Need to DIY
Avoid the "Wall of Text"
No one wants to see a block of tiny words on every PowerPoint slide. Not only is it difficult to read, but you'll quickly lose your audience's interest!
Instead: Break up text with headings, subheadings, columns, and call-outs to make it easier for your audience to absorb the information.
Your Slides ≠ Your Speech
Your slides and your speech shouldn’t be the same thing. If you're reading directly from your slides, the presentation might as well be a handout for the audience to read on their own time.
Instead: Keep the information on your slides to high-level thoughts & bullet points that introduce what you'll be talking about in more detail. This helps present the topics to your audience while keeping their focus on listening to you instead of tuning you out to read your slides.
Be Intentional with Imagery
If you're using more literal imagery, incorporate a mix of images that not only illustrate the services you provide, but images that resonate with their industry & clients to cultivate a stronger connection. Is your audience part of the food & beverage space? Use ingredient or manufacturing images that reflect their products. Are they in the hospitality industry? Use relevant images that will reflect their day-to-day.
Adding in images that speak to what *they* do instead of only using images that speak to what *you* do will help your audience feel like you can connect & relate to their work.
Effects Aren’t Magic
Even though they may be fun, adding in animations and effects won’t save a boring presentation. In fact, having too many can make the presentation drag on a bit longer.
Like imagery, make sure the use of effects are intentional and serve a purpose with the content or the flow of the presentation.
Longer Term Solutions
We get it—putting together a presentation is a ton of work, and then factor in time to spruce up the design? There are not enough hours in the day. So why take the extra time making a PowerPoint from scratch when you can use a template?
As you probably know, PowerPoint comes preloaded with tons of templates, which are a great way to speed up your process without having to put on your designer hat. But a custom template will make things even easier by having all of your branded elements included.
Here's a few things you won't have to think about when using a custom template:
Layouts: You'll have a variety of layouts intentionally created to fit all your content needs. All you need to do is plug in your content!
Colors: Your brand color palette will be pre-set throughout your template and loaded in the colors tab for easy access
Fonts: The type styles & colors will be pre-set throughout your layout, so no need to spend time picking fonts or changing colors to keep things consistent
Logos & Brand Elements: Other visual elements like your company logo, brand photography, icons, etc. can also be included in the template limiting the time you need to dig around for those elements and ensuring their brand standards are followed.
If you’ve been spending too much time DIY-ing your PowerPoints and think Type A can help streamline your process, connect with us today!