Nearly every business uses a PowerPoint presentation as part of the marketing and sales process.
The stack of digital slides has become synonymous with sales calls, group presentations and speaking engagements.
While many companies use a PowerPoint to highlight revenue goals, product information and offer a glance at company history, they often miss some key messaging opportunities. Messages that can help “humanize” their brand and bring some marketing value to the monotony of graphs, pie charts and endless bullet points.
Here are five ways to get more marketing value and clarity from your PowerPoint presentation…
- Tell a Story.Capture the audience’s interest with a little storytelling about your brand. Start with a strong beginning. Continue through with good support information in the middle and, like a good book, finish it off with a solid ending.
- Limit the use of graphics.Your audience can only absorb one idea at a time. Overloading them with too many charts, tables and clip art only adds to the confusion. You can place a sentence or two, or one intriguing photo on each slide, and explain it audibly.
- Limit slide clutter.In addition to keeping graphics to a minimum, keep your slides clean and neat by reducing the overuse of logos and background images. An oversized corporate logo doesn’t need to be on each slide. Photos of clouds, skylines and production lines also need not be overused as backstage props throughout the presentation. Trying to overwrite key information over a busy image can make your slide confusing and difficult to read.
- Use a consistent type style.The type should be large enough to see and easy to read. It should also be consistent on each slide. Switching fonts and styles can confuse the audience and appear as though your presentation is disorganized.
- Minimize the number of slides.
Unless you are presenting at a 2 hour symposium you probably won’t need 50 slides to state your case. Time your presentation so you can interact with the audience and emphasize key information. It is always better to avoid dragging your group into information overload and leave them begging for more.
