Each PowerPoint presentation can be a real game-changer in your company. However, to create effective and appealing designs, you have to follow some PowerPoint presentation tips and guidelines. In this article, we will show you these!
We always tell our clients that PowerPoint slides are something far more than just good-looking PPT files. We believe they are important branding and communication tools and should be treated this way. Whether you work with PowerPoint on a daily basis or you’re trying to put your first slide decks together, this article is your must-have! Why is it so important? Because PowerPoint presentations guidelines help you:
- Attract attention
- Close the deal
- Get new investors or funding
- Receive more high-quality leads
It sounds interesting, doesn’t it? However, to achieve all these goals, you have to remember several important rules and adopt a specific approach to designing PowerPoint presentation slides. And that’s what we’re going to do today. Let’s get right to it!
Powerpoint tips and guidelines: The way to create a perfect presentation
Creating a presentation requires concentrating on two major aspects:
- The objective
- Target audience
- Brand consistency
Let’s talk about the objective first.
The objective behind your presentation
Creating PowerPoint presentation designs may have different purposes, which is apparent. Companies and CEOs use them to educate the audience, showcase their latest product or project, show the company’s achievements or history, and even onboard new employees.
Each of these applications requires something different from your slide deck. Let’s use a straightforward example: We have two situations.
- In the first one, your company’s CEO participates in a large marketing event. Their role is to present the company’s latest achievements.
- Here’s the second situation: Your company has just hired a new marketing specialist. It’s their first day, and your HR department wants to show them more about the company.
Your company can use the same information in both situations, right? But by no means should they be presented in the same way. There are different target audiences and different goals to achieve in both situations. Adjusting your presentation design to the target audience and purpose is the way to make sure it will play its part in the best way possible.
Brand consistency
This part is also essential. Think of branding as your company’s essence. Why is it so important to keep it consistent? Because consistency communicates several important messages. It says that your company:
- Is reliable: If your image is consistent with your brand, and you look and work in the same style, this means you’re trustworthy, and it’s a good idea to work with you.
- Cares about its image: Therefore, your potential business partner or client can assume that you care about your reputation as well, and you will do your best to fulfil your obligations.
- Pays attention to details: Companies that neglect brand consistency essentially say that it’s not that important how you look. Yes, indeed, but keeping attention to details is crucial for brand consistency.
How can you communicate your brand consistency? With every piece of content, every ad, every social media profile, and yes, with every slide deck too! Every PowerPoint presentation shows the image of your company, its mission and its main idea. Make sure it’s the best image you can think of!
If you have problems with your branding or brand strategy – you can always ask us for help! At Admind, we’ve been working with global brands and companies from all over the world. We will help you develop and implement tailor-made presentation design services for your company.
Now, when you have brand consistency in place and a clear purpose in mind, you can start working on your brand-new presentation. What should you pay attention to during the production process?
PowerPoint presentation tips and guidelines: The production process
There are several elements that you ought to think about during the presentation production process. In general, it’s all about the way your presentation looks and feels. But let’s be more specific:
Use PPT templates
In our blog post about PowerPoint design services, we told you that companies frequently order PPT templates to use them for future purposes. That’s one of the best ways to ensure brand consistency. If your company already has a PowerPoint presentation with master slides and layout guidelines outlined, you should use it! If possible, don’t modify master slides. They look like that for a reason.
And what if you don’t have a template? You can create it in-house or ask for help from your external partner. At Admind, we help companies with our PPT services to put their branding PowerPoint guidelines in order and turn them into useful templates that can be used in various situations.
Transparent structure
Your presentation should be easy to follow. Make sure your presentation’s structure is logical and transparent. Start with a list of topics that you want to tackle. You can even take a piece of paper and draw slides you want to create along with your idea for each one of them.
This way, you will easily stay on track with work – you won’t have to think, “What to do next?” or “What should I write about now?” because it’s already outlined in your scheme.
To make your presentation templates more legible, use such tools as:
- Bullet points
- Dividers
- Tables
- Charts and graphs
- Headlines and titles
A wall of text is difficult to read and, let’s be honest, extremely boring. You want to get and keep your audience’s attention. Therefore, your slides should be “alive” and interesting. And one more thing: If you’re working on a large presentation covering many topics, make sure you include some navigation buttons/process flow slides. Once each section is done, show a navigation slide explaining where you are now and what you’re going to talk about next.
Texts and colours
Every slide deck has two planes: visual and textual. Both of them are equally important. When it comes to the textual side of your presentation design, make sure it’s neat and concise. A PPT document is not an ebook. It should show only the most important data and information. You can add the rest during your meeting or a lecture.
On the other hand, if the presentation is going to be used by the viewer (not only on a meeting/call), it also still needs to be precise, and the text should be short and perfectly fitted on one slide. Therefore, it’s better to divide the text into a couple of slides just for a clear message.
All the texts should be formatted in one way. Use one (two tops) font and up to three different font sizes. Use different font sizes for titles, headlines and quotes. Thus, you will keep everything organised and easy to follow. There shouldn’t be any distractions in your presentation, and many fonts and text sizes are the shortest way to distract your audience.
It’s the same story when it comes to colours. Don’t use more than three colours. Of course, if you want to visualise some information on a pie chart, you most likely will have to use more than three colours from the palette. But do your best to restrict yourself to just three colour groups or shades of colours to keep a consistent but diverse message. If you need help with that, you can use free online tools like paletton.com or material.io.
Photos and animations
Lastly, let’s talk about photos, screens and animations. They are a vital part of every PowerPoint presentation, but they can’t outshine the textual layer. Think of photos and animations as seasoning and text as the main dish. Too many photos or too complex animations will make the whole thing more difficult to digest. Keep everything clear and simple. If you use photos, make sure they are of sufficient quality.
And what about stock photos? Of course, you can use them, but you must pick them carefully (avoid ones already used on thousands of other presentations and websites). Then remember to download them in the proper size. It goes without saying that all your screens and animations should align with the main subject and the gravity of your presentation.
Quality assurance
Our last piece of advice is to consult and review your work. The second set of eyes can come in handy when it comes to spotting possible inconsistencies and errors. You must understand that after several hours spent on one presentation, you won’t be able to look at it objectively. Ask your colleagues to take a quality assurance at it for you. Consult it with your marketing department. And if you’re working with a branding agency, such as Admind, you can always ask them to help you review and tweak your presentation. At least that’s what we do for our clients on a daily basis.
Crafting a professional presentation requires a deep understanding of your brand, keeping a specific goal in mind, and sticking to several PowerPoint presentation tips and guidelines that we listed in this blog post. Keep all that in mind, and you’re on a straight course to creating legible and engaging presentations that will help you achieve your business goals while staying consistent with you brand principles.
And if you need help with PowerPoint presentations or even your company’s branding – the Admind team is at your service! Take a look at our branding services, and feel free to contact us if you need help!