professional punchy powerpoint presentations for webinars and conferences

How To Create The Perfect PowerPoint Presentation

Do Presentations Leave You Running For The Hills?

Here are a few scenarios. Which one are you?

  • You need to create an eye-catching presentation to impress an organisation and win a tender, but you have zero creative skills?

  • You want to engage and inspire your team with an impactful slideshow, but you don’t know where to start?

  • You want to display course material in a professional format but you’re not the most technical person and you don’t want to appear amateurish?

We’ve Got The Solution!

We’ll Show You How To Transform Your Presentations With Microsoft PowerPoint!

Of course, there are other options out there available for free.

But, PowerPoint is still the main go-to software for most. Its ease of use has ultimate appeal and editability and features are uncomplicated.

I’m probably not the only one guilty of having previously associated PowerPoint with the words ‘old school’, ‘boring’, ‘uninspiring’, ‘yuck’! Surprisingly, that isn’t the case at all.

It’s true! PowerPoint presentations can look slick, modern and serve an array of purposes. You can showcase your ideas, promote your business, and train team members. What about telling your unique story at an event? It looks so good; you may even wonder if you are viewing PowerPoint!

Did You Know?

  • We as humans are visual beings with at least 65% of us being visual learners (reference to Dr. Richard Felder, Index of Learning Styles (ILS)).
  • 90% of information that is transmitted to the human brain is visual.
  • Visual information is processed 60,000 times faster than text.

So, with that in mind, you really want to captivate the audience that your presentation is directed towards with eye-catching, attention grabbing content. You can do all of this in PowerPoint using a combination of imagery and words in a consistent way to engage.

Capture Your Audience

You can easily impress any audience by communicating your message using visuals and words. Leave a lasting impression on corporate managers, interview panels or even a class of students.

If you’re delivering a presentation verbally, remember to keep in alignment with your slideshow. You should feature the most important information in an eye-catching way. It’s not about cramming as much in there as possible, or using the slides as a prompt.

Nobody wants to sit through a presentation that’s badly constructed. Especially if it’s filled with words, excessive bullet points, and no supporting graphics. Break up textual content with good quality images, interesting diagrams and smart infographics. This will certainly add more interest to the layout of the design and keep viewers engaged.

Well considered imagery is great for supporting areas of text that need to breathe. And a minimal approach with strong, bold, and large fonts is a good way to go – currently on trend for 2020!

Two-colour design also gives a modern feel to content. Simple, fuss free flat design is an effective styling choice. Less is more as they say!

Nail Your Story

If you want your presentation to impress, your story also needs to impress. It makes sense to design your speech first, then follow with the slideshow. Your narrative should be well thought out and logically structured. Resonate with your audience and lead them into a journey of discovery.

Showing empathy about a specific problem that listeners resonate with will activate engagement early on. Then you can pitch your amazing solution to their problem by revealing it in stages. This will help to establish trust and build an emotional connection with your audience.

You want them to remember how you made them feel! Let them know how your product or service can transform their lives in a positive way!

Cool Things About PowerPoint

The capabilities of PowerPoint are more powerful than you might think. You can create energetic sales pitches, business focused displays and visual training material. You can even generate cool pitch decks too.

And when you’ve put together your material you can save additional versions of the original file. Ideally, as editable templates to be adapted for other areas of your business in future.

  • PowerPoint has a whole host of transitions and visual effects. You can even feature video and animation! Oh yes!

    Just imagine how this could make a difference to your content! However, it’s probably best to limit the animated areas to avoid distracting from your message too much. And you don’t want to give your viewers a headache! Simple works beautifully.

  • PowerPoint presentations can be embedded online into websites and blogs for others to view in full screen mode. Comment and tag functions can also be added to allow for social networking.

    There are free services that convert your show into shared media. A snippet of code can be embedded directly into your web page.

  • PowerPoint can be menu driven which is ideal for pitching. The menu allows users to jump to sections spontaneously without the need to follow slides in sequence. The versatility is there within PowerPoint to adapt to the right viewing environment.

  • PowerPoint presentations can be created in different sizes. It’s worth considering what type of screen you’ll be presenting your slides on to get it right.

    Some have different aspect ratios. You can even create slideshows in A4 format, just like a document layout – ideal for tenders or corporate information.

  • PowerPoint has the capability to look like Prezi with its super cool zoom and morph tools that create a seamless flow. So there’s no need to go and learn the complexities of Prezi as well! Just be careful not to zoom too much and make your viewers dizzy!

  • PowerPoint has an array of attractive colour schemes to suit your specific brand palette.

  • PowerPoint gives you the freedom to design your presentation completely from scratch. Or, you can choose a built-in layout that includes all the content boxes you require.

  • PowerPoint allows you to save slide masters that can apply to specific pages. This means that you only need to edit the master to action the change to these pages.

  • PowerPoint allows you to drag and drop elements onto individual slides. It cleverly helps you align objects in place with the assistance of dotted guidelines. It also scales multiple objects at once.

  • PowerPoint takes tabular data and makes it look slick and easy to read.

  • PowerPoint has a great feature called ‘SmartArt’ that allows you to create your own diagrams, charts, and infographics within the software.

    No need for a separate app! You simply choose a ‘SmartArt’ graphic style, apply your bullet points to it, and voila!

  • PowerPoint has a ‘Shapes’ feature that allows you access to an array of options. This includes speech bubbles, smiley faces, stars and even a no entry icon. Shapes can be enlarged and styled to contain content such as text or video.

  • PowerPoint has built-in themes. Very handy if you’ve put all of the presentation together but you just aren’t keen on the style. The Design tab will allow you to select a variant that works best for you. Adjusting the style and colour is way quicker than redoing everything!

Examples Of How PowerPoint Can Be Used

Corporate Keynote Speaker Presentations

powerpoint presentation designers limelite creative

At most events you’ll have seen presentations in some shape or format, probably on a monitor or a large projector screen. But have you ever sat down at a corporate conference to eagerly listen to a guest keynote speaker and then been disappointed by the quality of their visual presentation?

The composition and quality perhaps weren’t there, and the layout was awful. Don’t let a brilliant speech be impaired by a badly designed presentation! Your audience’s perception of you will be much more positive if your presentation is delivered clearly and concisely.

With the aid of supporting visual data and imagery, your presentation will command attention. PowerPoint has the potential to display your information in a dynamic, energetic way, completely tailored to your own brand.

Webinar Presentations

from corporate to quirky professional powerpoint presentations

A webinar is a bit like a seminar, only it takes place online. The deliverer and the audience can choose to interact and communicate as well as share screen content. Webinars are an excellent cost-effective platform as a means of communicating to targeted audiences.

Are you planning to deliver an educational course, host a networking group, or build your brand? PowerPoint is an effective solution to display your material in a professional consistent way.

To avoid subscribers from exiting the session by closing their browser it’s crucial to resonate with them. Display impactful slides that draw them in! Plan out the content so it flows well from beginning to end and isn’t too time consuming. Allow a few minutes for welcomes and introductions and about 30-45 minutes to deliver the information.

Don’t forget to factor in time at the end for questions if relevant. You can also record your webinar for attendees who missed the event and / or share on social media.

Pitch Deck Presentations

professional punchy powerpoint presentations for webinars and conferences

A pitch deck is a short presentation that provides your audience with a rundown of your business plan. If you’re pitching for investment in your brand, product or service, a PowerPoint pitch deck could be the right way forward for you.

Use it online or in meetings with potential investors, partners, and customers. Start off with a story about how you founded the business. An emotional hook is always good to keep audiences engaged. Keep it consistent and to the point. Ten to twelve slides should be enough to capture the essence of your message, with one subject per slide.

Slides should include your team, the problem you solve and why you are different from the competition. Highlight how your product or service works, the benefits to buyers and investors and your target market. Don’t forget your business model, planned budget and of course – contact details.

Blow your audience away with stand-out slides. Leave them inspired and keen to explore exciting opportunities to work with you!

Investor Presentations

stand out powerpoint finance presentation

If you want to pitch a product to a potential investor, you need your presentation to be slick, concise, and compelling. An investor is taking a risk with you, so they need to be confident that what you are promoting is credible and worthwhile.

They also need to understand the benefits of their investment and your vision for growth. Your key points need to be clearly defined and easily understood, in a professional way, and with impact. PowerPoint is the perfect tool to do this! It has the capability to feature impressive imagery, infographics, charts, graphs, video, and animation.

Finance Presentations

It can be challenging within the finance industry to convey facts and figures without risking the boredom factor. Continuous graphs and financial data can be incredibly dull for an audience. You want to be excited about delivering your presentation and be able to hold your audience’s attention. This is where PowerPoint comes in! It allows your messaging to be delivered clearly using subtle animations and effective layouts!

Don’t Forget The Infographics!

 

professional powerpoint infographic designer

Of course, your presentation can’t be designed completely without text but there are ways to draw attention to specific key points. Infographics are an excellent way to display complex data in a much simpler way and they take up way less space that paragraphs and bullet points!

Rather than reading a lengthy list, your audience can observe a striking visual instead without excess text. Sharing your knowledge and expertise via an effective infographic will position you as an expert and increase your brand’s credibility. Your audience will see you as a trusted professional who knows their stuff.

Your tables and graphs will never look better once transformed into stunning infographics! And PowerPoint has the capability to animate individual image and icon elements too. This will add a fun, quirky twist to the slideshow.

It’s Over To YOU!

Remember, PowerPoint isn’t a bad word and your presentations don’t have to be boring! Hopefully, you’re now feeling inspired to create your own slideshow!

You can download the latest version of PowerPoint for free. The free version is only available when you download the full Microsoft Office 365 suite as a trial.

Why not give it a go? You might actually be surprised at what you can achieve and just how comprehensive the software is.

You can even download the latest e-book created by Limelite Creative here – ‘How To Create The Perfect PowerPoint’!

get-your-amazing-free-powerpoint-ebook-here-from-limelite-creative

Do You Want World Class Presentations?

If going it alone doesn’t float your boat, then why not get in touch with Limelite Creative? We will use our creative expertise to help you bring it all together. This will include designed elements to feature within the slides.

We can also provide accompanying one pagers and workbooks to suit your specific service – from Corporate to Quirky!

We Can Do The Design So Your Slides Can Do The Talking!

 

In the words of Maya Angelou…

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.


Contact Us To Transform Your Presentation

Email enquiries@limelitecreative.co.uk to kickstart your project now.


Author: Alison M Harkins
Founder & Creative Director at Limelite Creative